"I am addicted to

yarn, any sort of yarn" my visitor told me, "But I can't keep this. I'd like to. It's yummy."
Oh yes? 
I like yarn too but I hope I am not addicted the way she is or, worse, the way her mother was.
Yes,  it was another one of those homes that used yarn as insulation, a place that resembled a wool shop. If there was a sale on then H... would buy yarn. She had no hope of using it in her life time but thought her daughter would  use whatever was left. Her daughter was also buying yarn. There were two lots of yarn.
Her daughter and her husband have decided to retire to a much warmer place. She is taking the cotton with her - boxes and boxes of it. She is leaving the acrylic - very little - and the wool and the odds and ends.
I suggested offering some of it to the group of young people I work with but she didn't want to do that. She thought they might not appreciate it. They would - more than most adults I know - but I was to find somewhere else.
   "You can sell it for your Africans if you like."
Unfortunately that's not possible. I sorted and packed some yesterday. Odd balls and acrylics can go to an organisation which knits for charities and the rest can go to the guild of which I am a member. I hope that way it will get used by people who will appreciate it. 
There is more to sort yet. There is another group which I know will use and donate to charity. 
It has made me realise that I also need to work through my own stash. I have been given yarn over the years. There is still some there. I know I am not likely to use it. Some of it is nice enough but some isn't at all attractive. Why did people buy it? Come to that, why did people design it in the first place?  Others might use it.  I will sort and pack some more.
The last two experiences of other people's yarn stashes have made me determined that I am not going to be the same. I will give yarn away. I will pass it on to charity. I am not going to leave a house - not merely a room  - stacked high with  yarn and unused craft materials. It's wrong. Those things are meant to be used. 
They will be used.