Experienced and novice knitters alike will enjoy this collection of essays detailing 'the stash' in all its many permutations. I can see bits of myself in every essay and would imagine others could as well. A good collection to dip in and out of as one's mood goes.

An anthology of essays that are essentially about yarn may sound a bit hard to sustain. But Clara Parkes manages it with this collection of pieces by prominent yarn enthusiasts, pattern designers, authors, spinners, and even a shepherd or two. I was familiar with only a few of the writers, but A Stash of One's Own has put more names on my radar for when I venture out into Knit World again.

Knitters can be funny about their stash. Stashes may be embarrassing big or nonexistent or complicated or emotionally fraught. The essays that are going to stick with me are the ones dealing with the healing power of yarn and textiles. Franklin Habit's piece about his "pretty string" swiped from his mom's embroidery box was powerful. His mother was at a loss as to what to do with a boy who wanted to knit. Years later they would bond over knitting and quilting. After her death, his viewing of her sewing room, which his father had cleaned out, packs a real punch. Meg Swanson's essay included the family's decision to give away little mementos from her mother, Elizabeth Zimmermann's stash, at a workshop and how thrilled the participants were to have a gift from an iconic knitter.

It was also interesting to hear how many of the authors had more or less stumbled into knitting, only to find themselves in positions in which people actually sent them yarn to review! It made me feel like quite a dilettante that not only have I ever been asked to review a yarn but I also never knew such reviews existed. Clearly that's much more to learn.

The conclusion of the book, "A Stash of One's Own: Yarn as a Feminist Issue" by Debbie Stoller is spot on. If your stash isn't causing financial or physical hardships, own it and be proud. Buying yarn, she argues is a far better treat for oneself than a bubble bath or mani/pedi.

I enjoyed the book and have purchased it for my library.

A knitter's stash is very personal and can elicit strong feelings.

A Stash of One's Own did a great job highlighting how each author connected with the yarn they stashed or in some cases why they don't stash. There were some stories I enjoyed more than others as I usually do when reading an anthology, but I found there to be a nice mix of different views and voices.

When I finished I wanted to go look through my own yarn stash and look at it with new eyes.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was very keen to read this book, like all craft people, I am guilty of having numerous stashes. Unfortunately this book really did not meet my expectations, not that is a bad book, just that I was looking at the funny side of stashing.
Obviously there are many reasons why people have stashes, which this book brings to the fore. Written by some very well known knitters, it touched the heart with many of their stories and very personal journeys - a good book and well written.

I thoroughly enjoyed this collection of essays about yarn stashes by the knitters who love them. Some are humorous, some touching, some empowering. Recommended for any collector.

I really enjoyed this one. Although I am a crocheter and not a knitter, I still thoroughly related to this book. Her Pretty String by Franklin Habit was my favorite, reminding me of my relationship with my mom.

An anthology about knitters for their love to knitting...........

A splendid collection of essays that will delight anyone who has more of what one loves than shelves to store it. Every object tells a story - and here, the owners of collections of fibers tell their personal yarns.

Within this collection, Parkes and 22 essayists help us to examine our own personal meaning for that often loaded word, Stash. In addition, beyond our own definitions, we can think about how we and our stash (or lack thereof) fit as part of the global fiber community. What are the stories we hear in our stash? Do we whisper its secrets? Where is its place in our homes and in our lives?

I believe strongly in the power of books to come along when we most need them. This essay anthology appeared in my e-reader as I was reexamining my own stash under not-quite-ideal circumstances. Following a hip replacement and the loss of her long-time boyfriend, my mother had temporarily moved into my studio resulting in my yarn and fiber finding their way to any available nook and cranny in the rest of my house. As I selected items for her new downsized life, I rediscovered connections within my stash. Her favourite shawl is back under my roof for the first time since I knit it several years ago, and I still have yarn available to perform repairs if necessary. At times this upheaval has felt overwhelming and isolating. This anthology has reassured me every day that I'm not alone.

I'm also not alone in my dream that my archive of yarn, fiber, and notebooks will endure long beyond me. Nor for the hope that I can fit everything into four plastic bins and set off on a global adventure. I also am in good company when I want to look for yarn for a project that must be cast on right here and now - that it's 10:30pm is of no logical importance.

I appreciate the variety of voices and the pacing of the essays. While you could skip around and read each essay in any order you choose, I believe the full magic is found when curled up amid one's stash, favourite comfort beverage in hand, and read through cover to cover.

No matter your views to yarn and fiber stash, you are not alone.

This is a great book for the serious knitter but probably less enjoyable for the general reader. The fact that this is a collection of essays from different knitters/authors means that each story may be hit or miss for the reader.

What a lovely collection of essays by knitters, some who hoard a great stash of yarn and others who do not. I think most knitters hoard yarn simply for the joy of looking at it, the wonderful feel of it and the fun of planning what to knit with it. Personally I have a stash of coned yarns for machine knitting, wonderful hand dyed natural fibers for hand knitting/crochet and soft squishy tops and curls ready for spinning. It makes me feel happy knowing it is there for when I am ready to start the next project.

