Three reasons to air your stash

I’ve never really subscribed to the notion of spring cleaning – or any kind of regular cleaning routine come to that. Apart from when it comes to my stash. Not necessarily linked to spring, or any other time of year, I will quite often get the urge to have a good rootle through my stash. 

Not that I’m looking for anything in particular, you understand. It’s more akin to visiting with old friends. A chance to check in with skeins both young and old. Frequent purchases nestling alongside never-to-be-knit classics. 

This year I have had to move some storage boxes around (thanks to the current situation and the never ending chaos of 2 adults and 2 near-grown adults all living and working under one roof). I took the opportunity to have a good rummage, clear out some old WIPs that were never destined to become finished objects and pick out a few items that could go to other homes. 

There are any number of advantages to doing this on a semi-regular basis, but three solid reasons (should you need them) are: 

1. A chance to check for unwelcome visitors. I’m not going to say the M word out loud but we all know how attractive our stored skeins can be for little beasties. I’m keeping my fingers firmly crossed when I say that I haven’t yet been troubled by this, but obvious signs to look for are little papery cases attached to your yarn, areas of breaks or weaknesses in the yarn or fine sandy grains in and around where the yarn is stored. This article is very informative – if slightly terrifying. 

1. A chance to reconnect with forgotten items. Despite my best efforts I often forget exactly what I have stored away, especially as it is currently stored in multiple places. I try to keep track with an Airtable spreadsheet but there’s no substitute for actually getting my paws on the yarn to remind myself what I actually have in my possession.  

1. A chance to rehome some yarn. Let’s face it, I have way more yarn than I can knit in the next few years and it’s all potential moth food. Quite often when I go through my stash I’ll find something that no longer appeals to me, or I never quite ended up using. I can often pick out a few items to either use as prizes or giveaways, or to donate either to charity shops or other organisations. I often like to donate to Knit for Peace as they will accept either full or partial skeins as long as it is clearly labelled. 

A monster FO: The Garter Ripple Squish

There are FOs and there are monster FOs. At just over a kilo (1100g to be precise) this massive version of my Garter Ripple Squish blanket is a whopper.

Holding 3 strands of sockweight yarn together on 7mm needles somehow managed to make a wonderfully cushy fabric. I’ll be honest, it felt rather dense while I was knitting it and a real dead weight on my lap. But blocking as ever worked it’s magic and it’s loosened up a treat. It’s pleasingly substantial and comforting but it doesn’t make you feel as though you are trapped under something heavy.

I used a whole assortment of random leftovers to make this and at just over 1000g that equates to 10 whole skeins of sockweight yarn. It’s quite a thought to realise that not only did I have a kilo of leftover sock yarn hanging about the house, but that I still have more. Luckily a lot of that is more pinky/purple in colour and is happily slotting into my crocheted Giant Granny Square blanket.

Even more pleasingly this contributes a splendid 4040m to my Stash Dash total for this year - hurrah! It used to be the case that yarn held doubled/trebled didn’t count for the total yardage - only the yardage actually knitted (if you see what I mean) and so I was fully prepared to reduce this total by two-thirds. However on checking the rules it seems they have changed it for 2019 and so the full amount counts.

Happy days indeed.

If you fancy having a go at a bit of a stashbuster yourself you can find the original pattern here - do let me know if you knit it - I’d love to know if anyone manages a bigger one.

Sock knitting and stash diving

This month, the Everyday Knitter Facebook group is all about stash diving. Even those of us with slightly more modest stashes than my own yarn mountain have a few precious skeins. You know the ones. The ones we keep squirreled away in case of dire knitting emergencies. The ones that we bring out to pet every now and again, to sniff, to ruminate over it's endless possibilities -  and then we tuck it back neatly away out of sight.

So, this month we are celebrating the joy of untapped potential hidden in our stash. Pick a glorious skein of yarn and show it off. Pair it with a beautiful pattern and you're all set. For extra brownie points this should be an item for yourself. I refuse to use the term selfish knitting when discussing knitting for oneself. Instead I prefer to use the word indulgent. Our crafting time is precious and it's only right that we should enjoy it. What could be better than working on something you love, in yarn you love and knowing that you'll get great pleasure in wearing or using the finished object as well.

Sounds like a win, win to me.