You're just YARN! How can you take up so much SPACE??
July 25, 2018 11:43 AM Subscribe
My workplace is full of knitters, stitchers, crocheters, and quilters. At our homes, we have bottomless piles of yarn and fabric that were once beloved but are now a source of anxiety and resentment. Help me plan a swap/destash event that will find loving homes for unwanted yarn and fabric.
I'd like to host something at work for about 10-20 of us who are hoarders, I mean, crafters. It would be open to anyone, and I wouldn't want to impose a participation requirement (e.g., "You must bring something of your own in order to participate"). I'm just a little worried that at the end of the swap, I'll be buried under a mountain of yarn, fabric, and god knows what else that doesn't wind up with a new owner.
For those who have planned or participated in a destash/swap event like this:
What worked well?
Was there anything that was a total disaster (or even just mildly unpleasant)?
Afterwards, what did you do with the tangled orange acrylic yarn and the holiday fabric emblazoned with sinister Santas that no one wanted?
I'd like to host something at work for about 10-20 of us who are hoarders, I mean, crafters. It would be open to anyone, and I wouldn't want to impose a participation requirement (e.g., "You must bring something of your own in order to participate"). I'm just a little worried that at the end of the swap, I'll be buried under a mountain of yarn, fabric, and god knows what else that doesn't wind up with a new owner.
For those who have planned or participated in a destash/swap event like this:
What worked well?
Was there anything that was a total disaster (or even just mildly unpleasant)?
Afterwards, what did you do with the tangled orange acrylic yarn and the holiday fabric emblazoned with sinister Santas that no one wanted?
Best answer: With a smaller group and a smaller pile: hold each thing up for grabs. If multiple people want it, they roll a die for it or negotiate. (My knitting people know each other well so we're often like "oh it's your color, you take it.")
With a big group: lay everything out on a table. Have everyone draw numbers out of a hat. In numerical order, you get a trip to the table to claim whatever's a reasonable quantity of things for one go. Repeat until all you have left is crap.
For the crap: it's somebody's job to donate the crap pile. Thrift stores, schools, shelters.
posted by clavicle at 11:53 AM on July 25, 2018 [5 favorites]
With a big group: lay everything out on a table. Have everyone draw numbers out of a hat. In numerical order, you get a trip to the table to claim whatever's a reasonable quantity of things for one go. Repeat until all you have left is crap.
For the crap: it's somebody's job to donate the crap pile. Thrift stores, schools, shelters.
posted by clavicle at 11:53 AM on July 25, 2018 [5 favorites]
I have hosted clothing swaps, and I have learned from experience that you must have a plan in place ahead of time for disposing of the unwanted stuff at the end of the event. Otherwise your closet will be full of other peoples' discarded crap for weeks or months.
In my case, I asked someone with a car to volunteer to drive the extra clothes to a thrift store and drop them off right after the event. The people who stayed to the end of the swap helped bag up the leftover clothes and carry them to her car, making it even easier on me.
posted by showbiz_liz at 12:14 PM on July 25, 2018 [11 favorites]
In my case, I asked someone with a car to volunteer to drive the extra clothes to a thrift store and drop them off right after the event. The people who stayed to the end of the swap helped bag up the leftover clothes and carry them to her car, making it even easier on me.
posted by showbiz_liz at 12:14 PM on July 25, 2018 [11 favorites]
I host a craft swap at my house most New Year's Days with my knitting group. The following recommendations work with groups of up to 10-15, for anything bigger I'd set it up more like a garage sale.
Get a big table, label half of it "For Swap/Sale" and the other half "For Free" (your percentages may vary). Make sure people who don't bring stuff feel welcome to come, because most people want to give stuff away. Tell people that unclaimed stuff will go to [insert good cause here] but that people are welcome to take their stuff back home with them. If you don't want to deal with that step, ask someone else to help. (One of our knitters works in a correctional facility and takes all of the craft supplies that conform to their requirements, which is usually most of it.)
