Stashbusters-R-Us!
I have three WIP's at the moment; the VK Lacey Shawl, the 26 Year Scarf and the 4x Homespun Top. I've just figured out how to do the little "progress bars" at the side of the page, have a look-see!
So I've been thinking about doing some stash-busting. The 26 Year Scarf is yarn I bought 26 years ago when I was at my first full-time job, travelling and selling magazines door-to-door (ugh! It was an AWEFUL job! lol) Anyway being very bored during the endless hours on the road and more than a little homesick I bought some very pretty purple tweedy mohair-blend yarn and some needles to knit a scarf. It didn't work out and I ripped it. Over the years it's been started into a whole bunch of different projects and frogged as they each didn't turn out the way I wanted for whatever reason. I recently figured out that I've moved 10 times since I bought this yarn and it's still with me! It was a very extravagant purchase for me at the time as I had virtually no "pin money" and couldn't really afford to buy it, which is probably why I've kept it all these years. So I frogged it's latest partial transformation (a sock that wasn't going to fit anyone I know) and I am again making it into a scarf as it was destined to be. It's a good purse project to have on hand for those free moments that pop up, like watching DS's football practices. After seeing Cameron Diaz's scarf in In Her Shoes this weekend I'm just going to keep knitting this scarf until I run out of yarn! lol
The 4x Homespun Top is a fairly recent addition to the stash. I call it that because I'm on my 4th try at trying to knit something with it. I bought three balls of this stuff in the spring somehow thinking I would get a pullover out of that. I bought it because the colourway was the same as one I liked in a magazine pic, although it didn't really occur to me that (a) I didn't buy enough and (b) it's not the same yarn! Then when I went back to buy more I found there's no more of the same colourway to be found anywhere. So after ripping that I found another pattern to try, got about 12" of the body knit in the round with full cables and decided that wasn't going to work either. After I ripped it once more I did up my own pattern for a SLEEVELESS pullover (yeah, the lightbulb finally went on) but for some reason my gauge wasn't matching my swatch and it was HUGE! So I ripped it once again after recalculating my gauge and am having another go at it. Yeah, I prefer the term "tenacious" instead of obsessive-compulsive.
And the VK Lacey Shawl is coming along quite nicely; I was working on it last night. Good thing I don't have to worry about size or gauge there! This had now been relegated to an "at home project" because it's getting too big to cart around everywhere.
So thinking some more about my stash, I've got the green cammo yarn that I bought a gigantic skein of at the flea market in Grand Bend. Mom made up a long sweater-coat for DD (which I've taken over since DD never wears it) and I've still got two huge balls left over. So I'm thinking I'll make myself a pullover similar to the one here.
And since Mom brought me a book on felted purses the other day I've been obsessing about THAT (like I need more things to obsess about! lol). I was going to order some wool from Briggs and Little for one, but of course the guilt pangs came on because I'm supposed to be on a self-imposed yarn diet until I beat this stash-monster into submission. Then I remembered I've got some very pretty sock wool from them that would probably work well doubled, or even tripled, but it will be fun to experiment and best of all it USES UP THE STASH!
There's still tons more in my stash, but I feel much better now that I have some ideas for some of it. B) I'll update this post with pics when I get snappin'. ;)
So I've been thinking about doing some stash-busting. The 26 Year Scarf is yarn I bought 26 years ago when I was at my first full-time job, travelling and selling magazines door-to-door (ugh! It was an AWEFUL job! lol) Anyway being very bored during the endless hours on the road and more than a little homesick I bought some very pretty purple tweedy mohair-blend yarn and some needles to knit a scarf. It didn't work out and I ripped it. Over the years it's been started into a whole bunch of different projects and frogged as they each didn't turn out the way I wanted for whatever reason. I recently figured out that I've moved 10 times since I bought this yarn and it's still with me! It was a very extravagant purchase for me at the time as I had virtually no "pin money" and couldn't really afford to buy it, which is probably why I've kept it all these years. So I frogged it's latest partial transformation (a sock that wasn't going to fit anyone I know) and I am again making it into a scarf as it was destined to be. It's a good purse project to have on hand for those free moments that pop up, like watching DS's football practices. After seeing Cameron Diaz's scarf in In Her Shoes this weekend I'm just going to keep knitting this scarf until I run out of yarn! lol
The 4x Homespun Top is a fairly recent addition to the stash. I call it that because I'm on my 4th try at trying to knit something with it. I bought three balls of this stuff in the spring somehow thinking I would get a pullover out of that. I bought it because the colourway was the same as one I liked in a magazine pic, although it didn't really occur to me that (a) I didn't buy enough and (b) it's not the same yarn! Then when I went back to buy more I found there's no more of the same colourway to be found anywhere. So after ripping that I found another pattern to try, got about 12" of the body knit in the round with full cables and decided that wasn't going to work either. After I ripped it once more I did up my own pattern for a SLEEVELESS pullover (yeah, the lightbulb finally went on) but for some reason my gauge wasn't matching my swatch and it was HUGE! So I ripped it once again after recalculating my gauge and am having another go at it. Yeah, I prefer the term "tenacious" instead of obsessive-compulsive.
And the VK Lacey Shawl is coming along quite nicely; I was working on it last night. Good thing I don't have to worry about size or gauge there! This had now been relegated to an "at home project" because it's getting too big to cart around everywhere.
So thinking some more about my stash, I've got the green cammo yarn that I bought a gigantic skein of at the flea market in Grand Bend. Mom made up a long sweater-coat for DD (which I've taken over since DD never wears it) and I've still got two huge balls left over. So I'm thinking I'll make myself a pullover similar to the one here.
And since Mom brought me a book on felted purses the other day I've been obsessing about THAT (like I need more things to obsess about! lol). I was going to order some wool from Briggs and Little for one, but of course the guilt pangs came on because I'm supposed to be on a self-imposed yarn diet until I beat this stash-monster into submission. Then I remembered I've got some very pretty sock wool from them that would probably work well doubled, or even tripled, but it will be fun to experiment and best of all it USES UP THE STASH!
There's still tons more in my stash, but I feel much better now that I have some ideas for some of it. B) I'll update this post with pics when I get snappin'. ;)
Comments