About other stashes

I have numerous stashes, not just yarn. If you know me, this will not come as a surprise. 

Before I got back into knitting 25-ish years ago I did a lot of quilting. My quilt shop locating skills were on point (pun intended). This was before you could just plug “quilt shop” into Google Maps. Every time I went on vacation I would visit the local quilt shop and purchase “souvenir” fat quarters to add to my ever expanding fabric stash. I really enjoyed the method behind piecing quilt blocks either by hand or machine. I owned a lovely singer treadle sewing machine that was an absolute gem when it came to precise seams. I belonged to a fabric of the month club. I had bins of fabric stacked in my sewing room. 

Have you noticed that I speak of all this in past tense? 

When my son, Zack, was 4 he started playing on sports teams. I wanted something that I could do while sitting through the team's practices. I took a book but found myself reading the same page over and over. I took fabric to hand piece into tiny squares but the task also required close attention. I brought knitting and voila! I could keep my eye on what was happening in the field and also maintain a good clip with the needles. 

So what to do with all that fabric? Enter my mother. She is also a quilter and the one who taught me all my sewing skills. I let her raid my stash, and raid she did. All that remained was a single bin of mainly Christmas fabrics, batiks and fun juvenile prints. As for the treadle sewing machine, I hadn't used it in over 20 years and there was no room for it in my new downsized life. It really deserves its own post, but I sold it to an avid fiber enthusiast who was delighted to acquire it. More about it (along with photos) in a future post. 

Enough back-story...on with it! 

A friend of mine uses fabrics to paint on canvases. I thought I'd give it a try. A winter birch tree scene immediately came to mind. I pulled out my bin of stashed fabrics and took inventory. All wrong. There were a few good pieces, but I was going to have to augment. Yay!

I went to a shop over in Nashville's Wedgewood-Houston neighborhood called Turnip Green Creative Reuse. It's a non-profit store where people donate used art and craft supplies. Turnip Green sorts and resells the items. It's an amazing place! I was able to pick up several fabric samples for just a few bucks. 

From these fabrics with a bit of Mod Podge and Heat-N-Bond, this is what happened. 

10" x 20"

Oddballs and remnants

Finishing the white feather and fan prayer shawl was the motivation I needed to get started on another right away. I couldn't decide what pattern or what color, so I chose to cast on a shawl using up partial skeins and remnants. Our prayer shawl group at church gets yarn donations every once in a while. Someone will go through Grandma's stuff and pull out a pile of yarn and rather than throw it way, the yarn makes its way to us. It's great! (We are careful with the yarn donations and make sure to check for moth-damage before we add it to our stash.)

Last Sunday I raided the cabinet and took about 15 skeins in the blue/green family. A lot of the skeins I took were furry novelty yarns. I added those 15 skeins to another 10-12 skeins of my own and had a pretty good pile of yarn reminiscent of the shades of Lake Superior on any given day.

While the "pattern" looks fairly complicated, it's actually about as simple as it gets. No two shawls will ever be the same using this method. 

Holding two colors together, cast on 160 (or so) on size 15 needles. (Shawl is knit horizontally rather than vertically, so you'll have more cast on stitches than rows.) I'm using my Denise interchangeable circular needles. 

• Row 1: Knit across with the colors used to cast on, we'll call them Color 1 (C1) and Color 2 (C2)
• Row 2: Cut C1 and leave an 10" tail. (These tails will be knotted and used as fringe.) Join C3 leaving an 10" tail and also leave a 10 "loop" of C2 (you'll cut the loop and use as fringe), knit across using C2 and C3.
• Row 3: Cut C2, leave tail, join C4 leaving an 10" loop tail, leave 10" loop with C3 and knit across. 

And just keep going changing yarns and leaving fringe ends until the shawl is wide enough.  

The yarns I'm using are mostly worsted with a few DK and chunky weights. About 2/3 of the yarns are novelty, furry, ribbon, nubby, etc. If you want a consistent color change, number your yarns in advance. If a blind random pattern is appealing, just reach in the basket and use the yarn that you touch first. There's no wrong way! I'm using a somewhat random approach, mixing smooth yarns with novelty yarn and trying to keep from putting 2 furry/eyelash yarns close together. 