Make it a social/craft time, have some snacks and a place for people to sit and chat and work on projects. Some people don't like to wheel and deal immediately. We admire things and ask questions and hold skeins up and ask who it belongs to, and tease each other about abandoned projects, and end up with something interesting. If you have a lot of different types of crafters you might have a yarn swap this month and a fabric swap next month and a scrapbooking swap the month after that, but we always end up with a mix of things depending on what interests have fallen by the wayside.
The main tough part is getting over the awkwardness of asking each other about swapping. As the host I try to soften up the room by doing that early on.
posted by tchemgrrl at 12:17 PM on July 25, 2018 [2 favorites]
Get a big table, label half of it "For Swap/Sale" and the other half "For Free" (your percentages may vary). Make sure people who don't bring stuff feel welcome to come, because most people want to give stuff away. Tell people that unclaimed stuff will go to [insert good cause here] but that people are welcome to take their stuff back home with them. If you don't want to deal with that step, ask someone else to help. (One of our knitters works in a correctional facility and takes all of the craft supplies that conform to their requirements, which is usually most of it.)
Make it a social/craft time, have some snacks and a place for people to sit and chat and work on projects. Some people don't like to wheel and deal immediately. We admire things and ask questions and hold skeins up and ask who it belongs to, and tease each other about abandoned projects, and end up with something interesting. If you have a lot of different types of crafters you might have a yarn swap this month and a fabric swap next month and a scrapbooking swap the month after that, but we always end up with a mix of things depending on what interests have fallen by the wayside.
The main tough part is getting over the awkwardness of asking each other about swapping. As the host I try to soften up the room by doing that early on.
posted by tchemgrrl at 12:17 PM on July 25, 2018 [2 favorites]
Best answer: there are a couple of local charities that accept "craft material" donations. the women's shelter in my area has "life courses" of a type, one of which is basic sewing/mending. call or email around to see who takes what. i found better luck with smaller, local places and not goodwill or whatever.
posted by misanthropicsarah at 12:17 PM on July 25, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by misanthropicsarah at 12:17 PM on July 25, 2018 [1 favorite]
Best answer: For tangled yarn, you can chop it up into bits and use it as stuffing, it's less puffy than fiberfill but more lightweight than many alternatives like rice or beanbag bean things, so it's good for floppy soft toys. For hideous fabric, you can cut it into long strips to make rag yarn which is good for rugs and other projects that you want a really bulky fiber for, and the process will obscure basically any ugly pattern.
Of course all that takes a bunch of extra work. You could have a followup gathering for the folks interested in doing it - I suggest pairing with wine and cheese. For some people, knowing that the reject pile will get turned into something "useful" can help them to not grab things they don't actually want just because it's looking unloved, thus enabling stash size to diminish. But I think this is probably not needed for a first time swap and more like something to consider once you've done it a few times and have a better idea of the group.
You need to be clear on any rules because different people will bring different preconceptions into the event. Like, once I was told with great authority that a destash event meant that everything a person brought would be traded or donated and I wasn't supposed to reconsider in the middle of the evening. My first reaction to this was to scoff and get pissy but with a bit of perspective I can see that actually something like that would be useful in some situations, like, it would force people to think things through before they roll up with twenty tubs of quilting cotton or all their lovely alpaca laceweight and then have regrets. At one yarn swap two ladies got into a very quiet fight because they couldn't agree if a specific swap was fair based on weight of yarn or length of yarn. I feel like you might have a leg up on these kinds of conflicts because you work with the people you want to involve and you might know them a bit better and be able to predict the likelihood of different issues. So make some guidelines ahead of time and write them down somewhere.
posted by Mizu at 12:32 PM on July 25, 2018 [3 favorites]
Of course all that takes a bunch of extra work. You could have a followup gathering for the folks interested in doing it - I suggest pairing with wine and cheese. For some people, knowing that the reject pile will get turned into something "useful" can help them to not grab things they don't actually want just because it's looking unloved, thus enabling stash size to diminish. But I think this is probably not needed for a first time swap and more like something to consider once you've done it a few times and have a better idea of the group.
