Total time!

I thought it might be interesting to put out there just where I am on the knitting front.

I have just moments ago finished the 37th ball - I have knitted 33 of these and donated 4 to other people. I'm happy with myself although you can't actually see the small hole where these 37 balls used to be, lol.

So from January until May we have the following:

January - Bought no yarn, used 391g so for the month I was +391g

February - Bought 700g, used 748g so for the month I was +48g

March - Bought 900g, used 1358g so for the month I was + 458g

April - Bought 1000g, used 688g so for the month I was -322g

May - Bought no yarn, used 250g so for the month I was +250g

Generally it seems that the numbers are going in the right direction, and the used yarn doesn't count the gifted to me or by me stuff. I'm destashing slowly but surely, and this month was basically socks, lol.

I think the important thing is that for two months this year I have bought nothing. There's 7 months left, lets see how many more yarn free months I can do!

Whoop!!

I've just finished knitting my 29th ball, which means I'm over quarter of the way to the 100 ball knit down challenge. However, the downside to this excitement is the fact that I've bought yarn nearing 50 balls. I'm taking one step forward and two back with this challenge thing.

So I need an incentive. I'm not buying anymore yarn. If I manage to stave off the yarn buying bug I can go to the spinning class that we're hoping to organise with the SnB ones. If I buy yarn then I can't go, simple.

Ideally, I'd love to have knitted 100 balls AND the new yarn too by New Years Eve. One can hope :)

Total time!

Well, the month is over and I can safely say that I DID NOT purchase any yarn, whatsoever.

I was gifted a ball of Opal but thats a gift and doesn't count.

So the total so far stands at 1236yards of yarn used in January. I don't know if this is good or not, but I'll take it. (even though it was less than December's total of 1581 yards which was 0.9 miles) Naturally I couldn't bring myself to refinish the rib on the jumper last night, so what would have been more yards will be carried over to today once I finish reseaming the thing. I hate reknits :(

So here we go:

Used 391g
Yards 1236
Bought 0g
Gifted to me 100g
Mileage 0.7 miles.

How very interesting!

I have a 2008 diary that I used to keep track of the yarn in/out and completed projects. Since I last purchased yarn in November 2008, I thought I would have a look to see just precicely how many days it's been since I last made a purchase.

As of right now, its been 72 days... thats right, 72 whole days since yarn came into my house. This, I think, is mighty impressive. And you know, its not as bad as I thought it was going to be. I've looked on yarn sites at the sale stuff, contemplated buying it and closed down the window. I have a lot of stash, I don't need anymore for a while.

I'm having a sock issue though. I'm in the midst of a father sized sock and although its going swimmingly, I believe I don't have enough yarn for a decent lengthed leg. It took 30g of yarn to do the foot and heel and I don't know if he'll wear them with a shortened leg. I guess the only way to find out is to knit the darned thing. I wound 50g off the ball for the other sock, so the entire ball will be used this time (usually I have something left over)

Onto the sock then!

Total time!

There's going to a LOT of totals this time round, mainly to take in the end of the month as well as the end of the year.

December:

Bought 0g, zero, zilch, nada!!!
Used 1,095g
Completed 6

I thought that was quite an achievement for December and totalled 0.9 miles. As I flicked through my diary/knitting book, I discovered that the amount I knitted this month isn't the largest total I had... August was 1500g ( thats what happens when you're on holiday you see, lol)

Anyway, the YEAR's total:

Bought 10,714g
Used 10,692g
Completed 56

There's a difference there of 22g... 22 measley grams. If I had just made the cuffs on my last pair of socks longer I would have used that 22g. But what's done is done.

Overall, I'm pretty pleased that I haven't significantly added to the stash. Effectively, I've used what I bought and my plan for 2009 is to have bought next to nothing and knitted the same weight or more.

Oops!

remember how on Saturday I bought a ball of yarn I already had so I could "make something bigger" out of it? Well today I did the same thing again. Only this time it was a ball of James C Brett's Magi Knit. Just don't know what to knit with it though.

With the Saturday and today' purchases, my total in/out tally for this month is as follows:

Used: 750g
Bought: 650g
Completed: 5

Just think, if I hadn't bought those 4oog of yarn, the tally would be much better looking!

Here we go again!

It was my foolish intention that I would not buy yarn in 2008. Please note the word "foolish". I did not succeed in my 2008 quest but did however manage to note all yarn's incoming and going from the stash. Some months I got more than I used, others I used more than I bought. Some months the totals were the same.

My intention for 2009 is to USE MORE than I actually BUY. I'm not vetoing the purchaing, just trying to restrict it. I would LOVE to not buy yarn but asking that of me is like asking people not to breathe - ain't going to happen. I just want to be able to say on 31st December 2009 that I used a lot more than I bought.

My pitfalls ( and occasionally successes I imagine) shall be noted here, and I'm going to start the whole experiment off now too.

So far, for October I have:

Bought 250g
Used 321g
Completed 2

the bought yarn was straight in and out which is the overall aim of the whole thing.

I'm halfway through another project so hopefully it'll be done by the end of the week and I can do some serious knitting on my dad's jumper!