Bust Your Stash? How about Stash Your Bust?

Okay, this is silly. You’ll just have to put up with it. We’ve been having a “Bust Your Stash” sale at Interweave for the past couple of weeks, the idea being that we can provide resources (books, patterns, magazines, etc.) to give people ideas for using up their excess yarn, fuzz, trinkets, and suchlike. That is, if you believe in the concept of “excess.”

We sit in meetings and kick around these ideas, and somehow what my ears heard was “Stash Your Bust”. Now that’s an idea with real potential, my muddled brain thought to itself. We could all be weaving and knitting foundation garments! We could be handcrafted right down to the skin!( I told you this was going to be silly.)

	Linda and Deb Robson busted some stash with this indescribable unmentionable

But in fact, I have in my possession a genuine handcrafted Bust Stasher, and you can see it right here. Many years ago, when Convergence was in San Jose, California, Stephenie Gaustad (of Spinning Cotton acclaim) dreamt up a competition for handspun underwear. Deb Robson, former editor of Spin-Off and star of Handspinning Rare Wools, and I decided to give it our all. I spun a lot of tussah silk, and dyed a little bit of it (ahem) pinkish. Deb crocheted the sculptural elements, and I wove the straps. We took some kind of prize, though I don’t remember what exactly.

This bit of lingerie hung in the Interweave office for a long time, until someone took offense with the more anatomically correct features, at which time it was banished to a closet. I bare it here for public display in order to make a point. (Oops.)

The point is, using up your stash doesn’t have to be serious business, and if you don’t like your results, you can always hide them in a drawer. It’s the creative act, the energetic application of your imagination to the materials at hand, that make weaving or any other handcraft so precious. And if your imagination needs a little prodding, boy, do we have a sale for you.