Stash Relocation Project

The great house move has happened!

We’re in the new house and we’re in that manic mood swinging place where one minute the house is fabulous and the next we’re despairing and wailing, “what have we done?”

We bought from an old lady who clearly hadn’t been able to manage the house for some time. It’s filthy – years of filth and neglect and DIY left undone. Not to mention the spider colonies  in need of eviction!

It’s gradually getting there – Slowly  getting cleaner.  I’ve deployed some serious power tools to slash & burn the overgrown shrubs in the garden and I’m fixing the broken stuff one item at a time – although I can’t decide if my favourite so far was the bath sealant strip held in place with chewing gum (discovered when our showering seeped through the bathroom floor and flooded the hall way) or the toilet cistern -containing a nice blue bleach block- constantly overflowing through the wonderfully sited overflow pipe right over the front door! Come and visit and get a free blue rinse anyone??

I could write all night about the new house but this is a knitting blog so I’ll tell you how the important knitty stuff has faired with the move.

Firstly, you’ll notice I’ve not blogged – lack of internet and too damned busy –  I’m hoping you’ll understand!

The only knitting I’ve  done has been on a Sunday morning with the Guilty Knitters. I have been crazy busy but I felt I had to hang on to this one island of knitting in my week – Ben enjoyed getting some quality time with his Xbox360  too.

So not much to report on the knitting front 🙁

In a recent post, Dawn asked how I was moving my stash in “the great house move”.

For most of my readers , to you, that would mean picking up a basket or box or suitcase of yarn and adding it to the pile of boxes.

For me, dear readers, stash relocation became a major project.

First there were the knitting books to pack.  You’d think two boxes would do it?

Just a few books on that shelf…two boxes full maybe? ..

And my other shelf of books and leaflets in the cupboard…

And my near complete collection of rowan mags…

And the books I use a lot that are by the sofa…

I carefully labelled the boxes “knit books”…

That was a mistake – my removals men were a little flabbergasted,
“Just how many boxes of Knit Books do you have?”

Hmmm…There’s 6 boxes here

And another two in the bedroom!

Yep, 8 stuffed full boxes of knitting related books, booklets, leaflets and magazines.

Can you imaging the look on the removals men’s faces when they encountered my yarn stash?

When I packed my yarn stash up, I confess, I was shocked by the sheer volume of yarn. I bought from IKEA, some special “stash bags” like this…

They are called “Dimpa” and measure 65 x 22 x 65cm and are dust proof, damp resistant, polypropelene webbing. The zip opens across the top and halfway down each side too – making them good for stuffing big quilts in as well as yarn.

Very reasonable at £3.29!

Would you believe I filled 3 of these?

…and that was on top of my 4 usual “underbed storage boxes” and a big ikea cardboard box! Poor removals men 😳

In case you’re wondering how I find my yarn – it’s all catalogued carefully on Ravelry along with it’s stashbag location. Each type of yarn is sealed in a freezer bag too (since my encounter with moths!)

Like this…

All that’s left now is to get my Guest bedroom/Knit room set up. It’ll have a sofa bed for the guests, giving me somewhere to sit and knit and read knit books. And some much nicer storage for my yarn.

Just the rest of the house to sort out first then I can get to the yarn room – What more motivation do I need? 😀

12 Responses

  1. CraftyCripple
    CraftyCripple November 21, 2009 at 11:45 pm | | Reply

    Ooo I need me some of those big bags. My stash is starting to get a bit unwieldy. I envy you your knitting library though. I only have a few books, but then I’ve only been knitting a few years. I suppose one day I my reach the heady heights of 8 boxes worth.

    You are very sensible to keep hold of your knitting group. It is essential for sanity when everything else is really hard work. Go and enjoy your peace and knitting.

  2. Kathryn
    Kathryn November 22, 2009 at 1:56 am | | Reply

    My dear, not only am I envious of your new move to your own house (kudos to you and yours!) but also of your amazing book and yarn stash! Me and mine are sending you and yours tons of good energy to keep up the good work.

    I had to share the chewing-gum-adhesive story with my parents who are very much into the whole DYI thing, they thought it was not only discussing, but very interesting as well! Now you have two more fans who can’t wait to hear what your new home has in store for you!

    Hope you can fit some knitting into your life for some stress-relief.

  3. Robyn
    Robyn November 22, 2009 at 6:01 am | | Reply

    Oh my goodness. Didn’t you get a home inspector before you bought? The toilet thing is hilarious.

  4. josiekitten
    josiekitten November 22, 2009 at 8:55 am | | Reply

    I hope that you don’t find too many more ‘interesting’ DIY challenges. At least your stash and books have survived the move. Have you got space in your new house to have a knitting room? And more importantly, how are Thug and Mewsley liking their new pad?!

  5. SNOOPYDOG
    SNOOPYDOG November 22, 2009 at 10:56 am | | Reply

    Glad the move has now happened and your ‘stash’ and book haul have arrived safely. When we moved into our then new house (not our present one), about two years after we were married, we were pulling up the very nasty linoleum in the bathroom, only to find a ‘mini’ stash of ‘Playboy’ mags carefully flattened and squished into a tear in the flooring. Such a nice respectable bloke we bought from too! LOL. Hope the knitting rate picks up soon. It always makes me really grumpy when I’ve been deprived for too long. Ris

  6. Anne
    Anne November 23, 2009 at 9:00 am | | Reply

    Your tale reminded me of when I packed up my sewing room when we moved here – my husband had no idea how much stuff I had, as it had been in numerous cupboards round the house!! And since we moved here I’ve started knitting again, so I now have a wool stash too – although one of the reasons we bought this house was because it had an outbuilding that could be converted into a studio for me to house all my stuff (but I still keep my wadding in my wardrobe, as I’ve filled all the storage space in the studio!!!!)

  7. Allison Lane
    Allison Lane November 23, 2009 at 6:28 pm | | Reply

    I’m impressed! That sure is some stash of knit books!! But what do removal men know? How could mere men possibly understand the strength of the call of a newly discovered pattern, or an alpaca/mohair mix????!

  8. Dawn
    Dawn November 23, 2009 at 7:17 pm | | Reply

    It’s good to hear that the move went well, and that all of your books and yarn made it intact to their new home. A whole room just for knitting stuff, it sounds like bliss, and well worth all the stress of moving. I’m looking forward to seeing all the fad projects that will be coming out of that room. Dawn

  9. Kay
    Kay November 23, 2009 at 8:38 pm | | Reply

    Congratulations on the house move – I hope that you will be very happy there.

    Must admit, I’ve now added embarrassment at size of yarn stash/number of knitting books and materials to my list of reasons not to move house!

  10. Alison
    Alison November 24, 2009 at 5:39 pm | | Reply

    How are the cats adjusting? Please provide an update on them when you next post. Would love to see some photos of the new place as well. Hope you enjoy it after you get everything fixed up.

  11. Terri O' Brien
    Terri O' Brien November 25, 2009 at 4:38 pm | | Reply

    Nice to see you’re back! I’m a blog lurker usually (don’t have one myself) and have noticed your long absence – guessed it was due to the house move. Good luck with all your endeavours, sounds v.challenging! Good idea to keep up with the knitting group, it may save your sanity! Oh, and thanks for the recommendation re the ikea storage bags – must get to ikea soon!

  12. Kay
    Kay November 26, 2009 at 5:29 pm | | Reply

    Great post!
    Awesome blog!

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