Thursday, January 10, 2008

Stash Love-In

I love my stash. I really do. It provides a great deal of pleasure: visual, tactile, even olfactory - the lanolin smell of the Harris tweed! the vinegar smell of hand-dyed sock yarn! But, in an attempt to save some money this year, I'm reining myself in on adding to it, and instead will be knitting the majority of 2008 projects from it.

This kinda freaks me out.

So, to help me stay, uh, balanced and on track, I've joined a couple of destash groups. The first I mentioned a while back: Stash Knit Down 2008. It's a Ravelry group, and they're a little intense. They're discussing storage options. They're figuring out the mileage of their stashes in Excel. They're offering challenges for people to join in on: January's is to knit a mile. A mile. For a slow process knitter like me, that's crazy talk. One of the helpful things they have done, though, is offer a thread for you to list your monthly goals. Now this I can do. So, each month I'll be thrilling you with my little list, copied here for motivation/accountability.

I rocked December...

December goals:

  1. Finish my holiday knitting.
  2. Finish my second Campfire sock.
  3. Cast on Cobblestone.
  4. Spend any holiday gift certificates with abandon and...
  5. ...mentally prepare for cutting back in 2008.

January goals:

  1. Buy no yarn.
  2. Don't whine about buying no yarn.
  3. Cast on Lenore socks.
  4. Finish knitting Cobblestone.
  5. Stealth crochet project.
...and already January is iffy. Finish Cobblestone? Haha, good one. (If past history is anything to go by, it'll be done in June.) Well, insert a cliche here about hope springing, and let's move on the second group, shall we?

Mission: Possible 2008

This post is running long, so if you're interested in learning more, details are here and here. My goals:
  1. Gift spinning wheel, spinning books, and fiber to Patty. DONE
  2. Felt one pair and Plasti Dip soles of 3 pairs of felted slippers.
  3. Finish Gothic Leaf Stole. (4 skeins of Euroflax Sportweight in Eggplant)
  4. Finish Cobblestone. (?? balls of Queensland Kathmandu Aran Tweed)
  5. Finish Shedir. (1-2 balls of Rowan Calmer in Coffee Bean)
  6. Crochet baby blanket out of Rowan All Seasons Cotton. (11 balls in Citron, Giddy, Lime Leaf and Remote)
  7. Crochet stealth project.
  8. Knit Unoriginal Hat out of STR Leticia in Ravenscroft.
  9. Knit Unoriginal Hat out of STR Leticia in Hard Rock.
  10. Knit Lenore socks out of STR Lightweight in Lenore.
  11. Knit a pair of fingerless gloves (either ggh Cashmere or Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran).
  12. Knit another pair of socks.
One of its caveats - and the most important to fickle, free spirited me - is that you must donate any unfinished listed projects/yarns at the end of the year. This kinda freaks me out. So, I played it conservative. Like I said, I love my stash.

So, what stash knitting are you doing?

13 comments:

jillian said...

I'm not brave enough to join any groups, but I've been on an informal plan to knit from the stash for the last bit. All of my current and known future projects are planned "from the stash" except for the order of sale Soft Tweed I got yesterday from Ram Wools for a sweater-thing :)

Carrie said...

I joined Stash Knit Down 2008 as well.. but haven't posted a single thing, I think :) I want to use up some stashed items, but mostly because we're trying to save money, and if I didn't buy so much yarn I would have more moolah! So far I have some gifts planned from the stash (although I have done and need to buy more to finish things off) and conveniently some patterns have cropped up lately that will help with that, mostly bags, but whatever. Can you have too many bags?

Anonymous said...

Well, I posted my 12 WIPs on MP2008 today. And I am half way through Tudora from winter knitty for a friend of mine. And I stash dove and came up with one lonely skein of Malabrigo in a very nice boy color.

I'm also going to be posting a stash sale on my blog and ravelry, but that is NOT part of MP 2008.

Clumsy Knitter said...

Omigosh, I have been on a (monetarily-induced) stash diet for a good 6 months now, but somehow it doesn't seem to have gotten any smaller. And I didn't have that much to begin with! I think if I crank out all the fingerless gloves I was planning for my sock yarn, it will shrink dramatically. Good luck with your projects!

Anonymous said...

Oooh, good luck! I love my stash too and I'm going to try to knit from my stash a lot this year. I can't commit to the no yarn buying thing though, I know I would give in the second a good sale came around :)

I look forward to seeing how you do and cheering you on!

mary said...

I joined Stash Knit Down 2008 but am in denial and haven't been reading any of the posts. Avoidance is my friend. Mission Possible scares me, but I like the idea of knitting a Christmas gift each month. Yeah right. I toyed with the idea of doing another sockamonth but I don't think I can handle the pressure. I'm just going to continue to knit with whatever the heck I feel like. Oh and I bought yarn today. Shhhhhh!

Ellen Bloom said...

You know how fantastic a healthy stash makes me feel!!! Whoa! Kinky!

Anyway, I've noticed that when I'm at yarn shops lately, nothing really excites me to buy because I already own it in my stash. If you walk into a yarn shop just to look at the patterns, accessories and socialize, then you'll be OK. It's like walking into a bakery when you've just eaten a huge lunch. Bleah...nothing looks that great. Try it!

P.S. Very funny post! You're a riot, Madgik!

CatBookMom said...

You're so brave! I mean, you have to *give it away* if you don't finish? Perish the thought.

So - so far this month: 2 baby hats and a kid's hat from stash leftovers; hat and mitts from stash; Shedir from stash; socks in process from very old
stash. So I'm feeling good here.

Plus, Elann had a bag blow-out sale of my favorite Highland Silk, and I didn't buy any. Not one skein. And it's now discontinued. White-knuckled moment here, but Ravelry told me I have lots.

mehitabel said...

I joined both of those, too. All I need now is to get my body back in shape to knit at a bearable level of pain, and I'll be good to go. Like Ellen, I don't find that much exciting in the yarn shops. However, I will be going to Webs...next week, eek!
And, I kind of like the bonfire option on MP2008...

Anonymous said...

LONG LIVE THE KEGS! (Knitting Excel GeekS) *snicker* Glad to know I'm not the only one using the evil Microsoft to achieve my knitting goals. Wow woman, you are on FIRE! I can understand you being nervous about that end of year promise, but I bet you surprise yourself and manage to finish all of it. :) I know you can do it. I'll have to check out all of those groups. Maybe they can help me. My goals? I'm going to do some charity knitting since the baby knitting is getting out of hand, knit my very own shawl, finish cobblestone...the list goes on. Looks like I have some planning to do!! GO KEGS!

Annette said...

I was going to my Shedir from my stash, but I changed my mind because I didn't want to dip into the Calmer I have since there's enough to make a whole sweater. So I cought a different color - a nice plum.

I'm going to cast on for a shrug-like sweater using Noro Kureyon that I bought at Stitches West last year.

I'm tempted to join the Stash Knit Down 2008, but I haven't been so good at accomplishing knitting goals in the past. I'm going to ponder it. Good luck to you!

RoxyK said...

I checked out the Ravelry group and saw the mileage thing......I know what you mean about a little intense :)

I don't expect to buy much this year and the more I can knit from stash the better. I have a few Noro jumpers/hoodies I have the yarn for so I'd love to get at least one done this year. Just waiting for my motivation to come back!

I love your goal for no stash buying in Jan. Much better than aiming for the whole year in one go :)

Octopus Knits said...

Good luck with the goals! I will be trying to knit mainly from stash, too.