S.A.B.L.E.: Stash Acquired Beyond Life Expectancy

When I began weaving in my mid-20s I wasn’t concerned about having too much yarn—in fact, I wanted to build a stash. The local yarn shop didn’t have much in the way of weaving yarns and I planned to sell my textiles, so I bought at wholesale prices, in quantity, by mail. After all, as a production weaver I would need a good stash to dip into for my work.

Over the years, I accumulated, used, stopped using, got rid of, and bought many different yarns. I even had multiple stashes—one each for production weaving, teaching, writing, and dyeing/selling. I had a lot of stash! To make matters worse (or better, depending on your outlook), I was also the recipient of yarn stashes from friends who no longer wove.

Since I was young (and felt immortal), I never worried about what would happen to my things should the time come to stop weaving. If I myself was unable to find new homes for the contents of my studio, I knew that my husband would take care of things.

Then both my husband and I had wake-up calls that prompted us to have new wills drawn up. At the same time, I realized that although I had made good headway in weaving down stash, I still had way too much yarn!

In truth, it’s never too early to think about what you would like to have happen to the contents of your studio. You can include bequests in your will, but it’s always a good idea to check with the recipient to make sure that they can accept such a gift. They may be trying to downsize, they may be allergic to that lovely wool you were thinking they would treasure, or they may not have room for what you would give them.

Dispersing Stash

My guild frequently finds spinning wheels, looms, boxes of yarn, and books left on our doorstep by families clearing out a weaver’s studio. We try to find homes for everything but, sadly, sometimes stashes and equipment end up going to a landfill.

I’ve helped disperse three weavers’ studios. One friend left me her entire yarn stash—totaling about 2,000 pounds. I took what I could use, and threw out some poorly stored yarns that were no longer weavable. My friend’s husband donated the rest to her local guild to be sold, with the proceeds going into the guild’s scholarship fund in her memory.

For another weaver, I worked with a friend to sell items on eBay.

The third friend was Ingrid Boesel, who had an extensive silk collection that is now in my studio. I promised her family that if I couldn’t use it, I would get it to people who could and would use it.

Ingrid’s beautiful silk yarns—now part of Laura’s stash.

A Plan for Your Stash

Here are some things to think about when it comes to keeping your stash out of the landfill. It mainly comes down to writing out your wishes and then communicating them. Here’s how you can do that:

• Make a master list. Include everything—looms and other weaving equipment, yarns by fiber type, and even your library of books.

• Highlight special items. If your studio includes rare and desirable items, highlight them on your list—some weaving books are quite valuable. Provide information about who might want these items, and an idea about potential pricing.

• Label your equipment. Mark each item with the make, model, size, and date of purchase (if you have it). On your list, include a brief description of the functionality of any unusual equipment. If you have manuals, be sure they’re labeled, accessible, and noted on the master list.

• Label your yarns. At the very least, label them with the fiber type. You get bonus points if you include the yarn size and yards per pound.

• Check with friends. Do they want or need any of your studio contents? If they do, include that information on your master list and with your will.

• Gather information. If your plan includes dispersing some items outside of weaving friends, make it easier for your family to find buyers or other recipients. Compile a list of the guilds, textile artists, and other organizations that may be interested in purchasing or receiving your stash, along with their contact information.

• Give family members your plan. Make your master list available to them, and walk through it with them so they understand what it includes. When you let them know what you’d like done with your weaving stuff, it will ease the process for them—especially if they’re not weavers.

For myself, as physical limitations started to crop up I decided that it was time to retire from production weaving. Weaving could become my hobby, along with exploring, perhaps writing, teaching online...and weaving down as much of my stash as I can, while I still can!

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Published Sept. 6, 2012; updated March 9, 2026.