My de-cluttering blog post is very relevant to this blog today: defeated by yarn.
destashing
miles (and miles) of yarn
As a follow up to yesterday's post about my project count for 2009, I was inspired today by Lisa to calculate how many miles of yarn I used in 2009. I mentioned last year that I was hoping for my stash go down about 10,000 yards or 5 miles. The good news is that is about how much yarn I used (9825.5 yards, by my estimate, not counting yarn used on small crochet projects where I don't bother to weigh all the little pieces and/or use leftovers from other projects). The bad news is that my stash hasn't changed. So apparently I could use 10,000 yards of yarn in a year, but I could also buy that much.
I need to either knit faster (which hardly seems possible) buy less (which I honestly think I was doing) or get rid of some. Destashing time, I think!
lots of wips, no fos
I have been a bad blogger. Part of the reason for that is that I now have an abundance of projects on the needles and I am not being monogamous with any one project, therefore nothing is getting finished. So, we are going to have a parade of WIPs. First up is the project I started first, my Woven Ridge socks. I started them (and completed the first one) while we were in the Netherlands in the summer. I cast on right away for the second one but it's been languishing ever since.
I like these socks and I want to wear them, so I need to finish them! I have made some progress in the past couple of weeks, so that's good. Also, Cookie gave me some Sock Candy for catsitting for her cat and I am itching to cast on with that… or my Panda Soy. So much yarn, so little time. Anyway, I also got some Bamboo yarn from Jeni's going away, she was destashing. I had to tackle Lisa for it, but she was nice enough to give it up.
You can't see very well in the picture, but that is four hanks of Sock Candy. So either I'm going to make two pairs of socks or I need another project. I was thinking about a scarf. I hope that two would be enough, because I do really want to make socks with some of it. The bamboo is from Yarn Place. Freecia (I think?) mentioned that they make socks from it but it's 100% bamboo with absolutely no give, so I'm not sure that is going to be my plan. We'll see.
Next up in the WIP parade is Niels' sweater. I finished the front and back and started the first sleeve but then I got distracted because I need to recalculate the decreases. His arms are much longer than the pattern size and I don't want to have all the decreases before the elbow and then the whole top straight or something. It's getting close, though! Other than all the ends to weave in, of course. Maybe I should focus on finishing it for Christmas. Maybe.
Last, but very muc not least is my Tapestry Cowl in calmer. I love this pattern, am entranced with the technique and I am loving how it's turning out. It needs a lot of focus though, to follow the totally non-repeating chart.
Also, the farther I get into the more the thought of having to kitchener stitch the front to the back looms over my head. That's 110 stitches of each color! I don't generally mind kitchener stitch, I have to say. I think that comes from having started my knitting career on diaper soakers. Theresa and Pam helped me to cut my teeth on knitting in a small, managable format. Theresa, by having very clear instructions in her patterns and Pam by being my friend and encouraging me as well as including me in all of her classes on her forums. I wouldn't be the knitter I am today if it weren't for them. Anyway, when you knit a soaker you have to kitchener the crotch closed. Luckily, though, you use large yarn and it's generally not very many stitches. I'm not sure I'd be so comfortable with the technique if I had started on sock toes with their tiny tiny yarn. This yarn is fairly tiny but it's the sheer volume of stitches to be sewn together that really makes me nervous. I should stop worrying and just knit, right? I'm only on row 20 and I have to do 64 rows of chart and then a few plain rows before the finishing starts.
So, since I got new yarn and have finished at least one project I thought I'd check my stash totals. I am currently up to 60889.6 yards of yarn or 34.6 miles. Um. Oops. That's up a mile since last time I calculated. I haven't purchased any yarn, it's just been finding me. Does that make it better? I didn't think so either. In the interest of decreasing the stash, I put my Regal Silk into my Sell or Trade Stash on Ravelry. I have five hanks of it that I was going to use to make a silk corset for myself. I've basically decided that if I do end up making the silk corset, It's not going to be out of variegated yarn. It's really pretty yarn, though, but I don't know else to do with it. I'm asking for $75 for the whole lot, plus shipping. You know you want to give this gorgeous yarn a home, right? If not, you must have a friend who does, of course. (Please buy my yarn.)
12 miles of yarn
Someone on Ravelry posted a link to a yard to miles converter. I exported my stash page to Excel, totaled the yarns column, entered into that converter an learned that I have 12.2454 miles of yarn, or 12 miles and 432 yards of yarn. I thought that was a lot until I noticed that everyone else who had replied had more than me and one woman has 72 miles! Yikes!
In any case, I think I have hit a limit. That stash calculation isn't actually everything I have. There are things in my bins that I haven't put into Ravelry yet. Not a lot, but they are there. I know that I am way behind but I am going to declare that I can only knit from my stash for the rest of the year. When January rolls around I think I will allow myself a purchase or two and then reevaluate. I keep buying sweater quantities of yarn and not finishing the sweaters in question! Unacceptable. The stash is also spreading around the living room. Ideally I will be able to fit it somewhere in the office, once the grand reorganization is done, but for now it has to be in the living room and I would prefer it if it didn't take over.
We'll see if I can stick to my resolution. Wish me luck.
the sheep free knitter 