A perfect read for anyone involved in fiber crafts and yarn stashes!

Thank you Netgalley and the publishers for providing me with this e-book.

In Clara Parkes new collection of essays she talks to different knitters about their stashes and what a stash means to them. Wonderful stories by Meg Swanson, Debbie Stoller and Franklin Habit. Great book for any knitter or crocheter.

I am a knitter. So, of course I have a yarn stash. My only reason to clean it out is to make room for more yarn. It was comforting to read the.musings and stories of others and their relationships with their stashes. A Stsah of One's Own was entertaining and informative.

"Asking a knitter what he or she plans on doing with the yarn he or she just bought is like asking a squirrel what it plans on doing with that nut it just buried under a pile of leaves. Obviously we plan on using it. Now? Later? For what? How can we know? Our main priority is simply to get that yarn safely back home and stored away in our stash. We’ll know when we need it."

I read this book to have a good time and I’m honestly feeling so attacked right now…

As it is the case with anthologies you get a mixed bag with this book. In Stashers: Who the heck are we? Lela Nargi simply wrote out some Ravelry stats about stash. I could never get much out of these “If you put all these together it would be enough to do X” things. Blame my failure to imagine measurements of any kind properly. Or the fact that for me 17 times to the moon and back and 100 times to the moon and back both boils down to ‘a bloody lot’.

But you also get a hilarious story by the Yarn Harlot about having too much stash, dealing with it and still having a lot that manages to describe the reason she is keeping a skein that looks like “Barbie and My Little Pony dropped acid and tried to come up with a colorway” in a rather touching way.

In another essay, Amy Herzog insists that she doesn’t have any stash. The yarn she has at home isn’t a stash. Never mind that it’s a lot more than I have in my two IKEA boxes (and that additional bag with sock yarn leftovers…) and that that yarn she has at home is not intended for specific projects which is for me the only reason to consider it not stash.

But then there’s also a beautiful essay by Franklin Habit (of It Itches-fame) talks about dealing with being a boy that wasn’t interested in typical masculine pursuits and then with the loss of his mother which was very moving.

After some outstanding (good and bad) stories, in the beginning, everything blurs together in the middle. Every essay seems to be some variation of ‘this is how I started knitting’ followed by ‘this is my stash’ and ‘this is when I realized it was too much and this is how I dealt with it’. Optionally accompanied by a story that is only vaguely/not at all connected to knitting and that sometimes takes more space than the parts about knitting. Somewhere in between a psychologist explains how much stash is too much and requires outside help (I don’t have that much).

Then, in the last third or so, we get some variety again. Lilith Green’s Work in Progress talks about her body image issues and how that also affected her knitting (and stashing) habits: muted colours, nothing that stands out, nothing that draws attention. And how she finally came to the conclusion that “I stash for the body I have now and will have for years to come. Not for the body others think I should have, or that I think I should have, but this body here and now.” while also admitting that loving her body is still ‘a work in progress’.



"Here’s the thing. As makers, we fix things. That’s what we do. It’s our superpower. We’re good at it. When it comes to grief and loss, though, there’s no fixing."


A few more essays tell very personal stories about knitting as a way of dealing with loss and grief. For me, Comfort Yarn by Rachael Herron stood out especially but the others were great as well.

We also get A Proper Stash which has very little to do with (yarn or fabric) stash but sounds uncomfortably white saviour-y in parts. Eugene Wyatt’s On Giving is the essay that sounds most like self-promotion. It also opens with a quote by Anne Frank.
Allow me to throw a deeply-felt fuck you at that level of emotional manipulation. And finally, we look at Yarn as a Feminist Issue which makes some great points. Unfortunately, the writing is so condescending in some parts that I want to disagree out of spite.

So what do I think of the whole collection? It was…nice. The good stories (especially Comfort Yarn, Work in Progress and Habit’s Her Pretty String) were so good that I don’t feel like I’ve wasted my time with this. Despite some boredom (and anger). Am I saying this is a must-have for a knitter? No. Listen to a crafting podcast (I suggest The Crafting System or their sister-podcast On Pins and Needles) and knit some of your stash instead.

A Stash of One's Own Knitters on Loving, Living with, and Letting Go of Yarn by Clara Parkes
Love to read stories of other knitter's concerns with having enough yarn to last their lifetime.
This is a book from other knitter's about how to they feel about the subject matter.
Should be a relaxing read as it will relate to me directly.
Most are very well known knitters to me, some are new. Each chapter features one author who is a knitter.
Loved the story about inheriting something from your mother-I got the knowledge of learning from my mother and am very happy with what I can create with it, for others.
Love hearing what yarn means to others as it does to me. Love section on the contributors and their life.
I received this book from Net Galley and this is my honest review.

