Picking Favorites

And the sorting and packing has begun in earnest.  Things will be traveling over seas by two methods, slow freight and air freight, or they will be put into storage for our return in three years.  This has become a very hard decision on where things go in respect to one main area of my life:  My Stash.

Some yarn will be packed up and sent Air Freight which should take a few weeks.  There is less chance that this yarn will be subject to the elements.  So what should I pack in here?  Yarn that I have queued up to use in the next 2-3 months seems like a good starting place.  I should note that I am being brutally honest with myself about my queue and what will reallistically be used.  Air Freight has a weight limit and I also need to pack the Fed's clothes, shoes, basic baby stuff and household necessities like towells and sheets.  So just yarn that I will use.  And foreign yarn.  My sock yarn stash from Germany and my scarf yarn from Turkey.  And my luxury yarn.   Because really, the more expensive stuff would kill me if it got ruined sitting on a barge for a few months.  And I admit that I have a few skeins of pricier yarn (don't tell the Fed, he thinks that all yarn is $4 a skein).  I have some cashmere, baby alpaca that is butter soft, some premium and unusual fiber, and 4 skeins of Blue Heron Metallic in Old Gold (I think these 4 alone are around $180 and I really should find a new pattern to knit it into).  Really just too pricey to leave to moths, rats, pirates and sea air.

But some yarn is going to have to be shipped by way of the slow boat.  I can only pack about 25 pounds of yarn in air freight.  Does that mean that I love this yarn any less than the shiny silks and soft merinos?  No.  In fact, some of that yarn is my favorite and I have faith that it will survive the journey.  Skeins of minimally processed New Zealand wool that will one day turn into a classic Guernsey with cables and bobbles and diamonds.  This yarn is made to last through hurricanes and years at sea.  So I look at it as pre-seasoning.  Like you do with a new skillet.   All of my roving and my wheel will also be shipped across the ocean.  I am taking all the wool I can, as I have heard that natural fibers can be hard to come by in my new home.  (I guess they haven't heard of knitpicks.com)

The last group is yarn that will be going into storage.  Now, this yarn and fiber should really be destashed.  And if I had more time, I just might give them up.  But I am out of time so into storage they go.  Some of these yarns are perfectly good.  Lamb's Pride which is a great yarn, unless you are me and discovered after buying 20 skeins that I can't stand the mohair in them.  So a destash is in order when returning to the states and I have to unpack the house.  Again.

And while all this seems like a good plan on dividing my stash, it is still really difficult to do.   Look at your stash and see if you could divide it up so easily.