Hastur's Stash-Reduction Challenge

[Zahra Ovaci]

So, my friend Hastur is challenging herself and everyone else to reduce their stash! I've joined in for the ten-project challenge, but there are also 25 and 50 project challenges! Here are a copy of the rules:

1. Have fun reducing your stash.

2. There is no time limit- people have different size projects they would like to work on.

3. Thou shall not purchase any new patterns until 10, 25, or 50 projects have been stitched. Pattern size does not matter.

4. This challenge can also apply to knitting, beading, sewing and crocheting patterns.

5. You can make some exemptions - I am not placing limitations on this due to commitments that people might already have. Remember, though, the goal of this challenge is to reduce stash so too many exemptions will sabotage these efforts. I have declared three exemptions.

6. Gifts, gift cards, trades, RAKs [Random Acts of Kindness] and patterns bought with gift money are not a violation of this challenge.

7. Freebies count as part of your total and you can aquire them at any point.

8. The offical start date of this challenge was Sept 1, 2006 since I [Hastur] have been posting about it for awhile and want to make sure the everyone's projects have been included.

If you want to join, please leave a comment on her blog letting her know smile  

[VP Club Freakin Justice]

That's a good idea.  

[Peppermint Elf]

It's a sad sad thing... when much of your stash isn't even spun yet. sweatdrop  

[Zahra Ovaci]

Spinning it up could count as stash reduction smile Or would that be stash conversion?  

[Peppermint Elf]

Zahra Ovaci

Spinning it up could count as stash reduction smile Or would that be stash conversion?

Probably stash conversion. Technically the stash is still there waiting to be knit.... it's now just in a more ready form. sweatdrop

(BTW.. I joined the spinning forum over at Pixie Purls. I miss all the Gaia icons. xd )  

[I be me]

That sounds cool.

unfortunatly for me my stash just got reduced to zero. (moving complications). but thems the breaks.  

[DecemberFlower]

I've been working on some stash reduction myself. It's kind of difficult, since I've got a lot of just scrap yarn or just plain crap yarn. Rather than produce a bunch of little projects from my stash, I'd rather just reduce its volume or finish up the half-finished projects that the yarn was intended for in the first place.  

[Keiyla]

Why are we trying to REDUCE our stash? That hardly seems fair to the stash, OR to the projects and items made from it. Such a tactic would seem to result in finished projects which fairly scream "desperation," rather than indicating carefully thought out, well planned, lovingly agonized-over gifts.

For example, Christmas is coming up. Now, I have (ahem) a couple of fairly large bins of yarn. Would it be fair to the people on my list, if I limit their gifts to the yarn I already have? My stash is not comprised of dozens of skeins of separate colors. Instead, my stash is one or two (possibly three or four, maybe five...) skeins of colors and styles that are left over from OTHER projects. Do I really want my favorite aunt to receive a gift made fom left-over yarn? My friend's new baby is due in February. Should I throw together a scrap 'ghan, when in fact what she deserves is a carefully coordinated layette?

And really, even hundreds of several gallons of yarn isn't so much when you really think about it. It's not like the yarn is even all compatable with itelf! I have bulky weight, worsted weight, DK weight (not the same, I found out...) sport and fingering weights. Even of the different weights, things get funky. You wouldn't want to use homespun and Lionsuede together, for example. Nor would you want to blend acrylics with wool, or wool with wool blends, or cashmere, or silk. And when you get to colors, you really complicate things! Each skein is unique, and completely incompatable with any other skein in my stash, and thus I can't possibly have enough yarn to make even one baby blanket.

I could, possibly, make a bunch of uncoordinating squares, or dishcloths. But when I have so many other projects that I *need* to work on, its seems selfish of me to make squares for charity, or non-matching dishcloths for my friends and family, merely to free up space for myself. SELFISH I tell you!

So, I say, no to stashbusting! My friends, my family, and my darling, cold-footed boyfriend deserve BETTER than that, darn it all!  

[Maer^ier]

Teehee...

Did anyone else notice that "Darn it all" pun?

Well I thought it was funny.

Stash? Most knitters have a stash?

All I've got is about 3 pounds of a five pound ball, a couple skeins of black and multi-color thread chenille, two skeins of vomit colored yarn my grandmother (bless her poor color-blind and fashion deprived soul) gave me a couple years ago for christmas, and the one ball of multi-white that came with my first pair of knitting needles. Enough for a project or two, but not enough that I need to reduce.

Hey Keiyla, If you've got that much leftover yarn you're never going to use, how about sending some to an income-deprieved teenager with a knitting addiction and unsympathetic parents?  

[Zahra Ovaci]

May I first and foremost recommend the books, "Odd Ball Knitting" and "One Skein". They're both great resources for well-thought-out projects that use scrap yarn, or that one ball that never got used.

Now for the next bit. I can understand your desire to knit projects for people that don't, you know, suck. And if your stash doesn't have the components you want to make the items you want, then by all means, don't join the challenge, and knit what you like. Please recall, this challenge only calls for not buying patterns until you've finished X projects -- any other restrictions (such as working only from your stash) are entirely at your own discretion.

Personally, my stash? Is monstrous. I have enough yarn for three or four heavy sweaters, over a dozen pairs of socks, more hats and scarves than I'll ever likely wear, and the laceweights.... oh my, the laceweights. I've got yarn for 10 6ft x 6ft shawls in my stash, some of which have sat there for over a year. If I, personally, don't start working to find the right projects for these yarns, I'll soon have more stash than I can expect to knit up in the next ten years. Ergo, I joined the challenge. And if it so happens that I don't have a pattern that suits a particular stash yarn, but I still want to work with the yarn, well, time to get going on designing one that does.

Also, there's no time limit, so there's no reason why you can't figure out just the right thing for just the right yarn, for just the right person. If something isn't speaking to you, let it wait until it does. I just finished a pair of lace scarves that were stash yarn since last august, and only just now got to telling me what they wanted to be.

The project isn't about eliminating all stash forever. It's about going through what you've got, remembering why you loved it enough to buy it in the first place, and making something beautiful from what you have. If nothing else, preemie caps are always acceptedat hospitals, and they even like acrylic.  

[DecemberFlower]

Well, I'm stashbusting just to make room. I don't have storage space for tons of yarn, and if it can't fit into the bin I have, then I really shouldn't have it. So by using up yarn I already have, I make room to get new.

And speaking of getting new, another reason for my stashbusting is because I don't have money for new yarn. So I'm trying to come up with things to do with what I have.