Losing Weight

After last week's weigh in of my yarn stash, I realised that I really need to take control of the situation.

Weighing the stash in kilograms doesn't mean that much to me, I'm a pounds and ounces girl.  18 kg, is it a lot?  18 doesn't sound like that big a number.  My husband brought me back down to Earth by telling me it's about 3 stones!!

Ok so I've been in denial - I'm a stashaholic!  In my defence, I've been knitting and crocheting, non-stop (and I do mean NON-STOP) for nearly 50 years - so that's a lot of yarn leftovers accumulated over the years.  And that's the main problem, a lot of the yarn I have is bits and pieces leftover from cardigans and sweaters I've knitted over the years.   I just can't bear to throw the bits out.  I've tended to ignore them, but now I'm going to tackle the problem.

By working on one box at a time, I'm going to sort through, use up or throw out the leftovers.  So from now on, I'm on a yarn diet.  My aim is to reduce the stash to half its current weight - yes, I want to lose 9 kg - and preferably by September, so that I can go to Yarndale with a clear conscience and treat myself by buying far too much yarn!

So easing myself gently into this, I started with one of the smallest boxes.  Here are the results of my first week of dieting.

Firstly I tackled some odds and ends of DK weight yarn.

I crocheted a coaster using my Sunny Days pattern.

Then I cleared out more bits by crocheting this cover for a wooden coat hanger.

A small basket got a makeover with this liner.

Then there were some very tiny bits and pieces of 4 ply yarn.

I used what I could to make some mini granny squares for my sock yarn blanket.

Grace had passed some of her leftover sock yarn (Wendy Roam Fusion) for me to make some mini granny squares and to knit a mini sweater to add to my bunting.

The remainder of this yarn will be passed back to Grace.

9g of chunky yarn has become a knitted scarf for Little Bear.

187g of unusable bits have been thrown out.

The total reduction for the week is 341g.  Not bad for now.  That was just one small box.  There are plenty more to work through but at least I've made a start.

If I reduce the amount of time spent sleeping and eating, and I knit a bit faster, you never know, I might just lose that weight after all.