MOTH is a four-letter word!

A week or so ago, I walked into our spare room where I store my yarn and saw a little moth flying around.  I worried it was a wool-eating moth, but after tossing some of my stash around and not finding any other evidence of moths, I stopped worrying.  I was in denial.  Such a pleasant place to be, a place I was rudely yanked out of yesterday, when I picked up some sock yarn and a moth flew straight out of the skein I had just turned over. 

At the moment, I consider myself to be very, very lucky.  For one thing I have a stash of yarn to care for.  That in itself is a luxury I am grateful for.  Secondly, every bit of yarn I own has now passed through my hands on it's way into a freezer bag, and I only found 3 skeins that show any signs of damage.  I'm not taking any chances though.  I read up on the subject here and here and decided the freezer and the vacuum cleaner are my best pals this weekend.

I may have happened upon the ultimate reason to keep one's stash under control.  Perhaps this was a blessing in disguise.  After all, I've been meaning to cull the herd for some time now.  I've learned two things about myself while going through my stash.  1)  I like to buy red yarn.  2)  My taste has changed since I first learned to knit.  I've already gotten rid of some, and more will be gone after a visit to the freezer (just to be certain I'm not passing on a gift that keeps on giving).

There are plenty of organizations that take knit items for kids, as you can see in my Stashbusting for Charity list.  But what I need to do now is pass on unknit yarn.  If you are also wanting to cull your stash, here are some places I found:
1) There is always Ravelry.  If you get your stash listed, you can put it up for trade/sale.  There are also Ravelry groups that exist just for destashing/swapping.
2) Stitches from the Heart is an organization that takes donations of knit items to give to premature babies in hospitals.  They also take donations of yarn and supplies to pass on to seniors who are on a fixed income, who want to knit for the babies.
3) Check your local elementary school.  Sometime they will take yarn for knitting or other craft projects.
4) Scrap takes donations of reusable materials and makes them available to artists, teachers and other community groups.

Happy Destashing!