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Thursday January 14, 2010

New year, new yarn diet

Miriam McDonald
Simply Knitting's
Production Editor

When I first started knitting, I had a basket, the sort you store logs in. The idea was that all the yarn I needed was going to fit in the basket. For a while, that was true, but discovering bargains online and at shows, learning to knit socks (and telling myself that one skein of sock yarn couldn't possibly count as 'more yarn') and even getting given the odd ball of discontinued yarn from work has expanded the stash massively. Now it takes up the basket, a box and a couple of plastic bags, so my new year's resolution is to go on a yarn diet. I am not buying any more yarn for six months.

I have plenty of sock yarn in the stash that I'm really keen on, and that's going to be easy to use, as are the three bags, each containing enough yarn to knit a specific garment. (All sale purchases – who can resist a bargain?) The garment designs are all still ones I like, so that yarn will get used. However, I learned to knit during the big 'novelty yarn' craze a few years back, though, and my tastes have shifted a little so that when I look at some of the stash I wonder how I'll use it now. Likewise, some of the limited amounts of unusual yarns might prove tricky to use, such as the three balls of Louisa Harding Castello. If you have any ideas what to do with that, please share them! Currently a lacy scarf looks the most likely option.

Have you tried a yarn diet? Did it work? Did you learn to love the strange oddments at the bottom of your yarn basket? It's going to be an interesting six months...

Posted by Miriam McDonald
Thursday January 14, 2010

Daily Blog | Permalink | Comments [9]

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Comments:

Yarn Diet?!@! Hah!!! I started one recently...and now have another tote filled with stash. Also, novelty yarn stash is tough to deal with. I brought it into school. My high school students fought over it and I didn't feel guilty about tossing it. win win

Posted by Jan Pattat (127.0.0.1) on January 14, 2010 at 02:50 PM GMT #

Hi Jan! I think if I buy another ball of yarn, let alone a tote full, my husband will lock me in the spare room until I've knitted it all. (Come to think of it, that might be quite pleasant...)

Posted by Miriam (127.0.0.1) on January 14, 2010 at 05:10 PM GMT #

I haven't bought any for a few months and have enough to keep me going well into next year I reckon but I have a feeling I will get the urge soon to splurge! I love a yarn bargain!

Posted by Kira (127.0.0.1) on January 14, 2010 at 07:48 PM GMT #

I'm not on a yarn diet, but I don't think I've bought any yarn since Fibrefest in August – although I have been given some yarn (yum!) and swapped some yarn. Turns out when I'm knitting r-e-a-l-l-y slowly I shop slowly too...

Posted by Elizabeth Bagwell (127.0.0.1) on January 15, 2010 at 03:02 PM GMT
Website: http://www.simplyknitting.co.uk #

My new years resolution for 2010 is that for every skein/ball I buy I have to knit up 2 out of my stash ... 19 Jan ... I haven't bought any yet ... if you don't count the 10 I bought on 3rd when I made the resolution.

Posted by Erica (127.0.0.1) on January 19, 2010 at 09:38 AM GMT #

@ Erica - so, do you have to knit up 20 balls before you can buy more now?? That would be an awful lot for me! I never seem to actually finish a ball, unless I'm knitting a cardigan, then I never finish the project...

Elizabeth

Posted by Elizabeth Bagwell (127.0.0.1) on January 19, 2010 at 04:43 PM GMT
Website: http://www.simplyknitting.co.uk #

Elizabeth, I'm trying to work out what to do with all the ends of sock yarn I'm accumulating. So far it seems destined for tiny colourwork projects.

Posted by Miriam (127.0.0.1) on January 20, 2010 at 12:26 PM GMT #

Just a basket, box and bag?! My stash currently takes up six large plastic bags, which are stuffed in to a floor-to-ceiling cupboard in the bathroom! Most of it is remnants from knitting projects over the years, though there are a few banded balls in there from when I've bought too much yarn for a project and then thought "it'll come in handy for something else at some point". My stash proved this point when I was knitting presents for Giftmas - I made Jean Greenhow's Topsy Turvy doll for my god-daughter, an illusion knitting Tardis scarf for her brother, and many other items all from the Stash without having to go out and buy yarn. The best yarn-free gift was the shopping bag I knitted for my mother-in-law from strips of carrier bags - recycling to the nth degree!!

Posted by Jools Smith (127.0.0.1) on January 27, 2010 at 09:53 AM GMT #

I've succumbed! I took delivery yesterday of rather a lot of yarn I found in the sales that I couldn't resist.

Posted by Kira (127.0.0.1) on February 05, 2010 at 09:37 PM GMT #

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