A Little Yarn On The Side

This is where we started 6 days ago: There's actually even more to the stash, but I think you get the idea without me embarrassing myself too much. While even at my most optimistic/delusional, I can't pretend that I'll get through the stash in a year, but I am hoping to make a serious dent in it by the end of the year. Check up: Today is Day 6 and I am just finishing a set of flannel-backed satin pajamas for my husband (for some reason he's really keen on this set having both tops AND bottoms--perhaps it has something to do with the fact that I keep the heat so low during the night that I keep expecting to find frost inside the house one morning) which used up 4 yards of the stash, and I have used just over 5 skeins of yarn in the pink cardigan: I'm using this yarn which is soft & fun to work with, but so far every single skein has had a poorly-done splice in it, which I keep having to cut out & redo, so I wouldn't recommend this one or ever use it aga...

I realize it's a little bit early to start gloating, but I am still holding firm on the Year of the Stash project. I have made a list of projects to finish this year, and I think as long as I keep it in front of me, I will be less tempted by the idea of shopping for new projects. Let's hope! I have noticed a disturbing trend to visit other people's blogs to see what they are buying, but at least shopping vicariously takes up no space and costs nothing. Seeing the wonderful yarns that other people are buying that I can't have....well, we'll be looking for a little maturity this year as well.....

January 1 - it begins. This year I am buying no new yarn or fabric. That's right, for 2008 Joann's, Elann.com, and Knitpicks.com will have to find alternative funding sources--I am only making projects from my existing stash. As my first day dawned, I had to decide--is this about decreasing the overall volume of the stash, saving money, or getting long-planned projects finished? While all are fabulous motives, what do I really want to accomplish? As I sit surrounded by shelves & tubs full of fiber, I had to admit--my number one priority is to decrease the size of the stash. This means that while I love lace knitting & will certainly do a lace project or two, the bulkier yarn & fabrics will be taking a higher priority. While I adore lace yarn, it's easier to store than, say, the bulky-weight mohair blend that reminds me a bit of an unshorn poodle. Fleece fabric will take priority over chiffon. It's a space issue--the stash has grown large enough that we...

The Year of the Stash begins in just a few short days! I have been making a list of everything I want to make next year, which is really challenging since if I was at all realistic about how many things I could actually make in one year, I wouldn't have a stash problem. I did allow myself a little yarn indulgence, some cream worsted weight for the EZ Knitter's Almanac January Aran (and part of me really does believe that I will finish a sweater in one month--explains a lot, doesn't it?) and some cotton blends for cardigans. After the no spending month, I needed a little yarn fling before the year-long ban begins. My hope is that a year of doing only stash projects will make at least a small dent in the stash, but I may be a bit "reality-challenged" again.... And yet I'm still tempted to make one last run to the fabric store.....

In the euphoria of just having survived the month long "can't buy anything new" project, and having a solid wall of stash facing me each day, I have decided that 2008 will be THE YEAR OF THE STASH! That's right--no new yarn or fabric purchases--just projects made from The Stash. I am giving myself until January 1 to prepare--finding the matching material to bind the quilt from my class, getting a few things tucked away for "must do" gifts next year, but my "preparation allowance" is limited. Embarking on a "stash year" would lose a little if it was kicked off with a $500 yarn & fabric shopping spree. Might be a good way to end it, though.....:) Today's acquisitions: black fabric to make more Halloween trick-or-treat bags like the ones I made this year: I also picked up more felt in case I feel the insane urge to make another puppet kit this year. New way to irritate people: take 7 large bolts of felt up to the cutting table a...

The countdown to Christmas is on, and the relative panic of not getting everything made in time has just arrived. So Sunday was Christmas gift day. For my Grandmother, who once gave me a set of hand-embroidered pillowcases, Granted, machine embroidery isn't exactly a fair exchange, but in the interests of time and her ever receiving them, they will have to do. Even with the machine, this is the second attempt--the first one had a few "user error" issues and are now buried in our linen closet. Two sets of Christmas napkins were finished: Okay, that's one set, but the other looks EXACTLY the same so we'll pretend it shows both. And a fleece baby blanket for a cousin's new son born just a couple weeks ago. 15 days & 2 gifts to go!!!!!!!!

For the uninitiated, a "knit-along" consists of a group of knitters making the same project & helping each other, commiserating, and a few speedsters gloating about how fast they finish each project. As much as I don't particularly care for the MS3 stole--henceforth known as the Beaded Knitting Abyss--it was fun to be part of a knitting group. My friends locally have other hobbies--usually scrapbooking--but as much as I support their right to have hobbies, I don't really want to hang around them with my knitting while they have dozens of sharp cutting implements laying around. So, rather than convert, I have joined another KAL. Elizabeth Zimmermann, a revolutionary knitter who would probably not have hesitated to smack someone with a size 11 knitting needle for trying to sell patterns for garter-stitch scarves & plain socks, wrote a book in 1974 called Knitter's Almanac . In it, she provides instructions for a new project every month, but in such a folk...