Monday, January 20, 2014

The Stash

The stash.  Every knitter has one.  It starts out innocently enough but then grows.  And grows.  It's all those leftover balls of yarn from projects, and yarn that you bought for something in particular but then you either don't get around to knitting it or the yarn just doesn't work out for the pattern.  And it's that yarn that was on sale and well, you could use it for something.  And then there are the pretties that just jump in your basket at the yarn shop.

Back in the summer, my stash was threatening to take over.  Part of it was in bins, all tucked away nice and neat.  But the rest of it looked like this. 


Bags of yarn, stashed here and there around the house.  I decided that it was time to not just get things under control but to enter my stash into Ravelry.  But before I could get even halfway through, I was distracted.  Well, more like overwhelmed what with all the picture taking and entering of each skein.  And then Thanksgiving weekend, I became determined to finish and by doing small bits almost day, I had it finished by the end of the year.  I'm proud to say it now all looks like this:


Before I started this project, I thought I had a pretty good idea of what was in the stash but I quickly found out that I was wrong.  Way wrong.  I found some surprises along the way like that second skein of Cascade 220 in black that I didn't know that I had (I was wanting to make a hat) along with some other happy finds.  And I found some surprises that can only be described as "what was I thinking???"

I'm so glad that I finally took the time to organize my stash into Ravelry.  A few weeks ago, I wanted to make Churchmouse Yarns' Walking Rib Cowl.  I consulted the pattern and since I didn't have the called for Rowan Felted Tweed Aran, I did a quick search of my stash in Ravelry and there it was, a suitable substitute, Berroco Blackstone Tweed.  I pulled it out of the bin and was soon on my way to a new cowl.

I  have to confess that I still have a basket of Peaches and Crème to enter into Ravelry.  But that will have to be another day.