Tossing The Stash 2024

Thanks to the basement flood, I had some wide open and clean floor space. I decided to toss the stash! I happen to be headed to an event where I can rehome my yarn to appreciative new homes.

The kiddos and I worked through all the Sport to bulky bins. We checked everything for bugs, dirt and damp. Then made sure all the items were safely tucked into ziplocks. I had kind of fallen off that practice.

The fingering and lace weight stash was next. This is the bulk of my stash. I got this nicely organized and I really need to make some big shawls or blankets with all these single skeins, lol.

In the end, I cleaned half a large trash bag of donation yarn out of my stash. I was Type A enough to even remove it from my Ravelry account. All my yarn is safely organized and tucked away. I do actually feel lighter!

Happy Stashing!!

Restocking Hat Yarn

With all this hat knitting, I needed to restock my worsted yarn. I stopped by YarnBarn in Lawrence and grabbed three new skeins. All Rios but in English Rose, Hojas, and Medusa.

The Hojas color is already on my needles per yesterday’s post. I tried to grab some colors that were different that what I already had made. And I love that YarnBarn already wound these for me. Worsted doesn’t take that long but it sure makes it easy to start another hat super easily.

Happy Stashing!!

KITH Yarn Haul

In between Knitting In The Heartland events, I did some time in the market. After an initial lap around the vendors I decided to focus on mini skeins for my scrappy granny stripe blanket.

I have all my scraps organized and I noticed some gaps in the color wheel. So I tried to pour through booths and find colors to help fill out those missing areas. Mostly I need the warm colors of red, yellow and orange and some more jewel tones.

I think I did well! I also nabbed a tshirt going out on clearance, a knitting book for my friend and a couple of worsted skeins to replenish my hat stash. I am pretty proud of myself and saving most of my yarn funds for SSK this summer!

Happy Yarn!

This Could Mean Trouble

My new job means a new commute. The silver lining? The new area I work in has a LYS! And on a break this week I fell down in the store and my card bought new yarn.

Am I going to Knitting in the Heartland conference in less than two weeks? Yes. But I was feeling good this day and the yarn fumes got me. I picked up three skeins of Malabrigo Rios in Matisse Blue, Cian, and Purpuras. Then one skein of Malabrigo Arroyo in Sea Slug. All of these skeins are destined to be hats. My brain cells are taken up by the new job some easy hat knitting feels good.

Next up was two skeins of 316 Dye Studio in their House DK and graffiti colorway. I have some of this in my stash for a sweater and my post COVID body needs more yardage. They are different dye lots so I will have to shade/alternate. But I’m okay with that. Lastly are two bunches of fiber from Malabrigo Nube in Solis and Indiecita colorways. I think I will spin each as singles and ply together. They coordinate nicely.

Someone asked me what I was making and I said ‘Happiness’ because you should never ask a knitter about their stash!

Worsted Haul

The Hat Mojo is going strong into 2024. And I have worked up almost every single worsted weight skein that is not handspun in my stash. Therefore, I got more. This time from Treasure Goddess Yarn, which is local (ish) to me.

My hat stash over-floweth here at Casa Rachelle so these hats will definitely be donated or gifted. So I went with some basic and easy to coordinate colors. I totally understand my color sense doesn’t always jive with other peoples.

The tonal black skein on the right is going to be a pony tail hat for a coworker friend. In 2023 my proverbial tanks were so low that trying to work on “duty bound” knitting really had me avoiding it. And towards the end of the year I just worked on project that were easy and gave me joy. I was much happier and more engaged. So that’s the plan for 2024.

No lists, no duty…..just knitting joy. Even if it’s 1,000 basic beanies 🙂

Happy Knitting!!

Christmas Haul

Santa was very kind to this knitter. As the resident Santa in my home I did some knitterly things for myself.

I ordered some fiber and sock yarn from the Woolery during a holiday sale. I picked these out specifically but when the box came, I had forgot what I ordered so I left it in the box for my stocking. I also ordered a mystery box from KnitCircus to surprise myself and when it came I left the box closed.

On Christmas Eve, I opened the box and closed my eyes. Then carefully pulled the items out and put into my sock without peeking. I really really like surprises and this was about the best way I could manage it. I came away with the following

  • 250g of Bluefaced Leicester in Gray
  • 250g of Corriedale in Natural Stripes (brown/white)
  • Uneek Sock Set in Zebra
  • KnitCircus Greatest of Ease in a OOAK Prototype (pink)
  • KnitCircus Opulence in Prototype (Orange)
  • KnitCircus Spectacular in Clear Skies Ahead (Blue singles yarn)

Absolutely no plans for any of these items other than they brought me joy on Christmas morning. Does anyone else ever go to these lengths to surprise themselves?

Happy Knitting!!

One Of These Things Is Not Like The Others

I have basically knit through all of my worsted weight stash (that isn’t handspun) and I have been getting great joy from knitting hats lately. So I jumped on Etsy and grabbed some more worsted from one of my favorite dyers, Lilliput Yarn.

Though my brain has not been working lately. I came down with an upper respiratory virus from my conference and my husband caught COVID from a work exposure. So we have been feeling really puny around here. I THOUGHT I purchased three skeins of worsted. But what I had done is two skeins of worsted and one skein of Rudy’s sport. Score one for cold medicine and brain fog.

The sport skein is a mix merino and nylon and will make an excellent pair of socks. I think that might be my next cast on after I finish my Emotional Support Socks. And I think I will try to get the other two started as hats ASAP for TV knitting and travel knitting.

Happy Knitting!!

MudPunch Always Gets Me

I once again was wooed by the siren song that is my email newsletters. I get the MudPunch email newsletter and I just couldn’t resist her shop.

I have really been feeling the sock mojo here lately so some self-striping felt just right. Do I have a three whole storage bags of sock yarn? Yes I do. Did I still buy this? Yes I did and I don’t regret it.

The pinky brown skein is outside my normal color zone but I’m excited to see how it works up. The yellow and blue skein is 1,000% in my zone as those are my high school alma mater colors and my current employer’s color scheme. I think these will go into the stash for a minute but I foresee them hitting the needles yet this year.

Happy Stashing!!

My Dad Accidentally Bought A Fiber Club

Ya’ll…my dad is so cute. He called me the other day and said “I keep getting your Christmas presents in the mail!”. So on a recent visit I took a look at what was coming in the mail. He didn’t realize he had purchased a fiber club subscription for my gift!

The February club is 100% cheviot and a DEEP violet color. This looks amazing and 1,000% sure it will let off dye when I wash it, lol. The March club is set of wonderful pinks and purples and is a polworth and silk blend. This will be VERY soft.

I guess with all my fiber additions this week, I need to get spinning!! Happy Spinning!!

Fiber Destash Score

Jude of Stranded Dyeworks recently destashed some of his personal stash in order to feel more incontrol of his stash and make sure these items are being used instead of stored. I stayed away for the first few days of the sale but I was weak when I noticed there was still fiber in the shop.

These are all new to me dyers and from top right around to the bottom they are:

  • Spotted Circus – 4 ounces and a blend of Alpaca and Nylon
  • Fondant Fibres – 4 ounces and a 80/20 blend of SW Merino and Nylon – this one is called Deep & Meaningful
  • Hipstrings – 4 ounces and a blend of Merino, Rambouillet and Nylon – this one is called The Unicorn in the Library

I have zero plans for this fiber. None of the fiber content really line up so I don’t see combining them. They will likely end up being spun with themselves and making cute one of skeins.

Happy Spinning!!