Stash Reduction in Progress

This winter I have tried to go on a yarn diet. My husband would probably say that a yarn diet--at least for me--is never a cold turkey diet. You know the diets where you deprive yourself of every good thing you can imagine--butter, dessert, butter, chocolate, and butter?

That's not my style for food dieting and it isn't my style for yarn dieting, either. However, I recognized the need for some stash reduction back in the fall, so I engaged in some early Christmas gift knitting. I knit a hat for Sarah, a top for Kay, and a few scarves to put back for last-minute gifts. All these items were knit from the stash, but they were small items that didn't really put a big dent in the current holdings. It seems that the more I pull out and go through, the more yarn I have. I believe that like-species find each other in the bins and bags and shelves and find ways to multiply.

So, to lighten the yarn load that must be weighing on the floor joists in my "yarn area" (as if I have only one area!), I knit two items from Way-Back Stash: the Mayer sweater knit from 15 skeins of Aran wool I purchased at a sweater shop in Killarney a few years ago and the End of May Hat (knit from three small hanks of wool I bought in a tiny English village.

The Mayer sweater project was knit almost entirely while watching Days 1-6 of 24. Easy knitting: I made only one mistake that required tinking back. The End of May hat, however, was a white-knuckler most of the time. I'm pretty sure I was what you could describe as surly while that hat was going on, but it was only about three days of knitting, and three days of surly is pretty normal for me.

My reward for the SRPs (Stash Reduction Projects) will be a nice purchase for myself later on. Perhaps it will be some silk or some silky bamboo. I have a nice gift certificate to start with. But, if I shake all the stash yarn out and make it look pretty maybe I could trick myself into believing that all of that yarn is somehow new.

If you have any requests for gifts, now is the time to make them.