I'll show you mine....A sneaky peek into my sock yarn stash

A recent, gorgeous addition to my stash from The Wool Kitchen via The Golden Skein

A quick inventory of my stash, not surprisingly shows that my stash consists of approximately 80% sock yarn. Sock yarn makes the perfect 1 skein purchase at a yarn festival or shop as you can always find a use for it, if not as socks then as a shawl or cowl.

Some of my stash is for my 'work stash'. These are skeins that are earmarked for design projects - some written down and some still floating around in my head.

Yarn from West Yorkshire Spinners features heavily in my recent FO photos

Quite a large proportion of my stash is my 'workhorse' sock yarn. These are the skeins I reach for my DH or my sons request a new pair of handknit socks. Self striping yarn from West Yorkshire Spinners falls into this category. Both the Birds and the Cocktails range are ideal sock yarns. Machine washable, fabulous colours and everyone loves a funky pair of striped handknit socks. If I am going through a particularly organised phase I like to have a few pairs of these in the gift box, ready to be pressed into emergency service.

Some of my most prized sock yarn possessions - I would grab these first if the house were on fire

The final category are my prized 'golden skeins'. Some of these are indeed from the Golden Skein (a quarterly yarn club of unbelievable awesomeness) and others have been picked up on my travels. Some of these I have very firm and definite plans for (someday) and some are just pets. On days when I feel a little blue or a bit out of sorts, a quick rootle through this section of my stash is always enough to bring a smile to my face.

There are times when I do feel a little guilty about the size of my stash - particularly when my husband asked me recently whether we should think of listing it separately on our house insurance.

But then there is the smug satisfaction of knowing you have a perfectly curated selection of yarn, just sitting there waiting for its potential to be untapped. At a moments notice you could see the perfect pattern, march upstairs and after 5 minutes with the ball winder and swift be merrily casting on for your dream project. In reality of course it doesn't always work out like that but a knitter can dream can't she?