Bust That Stash

Of late I've been trying not to buy yarn unless it is drastically reduced in price or cheap and being discontinued (thus another bag of 4 ply cotton is now in my stash and I have a load of Cottonease on a ship somewhere out at sea). I need to use up what I can from my stash as I won't be able to afford to ship a huge stash to the States when we go, and it would be silly anyway as a lot of stash yarn came from the states! It also bugs me that I have yarn sitting there that I like but I'm not using, which seems a bit silly! I obviously still have the projects that are listed on the sidebar which I don't consider 'stash' as they're projects waiting for the get go and I don't mind the bits of the stash that are the bags of 4 ply cotton, or a cone or two of yarn for a shawl, to me that is what should be in a stash, what bugs me is all the smaller odd balls here and there that I don't know what to do with but can't see fit to give to the charity shop. I do give half balls and leftovers from projects to the charity shop if it's not a yarn I will be needing again (keeping of course a small bit for if repairs are needed), last thing I need is a bag of half balls of yarn on top of what I have!

So I have recently been thinking that a few balls would be good for sweaters for Little One. Thus knitting up the hoodie which I bought yarn specifically for and now I am going to try and knit up the rest of the Toddler Aran (from Claude and what was an intended Ribby Cardi as I mentioned before) and the Hemp/Wool that I have. There are few other bits in the stash that might work as sweater vests or gloves, hat and scarf maybe for next year, I figure that these are small projects that I can work on while I'm trying to finish off Clover, Arisaig and the shawl rather than starting another sweater for myself which I know will mean Clover gets dropped for another six months!

Last night I took a dip into my Knitting In Vogue books and came up with several vests that I can use stash yarn for for myself and also a very cute sweater for Little One, imaginatively called 'Sweater With Circular-ribbed Yoke'. It's in Knitting in Vogue 3 and was originally a 1961 pattern that was updated in the 80's. I can't get gauge for the sweater out of either of the yarns I want to use up next so I am going to change the gauge of the pattern as I think it will look cute in the Toddler Aran which is chunkier yarn than is called for. I'm going to do the ribbing and yoke in the green I used for Claude and the body in the sort of stone shade I have. I have just under 4 100g balls of yarn (it's acrylic, so that's quite a bit of yardage per ball) so I'm thinking that will be enough.

For the green hemp/wool I'd like to do something simple and modern in shape but with a bit of patterning on it, I was thinking perhaps Chaos from Knitty (I'd have to knit a size bigger than the pattern goes up to so there'd be some fiddling) or perhaps make something up using the Easy Raglan pattern and a stitch from one of my stitch collections. Anyone know of any good toddler patterns that are patterned but not hugely cabled and that call for yarn that knits at 20 stitches per inch on 4mm needles?

Once I've gotton these 2 sweaters out of the way I will have another look in the stash and see what I can come up with next for him. I can make stuff the next size up and put it away so I'm not worried about ending up with 10 sweaters that he has to wear right away!

Little One's hoodie is blocked and I've made a start on the finishing which is basically the seaming, front bands and the hood, so it shouldn't take too long I shouldn't think. I've cast on and done the ribbing for the second wavey sock and also finished Chart 2 on the Lotus Blossom Shawl. I did get out NBAT to start as tv knitting and then thinking about it I realised that I wanted to use up these stash bits and not start another sweater for me so it will be going away yet again, I will knit it one day!

Food Log

Yesterday:

Breakfast - Home made granola with soya milk, 1 cup of black coffee. Had a smaller bowl of granola than yesterday as I think that I served up too much. The ingredients might be healthy but you still don't need to eat a ton of the stuff!

Lunch - Small salad with vegan mayo (I put too much on, must stop doing that as not only is it bad for me but it makes the salad yucky), half a slice of the Tortilla Pie, 3/4 of an apple, 3 small glasses of water, cup of peppermint tea.

Dinner - 2 vege sausages, mashed potatoes, baked beans, 2 small glasses of water.

Evening - Cup of earl grey tea with soya milk and a small banana nut muffin.

Today-

Breakfast - 2 small bran muffins (made smaller by the fact the outsides stuck to the paper cups and wouldn't come off!), 2 cups of black coffee.

Lunch - 2 small glasses of water, half a packet of 3 minute noodles, 3/4 of an apple and a pear. A cup of peppermint tea.

Dinner - Pasta and home made sauce and soya Parmesan, 2 small glasses of water. I served up in much smaller bowls than normal, although I probably still ate too much. Pasta is a weak spot with me, I adore it and find it hard to stop eating it, but I am happy that I've cut down and I can cut down even further next time. Also, eating less will save us money as there is enough sauce leftover for a full meal for all of us rather than just 1 serving like there normally is!

Evening - cup of earl grey with soya milk and popcorn. I did a lot less margarine than normal and also shared it with DH which I don't normally do. Probably unnecessary calories but I do like popcorn with a movie or good tv every now and again so I guess a treat won't kill me every now and again!