Stash busting

Hello peeps, I know it’s been a while again. Not sure what happened, other than just life stuff really. Actually I think what happened is that I have been trying to finish off 2 fairly big knitting projects in the last month or so, and have therefore spent all my spare minutes knitting rather than blogging.

Anyways, today I am having an organising sort of day. Stash busting in a sense. Not in the sense of actually using up my stash, but organising it, so that hopefully at some future date it is more likely to be used. I have been naughty lately and have been rather yarn-splurgy. So I’m taking myself to task now and making my self do some serious planning for usage of the results of said splurge.

I mentioned in a previous post that over Christmas I’d organised all my stash into tubs according to weight. Well, I decided today that I am now ready for the next phase of this organisational drive, which is to enter my stash into Ravelry so that I can start to look for patterns that will match it. This I feel will be the end-game for my bulging stash, yes indeed.

I’ve been a Raveler for many years now, but have never made the best use of the stash sorting function. I can see that this function has potential though, potential for suggesting patterns which can be made with what I already have stored under the bed.

Enough about my grand stash organisation plans…maybe you’d like to see the two projects I have finished!

The first is a cardigan, Nanook, by Heidi Kirrmaier. This was an easy and pretty quick knit, being Aran weight. I used MillaMia Naturally Soft Aran in a sort of soft grey – I think the actual shade name was Cloud Grey.

I’m quite pleased with the finished result. The pattern is worked top down, pretty much in one piece. It was very easy to follow, and a good one to try if you’re like me and have mainly worked garments flat previously.

My only bug-bear with it is that because the sleeves are knitted flat and seamed before picking up and knitting for the body, the ended up with some little gaps under my arms. As it’s an open front cardi, and is not a fitted style, I think picking up an knitting some extra stitches underneath the sleeves would have prevented this from being an issue, and I wish I’d done that. Number of stitches around the body is not crucial for the fit of the final garment so an extra 2 on each side wouldn’t have made the finished object too big.

The second project was my second Boxy sweater, pattern by Joji Locatelli. I loved the first so much that I had to make another in a different colour. I also wanted to make the sleeves slightly longer, which I did and am very happy with. I picked up some additional stitches around the neckline to give a wider neck too, and again I am glad I did.

I love these sweaters and will wear them a lot – they’re the perfect garment for slouchy-glam, which is really what I want at the weekend. I can see myself making another couple next winter – I rather rancy one in grey!