After binding off, it's time to knot the end that you left hanging. I use a square knot technique. Lay the shawl flat and gently "comb" the fringe with your fingers so you can see the rows. Cut all the loops so the ends are straight. Now is the time to tighten up the first couple stitches along the edge also. To begin knotting, tie the ends of row 1 and 2 in a square knot. Then take the ends of row 2 (which were just knotted with row 1) and tie them in a square knot with the ends from row 3. In the past I have knotted rows 1-2, 3-4, 5-6, and so on. It works, but I think knotting rows 1-2, 2-3, 3-4 gives the edge a cleaner look with more stability. Then trim all the ends to a uniform length. 

As for blocking, it all depends on the yarn content. I typically lay shawls like this flat on a bed or sofa and then hold an iron about 4 inches above the shawl and hit it with steam. Pressing the iron on the shawl will take the body right out of it.

My goal was to finish two shawls during Lent. At this rate, I may just finish 3! 

But...

I bought yarn.

BUT it doesn't count because it's going to be used for a Christmas gift and will be all used up before the end of the year. BUT it doesn't count because my [insert air quotes] FRIENDS (and they know who they are) goaded me on. BUT it doesn't count as stash until it goes into a ziploc bag in the room formerly known as the guest room. Right?  

Last night, I was talking to my son on the phone. Zack's away at college (give me a break, I know it's only 7 miles, but it's still "away") and hasn't seen the room formerly known as the guest room for a couple months. In all honesty, and I freely admit this, the room has gotten a bit worse. The other day I had to straddle a box in order to reach the ironing board so I could press a pair of slacks. In turning to leave the room, I tripped on the box and knocked the hot iron off the board into another box of yarn. Better than on my foot! Anyway, back to the phone call. How the topic of yarn entered the conversation is still unclear, but he asked, "how many giant ziploc bags of yarn do you have in that room?"

"As in actual "ziploc" brand bags?"

"No. As in any plastic bag that has yarn in it. Oh my God. The fact that you had to ask that proves that you have finally reached hoarder status."

"No, it doesn't."

"Hoarder."

I bought this yarn (that I said I wasn't going to buy) to make Zack a pair of socks for Christmas. I think I'll wrap them in a giant ziploc.

When all else fails...

...knit a tiny sock.

I had to knit something but I didn't want to think, swatch, or fuss with a pattern. So I knit a tiny sock to add to my collection of Tiny Christmas Stockings.

 

 

There really isn't a pattern, I just knit them. I cast on 24, divide onto 4 needles. Sometimes I do 1x1 rib, sometimes not. I knit for a while then use 12 stitches for the heel flap. I knit 6 rows for the flap then turn the heel, which is probably the most complicated part. I think I knit (or purl depending on where I am with the heel flap) seven stitches, then K2tog or P2tog (again, depending) then turn, go back until there are 5 sts then P2tog (or K2tog) and do this until the stitches are used up. I typically have 4 stitches remaining. I pick up 4 or 5 along the gusset (if it's 5, I decrease 1 on each side so I'm back to 24 stitches), then I knit for a bit until it's time for the toe. Simple toe decrease until there are 8 stitches left, run the yarn through the stitches and pull the end of the yarn inside and tie it off. As far as needle size, it just depends on the weight of the yarn you're using. This was Koigu PPPM sock weight with a size 3 needle (I think). The cuff, heel and toe are in solid purple. The leg and instep are in verigated.

 

If you knit socks, this should make sense. If you don't knit socks, you should!

 

About how stashes come in many forms



I'm not a resolution-maker. It's just a freak coincidence that I got my "must get the fiber stash organized" jones in January this year.

