Well, followers.
I have not been kind to you in the past months. I set my knitting aside as the crunch of wedding time drew closer. The bad news?! I haven't blogged or bought yarn for months. The wedding budget prevented me from yarn shopping, and the time and exhaustion prevented me from blogging. The good news?! I am a happily (happy is actually an understatement in this case) married woman, I have more time to knit, and the yarn diet is OVER!
Our honeymoon destination were the lovely Hawaiian islands - a place you would never THINK to buy yarn (really, who needs wool when you're living in tropical paradise). I found a yarn shop in Kauai, and bought two gorgeous skeins of Hanalei hand-dyed bamboo/merino. The colours reminded me of the sky and ocean waves - and I can't wait to find the perfect pattern for knitting it up!
Hanalei Hand-Dyed Bamboo/Merino
Once we got back from the honeymoon, it was organization overload. Being in a condo, we are a bit crunched for space, and my yarn addition doesn't help. I updated my Ravelry stash and picked yarn to knit up quickly (helloooooo dishcloths) and yarn to go in my basket beside the couch for immediate knitting. Sweater quantities and yarn that I haven't decided what to do with yet went into bins and up into our locker.
I thought to myself, "hey, I can burn through a full bin by the end of 2014" - I had hats, dishcloths, cowls, cardigans and shawls I wanted to knit up. Then there was the Knit Picks sale. My knitting friend e-mailed me and asked that if I was making a purchase, to throw in a single skein for her as she found herself short for a project. At the time of the e-mail, I didn't know Knit Picks was having a sale. PANDEMONIUM ENSUED.
I bought bulky cotton in a gorgeous dusty lavender hue, bulky needles, Chroma in a discontinued colour, extra yarn for a previously queued project so I can actually gauge this time, books and supplies. My husband had a mini panic attack - especially at my ease of justifying the yarn overload. We just finished organizing all the yarn, and here I am bringing more in!
I have identified that I have a mild-yarn addiction. Mild. I knit every night, but since I am a slow knitter, the yarn doesn't knit up as fast as it seems to come in. I am organizing my Ravelry library, favorites and queue - in the hopes that I can enjoy and love the yarn I have (some of which I forgot I had) and make room for new patterns, new yarn and new ideas.
Tips for de-stashing and organizing if you have Ravelry:
1. Go through your library. Tag thing in your favorites based on yarn weight, technique (i.e. cables, in-the-round) and type of project (cowl, shawl, hat etc). This way when you are looking to knit up a particular yarn weight, you can search within your library easily.
2. If you have a yarn specifically designated for a certain project, pop it into your queue. Add the yarn from your stash, so every time you look at your queue you know that yarn is already set up for that pattern. I update as I go along - sometimes I change my mind and switch up yarn and patterns.
3. Photograph your stash, organize it into categories and (if you have a lot and/or you have space), buy Rubbermaid-type bins. Update your stash with the information. For example, I have a bunch of kitchen cotton. I photographed it all, put it into bin #1 and put that info on Ravelry. When I was looking to knit up all my kitchen cotton, I picked and printed a pattern and knew exactly where to find my yarn.
4. Don't be afraid of extra help! I use the Wooly App on my iPhone to help me. I take pictures and with the app, can upload them quite easily to my Ravelry account.
Hope this has helped!
Signing off,
Little Mrs. Cowl Co
June 7th, 2014.
Mr. & Mrs!
