September Stash Progress

I feel good about my stash progress under my new goal.

So far in September, I have knit up 1,756 yards. Now, this includes a couple projects that I worked on in previous months but finished this month. I prefer to count yardage this way because there's no guarantee I won't frog a work in progress and put it right back in my stash. Counting only finished projects ensures that the stash is actually reduced!

So here's what I've finished this month:
A Sweater for Ronan: 250 yards
Blanket for Dale: 550 yards
Weapon of Choice: 200 yards
Elita's Scarf: 153 yards
Elery's Sweater: 273 yards
Don's Slippers: 330 yards

I have added a bit to my stash, but I have a good excuse for half of it! I have bought 2 skeins of wool to make a pair of felted slippers for my mother-in-law. She requested a certain color that I actually did not have in my stash, so I bought it.

I also bought a couple skeins of cotton fleece on sale because I've had my eye on a pattern for a short-sleeved sweater for a while. However, I will have to add a couple more skeins from the many up for trade on ravelry.

So, I have added this month:
Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece (on sale ) 430 yards
Cascade 220 Heathers (for a specific Christmas present) 440 yards
Total of 870 yards

Net reduction: 886 yards

I have fallen short of my 1,400 yard goal, but I will just plan to make it up next month. I have one larger project to finish that should take care of a good bit and a couple crochet projects that should help me churn out some yardage.

Weapon of Choice

This hat is cold and deadly, taking no prisoners, and killing all in its path. It looks friendly enough at first, in its soft yummy exterior…

It starts by snuggling up to you, and you will probably like the feeling on the back of your neck

But beware, as it creeps up you will lose yourself in the silky wool

it will take hold and smother you in it’s soft ribbing!

Did you ever play the game Assassin in high school or college? Well, Hat Attack is the same idea, except to kill someone, you knit up a specific hat in a specific size and mail it off to them. Once they receive their hat, they are dead. My hat is expected to arrive in New Jersey sometime tomorrow.

My assassin is very quiet, haven't heard a peep from her since this whole thing began, so I have no idea where my hat is....

1400 YPM

So, I ended July with the new goal of ending 2008 with less yarn than I started with. How is it going? You can see the totals here, but the short version is that in 1.5 month's time, I have ADDED over 5,000 yards to my totals.

Clearly, I need a different goal, something to give me a little more focus that this ineffective one. So, here is the new one.

There is a good chance that we will have to move in about two and a half years when my husband is finished with grad school. I currently have 46,900 yards in my stash. My goal will be to get down under 5,000 yards BEFORE we move. If we move in June 2011, this gives me 30 months during which I will need to knit/crochet at least 1397 yards per month.

That really puts the size of my stash into perspective, doesn't it?

So, my new goal is to knit/crochet at least 1,400 yards per month for the next 30 months! Wow.

Garage Sale Weakness

No sooner had I almost finished that baby cardigan... a garage sale sign pops up that says "Craft Supplies"!!!

I stopped by and picked up 5 partial skeins of kitchen cotton and three skeins of a mystery dk/sport weight yarn. I am estimating about 300 yards of the cotton and about 900 yards of the mystery yarn. The mystery yarn will be used for Derek's scarf and hat while the cotton will be used for dishcloths for Christmas.

Add 1,200 yards to my total, please!

Elery's Sweater

I finished up a super cute, super easy baby cardigan this weekend. It's a gift for Justin and Michelle's baby, expected to arrive in November. I've heard that they're going to call her Elery.

I made this completely out of stash yarn, scraps of acrylic baby yarn that's been sitting around. I started with the pink, then ran out of my little ball only to find out it was a different dye lot than the other 2.5 skeins of pink yarn in my stash. That's when I switched to white. I am actually very happy with the results.

I don't know exactly how much I used up on this sweater, but I'm calling it 273.1 yards based on my ravelry stash totals.

Found Some More Yarn

This is starting to get a little annoying! I found parts of a skein of baby yarn tucked away in one of my knitting bags. I'm using it to work on a sweater a baby girl expected in November, but it's two different dye lots so I'm mixing in white.

Add to stash: 341.25 yards!

Don's Slippers

I have complete my first finished object of the month! I made the Cable Guy Slippers for Don, using the yarn I had frogged from the Celtic Tote. I love how they turned out, though next time I would make them a little shorter than called for in the pattern. That way, they would require slightly less felting and the cable would be a little more defined. But, they're great. I only need to pick up some slipper bottoms to sew on to make them a little more grippy.

I'll post some pictures once I get them taken.

This used up approximately 330 yards of my stash!