The Bucket List
So I had one of those sort of moments (well, probably like a sleepless hour or so) where you realize that the accumulation of yarn has outstripped the output, not only that, but that you have an embarassment of riches going on. A sort of AIG of yarn accumulation. So rather than seek a government bailout, I have put a moratorium on purchasing. No more cruising the Ravelry destash forum, no more eBay, no more shopping online. I even canceled the day I had planned on going on a mini-yarn crawl to look for what else, more yarn. Can't. Do. It.
So this morning, on a dismal Monday here in Seattle, I cleaned out, sorted and came up with my own sort of Knitting Bucket List. A finish it before I die list. In addition to that, a no more new projects until the previous one is finished kind of philosophy. The problem is that I'm not finishing
projects, let alone even getting to the ones I kept adding to the stash, so I came up with a few rules:
1) No more than three projects on the needles at a time.
2) Keep a Bucket List of what I have in my knitting queue.
3) No yarn purchases. None.
In essence, knit from the stash, baby.
After sorting through all the patterns I've got printed out and piled up, knitting books, booklets and magazines, and the various projects I've got all over the living room, bedroom, my office and downstairs, I came up with my Bucket List of future projects using my Hello Kitty notebook (not because I'm a Hello Kitty fanatic, but because obviously I don't throw anything out) that I keep in my knitting basket for gauge notes and such. Here are the immediate projects:
1) Matthew's Scarf
This is the green and red scarf Matthew asked me to knit. I'll tell more about this when I finish it and can get a pic of him modeling it.
2) Warm for Winter Hats
I promised myself to knit at least six hats for them, and I made that with this blue hat here done in Lion Brand Wool-Ease Chunky, but what I hadn't counted on was having enough left from the skein to do another hat. Instead of just stashing half a skein, I am going to knit one more hat--since it takes about two nights to do one--and then I won't have to put this yarn back into the stash and one more head will be warmed.
3) The Simple Yet Effective Shawl
I don't have a photo of this, but the picture on Cosmicpluto's blog gives you a good idea of what this is. I have more sock yarn than I can shake a stick at, so I cast one of these on the other day thinking it would make a nice Christmas present. Darn it if this isn't a great take-along project, and there is no second-shawl syndrome when you only need one shawl and not a second one. :)
That's my first part of the list--the projects that are allowed out and in the knitting basket and nothing can make its way onto the needles or out of the stash until one of these is finished.
The rest of the list looks like this-all Ravel-linked:
4) A Baby Surprise Jacket out of the Socks that Rocks I've got up at the top of this post. The kids' old babysitter is due in November, so it is time to get it whipped out for the new little nipper. BTW, she'll make a great mother.
5) An afghan. I discovered a poncho I knit out of Wool Ease Thick & Quick that I never finished. Yeah, a poncho. Remember when everyone was knitting those? That tells you how old that sucker is. So the yarn is being re-purposed.
6) Sweater for me. I have this Classic Elite pattern book with this comfortable looking sweater using Duchess yarn. I don't have Duchess yarn, but I have something else that will work. Knit. From. The. Stash. Treasure hunting from the comfort of your own home.
7) A 2nd Simple Yet Effective Shawl. To get ahead on the gift giving.
8) A Clapotis. Yes, I am the last person on earth to knit one.
9) Thrummed Socks.
10) Dad's Socks out of Mariner's yarn.
Here's the sad truth. I can knit all this without having to buy a single skein.
So now that I've come up with my Bucket List, what is yours?
So this morning, on a dismal Monday here in Seattle, I cleaned out, sorted and came up with my own sort of Knitting Bucket List. A finish it before I die list. In addition to that, a no more new projects until the previous one is finished kind of philosophy. The problem is that I'm not finishing
projects, let alone even getting to the ones I kept adding to the stash, so I came up with a few rules:1) No more than three projects on the needles at a time.
2) Keep a Bucket List of what I have in my knitting queue.
3) No yarn purchases. None.
In essence, knit from the stash, baby.
After sorting through all the patterns I've got printed out and piled up, knitting books, booklets and magazines, and the various projects I've got all over the living room, bedroom, my office and downstairs, I came up with my Bucket List of future projects using my Hello Kitty notebook (not because I'm a Hello Kitty fanatic, but because obviously I don't throw anything out) that I keep in my knitting basket for gauge notes and such. Here are the immediate projects:
1) Matthew's Scarf
This is the green and red scarf Matthew asked me to knit. I'll tell more about this when I finish it and can get a pic of him modeling it.
2) Warm for Winter Hats
I promised myself to knit at least six hats for them, and I made that with this blue hat here done in Lion Brand Wool-Ease Chunky, but what I hadn't counted on was having enough left from the skein to do another hat. Instead of just stashing half a skein, I am going to knit one more hat--since it takes about two nights to do one--and then I won't have to put this yarn back into the stash and one more head will be warmed.
3) The Simple Yet Effective Shawl
I don't have a photo of this, but the picture on Cosmicpluto's blog gives you a good idea of what this is. I have more sock yarn than I can shake a stick at, so I cast one of these on the other day thinking it would make a nice Christmas present. Darn it if this isn't a great take-along project, and there is no second-shawl syndrome when you only need one shawl and not a second one. :)
That's my first part of the list--the projects that are allowed out and in the knitting basket and nothing can make its way onto the needles or out of the stash until one of these is finished.
The rest of the list looks like this-all Ravel-linked:
4) A Baby Surprise Jacket out of the Socks that Rocks I've got up at the top of this post. The kids' old babysitter is due in November, so it is time to get it whipped out for the new little nipper. BTW, she'll make a great mother.
5) An afghan. I discovered a poncho I knit out of Wool Ease Thick & Quick that I never finished. Yeah, a poncho. Remember when everyone was knitting those? That tells you how old that sucker is. So the yarn is being re-purposed.
6) Sweater for me. I have this Classic Elite pattern book with this comfortable looking sweater using Duchess yarn. I don't have Duchess yarn, but I have something else that will work. Knit. From. The. Stash. Treasure hunting from the comfort of your own home.
7) A 2nd Simple Yet Effective Shawl. To get ahead on the gift giving.
8) A Clapotis. Yes, I am the last person on earth to knit one.
9) Thrummed Socks.
10) Dad's Socks out of Mariner's yarn.
Here's the sad truth. I can knit all this without having to buy a single skein.
So now that I've come up with my Bucket List, what is yours?
Comments
But major kudos to you for choosing to set limits. I inherited a bunch of yarn from my grandmother (unfortunately not her skill with the needles, so it's slow going) and have been gradually working my way through that, as well as stuff I picked up in the past (mumble mumble) years.
Trying really hard to use it all up before venturing out to buy more.
And it was wonderful to hear that Matthew is doing so well! Even if he never wears those mittens, he knows that you saw his need, offered to do something special, and followed through. That's got to help him connect in his heart, even if he can't yet verbalize more than a short conversation here and there.
LynneW in Ohio,
who is now going back to her stash with a Ravelry pattern - just located! - for a dog coat since a close friend said hers was suffering from the cold