The Stash

 

A few weeks ago I mentioned that next year's Knit Something of the Month situation would be sweaters and I would probably knit one every two months.  I knew I had enough sweater quantities of yarn in my stash to keep me busy for a couple of years, but I wasn't sure exactly how much I had.  In order to plan next year, I needed to stash dive so I could match yarn to patterns.  I decided the easiest way to do this would be to put everything (at least sweater quantities of "everything" - I didn't get every single skein in the stash entered) into my Ravelry stash and go from there.  I have Yarma on my iPhone so I used that to photograph and upload photos while I entered the info into Rav on my laptop - definitely the easiest way to do this.  I put all my books, magazines and patterns into my library ages ago and have kept up with new additions so finding patterns I already own is just a matter of searching Rav.

First though, I had to haul out all my sweater quantities of yarn.  I know I didn't grab it all (off the top of my head I know of two sweater quantities of undyed Bugga that I didn't count and I've got a sweater's quantity of Kauni too), but I did pull out 23 sweater's worth of yarn.  It's definitely time to start shopping the stash around here!  I got it all photographed and entered into Ravelry as well as a couple of other one or two skeins worth of stash that could use some matching up with patterns.  I sorted the sweater quantities by color, thinking it would be easier to pick things out if they were somewhat organized.  (Also I figured it would be more interesting to read about my projects if they aren't all the same color - I mean my red sweater bender that I just went on was fun and all, but you guys probably want some variety around here too, right?)  I'm also loosely thinking about yarn weight and timing - no one wants to be sitting under heavy weight yarn in July in Texas, except maybe Max.

So here's what I've got:

• 2 Multi colored - 1 DK and 1 Aran
• 3 Ivory/White - 2 Fingering and 1 Aran
• 4 Purple - 2 DK and 2 Aran
• 3 Black/Gray - 1 Fingering, 1 Aran, 1 Bulky
• 4 Pink - 1 Fingering, 2 DK, 1 Aran
• 7 Blue Green - 1 Heavy Laceweight, 2 Fingering, 3 DK, 1 Aran

I'm also going to shop my stash for patterns as much as I can.  I've got over 6000 patterns (crazy!) according to my Ravelry library.  Surely I can find things to match with 6 different yarns.  (I'll definitely match patterns for the 6 sweaters I need for 2013, but I might match a few more too - stash diving has made me want to KNIT IT ALL, so if I have time, I might try for a couple more this year!)  Of course, I've discovered in doing this the last two years that I also need to give myself the freedom to change my mind - on either pattern or yarn or both.  My plan, my rules, right?