stashbuster

I am still working on scarves for charity, using up my supply of single balls of wool (blends) and half balls left from other projects. I haven't made much progress this summer, but here are three. That's better than none, no?

The first one is made with local German sheep's wool (orange), Finnish wool (grey) and industrial made green vintage German yarn called Tiffany, which I used in a scarf I made in May, too.

I wanted to use the orange yarn to "bind" the design, but noticed I wouldn't have enough to continue making wide stripes with it. So at around halfway through the scarf, I changed the striping and made all three colours exactly the same width.

I think it looks really nice and certainly original, don't you think?

Motivation is really a funny thing. Once something really gets you moving, there's no stopping it. If you have two motivators pushing you towards the same goal, you can accomplish anything.

Like 16 squares in a week.

That's right - since my last update on Saturday the 13th where I had 6 squares done for the Knit a Squillion challenge, I have started and finished 16 new squares! My total tally at this moment is therefore 22 squares - just three short of my commitment!

How on earth was that possible? I work full time, I've been going to the gym 4 times a week and even taken care of my ill husband (he had the cold) the past week. Haven't I slept, but knitted through the nights like a craft-obsessed Tyler Durden? Well, not quite.

I was reading Minimalist Knitter's (aka Robyn's) site as I often do and came across her newest charity endeavour: participating in Knit a Squillion action by Knit a Square.

Their ambitious plan is to to send 1,2 million squares to South Africa by July 10, 2012.

I mean: wow. 1,2 million squares will make blankets for 36.000 children in need. I thought: I want to participate in this!

Robyn set up a challenge for herself and for her readers: she will make 10 squares a month and challenges everyone reading her blog to make 25 squares. And you know what: I'll take the challenge and pass it on.

My charity knits are coming along slowly, but coming along anyway!

Here are two scarves I knit some time back - using up stash and looking forward to giving them to someone in need.

The left one is made with local sock yarn from Wollkontor Erlangen, some Finnish wool and an old yarn called Tiffany. It was knit in fisherman's rib with 4 mm needles, and it's about 1,70 long. I think it used about 200 grams of yarn!

The right one is made in Novita Isoveli yarn, a bulky woolen yarn. It was knit on 5 mm needles and in -surprise surprise - fisherman's rib!

It used up all the Isoveli I had left, about 200 grams, and the scarf is a bit short with 150 cm, but it's so warm I hope it will do.

I've also updated my 2011 charity list with these scarves!

The weather is getting warmer, the Sun is shining, it's almost time to leave the jacket at home and go out in a t-shirt.

So why on Earth am I knitting heavy woolen scarves?

There are two reasons. First: they are for charity, and as I am way behind on my "knit 50 items for charity" resolution, I have to start somewhere, and I liked the idea of scarves.

Second: I am currently on a major stash busting spree! I p want less, less, less yarn in my closet! Using up odd balls of wool and wool blend yarns is best done with striped scarves, won't you agree?

Look at these pretty scarves! They're all made exclusively with reused yarn and scarps and half-balls from my stash.

Maybe you can recognize the purple yarn? I ripped my Hug shrug, which was finished in 2008 and after that was worn less than 10 times altogether. It's now been reworked into 1 1/2 scarves which I will be donating to the homeless people in Duisburg, a neighbour city where an active knitter has organised a collection for warm knits for the homeless this winter.

The other 1/2 of the second scarf is also made with Novita Rustika, the leftovers I had from my Rustic shawl. Both scarves are knit on 8mm needles. The "pattern" was rather simple - cast on 18 stitches and knit, knit, knit until the yarn runs out or the scarf is about 1,70 meters long!

To answer right away: it's a knitted bag with a flap top; you put a baby in it thus keeping her warm but leaving her a lot of room to kick. During the night/naps, it may also remove the need for a blanket completely!

This was one of those knits when you just wanted something simple to knit "in between" or to take to your knit night and/or to use up stash. For me, both statements are true. I have been knitting so many shawls and even socks lately, I wanted something very very simple to work on, that will also use up the yarn I got from ravelling an old sweater my Mum made me years ago, that had been stained (by wahing it with another sweater that bled) and stretched unwearable.

First of all sorry for not posting last week - I've been ill! I catched a very nasty cold that forced me to bed for several days, and it's still not quite gone, but I'm trying to take it easy and get well soon.

Anyway, I do have some news for you! First of all, you may notice that the site is now conciderably quicker to browse. I mean, it's really quick! That's because my DH Nick moved the site to a new server with more capacity yesterday. Thanks honey!

And second: I've decided to go "cold sheep" for the rest of 2010, meaning I won't be buying any yarn for my personal use this year anymore! I've done yarn diets before, but not for so long, so I'm quite excited to see how it goes! But fact is, my stash is getting too big so this is a very needed step.

Have you ever gone cold sheep for a longer period of time? How did it go?

Once in a while my attention gets drawn to the misccellaneous bags in my stash closet, the ones with yarn ends and half balls, the leftover yarns from bigger projects and maybe a few full balls with yarn I don't really know what to do with. To be honest, my attention is actually drawn to the fact that the bags are packed if not overflowing. This is usually the time I take out the bags, take a look at the yarns inside and decide to start a stashbusting project.
 
This time I decided to knit some simple striped scarves. I've knit stashbusting scarves before (examples here and here), but none in the last year or so. So even though the summer is coming, I picked up my woolen yarns and cast on.
 

A while back I bought a ball of Sirdar Just Bamboo in brilliant white just to try it out. It ended up sitting in my stash for a good while before I finally decided to make something with it. One ball of ribbon bamboo is not the easiest thing to think of a project for!

I finally came up with these little sachets or tiny pouches which would be perfect for stitch markers or other little notions. Here's the very simple pattern for you. I call it the Anemone Nemorosa because the sachets remind me of this beautiful, wild spring flower.