And then Stash Dive! Everything is in good order. Everything is safe and secure and sigh. I sure do have some lovely yarn. It was hard not to keep all of it out, just to have it close to me. It is more than just wool to knit.
Make no mistake. The stash dive is a serious job. I had serious expectations and I meant to make them happen.
The number one thing I wanted from this stash dive was to reorganize the yarn. There were several containers that weren't as full as they could have been and I wanted to get some of my more recent purchases into proper homes. Mission accomplished. I emptied 4 containers of stored yarns. Two were larger 50 litre boxes and two were the smaller boxes, a twenty five and a 15 litre, and they are now packed more efficiently into other boxes. I also properly stored yarns from a couple other tubs, but since they are now full of job 3, I didn't think it was fair to count them. Mission accomplished.
The second thing I wanted to do was to reorganize the yarn closet. When I first moved here, everything fit in the closet but for the sock yarn and one other box of yarn. The last time I dug in the yarn, I ended up with about 8 smaller boxes that I could not get back into the closet. I hadn't added significant yarn, but something in the way I packed it, meant it do not fit. Tada!
All the yarn needing storage, including the sock yarn and the lace yarn is now in the closet. For the first time since I moved here, no bins will live in the study proper, but for yarn for job 3. And to top it off, if I moved a couple of those top boxes around, I could even fit job 3 in the closet. Job well done, I say.
I might even have room to set up my quilting frame here in my study. I always thought that would be a miracle, but who knows. I might get back to that yet.
And then there is job 3.
Job 3 may have gotten a little out of hand. It's hard to say. Job three was to pull out yarn that I might feel compelled to knit. It is also yarn, that I think about all the time and would love to knit. Some of it may just be out for inspiration and some of it is out because it is a task I promised to someone else. Not a lot of that, but I did just promise my neighbour a hat because she has a fabulous garden and seems to be sending us garden veggies as much as we can eat! Deserving of a hat to be sure.
So job 3. I took a few pictures to show you what might, or might not be in the running for this falls knitting.
This odd assortment of yarns is one of my most precious treasures. The bulk of it is Sirdar Eco Wool DK a really lovely but discontinued yarn. River City yarns carried it for a season and I purchased a bunch of it and knit my favourite sweater. I had 6 or so balls left, but not enough for another sweater. Over the years, I purchased other yarns with a similar twist in an effort to make my paltry supply be enough. I just never had quite enough and then I found a few balls hiding in a corner at Crafty Lady in Lacombe. Suddenly I had lots of yarn! I was waiting for the right inspiration to come along and it did. Laekur on the cover of Knitty Deep Fall 2016. It is exactly right for my mix of grays and brownish gray and marled gray and natural. I will used the red for the colourwork and the black only in an emergency if I run out of all the others. I do not expect that will happen.
Part 2 of Job 3 is some luscious stuff,
Harrisville Silk and Wool. I love this yarn. It is soft and strong and warm and light and just a little bit decadent. This is going to be a Keynote Pullover. by Mary Lou Egan. I saw this pattern and knew I absolutely must knit it. I am so enamoured of this sweater, that I bought the book. For one pattern. Yes that much. Funny thing is that this is not the yarn I thought I would knit this sweater in. Once I saw it there in my stash, once I felt it in my hand, I knew that its time was now.
Part 3 is another bit of leftovers from other good things.
I knit an Undercurrent in these two yarns several years ago and it remains one of the sweaters I reach for on chilly days when I have to look business like. I always planned to knit a vest with the remains. I am leaning toward an Elizabeth Zimmermann Waistcoat from Knit One, Knit All. I really want to knit this one. After reading the pattern over many times, it just needs to be knit for the fun of it.
Part 4 is a brown yarn. Sort of.
I don't wear brown. It has never looked very good on me and even now, with my salt and pepper hair and my paler skin as I age, it isn't a really great colour on me. I love this though. It is just the most splendid mix of gray and blue and rust and heathers that I had to have it. I picked this lovely Briggs and Little Sport up at our last trip to Shuttleworks (mourned by many). I think it is going to be a vest too. It is going to be something delightful from Folk Vests by Cheryl Oberle. I am leaning to the Clock Vest but it would make a great looking XO Cardigan and would be very nice as a Chinese Red Vest too, despite not being red. Whichever it turns out to be, I am looking forward to this.
Part 5 is a very inexpensive fingering weight yarn I purchased years ago from Elann.
I bought it to make some plain utilitarian work sweaters back in the day. It isn't a fancy yarn and at under 2 dollars a ball was not expensive at all. It does have a really great colour going for it, a rich deep teal, but that is its only significant feature. I don't feel any real urge to knit it but what I do feel the urge to do is wear these buttons.
I picked up these fantastic buttons at A Twist of Yarn in Vernon but you can see more of the amazing work of 2 Good Claymates for yourself. I must wear these buttons. I think about them all the time, which is just the silliest thing. I am knitting a plain sweater to show these off and I think that is just how it ought to be.
Part...where am I again. I stopped a bit at that jewelry and button place...ah yes, part 6.
Part 6 is two yarns that I purchased a very long time ago. I played with them for separate projects and then played with them for a variation on a Tempest. I swatched eons ago, and it worked, even though the yarns are slightly different gauges. It is Berroco Ultra Alpaca and a medium weight Socks that Rock in heaven only knows what colourway. I don't recall but if anybody knows, post it. I found while playing with it, it could work, so long as you kept the gauge the same. We will see if the sweater turns out or not. I think it could be an interesting challenge.
Part 7
Part 8
Some plain socks, maybe. Or mittens.
Part 9, the last part,
I've talked about this project before. This is a whole bunch of Kauni 8/2 Effektyarn in the green EK and cream. It has always had only 1 job in my stash despite its long history living in my yarn closet. It will become this, the Dancing Reindeer Shawl. I have spoken of knitting this before and I haven't done it. For a while, I worried about running out of the cream but that would be impossible now that I have 2 balls. I decided not to knit it last winter, and I thought I meant forever, feeling the subject matter was not me anymore, but once I settled down here, the pattern spoke to me again. It wants to be mine. I love it for itself both yarn and pattern.
Job 3. Very well done.
Too much? Only heaven knows. It is right for me right now.
Knitting sustains me. Yarn sustains me. It is my safe place and my consolation. I love when I get to play and remind myself of how good it all is. Stash diving days are vocation (knitter) and avocation (yarn collector) all wrapped up in one.
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