 

A majority of my fiber stash is located in what some would call my guest room, but I call it my yarn room. This stash is not all yarn, it also consists of future yarn (i.e., fiber of various origins to be spun into yarn at some point in the future). Keeping my fiber stash in the [insert air quotes] guest room poses a problem several times a year, like when my parents visit. They are guests, therefore they occupy the [say it with me] guest room when they visit. This may come as a shock, but all my fiber is not tucked neatly away in colorful bins and boxes. Nope. My fiber is a chaotic jumble that I find quite pleasing. So, when my parents call and drop the "we're thinking of coming to Nashville next month" (they are required to give a 4 week warning) bomb I have to stash the stash. This causes me stress. First of all, I have to pack it all up in bins, boxes and ziploc bags. Then, all of these containers need to go someplace. The closet is already maxed out, not an option. The logical spot is under the daybed. It's pretty amazing how much you can stuff under a twin-sized day bed when the trundle is up and in place. After the fiber is packed up, then comes the anxiety of not being able to access it while my parents are in residence. I carefully plan what should go the furthest under the bed. I am totally serious about this. Here's the issue--what if I need a particular yarn at the precise moment my parents decide to go to bed and I have to wait until morning to retrieve it? I arrange and rearrange. This must be what dogs go through when they bury a bone or ill-gotten treasure. I make sure that the yarn that pleases me the most is the last to go under the bed and the easiest to retrieve, so if I am faced with a crisis I can slip into the room, fondle a bit of yarn and soothe my battered nerves.

 

My parents visited over the holidays and as I was pulling the stash out from under the daybed so I could put the trundle away, I thought this would be the perfect time to organize and maybe cull (just a tiny bit) my fiber stash. It started as many of my projects start--with the utmost enthusiasm. It ended as many of my projects end--with mind-numbing paralysis. The amount of fiber was/is overwhelming and the task I had worked out in my mind was much too ambitious. I intended to photograph and inventory all my fiber products--yarn, future yarn, and works in progress. Inventory as in a spreadsheet (or on Ravelry) complete with date purchased, amount paid, color, lot, yardage. Silly. Stupid. Me.

 

It all went south as I started going through project bags to inventory my works in progress or unfinished objects (UFOs). That's when I started finding knitting needles. Lots and lots of knitting needles. Holy crap! Then it dawned on me. I have a whole other stash that I didn't realize I had--knitting needles.

 

I present my knitting needle stash.

 

These are the big-ass needles. It's ok to only have one needle in a particular size because it's really a broomstick lace needle. So the blue and white needle at the top of the photo is ok by itself. The wooden needles (three from the top) are called swing needles. I'm still not really sure what I would use them for, but the are pretty slick and pointy as hell. The little ball slides from end to end. All these needles reside in a drawer because they are so big and I can't figure out where else to put them.

 

 

Here is my pretty little stoneware crock filled with assorted sizes and colors. The crock is for couples-only. No singles allowed.  

 

 

 



This is the lion's share of my needle stash. I have no idea how many needles I have here. There are plastic needles, aluminum, birch and bamboo. Some are recently purchased others are older than I am. A majority of my straight needles are "rescue needles", meaning they were purchased them from estate sales. When I go to an estate sale and see evidence that a knitter may have once lived there, I will dig through boxes to find and rescue knitting needles. It's a mission of love.

These little sweethearts are the darlings of my needle stash. They are marked as a size 1, but fall somewhere between a 1 and 2. They have a metal core with a clear yellow plastic coating. The tips are a bit shorter and blunter than I would like, but I love the little hearts.

This next photo is not for the weak. These are incomplete sets of double pointed needles. Look if you dare, but don't say I didn't provide adequate warning.

 

Who knows where mates are to these sets. I sure as heck don't. And this is where the paralysis sets in. If I can't find all five size 2 clover bamboo DPNs, it's bad and I have failed. That's just my evil perfectionism bubbling to the surface. Seriously, having these incomplete sets intermingled with my complete sets is causing me anguish. But I can't throw them out because I might come across the missing size 2 clover bamboo DPN....or maybe that's the one my dog ate. So what do I do? How do I organize something that will now be impossible to organize and, at the same time, move forward as a recovering perfectionist?

 

Chris, you're screwed.

 

Oh, s--t. I forgot to take a picture of all my circular needles. See what I mean?