WIP Wednesday/Stashbusting

As I am coming up for air on The Book sample projects, I've been mulling over what to do about my large personal stash of fiber and yarn.  Realistically, I haven't had much time to knit from stash with all the contract/design work I've been doing the last two years.  (Don't get me wrong, that's great and I'm VERY grateful and happy to have that work!!)  I had been talking with a friend about it, and she had mentioned jettisoning a bunch of things in her stash she had bought that were not to her taste anymore - some bulkier yarns and some less-nice basics that she didn't see ever getting around to using.  That seemed sensible to me, but when I went through the stash, I've not really got much, if anything that fits the bill.  Most of the yarn/fiber I've stockpiled are very nice - hand-dyes, luxury blends, sweater lots - all things I would, in theory, knit up happily.

And for good or for bad, when I started going through the bins to see what I might want to get rid of, I realized my Ravelry stash list is in NO WAY up-to-date.  Not even close.  Not even close to close. Particularly in the spinning fibers department.  (And Ravelry now has a really nice fiber stash feature, so there's no reason not to take advantage of it).

So.... here's what I've decided.  I'm still obviously going to put design things at the front of the knit-this-first list.  But I'm going to:

1. Document what I've actually got.  This will do a couple of things.  I'll be able to go through all my storage bins and if there IS anything I want to list for sale, I'll do that - or donate it to a good cause to be used.  It will also help me put all of that info into Ravelry so I can use the databases there to link up patterns and yarns/fibers.  Finally, it'll hopefully keep me honest, because instead of thinking I only had 14 skeins or so of fingering weight, the real number is (cough....much... cough) more than that.
2. Start going through and choosing some (likely smaller) projects to use up some of my single skeins.  I've got some gorgeous handspun that I'd like to get knit up into some fun accessories for the cooler months.  I've also got some nice yarn that I know will be lovely in a project, but maybe isn't something I'd wear myself, so I've decided to commit some of the finished stash projects to the Mittens for Akkol orphanage project.  I've been a member of the group as a lurker for several years, having not had a lot of time to knit for them, but they are a very worthwhile charity group, and it makes me feel good that anything I knit will be well used and well loved by the kids.

To kick that off, I decided to start with a couple of skeins from a sock club from The Unique Sheep from 2009.  The trick here is that the original pattern called for 2 yarns to be held together, yielding a sportweight-type sock.  I don't have a full skein of either of the yarns, so I knew I'd be short to try to knit a pair of socks from just one of them.  I didn't care for the pattern that came with this yarn, so I decided on just a simple 2x2  ribbing, toe-up sock to make the most of the yardage I do have.

Here's sock #1 worked up thru the heel.  I'm going to cast on sock #2, and work to the same point, and then I'll weigh out the remaining yarn, divide it equally, and knit the legs of the socks.  Nothing fancy, nothing crazy - just some nice basic heavier-weight socks.  These can be my travel/waiting room projects for a while until they are done, since they are very portable.  Then I can decide what I want to tackle next!

Full disclaimer:  I have a metric tonnage of fiber.  It is far beyond SABLE.  Beyond vampire and members of the undead population's lifespan SABLE.  Be prepared I will be attempting to whittle that down as well, which will likely involve innumerable pics of partially filled bobbins, since I'm really slow at spinning these days!