You need to be clear on any rules because different people will bring different preconceptions into the event. Like, once I was told with great authority that a destash event meant that everything a person brought would be traded or donated and I wasn't supposed to reconsider in the middle of the evening. My first reaction to this was to scoff and get pissy but with a bit of perspective I can see that actually something like that would be useful in some situations, like, it would force people to think things through before they roll up with twenty tubs of quilting cotton or all their lovely alpaca laceweight and then have regrets. At one yarn swap two ladies got into a very quiet fight because they couldn't agree if a specific swap was fair based on weight of yarn or length of yarn. I feel like you might have a leg up on these kinds of conflicts because you work with the people you want to involve and you might know them a bit better and be able to predict the likelihood of different issues. So make some guidelines ahead of time and write them down somewhere.
posted by Mizu at 12:32 PM on July 25, 2018 [3 favorites]
It's less of an "event", but if yours is a remotely techy workplace, you could create a nice Google spreadsheet where people can list their unwanted yarn (brand, weight, color, approximate amount, condition, etc) and others can claim it. This way people ultimately only bring what will be received enthusiastically (and likewise, people who take things home do so thoughtfully instead of in a revery of 'soft! pretty!' that ends with no actual net destashing).
posted by telegraph at 2:35 PM on July 25, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by telegraph at 2:35 PM on July 25, 2018 [1 favorite]
Might I suggest scout troops for the donations? I had girl scouts learning to knit and scrap yarn would have been perfect although I had a bunch of my own. Small amounts are perfect for kids that do it to learn for the badge and done, large amounts for the kids that really take to it.
posted by readery at 2:53 PM on July 25, 2018 [4 favorites]
posted by readery at 2:53 PM on July 25, 2018 [4 favorites]
Best answer: Not quite the same since plants make more plants, but a plant swap I participate in has separate tables labeled for perennials, shade, shrubs, vegetables, etc., so if you have the space I'd organize by yarn weight or content/fabric content, maybe with a separate section of each table for sweater quantities/full bolts, plus another section for tools. Require everything to be in a container and labeled - if the yarn or fabric doesn't have a factory label, a piece of paper in the ziploc would work.
My plant swap has a setup time for browsing, then a start time half an hour later, and everyone grabs their favorite things first, which works surprisingly well. The browsing time is spent discussing and asking questions about what's on offer , and the shotgun start helps people like me make a decision. There's always people putting things back, and horse trading on the side, too.
Negotiating direct swaps in a largish group is going to be tough, and take forever, plus will exclude people who can't bring anything.
Is anybody allergic to animals? If so, get people to label their things in advance, or have colored stickers ready to put on the bags.
posted by mgar at 6:04 PM on July 25, 2018 [2 favorites]
My plant swap has a setup time for browsing, then a start time half an hour later, and everyone grabs their favorite things first, which works surprisingly well. The browsing time is spent discussing and asking questions about what's on offer , and the shotgun start helps people like me make a decision. There's always people putting things back, and horse trading on the side, too.
Negotiating direct swaps in a largish group is going to be tough, and take forever, plus will exclude people who can't bring anything.
Is anybody allergic to animals? If so, get people to label their things in advance, or have colored stickers ready to put on the bags.
posted by mgar at 6:04 PM on July 25, 2018 [2 favorites]
Response by poster: Thanks for all of these suggestions! You mentioned a bunch of ideas and considerations that hadn't occurred to me. I appreciate your help!
posted by 2or3things at 7:55 AM on July 26, 2018
posted by 2or3things at 7:55 AM on July 26, 2018
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posted by DoubleLune at 11:47 AM on July 25, 2018 [2 favorites]