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Stash-busting
Jan. 5th, 2020 10:24 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
glinda*waves hello to the comm after a long absence*
Last year I set myself the task of reducing my knitting stash by half. I wasn't successful in that task but I did make a lot of projects last year using stashed wool. In fact, with the exception of the first two projects I made last year - which were made with wool I bought in the January sales - everything I made was with stash wool. I made lots of projects that used up a ball or two of odd wool I'd picked up in bargain bins, at wool swaps and had leftover from other projects.
If my knitting had a theme this year it was 2015. First I picked up and finished a project that I'd mostly knit back in 2015, part of it need re-knit and for a long time I couldn't face doing it. However, I finally frogged the part that needed frogging, re-knit it up, and then assembled the cardigan. It took me less than a fortnight from restarting it to getting it finished and now it's no longer hanging over me! We had a really nice summer this year and I got a great deal of pleasure being able to actually wear it!
Most of the rest of my knitting in the first half of the year involved wool that I picked up at a yarn swap when I first joined the knitting bee I'm part of in Inverness, I made a small throw out of leftoveer sock yarn that was lots of fun, used up some random chunky wool as a hot-water bottle cover, knitted two kerchiefs - discovering along the way that I'm not really a kerchief wearer - and made a small cowl out of the leftovers from a kerchief that has been the single most useful knitted item I've made all year. I may not be a kercheif wearer but I'm definitely a cowl wearer, so I'll be making more of those!
I made my first pair of double-knit socks this year which despite having chosen a somewhat confusing pattern I actually finished in a short enough time that I actually wear said socks - mostly as house socks but they get worn. My last project of the year was a cosy hat, as I lost the hat I had that matched my duffle coat so I made myself a waffle hat with leftover wool from a tunic I made a couple of years ago which was satisfying on lots of levels.
Also my first completed project of the new year was actually started in November and was my single biggest stash project, as it was a jumper that I bought the wool for in the sale a couple of years ago and hadn't got round to. I've still got a couple of ongoing stash busting projects - I'm making a patchwork cushion and a striped throw that are both projects that use up odds and ends of wool - but mostly in the year ahead I want to tackle the sweater volumes of wool I have in stash that I bought years ago in over-ambitious hope of knitting something with them. I want to give them a concerted effort and either knit a finished project with them or pass the wool onto someone else who will. (Some of them were bought over a decade ago so both my knitting skills and preferences and my own style have changed considerably in the intervening period.)
What successes have you folks had in stash busting over the last year? Or conversely what's the oldest/longest lurking wool in your stash and what did you originally intend to knit with it?
Last year I set myself the task of reducing my knitting stash by half. I wasn't successful in that task but I did make a lot of projects last year using stashed wool. In fact, with the exception of the first two projects I made last year - which were made with wool I bought in the January sales - everything I made was with stash wool. I made lots of projects that used up a ball or two of odd wool I'd picked up in bargain bins, at wool swaps and had leftover from other projects.
If my knitting had a theme this year it was 2015. First I picked up and finished a project that I'd mostly knit back in 2015, part of it need re-knit and for a long time I couldn't face doing it. However, I finally frogged the part that needed frogging, re-knit it up, and then assembled the cardigan. It took me less than a fortnight from restarting it to getting it finished and now it's no longer hanging over me! We had a really nice summer this year and I got a great deal of pleasure being able to actually wear it!
Most of the rest of my knitting in the first half of the year involved wool that I picked up at a yarn swap when I first joined the knitting bee I'm part of in Inverness, I made a small throw out of leftoveer sock yarn that was lots of fun, used up some random chunky wool as a hot-water bottle cover, knitted two kerchiefs - discovering along the way that I'm not really a kerchief wearer - and made a small cowl out of the leftovers from a kerchief that has been the single most useful knitted item I've made all year. I may not be a kercheif wearer but I'm definitely a cowl wearer, so I'll be making more of those!
I made my first pair of double-knit socks this year which despite having chosen a somewhat confusing pattern I actually finished in a short enough time that I actually wear said socks - mostly as house socks but they get worn. My last project of the year was a cosy hat, as I lost the hat I had that matched my duffle coat so I made myself a waffle hat with leftover wool from a tunic I made a couple of years ago which was satisfying on lots of levels.
Also my first completed project of the new year was actually started in November and was my single biggest stash project, as it was a jumper that I bought the wool for in the sale a couple of years ago and hadn't got round to. I've still got a couple of ongoing stash busting projects - I'm making a patchwork cushion and a striped throw that are both projects that use up odds and ends of wool - but mostly in the year ahead I want to tackle the sweater volumes of wool I have in stash that I bought years ago in over-ambitious hope of knitting something with them. I want to give them a concerted effort and either knit a finished project with them or pass the wool onto someone else who will. (Some of them were bought over a decade ago so both my knitting skills and preferences and my own style have changed considerably in the intervening period.)
What successes have you folks had in stash busting over the last year? Or conversely what's the oldest/longest lurking wool in your stash and what did you originally intend to knit with it?
