Little Collections

Little Collections.
I say this in jest, because I've (once again) RE-discovered that I have a serious problem.
I'm a collector. I collect things. LOTS of *things*. (Admitting the problem is the first step to recovery, no scratch that, make it organization.)

I just smushed, wedged, inventoried, and reorganized, hauled, grunted and pushed, SIX heavy-duty 18 gallon plastic totes into my attic.

Now, what might be in those SIX heavy-duty 18 gallon plastic totes, you might ask?
Well, my collections.

All of my collections? You ask.

Nope. I proudly admit. (I am a collector, ya know.)

Those SIX heavy-duty 18 gallon plastic totes contained various collections of yarn that I have collected for various projects. (Please note: These six totes do not contain my entire yarn collection. Oh No. There are THREE of these same massively huge totes of yarn in my living room, where I can easily access & visit with the yarn.)

I made a list & dutifully labeled the contents of each tote. (No digging through the wrong totes for this girl!)

This list is sorted by projects that I have collected & hauled into the attic, not the corresponding tote.

1. WIP: Summer is too hot to work under it... My "Yummy Wool Afghan" & yarn required to finish it. Plus enough yarn in the same yummy wool to make one or two more afghan/throws. (When you find a wool this yummy & its less than 1/2 price-- ya just HAVE to add all you can find to your collection.)
   
2. The reclaimed wool sweater yarn & various wools that I've collected for "Mom's Purple Wool Afghan". Still in balls- too hot to be under the wool.
   
3. WIP: "MC's Super-Soft Blanket" and all of the yarns & possible novelty yarns a 5yo would want in a blanket. I've been working & restarting this project since before she was born. I plan to have this one satisfactory completed for her to take to college. --egads the colors, had to put it away for a while.
4. "Mom's Purplely-Blue Acrylic Blanket" Surprisingly enough, I've collected most (maybe all) of these yarns from clearance & sale bins. Still in the bag. I am trying to restrain my self--- I'll have a collection of WIPs if I'm not careful.
   
5. WIP: "The Masculine Acrylic Afghan" Maybe for V? Maybe for C? Basically neutrals & a subtle bit of color. Mostly left over from a previous collection, by adding a few new skeins- Wa-LA. A NEW collection! While technically a WIP, there are only 8inches completed, so, it is possible that I've not committed to this project.
   
6. "The Next Red Afghan" in balls, lots of wools & bits that will be or might be leftover from "My Purple/Orange/Red Afghan." It won't have the purples but I might sneak in some orange & pinks into it. It's just SO HARD to know in advance exactly what color/yarn/texture will work until you are in the middle of it! (Hence the huge collections for each afghan.)
7. "Baby Yellow" just 6 little balls at this point in time. I think this is my simplest collection right now.
8. "Baby Ombre" gifted to me from someone destashing & letting go of their collection. I've made one blanket out of it this far...
9. "Other Yarns" my hand-dyed cotton chenille, bolt of undyed cotton chenille, odd novelty yarns that I got great deals on, 6 balls of an orange heathers Shetland tweed wool-(Kinda scratchy but AMAZING color) a beautiful cone of brown/tan chenille, 2 lonely purple yarns that ended up being the totally WRONG color for the intended collection. And a few other random yarns.

Wow. I've just impressed myself. Thats a LOT of yarn.
Too much yarn to be all in the living room, during the summer, when it is over 90* every day.
I've allowed myself three totes to be left in the living room. Two of them have my precious Peaches & Creme Cotton, of which I have 2 projects going now & several waiting their turn to be used. The last box houses my collection of yarns being used in "My Purple/Orange/Red Afghan."

This style of creation just can't be planned in advance, as I stated above. It is very much a process of creating. And, since I just sort of design as I go-- Well, I have NO IDEA of how many yards of yarn it takes to make one of these things. However, I AM keeping track for Mom's Rugs that I am working on, but that is partly because She wants another one which needs to be a certain length, so I might need to buy more yarn.


Oh. and just a tiny peek at some of my other collections: BEADS, sterling silver wire, stuffed toy owls, Rubber stampers, polymer stampers, ink pads, random scrapbooking supplies (paper, eyelets, trims...) Cookbooks, birkenstocks, lighthouse items, pastry tools, fruit shaped pitchers, fabric yardage, I could keep going. I an such a candidate for TLC. I just need them to offer me a double header-- What Not To Wear combined with one of the organizing/clean-out shows. So if anyone has "connections" I will throw my self at your feet & beg.

I need help.
(Hey, is that step 2? Asking for help?)
Help? Help. HELP!!!!