Last week at knitting my friend Sharon was doing her practical work in order to become a colour reader. Always up for a go at new things, Sharon read my cards and all the colours pointed to one thing: my stash is holding me back.
As the last post shows, the stash in the living room is huge! And thats only the tip of the iceberg. Sharon suggested that I move yarn that doesn't make my hear sing. After hearing this shocking suggestion, shedding a little tear or two, I agreed to try to cull the stash.
Its actually quite easy to let go. Even after sitting and thinking about it for a few minutes, I was able to come up with a list of yarns that I was happy enough to move out of the house.... and here it is.
start small
It took a whole 10 minutes to pull the yarn out of its various nooks and crannies and be piled up on the floor. A quick whatsapp chat later and half the yarn already has a new home, the rest will be brought to knitting tomorrow and, if there's still some left over, it'll go straight to the charity shop.
Have managed to finish two projects over the weekend AND start/finish a third, which is just fantastic! Can't mention too much about them since Christmas is coming and everything, lol.
I can say that I've knitted/gifted 92 balls of yarn this year (I've colour coded the balls so I can count exactly how many I gifted and knitted) and I could actually get to 100 by New Years Eve. I have probably cheated a bit since I've noted down partial balls and things, for example if I knitted a dishcloth last year using half a ball of P&C and finished the ball this year, then I'm counting the ball in the challenge. But hey, the yarn is leaving the stash and if it motivates me then I'll stick to my system.
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.
I know its a tad early for the resolution business, but I'm going to throw these ideas that Nicky and I came up with out into the ether.
Socks We're going to do our own sock club, and some of the patterns will be coming from the Simply Knitting calander that came with an issue a couple of months ago... since all I can do is plain socks, this is going to be a challenge. I'm asking my mum to bring home lunch bags from Washington next week - if I can see the yarn, I'll not want to knit it so its best to hide these things, lol.
Stash
We're also going to try the Stash Knit Down 2009 ravelry groups "Knit 100 balls in 2009" challenge. I know I have more than enough stash to keep me going to for a while and I'm going to not buy any yarn. However, there is a clause here. Nicky and I are hoping to go to Toronto at some stage, so it is my plan to not buy yarn until I go, I can buy when I'm there and then when I get back, its no yarn again. Unless I need a ball or two to finish a project, thats allowed.
Our challenges/knitalongs! To make 2009 slightly interesting, Nicky and I came up with a list of 13 challenges/knitalongs for us to do over the year. One challenge starts whenever the last one ends, so it could take 18 months but on the other hand it could take 9 months!
So we have, in no particular order:
1. fairisle and steaking in the one project, we're nothing if not crazy, lol.
2. the pi shawl
3. crocheted starghan (I can't crochet so should be interesting for me)
4. baby suprise jacket
5. Dream swatch headwrap
6. Clapotis
7. Endpaper mittens
8. Hoodie time! We both have hoodies we want to knit, just different ones
9. Emerald cardigan
10. More cardigans!!! (it gets cold here you know, lol)
11. Gift challenge - knit gifts for birthdays/Christmas
12. WIP finishing marathon
13. Pinwheel blanket
So there we have it, the 2009 crazy train!
If we add all the yarn from the 13 knitalongs AND the socks then I think I'm well over the 100 ball mark and therefore have succeeded in knitting down the stash in 2009, knitted some pretty nifty things AND learnt some new knitting skills as well as how to crochet! Win/win I'd say.
Current WIP's I have a few wip's on the go now that are starting to take over my life, lol. I have 2 different socks on the go, trying to knit a Christmas present and have a birthday present to start. Then, once those are done, I've a few things to knit for the ones I work with (which they demanded I should add) Although the socks aren't desperately needed by a deadline, they see m to be the only thing I want to knit. I think I need to hide them until Christmas is over, or at least until I get everything else knitted!
Once again, its the end of the month and time for the totals!
Bought: 100g Used: 600g! Completed: 4
Hooray! The stash is heading in the right direction! I did a bit of a yearly total and there's somewhere in the region of about 500g difference in the incoming and outgoing stash. Seems I bought too much this year after all, and if by some miracle I manage to knit that 500g in December, I'll have knit all that I bought this year and made absolutely no headway in the whole destashing thing.
But there are plans for 2009, lots of destashing plans and knitalongs with Nicky. We hatched a plan on Friday night in Starbucks, and I'll post that next week!
Having taken the stern talking to by Gaietygirl seriously, I finished the MJ's on Tuesday night. They were meant to be mine but I put them on my sister for a photo and once the flash went, she scarpered off in them! They now have a new home on her feet, which suits me since I don't think I did them right, lol. But by finishing them I completed another project AND finished another 50g of yarn.
As a once subscriber of *shudder* the Art of KNitting, I had more than a few balls of nasty acrylic lying around. I think there's about 30 of them doing nothing but taking up space and giving me more yarn to try and get rid of. Well, a girl in work volunteers at an animal shelter and they need blankets for the cats and dogs so what better way to (a) help the shelter and (b)get rid of the evil AOK yarn!!!
I'm on my first (of many) doggy blankets and reckon 10 balls would make a decent enough size blanket - currently I'm on ball 3. Just a way to go, lol, but destashing is destashing after all!
