Monday, September 10, 2007

Stash busting

Monday again. I'm sitting here yawning at the moment. I did have a very relaxed weekend but somehow that never seems to matter on a Monday morning. I'm always tired on Mondays.

Last weekend I "hosted" a knit-together at someone else's home. Five girls/women from four families met up to knit while the boys/men watched football/soccer and took care of the BBQ and our dinner. We had a great time. I got some knitting done in between helping the others out with cast ons, increases, continental purls, pattern instructions and such. I love the fact that I've inspired people to bring out their knitting supplies from storage rooms and others to get started from scratch.

Well, in preparation for this day, I went through my stash of needles and yarn to see what I could bring with me in case the others needed/wanted to use some. It made me realise that I have some yarn in my stash that I've forgotten about and I decided to go through it more thoroughly and try to decide what to make with it. So, last Sunday I started. I organized all the pattern print outs that I have and put them in a binder. I put yarn in different piles depending on if I had projetcs in mind for them or not. And I also made a pile of yarn that I just couldn't ever see myself knitting with (again)...

Some projects I had on the needles were ripped. Some smaller ones were thrown out. I made a list of the works in progress I have and put a priority to them. Decided to bring them into work one by one and finish them up. (Except for my Hidcote Garden Shawl as I think that one takes too much brain focus to work on in a lunch room filled with chatty people...) Holey Cable was the first one. My zig zag dress is the one I'm working on now. Hope to have that one done by the end of the week.

I also made a list of things I can do with yarn from my stash. And I started some of the things this weekend but ripped all of them but one. I started a beadless Odessa hat with some organic cotton I had. The striped pattern from the yarn interrupted with the spirals in the hat though so I decided against it. I started a Tiger Eye Lace Scarf with some greenish-brownish-purplish merino yarn I got in a yarn swap two years ago, but the colour changes, once again, didn't go with the pattern. The lace got lost in the colour changes.

I picked up a hank of sock yarn I bought from Angelia's Etsy Store (Blackthorne Fibers) a couple of months ago. Or rather, I had boyfriend picking what sock yarn I should use for a pair of socks and this was his choice. I can't remember the name of the colour but it's sort of cranberrylike. Had plans on making some kind of cabley pattern on the socks but starting out with the first toe, I realised that the colour variations are so beautiful that I don't need anything fancy on these socks for them to turn out fabulous. I'll keep them all stockinette. On the foot part at least. Pictures when I have more to show!

4 comments:

essjay said...

Doesn't it feel good to sit down and go through everything? I always feel better when things are organized. That knit together does sound like fun - good for you for being such an inspiration!

Geek Knitter said...

OK, that's it. Now I need to yank out all of my yarn and go through it to make sure I don't have any scary acrylic lurking in there! Your knit together sounds like so much fun, I wish I could have been there!

Unknown said...

EssJay: It did feel good going through my stash and organize things a bit. There's still more to do (label bags, think of more projects, reprint some of the patterns, and so on...) but I've started at least. :)

Geek Knitter: You're more than welcome to our next knit-together! Is a week's notice enough for you to make it? ;)

Anonymous said...

You inspire me to do the same thing. I know that I have lots of things otn that i don't remember cause half of my Denise needles are missing.

Anyway, way to go, and congrats on the knitting group!!