It’s no secret that I have a ridiculous stash. I’ve been fighting the dreaded SABLE (Stash Accumulation Beyond Life Expectancy) for some time now, and the only weapon I have is youth! But, barring medical advances that would have me able to knit productively till about 120 years old, I need to do something about my stash.

What really spurred me on was the stash swap party we had last week. I had to go through my stash and get rid of stuff, and I was also determined to bring home less than I brought. But, I have to say that dumping out a comforter-bags’ worth of stash all over my dining table was a bit of an eye-opener!

At least I had some help going through it all.

Of course, I could hardly part with anything. (Isn’t that how it goes?) I did have to admit to myself that since I very rarely knit with cotton, I’d purge most of my cotton stash. That, together with some leftover flannel fabric, turned out to fill my huge market basket and another large plastic bag. In other words, it barely made a dent.

When I got home with my new goodies, I was determined not to let my stash get so out of hand again. So, I spent the next several evenings (while hubby was conveniently out of town) organizing my stash by yarn lines, and then combining those yarns into sweater-quantities’ worth. I also combined some smaller quantities for other projects, like hats and scarves, and put all of my charity yarns in one place. It felt so good to start getting organized, I almost couldn’t stop! After the first night, I had four Palette sweaters picked out.

(Cornmeal, Semolina, Turmeric, Serpentine, Caper, Wallaby, Blossom Heather and Currant)

(Bittersweet Heather, Bison, Almond, Oyster Heather, Ivy, Verdant Heather, Clover, Tarragon, Green Tea Heather, Mulberry and Clematis Heather)

(Wallaby, Almond, Oyster Heather, Celadon, Sagebrush and Pennyroyal)

(Navy, Marine Heather, Calypso Heather, Caribbean, Tranquil, Alfalfa, Peapod and Limeade)

But after that, it became almost an obsession. How many sweaters could I make from the contents of that bag? Well, after about a dozen, I ran out of bags! I wanted to dig in immediately, but since the yarn for Hubby’s sweater should be arriving any day now, I just couldn’t let myself get caught up in another time-consuming project. Instead, I’ve been working on some charity hats using Kool-aid dyed wool that I grabbed in the stash swap.

So cute, and now I don’t feel so guilty about bringing home even more yarn! (And my hands smelled like grape afterwards.. ha!)

So, now I’m just biding my time until I can cast on Hubby’s sweater… but all of these bags of colorful potential sweaters are just staring me down. I can’t wait to finish that sweater so I can dig in!