I thought I'd enjoy reading A Stash of One's Own. I had no clue how much I'd wind up loving this book. The subtitle is Knitters on Loving, Living with, and Letting Go of Yarn and that sums it up perfectly.

There are contributors who talk about shedding their entire stash like a snake shedding its skin. Some come closer to my own strategy of keeping it all because you never know what might happen. A couple claim that they have no stash, but I think that's more about how they define the word than actually living in a house without any extra yarn in it. And there's one unmarried woman who weighs in about hiding yarn from your husband. That one struck a nerve, because I really don't think she knows what she's talking about. There's a difference between hiding overspending and not sharing a new skein of sparkly pink sock yarn with someone who you know doesn't share your enthusiasm.

If you're thinking about your own relationship with your stash, this is a great read. Maybe even if that stash is fabric or polymer clay or embroidery floss. The ideas here are more about what you have and why you have it than the specific materials.

I read these essays one or two a day, partly to give myself time to absorb and enjoy them, and partly because books like this can start to feel a bit repetitious if read through start to finish with no pauses to think.
A Stash of Ones Own largely avoids the pitfalls of repetition, as the contributors take a diverse approach to the topic. From a psychologist, an anthropologist, some of my favourite bloggers, the contributors are (largely) intelligent, honest and interesting. There were one or two that I didn’t care for, but that is always going to happen in an anthology like this.
As someone who labours under the probably false belief that I’d like to have no stash at all, this book made me slow down, assess why I have a stash and become a bit more comfortable with the tension I feel between wanting to reduce my stash and wanting to buy yarn.
One of the quotes about stash from this book says “It’s supposed to be a pleasure”, and in the end I think that’s the largest message I took away from it. I’m not going to share here my other favourite quotes, because you should read it and yourself and find your own favourite quotes. There really is something here for every crafter.

I'm so skeptical of "writing about knitting" books because the few times I've tried knitting essay anthologies, the writing has been unbearably bad. This is the opposite!
Each essayist writes in a unique voice that is funny, honest, and/or raw, and the large majority of the essays have great pacing. Who knew so many people in the knitting world also had writing chops? Oh, yea, they're creative types.
I especially loved Debbie Stoller's eponymous entry and all the various jabs at KonMari. Props to Anna Maltz for calling out the "romanticism of poverty" behind minimalism. Definitely recommend to fellow yarn addicts with or without anxiety about their stashes. As someone who recently did a purge but still houses a large yarn stash, I was worried about this being a big self-help, here's how to organize your life book that would leave me feeling ashamed. Yet, the moral of the collection is "you do you--just don't become a hoarder."

I devoured this in one morning, and I only wish there were more stories coming. Clara Parkes, hit me up if you need contributors to a vol. 2. ;)



Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced copy!

I have enjoyed this book so very much. Already a fan of the author and of yarn stashing as a knitter this is my kind of read. All knitters will have explanations for why they have a yarn stash, many feel burdened by it but can't resist buying more. The moment another is added, it becomes "stash" and for many another part of the problem.

To read such well known yarn lovers tales of whether they stash or not was a totally interesting read. Designers, knitters I have admired for a long time chatting away about what yarn means to them, so personal, so fascinating.

I spin yarn and rarely buy it, preferring hand spun to commercially produced but the issue is the same. Why do we crave it, or do we, can we ignore temptation and walk away. I read how few actually buy then knit yarn, quickly, for most owning it is a mixed blessing but or all we just love yarn. That isn't likely to change.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read the book in exchange for an honest review.

It's a must read for yarn fans.

If one thing is pretty much universal about knitting nerds it's 'The Stash'. We joke about it, sometimes feel guilty about it, sometimes revel in it... in short, most of us can't pass up a sale, charity resale shop, going out of business sale (*sigh*), or any other place which has the potential for stash enrichment without at least having a look. There are, apparently, knitters who have one project going at a time and who buy supplies for that project and only that project, knit on it until it's finished and then move on... those people are outliers... they are not in the statistical norm.

We knitters even have acronyms built up from our shared experience... LYS (Local Yarn Shop), SABLE (Stash Acquired Beyond Life Expectancy), WIP (Work In Progress), UFO (UnFinished Object) and a million others.

This book is a collection of essays and musings by some of the best known knitters and designers, authors and fibre-philosophers. A casual look at Ravelry or Craftsy will contain page after page of patterns or mentions of the contributors to this book. The book contains an introduction (worth reading!), 23 essays (ditto) and closes with an 'about the authors' section that is well worth taking notes from to inspire follow up reading.

The voices in this volume are varied, as in all such compilations. You'll find whimsy and serious reflection. I tried to read this collection as a box of chocolates, one at a time, savoring the individual nuances.. but honestly read it like I generally eat a box of chocolates, having 'just one more' until the box is empty.

Lovely book, and not just for us knitting fanatics. I think it's a good window into our stashing mindset and justifications... so if you're close to a knitter, this could explain a lot.

Four stars