Earlier this month I spent a day off doing a “tossing of the stash”, as recommended by the Yarn Harlot.
I got everything out of the various bags and boxes it lives in and had a good, honest look at what was there. The yarn is well organised already, but I emptied each box to check for beasties (there were none) and re-sorted the sock yarn scraps box. It’s possible that I need to start another scraps project.
The other thing I did was line up the WIPs and see what needed doing. Since doing that, 2 projects have been finished, 1 frogged and 1 marked for frogging. This makes the WIP pile much more sensible and also means that I can start something else. For some reason, I don’t like having more than 7 WIPs on the go. This probably explains why the two projects that I finished had not even got onto the list of WIPs – something about denial there.
So, the main WIPs remaining are:
- The Christmas Eve Blanket. 14 squares out of 20 completed. The first 12 are already seamed together and doing great service as a small lap or shoulder blanket. I’m currently working on square 17, which has to be done before square 15, for reasons of having enough of the right yarn.
- Solbein cardigan. Just need to crank this one. It’s all stocking stitch now, apart from a bit of colourwork at the hem and cuffs. It’s never the WIP that I reach for in the evenings so it just needs a bit of attention and remembering that I actually want to wear the cardigan.
- Crochet Mobius Cowl. This got misplaced in the move but I found it while clearing up the yarn. I need to decide what the design of the next few rows is going to be. No rush to finish this.
- Secret socks – this is a foray into designing. It’s a really ridiculous construction using log cabin and I’m not sure it will ever finish.
- Stripy socks – one of the Confident Knitting projects. It’s really lovely yarn, I’m past the heels and just working my way down the feet now. This is my go-to Zoom or meeting knitting.
- Square a month KAL 2011. This was meant to be the baby blanket for J when she was born. I think I got about 6 squares into it. Perhaps I should do 2 more squares and make it into a cushion cover.
The frogged or to be frogged projects are:
- Brioche scarf. I’m not convinced enough by the result of the technique to want to knit another 6 feet of it. It was an interesting technique but I don’t love it.
- Yarn Harlot Cowl. This was a project inspired by one of her Patreon videos last year. It was meant to teach gauge and consistency of knitting. Her idea was to use a worsted weight yarn with a repeating colour pattern. I didn’t have that, so I used a sock yarn and ended up with a very long cowl that was going to take ages to knit in a pattern I wasn’t loving. I figure I have got everything I need to from here so I am planning to reclaim the yarn and make it into a hat.
One other thing I discovered while tossing the stash is quite how many kits I have ready to use. Some are from clubs I ordered from a while back, some are projects I have the yarn and pattern already matched.
There are two projects from Ysolda’s shawl club from (I think) 2019; all the projects from her colourwork club from last year, still two more projects from the Confident Knitting kits (although I’ve made 7 of the 9 so that’s pretty good going). Plus I have a fairisle hat that I bought the yarn for ages ago.