Mmmmm, stash

More correctly I should title this post as "Lucky me, I have pretties". Since using stash yarn is an aim for the year I thought it would be good to document what I have. I am not doing any kind of yarn diet, it is just about using the pretty yarn. If I buy something new and shiny that is all good too.

The photos are not great, lousy weather!

First the yarn with a planned destiny:

The green is a new purchase, part Christmas present, part sale bargain, all "oooh I like this". It is a sweater quantity and will most likely be a hoody of some sort. I was thinking about the central park hoody when I bought it but I think that may be too cabled, something simpler perhaps.

The red will be  Brandywine shawl when I have done enough Uni work to justify casting it on.

Navy and grey 4 ply is for endpaper mitts.

Navy and Gold DK was going to be two colour brioche mitts, but may be used for colourwork instead.

The yummy teal will be a cowl.

Sock yarn that will be made into socks:

I have pattern designs in mind for the teal Regia and the blue/green noro.

Turquoise, black and hot pink was from the UK sock knitters swap. We are having a KAL to use our swap yarn in February so I will use it then. I think it might stripe so I may just make a plain vanilla sock.

The lovely light blue and purple was a blog prize from the knitting squid. I have not decided what pattern to make yet, but it will be socks. If I cast on some socks before the KAL it will most likely be this yarn.

Three multicolour balls on the left self stripe and sparkle. I tried to make a sideways sock pattern with this but it didn't work. I might try again.

The rainbow will be a slip stitch pattern, something simple that breaks up the pooling.

The purple is amazingly gorgeous, I don't know what pattern it will be.

Year of projects yarn:

Some of the red is already becoming a Mr Greenjeans cardigan. What else I can make from this depends on how much is left after the cardigan. The plan was to see what I could make from 2kg of undyed aran yarn in a year (I have dyed the red).

Stash with no particular destiny:

These small yarn quantities will hopefully used up in the next month or so. They are the supplies for my aim of knitting small things that are done in a weekend.

Scraps, part balls and leftovers:

I want to use these up too. And maybe have a sort through as I suspect there are some tiny lengths in there that are not actually knitable.

Mmmmm, handspun:

Why do I spin, and then not knit with what I have made? I have hardly used any of my handspun to actually make things, it just sits in the stash box.

The blue/grey at the centre top was used this weekend, so that will hopefully appear on Friday as a FO. Looking at it on the table I just decided I should have used it to make a sweater yoke, but too late now, I am not frogging, I will have to spin some more. 

Two matching blue/pink skeins on the right were spun for socks. They will be toe up and maybe have a commercial sock yarn for toes, heels and cuffs.

The rest I am not sure what to make. The yardage is quite low and there are only so many mitts/hats/cowls you can wear. I might try combining skeins or mixing with commercial yarns to get a bigger project. The weights vary somewhat so they do not really work together, although I am thinking of a lengthwise crochet scarf to combine some of the randoms.

Spinning stash:

Actually, there is an entire Suffolk fleece that I hav washed but not carded too, but that is the purchased stuff. Two bags of alapca, 100g each of suri and hucaya and a 100g braid of Shetland. The other bag has the tiny scraps from all my spinning projects. At some point I will card it together and spin some hideous clown barf yarn.

I think the main thing to remember this year with my yarn and fibre purchases is to buy enough to actually make something. The odd balls and small quantities are the hardest to use up so they linger.

Beautiful yarn

I have beautiful new stash to show you all, and what makes it even better is that I won it (dances with happiness). Mmmmmm, yarn.

I never really got the whole podcasting about knitting thing, because knitting is something you most definitely need to look at and squish but I thought I would give the playful day podcast a go, and I am pleased I did. The knitting chat is good plus there is talk about food and drink (ah, knitting and food, two lovely lovely things!). I have since tried another podcast and still like this one the best so will be going back for more.

You can find the blog and links to the past podcasts here. Go listen, enjoy and tell greentrianglegirl she is wonderful.

The yarn itself is a lovely semisolid sock yarn from the Knitting Goddess. It is lovely, soft and squishy merino and nylon in shades of green, I even got to choose the yarn and colour I wanted. I need to choose a pattern for it now, it will be part of my A-Z challenge, but needs to be something with some lace or cables to make the most of the lovely colour. You will see this again in sock form within the next few months (if I can resist it that long and don't accidentally cast on an extra pair of socks).

The Knitting Goddess's shop can be found here, it is filled with much loveliness, maybe hide your credit card somewhere safe before you follow the link?!

