Tag Archives: stashcurating

January 2025

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Crafting wise, 2025 has got off to a good start, with some done everyday. I always aim to do some everyday,but this year as I want to craft everyday and make more items, I have noticed that occasionally, I would have gone to bed without doing it. So I am making a proper effort to do it.

I started the new year with a few knitting WIPs , including Debbie Abraham’s mystery blanket 2024, my Wicked tank top, my Meadow Slipover , Debbie Abraham’s baby blanket 2023 and the Good morning blanket by Purl Soho. Progress has been made on all except the baby blanket and the meadow Slipover. Sewing has been a big plus and so far I have managed to complete a number of items.

Amongst the items I made were 2 of @Adamsews EPP Keeper Case from the Alice Caroline Christmas sewing festival. All fabrics and notions were from stash as I am still aiming for a no craft purchases year. I made padded matching needle case so that the needles won’t pierced the plastic pocket.

EPP keeper case

Also made a pouch which was supposed to be a 10 minute make, this was an epic fail as it took much longer. I have a much easier and quicker way to make the same item.

I love sewing so sometimes if I don’t have anything in particular I want or need to sew I will find a pattern I like and make a few of the same. These reusable coffee cup sleeves were one of those projects, a few have gone into the wild are in use already. Some are reversible, so a festive fabric one side and something else on the other.

A few of the coffee cup sleeves

If you scroll down you will see the Anjou Slipover I made that was too big, so I took it in and made a drawstring small pouch with it.

And after a couple of years I finished the embroidery kit I was gifted one Christmas

Looking forward to a year of working through my stashes. My wonderful granddaughter will be helping me to. Her sewing confidence is growing fantastically.

Plans for 2024

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Starting the new year with 2 WIPs, the first is Kyra a kit from Tribe Yarns. I may have to unfollow her as she has so many beautiful posts that inspire and tempt me. This was one of those. The pattern is a simple roll neck sweater in a bulky yet light yarn , which is my favourite type of jumper to wear, I could not find the pattern on Ravelry as it is one of those with a number not a name, so I gave in and bought the kit. It’s knitting up nicely and I will definitely be knitting at least a second from stash, this yarn is so warm . My only slight annoyance is that if you like to work from a printed pattern the writing is quite small compared to all the patterns I’ve worked from recently.

Kyra pattern
Tribe Yarns Kit

The other WIP I have is the Anthology shawl which I think I am going to do the lace edging early as I am not enjoying this as much as I did. We shall see.

My plans for next year are not hard and fast but I want to work from the patterns and stash I have , get tempted from the stash. The exception will be if I need something that cannot be substituted with something I have to finish a project. I have snuck in a last minute pattern for a KAL in January, another project I found through Tribe Yarns, this is the Artus shawl . I will be using a different colour palette and have already put my yarns together for this from stash. I may use an extra colour if one runs out but am hopeful it won’t.

Yarns for Artus
#Artus pattern

I want to make some skirts, a Christmas fabric dress, some birthday and Christmas cards, knit though a hat pattern book I have , sew another adventure land baby quilt, keep my sewing table clear , sew each of the bag patterns I have, sort through the boxes and condense. I have a pile of bags and stuff I need to sort through. The sorting has started but it is such a pain, there are groups it is sorted into, sell, charity shop, recycle, bin and keep. Stuff to sell has a cupboard that I have set aside for the items once full I shall send the rest to the charity shop. I have an old bin with a bin bag to put all the charity shop stuff in and once it is full it is going straight down there. Recycling is the same, once full put in the relevant bin. The stuff to keep has to be put away and if no where to put it can be found, given to charity shop. I also need to go through my wardrobe day to day clothes and do the same although none of those will be binned.

Catching UP

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Not done as much as I had planned on the crafting front, but, I have made good headway on my Debbie Abrahams Mystery Blanket from 2016. Out of the seven strips and 4 borders , I have managed to complete, 4 strips, 1 border and a few squares. To save my arms from the weight of the completed blanket when doing the borders I am knitting the side borders on the strip before I sew them together.

So far I have sewn two sets of strips together and am feeling a sense of completion. What I like about Debbies Blankets are the range of techniques , colours and yarn choices. The 2016 one has beading, bobbles, cables, lace, intarsia, swiss darning and stranded knitting. Each square feels like one has actually completed an item, which I guess one has. I am on track to complete this by the end of June.

Strips so far

Missing Mojo with A Dust of Snow

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I started a Dust of Snow last year, a lovely wrap designed by Helen Stewart of Curiously Handmade. In the last post I mentioned my dust of snow wrap and how I managed to use a lot of stash. What I didn’t mention was that when knitting the first half of this,  I lost my knitting mojo. The wrap uses two yarns knitted together changing colour every few rows. I started with the pastels and Kidsilk Haze Night in a white with silver, When the white ran out I continued with the pastels and a pale green Kidsilk Haze. I wasn’t sure if losing my knitting mojo was the pattern, or just me, so I put this to one side and started a few other projects.

a dust of snow the pastels
A Dust of Snow Pastel section

Around the same time I found some mini Knitting Goddess sock yarn skeins, I’d already wound into balls. These were mini balls of multi coloured lusciousness. I love colour and these inspired me, invigorated me. When the pattern called for a new colour instead of using the original 4 colours I started using the mini skeins. After the pale green KSH ran out I used another ball of Kidsilk Haze night in a deep grey blue with Silver. Now the wrap was flying off the needles. It was enjoyable to knit again and I wanted to keep going. Whilst knitting I would stop and look at the myriad of colours worked so far and feel so happy.

A Dust of Snow the grey and colourful section

For the last section I am currently using Kidsilk Haze in lime green. I am loving how the different colours of Kidsilk haze creates a different effect giving the wrap an amazing riot of colour. Whilst enjoying this knit and observing the colours, it occurred to me this week that the reason I lost my knitting mojo was my colour choice. I love colour, strong, vibrant, jewel toned colours. I’ve never met a colour I didn’t like, although I am not a fan of pastel colours. As soon as I started knitting with the vibrancy of the sock yarn my mojo returned. This is a lesson learnt, when knitting for myself stick to the bright colours.

A Dust of Snow, the variations