Stash Bashing

Stash.

It's a word known throughout the knitterly world, but is it a good thing? I'm starting to lean towards no.

I'm finding I don't like buying yarn for the sake of 'owning' it. Plus I'm pretty project monogamous, so I am trying to buy projects rather than random yarn. The stash looms in the corner and I can feel it. It's not happy and therefore neither am I.

I'm going on a serious Stash diet. I will only buy something if I'm going to knit it up right now, not to put it into my stash. (No matter HOW good a deal it is!!) I am also going to try to create a few things from the leftovers in my stash.

When I went to the knitty retreat 2006 I took advantage and went through my stash. I felt pretty good because the majority of my stash, I'd say around 75% was remnants from past projects. There was a good deal of teasing going on about small small pieces of left over sock yarn.

'But I made my Mom socks with that..how can I throw it out???'

Anyway, I did some editing and gifted some to folks. Now I just have a handful of projects waiting to be completed. All of which are listed on the sidebar in my 'to do' list. But am I going to tackle one of those? Nope.

I'm going stash diving.

I also created a spreadsheet about the contents of my stash..yes I'm a knitting geek. Now I know somewhere in there is the leftovers from Abby's hat. I think there's enough to make a matching scarf and if not I can just buy 1 skein of Lamb's Pride and be good.

Today I'll ship the defective swift back and hopefully get the good one soon. I want to make Fingerless Mittens next. No, they aren't on the list...oops.



I'm not going to do them in the striping, but rather a nice solid. I have a jean jacket that has sleeves a tad too short and figured this might help. And then for those chilly soccer games I'm going to knit this cabled shawl. Both of these patterns are from KnitPicks. Gotta love that place! I'll buy some yarn for the mitts but I'm going to use the burgandy and cream merino from my stash for the shawl.

Did you actually think I would go to bed without felting???

So here it is..still damp and a bit wonky shaped. I plan on using a portion of plastic canvas for support on the bottom. Next week I'll go to the fabric store to find some fun stuff for the lining. Am thinking a graphic print, maybe something retro or asian. Hopefully I'll know it when I see it!

I put it through the washing cycle twice to get it as felted as I wanted. The white isn't quite as white as I'd like, but the fabric is nice and dense. It should make a pretty good bag. I also used the trick that Therese taught us at the Norwegian Sweater class. Roll your woolen up in a towel like a tootsie roll, lay it in your washer and send it through the spin cycle. It works really well, getting rid of a bunch of water yet not creasing it.

We'll see what it looks like all dried, lined and with the handles on it!