I can’t believe that is the 25th of June already. Time really has flown by this month and the focus on moving stash out from downstairs has been interesting.  Here’s the current recap from this month:

 

In:

Nest Fiber:

20 ounces of Junebug Superwash Merino

3.5 ounces of Fiddlesticks  Superwash Merino

4 ounces of Magpie in Finn

4 ounces of Magpie in BFL/Silk

8 ounces of an OAK in Finn

4 ounces of Paletas in Organic Polworth

6 ounces of Garden Party’s coordinates

8 ounces of Magrat in mixed BFL

4 ounces of Alpine glow in Polworth

Yarn:

1 skein of  Moonrover’s sock yarn in Spacedust

1 skein of Plucky Cashmere in “Singing the Blues” ( I won it what was a girl to do?)

1 skein of Druzy Rising ( I am pinching myself that I was able to snag it)

6 skeins of Plucky Spiffy in Cloud Cap ( My excuse is that I am doing it for science…. <– Yeah, it is a lame one I have a friend who suggested a sweater from the latest issue of “Making)

 

Out:

Fiber:

4 ounce of Alpine glow in Polworth

4 ounces of Magpie in BFL Silk

4 ounces of Magpie in Finn

4 ounces of Nest Falkland in Smitten

8 ounces of Nestlets in various fiber

4 ounces of Organic Polworth from Pigeon roof

 

Yarn:

8 ounces of mini skeins from handspun Nestlest

1 mini skein of Bee Mice Elf

3.5 skeins of Camellia &Co. Fiber Co.

13.5 skeins of Plucky Sweater

Various odds and ends of handspan to knit up Smittens

 

Not sure if I am making a huge dent but I feel that the blanket I finished might have made have offset some of the fiber I had coming in….

 

Oh yeah I forgot to mention… in an attempt to maximize the amount of yarn I am using on my projects I have finding ways to incorporate even more yarn on projects than I had planned. Case in point the edging on the granny square blanket ( I was able to use 1/3 of a whole new skein) and I also plan on lining these some mitts with some yarn I have laying around…. I am getting creative with my stash busting.

 

 

 

 

 

I know it is the beginning of June but I realized in the midst of my mad dash to destash my downstairs stash that  I was building a new stash of handspan which doesn’t really doesn’t help me chip away.

 

I have “gifted” a couple of skins way to appreciative friends  but that will literally be a drop in the preverbal bucket if I start cranking out more yarn.

It is amazing how fast you can spin up yarn. The amount of time from start to finish  goes fast but there is a lot of passive time in there too. To be honest I was surprised how many steps there are to making yarn, and also how many of them are passive( resting on the bobbins, resting on the niddy noddy, giving it a bath, and drying the  yarn).

I  have gone off topic because what I really meant to discuss is what I am going to do with the yarn next month. Next month is my big “Christmas in July” challenge…. I have also signed myself up to a CAL, and participating in the Tour de Fleece  ( Yeah, clearly I think there are more than 24 hours in a day).  So I thought I would try my best to make next month work for me. Let me first explain why I am only knitting Holiday items in July.

It seems every year without fail  I see cute decorations which I want to add to my queue or would love to have around the house.  I usually see them around the Oct-Dec timeframe. Most seem to look like quick knits, but let’s be honest if you are a knitter who gifts hand knits you are usually cranking out the hand knits like a one person sweat shop. Thinking about how you are going to get  family, teacher, friends and neighbors handmade gifts  and have them all done in time do give the recipient is kind of exhausting( I typically start knitting accessories in July exactly for this reason, because if your count is 13+ in the finished object department you need to get cracking to have them all finished by December).

While all the gift giving is great; it leads me to the problem at hand, none of the cute decorations and plans I make get knit. So this year I decided to give myself permission to knit whatever holiday decor  and knitwear I wanted during the month of July. I have been wanting to knit “Smitten Mittens” for the longest time and I think that my new stockpile of handspan will finally give me the perfect opportunity to use stash.

I have no illusions  burning through my stash.. I will likely have massive amounts of scrap yarn and need to come up with another idea of how to use them…. I have had to come with the ugly truth that despite blowing through a massive amount of yarn ( 2600+ yards) on the Big Granny Square Blanket I will have roughly 14-15  25gram balls when I finish the project.   I am not sure  how I will use the remaining scrap yarn, I mean there are several options gifting the yarn, hatmaking, crocheting, or selling the yarn are all options, I just know that I will have about left overs:(

I also am toying with the idea of making a minimochi diarama ( Think Rudolf and his buddies, along with Santa, elves and maybe and indomitable snowman) and Christmas tree ornaments.

I guess one thing is for certain I need to finish this beast of  a blanket and spin up some more yarn:)

 

Since finishing the test knit for Dani Sunshine I have been “full steam ahead” on the “Destash Downstairs” challenge. It is harder than I thought but I am plugging along. I didn’t delude myself into thinking that this would be exciting but I am slowly but surely making progress. I think it would probably be better if I wan’t buying other fiber related items (Yeah, its true but I am trying to not go too nuts. So in the spirit of this challenge and accountability I thought I would list it all out:

In:

Nest Fiber:

20 ounces of Junebug Superwash Merino

3.5 ounces of Fiddlesticks  Superwash Merino

4 ounces of Magpie in Finn

4 ounces of Magpie in BFL/Silk

8 ounces of an OAK in Finn

4 ounces of Paletas in Organic Polworth

6 ounces of Garden Party’s coordinates

Yarn:

1 skein of  Moonrover’s sock yarn in Spacedust

Out:

Fiber:

4 ounces of Hedgehog Fibres

4 ounces of BFL/SIlk

Yarn:

3.5  skeins od Camellia Fiber Company’s  handspun Targhee

Mini skin of Beemiceelf handspun

60-78% of 14 skeins of Plucky Knitter Sweater