The Great 2007 Stash Bustin' Snoozefest

New rule: I can't buy any new yarn until I de-stashed a bit (arrgh, I'm knitting as fast as I can!). I'm not being as strict as the Knit From Your Stash 2007 folks in terms of rules about when my de-stashing will be over. I just have absolutely no storage space in my small house (two tiny closets, people!). There is yarn crammed into every available space. My office, once used only for my work, has now been taken over by plastic boxes full of yarn. Bedroom dresser: yarn stuffed in between t-shirts and sweaters. Open the storage/sofa end tables, where once housed DVD's and CD's? Yarn.

The one indulgence I am allowing myself is the Socks That Rock! Socks Club; the first shipment of which should arrive ANY DAY NOW. I've been hovering around my mailbox like Ralphie waiting for his secret decoder ring. (If the first sock yarn shipment has anything to do with Ovaltine I will lose it!)

In the meantime, I continue to de-stash. Most of 2006 for me was a blur of out-of-control yarn purchases (I'm not the only one, right?!). Unfortunately I wasn't very smart about my purchases. Not realizing that I would actually be confident enough to one day knit a whole sweater, I bought yarn 2 to 3 skeins at a time. The result is that I now have tons of yarn but can't knit any big projects with it (well, maybe if I took the time and got creative about it, but that seems like a lot of work). My idea? Baby sweaters. The people in my life have gone all baby crazy and said babies are at the age where I can knit them sweaters with 2 to 3 skeins. I figure it's destashing and acquiring some sweater know-how all in one.

Here's my first sweater. It's a test sweater, really, but came out better than I expected. It's made from yarn I bought within my first month of knitting, before I realized there was yarn besides Jo-Ann Fabrics. It's a Jo-Ann's yarn, Bellezza Collection Dolcetto (what is up with that full of it name?!). It has the same yarn content and feels exactly like Rowan Soft Baby. It's not plied (is that the correct term?) so the yarn would probably look better as a blanket, but the sweater is cute anyway. The pattern is Knitting Pure and Simple's Baby Pullover. It took less than 2 skeins (for 6 month size):


Up next, ribbed socks made from this worsted weight little lovely:

Prism Yarn, Andee in colorway Garden. I would've used this for a baby sweater, but all the babies I know are boys. Plus, I really want some nice warm socks made with this.