FO! Women's weekly cardigan

Yesterday I finished my Women's weekly cardigan.  Sewed in the ends and found a button.
Unfortunately, the colour is a deep ruby red and I can't capture the richness of the colour, neither in artificial light, nor in daylight. (In fact, the photographs that I took last night are better than the ones today, in daylight).

So please ignore the crappy photo - this is just proof it's finished. I tried wearing it last night but the slightly damp alpaca silk had that horrible wet smell so I ended up taking it off.  The sleeves are just a little bit longer than I usually wear; not down to the fingers or anything drastic, but about an inch past the wrist. I usually wear shorter sleeves which don't interfere with dpns!

So not the right red!

Back view

Wish I'd taken the time to rearrange the bottom properly!
This was my March Stashbuster project, using DB aran alpaca silk.

I've yet to decide on an April stashbuster.  Suddenly, stashbusting's serious.  I've been quietly preparing my photos for

First of all I tackled the office, which wasn't bad at all. It took just two photos to snap the stash laid out on my desk.

Then last week I tackled the flat here in SW london.  Chris knows where the stash is in this tiny flat. It's under the computer desk, in a basket next to the computer chair and takes up half of the under-sofa storage.  He's even packed some of it away for me.  But to see it all out at one time might be a bit frightening for a non-knitter and non-hoarder, so I waited until he popped into the bath last weekend before I hauled the sofa stash out.  That was quite an experience. These vacuum bags really do squish the yarn up, don't they? Amazing how they grow when out of the bags, a bit like those paper gardens which you water and they bloom.
Gathering the stash from under the computer was a bit more awkward as half was in a large backpack (summer stuff from last year) and I kept finding odd balls lying in the software boxes and manuals.  By this time it was late afternoon, so I had to resort to taking the photos in the bathroom, the lightest room in the house at this time of day.  Absolutely shattered after this, but it gave me the opportunity to sort out my summer yarns and put away the wool ones ready for Spring.

And today was the rest of the stash, over in SE london.  I had the day off work, which was just as well. Ms CleverClogs decided to empty out each box and bag and also sort stuff out at the same time.  This took me from 8am to 3pm!  I found another nasty little habit which I possess: I decide a project's to be frogged, pull out the needles and don't frog. So I had huge tangles of half completed knitting all over the place.

Only one disaster with the stash. I'd stored some stash in those huge striped zip up bags and I think some of it must have smellt a bit musty. Now all of it does. It wasn't worth skeining and washing, as it was stuff which I'd had for years and years and would never get around to knitting up. Even on ebay it would have fetched maybe £50 if it wasn't smelly, so it was far easier to just chuck the lot.  One bit striped laundry bag = 2 black bin bags of yarn.  I kept the odd pack of yarn, but it's separate from the rest of my stash. Thank goodness it's done now.  I feel a lot better. Ruthless pruning might be in order. You can see for yourself tomorrow.  I'm going to post two posts - one in the morning and one in the afternoon, as there's about a dozen photos!

 

Comments

[Tracy]

Am I looking forward to those photos hehe! Another handy addition to you wardrobe there, I love a ruby shade.

[Diane]

I LOVE YOUR STASH! Of course now I have stash envy. Oh just to live under your work desk for a week or two .....

Just a suggest for your musty yarn: why don't you just give it away? I had a computer printer that didn't feed the paper correctly ,a ton of cheap acrylic yarn, and an entire little village of houses that I didn't want anymore. I put an ad in the local paper as free to good home. All were taken by appreciative people. Recycled intead of trashed! Someone might be happy to skein, wash, and air out yarn they got for free.

[Carrie K]

I came from Chris's blog to gawk at your stash (and wow!) but I love that cardigan. Pretty!