Stash Busting Update!

In updating the blog over the last few weeks I realized I've made a lot of progress in my stash busting efforts. I'm not normally a numbers person, but my Dad was an accountant, and I must be channeling him a bit because I throughly enjoyed putting these numbers together.

Pre-Stash Bust (March 2013): 7.1418 kg of yarn / 19,077.49 yards

     That's 15.7 lbs of yarn. Unwound and laid end to end, the yarn would cover 10.8 miles.

As of August 2013: 4.3572 kg / 12,915.4 yards

     That's 9.6 lbs and 7.4 miles laid end to end.

I have used 2.7846 kg (6.1 lbs), or 6,162 yards (3.4 miles).

Bringing Home Baby Kit

No Mom, I'm not pregnant. But baby projects are great stash busters!

Using some Malabrigo Worsted left over from Uhlan, I made Snug As A Bug Sleep Sac and a hat to match. Tomorrow, watch for an update on the stash bust!

Uhlan Cap

When I saw Uhlan in Knitty (Deep Fall 2012), I wanted to make it for my hubby. It's the perfect thing to wear when you're snow blowing! He even was kind enough to model it for me.

He doesn't especially like modeling. 

I did need to make some adjustments to fit his giant head, and picked up stitches for the ribbing around his face I made sure that they matched the neck ribbing. Because things like that bother him. 

Another Cowl

This is the last cowl for a while, I promise.

This one is Elis, which happens to share it's name with my middle school, except it's missing an "l."  This was another stash buster, featuring Knit Picks Galileo in Nebula. I got one skein a while back to hit the $50 free shipping threshold. By the way, always worth it.

Multiplying Fingerless Mitts

I made some fingerless mitts! Six of them, to be exact.

I didn't plan to make six...After I finished the first two, it looked like I had made two left hands. I set them aside for a long while, and when I came back to them I thought they were right hands, so I knit a left hand. Then I put them on, and realized all three were left hands. So I knit three right hands. Only then did I directly compare a right hand to a left hand; they aren't perfect mirror images of each other. It's only noticeable in the buttons, they aren't in exactly the same place. Had I realized it earlier, I could have modified it, but at this point it's not worth it. It would bother me, but someone else may not notice. They'll be gifts for somebody, someday.  

The pattern is More Time for Egg Nog Mitts, the yarn is Cascade 220 leftover from Katell. 

Bicnic

I intended to give this as a gift to a family friend who is expecting in September. However, I forgot it was a size 12-18 mos (I usually make a 6 mos), and I really love it. I think I'll save it for my eventual children. (No Mom, I'm not pregnant). 

I used Knit Picks Palette in Turmeric, which I had originally intended to use for Color Affection. I had picked out three colors for CA, but once they arrived I didn't like the combination. I liked all three colors, I just didn't like them together. 

The pattern is Bicnic, by Solenn Couix-Loarer.

I jumped on to the train...

... the Color Affection train!

I think just about everybody has knit this, or knit two of them, or plans to knit it one day. At one point, at least three of the ten knitting blogs I follow had Color Affection on the needles. 

I love it! It was a nice, easy, fast knit. With the color changes, you see how much progress you're making. 

Mitered Square Blanket

This partially-finished blanket had been languishing in the bedroom closet for a long time. When I started it, I intended to throw it on the couch in the living room to tie everything together. However, at the time I was single and living on my own in a tiny apartment. It was tiny, but it was cute and it was mine. I loved it. It was July 2010.

I moved out of that apartment, and moved again after that. That living room didn't exist anymore. When this stash busting project started, I picked it up again. I had I think 5 completed large squares, some of them were sewn together, others weren't. I found my notes (I made a smaller version), and started cruising. My husband fell in love with it, and insists that we save it for our eventual children.

Tripple Cowls!

Quite a while ago (last fall), I knit a  Bandana Cowl  in Knit Picks Cadena (in Locus).

 And I loved it. The yarn is super soft and squishy and it felt amazing in my fingers. I wore it a lot over the winter, while I froze at work. Not that I work outside, not that the building doesn't have adequate heat (it does, this is Wisconsin), I'm just one of those people who was always cold. And I loved having something I could throw on around my neck when it was too warm to wear a sweater but too cold to go without.

I made another one to eat up the rest of the Gloss HW left over from Array.  This one is a little taller than the it's pink twin. I also used a less-elastic cast-on this time around, which backfired a bit. It still fits over my head, but it's a tighter squeeze.

The third cowl, Present, was made with some Malabrigo I had picked up because it was pretty. I try to avoid buying yarn without a project in mind, but I couldn't help myself.  I'm not totally thrilled with this pattern, but whatever. I still have at least half a skein, so I wouldn't be terribly upset if I needed to frog Present in order to have enough yarn to complete another project.

Beast of Burden

I fell in love with Array last summer, when it was advertised prominently on Ravelry. I ignored the fact that there was a lot of purling and slipping and moving the yarn from front to back on everything single stitch, until I actually had to do it. It was awful.

I did some research and came across a Youtube video on Norwegian knitting and purling. Instead of moving the working yarn from front to back, you move the needle position. It definitely helped, and I'm glad I found it, but still. It had been months, I was bored and sick of it.

So I set it aside for several months. I eventually came back to it, but couldn't remember where I had left off in the pattern. When I did pick it up again, I started in the wrong pattern row but stubbornly continued. I tried to ignore it, and I did for an inch and a half before I decided I had to rip back. Fixed that, re-started in the correct row, but now my tension was different. You can see it in the picture below.

I gave up. Bound off, I'm done with it. It's an inch or two shorter than the pattern, but I never want to do that again. Ever. Ever.

Baby Surprise Jacket

Continuing the tradition of knitting a sweater for when friends and family are expecting, a friend gave birth to a boy early in July. Continuing the tradition of using up stash yarn, I used leftovers from a sweater I made for an expectant cousin two years ago, Garnstudio Drops Merino Extra Fine in 09 (brown) and 15 (light blue). I made Elizabeth Zimmerman's Baby Surprise Jacket.

I did run out of yarn before I was finished, and I didn't have anything on hand to substitute that wouldn't look like I had run out of yarn, so I did buy another skein of the brown to finish up.  

The pattern was interesting in that I couldn't really figure out how it would all come together. I followed the pattern blindly, and it only really made sense after I had cast off. I wish I could explain it better, but once you bind off, the jacket wants to fold in a couple places and then it all works. Up until that point, I kept my fingers crossed. 

Yarn, yarn, yarn

My stash has gotten out of control. Here it is, thrown about the bed:

Not that there is too much yarn. There is never too much yarn. I don't understand the concept of "too much yarn" unless and until it gets to the point that entire rooms are just filled top to bottom with yarn, like Uncle Scrooge's vault from "DuckTales." Yes, I'm an '80s baby.

My stash has out grown it's various containers, and I don't know what is in it. I've never been diligent about adding purchases to my "stash" on Ravelry; I usually only add them when I'm adding the finished project, if anything. I have no idea how much I have of any yarn, unless it's a full skein. Not to mention the mystery yarn.

My mission, my poorly documented mission, has been to destash and organize. So far this month, I have knit a baby sleep sack, a baby hat, an adult hat, and a Color Affection, and I finished a long-neglected Array. I have another adult hat on the needles, as well as a softie that I'm making up as I go. On the agenda tonight is the organization aspect. De-mystifying the mystery yarn, weighing and calculating the yardage of remnants, and organizing. Wish me luck!