150g challenge

Some of the projects in this post will pop up again in the near future as scrap downs and FOs, but for now this is a post about how much knitting you can get from 150g of yarn.

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I made a few preemie hats a while back, and put a request up on the UK Random Acts of Kindness board for some acrylic in bright colours to knit more with. A lovely lady responded with 150g of hot pink Peter Pan (made by Wendy). This is a surprisingly nice acrylic, very soft and it comes in a wide range of bright colours.

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The problem was that I had heard preemie hats are not needed at the minute (I don't know how correct that is, or if it is an Internet rumour). I didn't want to spend my knitting time making things that wouldn't be used, so decided to make some other items. The charity knitting website loving hands takes all sorts of things for a wide range of charities throughout the year, so I figured hats and mitts would get worn.

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Since it is such a girly yarn I opted for girly patterns. Using up every scrap I managed to make:

• Slouchy lace hat
• Lace edged beanie
• A pair of fingerless mitts
• A headband/hairband
• Three preemie hats in various sizes and styles
• A doll scarf (I am being somewhat cheeky and keeping this to go in my niece's Christmas present, but they were literally the tiniest of scraps and I couldn't think of a usable project for them)

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I am somewhat amazed at how much can be made from a fairly small amount of yarn, I think I am going to have to have a stash rummage and come up with some projects for the odd ball or two that are lurking in there.

Flashin the stashin

Over at Tami's Amis blog there is a Flash your stash meme thingy (not totally sure what the definition of meme is). I thought I would join in.

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My last post with a stash picture was here. The post waffles on about why I am obsessed with knitting and how I plan to drastically reduce my stash, the important bit about the post is the picture.

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And now play spot the difference, for here is my ahem "reduced stash":

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I managed to close the box lid by buying bigger boxes, three of them, which as you can see are looking full already.

In my defence the middle box if full of fibre that I am going to try my hand at dyeing and selling (more about that adventure in the weeks to come). And the overflow on top is due to my not having put it away yet, rather than the fact it will not fit.

In my undefence (or whatever the opposite of "in my defence" is) that photo doesn't count the WIPS; or the entire fleece still waiting to be washed; or the yarn that is in the post, but that is already assigned to Christmas presents .

Dyeing lace weight

Last week I bought my last yarn for a little while (must....reduce...stash...). Actually I can totally justify this one as I signed up to do a test knit for a Ravelry pattern, thinking I could use some leftover lace yarn from the stash, only to find out it was too fine. I had not realised that there was more than one type of lace weight (lace is lace right?) but it seems there is. What I had was too fine on its own and not enough to use doubled up- to the shops!

Finding a yarn with 700-800m in a 100g skein was tricky, fortunately Babylonglegs pointed me in the direction of some undyed with the right weight.


In its undyed state it looked like this:

I was pretty nervous about dying this one, it is 80% superfine merino and 20% silk. I had never tried anything that wasn't superwash and certainly no silk. In the interests of avoiding a horrible felted mess I opted for handpainting and steaming with a blue colour scheme.

After dyeing it looked like this:

A nice artistic outdoors shot there (why yes, I do need to cut the grass).

I had been hoping for much darker blues, navy type colours. I think this may have had something to do with the silk as the 100% merino yarn I used to tie the skein came out closer to what I was aiming for. Fortunately it is a colour I am happy with, if not what I was aiming for so I am fairly pleased, and no felting what so ever, wooohoooo!

Stash enhancement

In my last post I mentioned how my yarn diet was over at the weekend, like falling into a big chocolate cake would end a regular diet here are my recent acquisitions.

A pair of Mirasol Hancho, I almost resisted this but was waiting for so long to get some fabric cut in the shop that I had time to change my mind and fetch it off the shelf. It will most likely be some very special socks.

The previously mention Manos del Uraguay silk blend. This is so very very lovely (and btw I found it online for more than I paid so was a good price after all). It is vaguely lined up for become a small shawl.

The next one is stash enhancement but only sort of counts as I did not buy it, it was in my swap parcel. Definitely socks for this one, need a good pattern for a variegated yarn.

And lastly a Regia hand dye effect. I saw some of this in a blue/green shade online and quite liked it, it looks very similar to the handspun yarn I used for socks. Thought I would try a different colourway for variety. Also most likely socks.

That was it for yarn shopping at the weekend. I do have to get some lace weight for a pattern I have agreed to test but am torn between undyed (to try and dye my own) and some of the nice colours available, they tend to be expensive though. After that it is time for a stash down, back on the yarn diet!