Psycho Yarn Stash Freakout!

I've been so motivated lately, since joining Ravelry, and since really taking to heart what a frick-freakin' mess this apartment has become, to Do Something About the Yarn Stash. Seriously. When I internalized-realized just how many projects the yarn represented -- not hats, not scarves, not tiny amigurumi animals but full size adult sweaters -- and how much yarn still exists out there in the world NOT owned by me, I found my pretty typed list of Yarn vs Project looked pretty pathetic.

So I did one clever thing, which was to immediately begin a project with the yarn I bought most recently because after all I bought the stuff partly because the color suits this fall's fashions, being deep plummy purple, and being yummy, and gorgeous, and one of the last knitting mags I bought just happened to have the perfect project for it. yay! Now this yarn won't sit around til the next time plummy purple is in all the stores. Not that I won't wear it other years...but sometimes it's nice to be in lockstep when it's not full of fail.

And I thought about all the cheap acrylic and cotton yarns I destashed over the years by giving them away, and realized that those efforts did nothing to make a dent in all the wool that had somehow also piled up. So I looked up charity knitting efforts requiring wool, and I've been dutifully knitting youth sweaters and vests and I am thrilled, thrilled to report that after only 2 weeks of serious effort I've finished 1 sweater entirely, have another waiting for blocking & assembling, have a vest 3/4 finished, and started a new super-bulky project yesterday. How much yarn used up so far...? Well, the bulky waiting for blocking used up--ta-dah!--5 large skeins of really coarse handspun and 3 skeins of soy wool blend, the vest has used up 3 balls of Pingouin fingering (see an earlier post), and the new bulky is using up most of a bag of huge skeins of New Zealand yarn and a few skeins of natural alpaca/wool blend too.

But...uh, I also ordered some wool yarn before I quite realized just how much I still have to de-stash. Well crap. I used up 8 skeins of green on sweater #1, and I'm using 5 of brown on the vest...I can use up the blue combining it with the leftover green and something else...

Still in the de-stash queue: 8 skeins of Soy Wool Stripes, 8 skeins olive Pingouin fingering, 11 skeins gray and white Aarlan wool (ancient!), 4 or 5 large skeins Germantown wool that were knitted up into an unfortunate skirt project but never unraveled/frogged, 3 skeins ugly yellow handspun and 1 orange, whatever is left of the gray NZ wool...and some cool 1 or 2 skein things leftover from olden times.

I have a couple of treats emerging from the stash bags that I'll be posting soon. Including a really strange wool/nylon blend from about 26 years ago that boasts on it's label it was Dylanized.

Dylanized??