Monday 6 June 2016

Is there any hope of reducing my stash?

Since the donation of yarn that I received in April, I really don't know how much stash I have.  But two facts I am aware of:

  1.  I have used up almost 7 kilos of yarn since January 1st this year
  2.  I have bought a further 600g of yarn this month
In Weston we have a lovely old-fashioned 'bit of everything' shop near the sea front called McKee's which stocks King Cole yarn.  I try not to go in there too often because not only do they sell a good range of regular yarn, they also normally have what King Cole sells as 'Bin ends' for only £1 for a 100g ball.  The yarn comes in packs of 6 balls, but the shop owner is quite happy if you only want to buy one or two balls.  Well, I was wandering around that part of town with no specific goal in mind when I found myself in the shop and rooting through the Bin ends.  There was a pack of 6 grey fleck balls which looked and felt like aran (a challenge of bin ends is that there is no indication on the ball band of what weight it is - you have to use your own judgement).  I thought about my self-set challenge to knit 12 boy's jumpers this year, and I'm afraid the yarn fairy did the rest.  



So having a further 6 balls in my stash, I chose to start to use it up by making a Henley sweater using one of my old favourite patterns from Ravelry.  I used size 4.5 needles for the rib and 5.5 for the body, and this is the result:


I find that it knits up really quickly because it is done in the round, and I did it in 3 days, finishing it sitting in the garden in the sunshine yesterday.  It took less than 2 balls, though, so I shall probably make a larger one to use up more of this lovely quality yarn, which was a real bargain.  I do have some grey 4 ply in my stash, and I might just see whether the aran and 4 ply knitted together will make a chunky weight.....

2 comments:

  1. Your Henley turned out perfect. I've knitted this pattern before. Thanks for reminding me about it as I think I have enough wool to make another one.

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  2. Wow 3 days it put my 17 days to shame! it's lovely too you lucky thing having a shop with bin ends I would be in there every week if it was near to me, I fear you will always have a huge stash though Barbara haha, thank you for linking this to the stash party, I think I will try this pattern for my July sweater but I know it's going to take me far longer that 3 days! :) xx

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