Maybe it’s that I spend so much time nursing these days, that it gives me lots of browsing time…
Maybe it’s that I had a few gifts to buy, so I was actually was able to shop and spend a bit, therefore browsing obsessively over the bit of money I could spend…
Maybe it’s because it’s been nearly TWO YEARS since I pretty much quit buying yarn, with the exception of a couple of fiber festivals and some souvenir yarn….
Maybe it’s because my knitting and spinning time has been cut down since Spinner has been born (less time to knit and spin means more time to think about it)….
I don’t know, but I’ve been obsessing about two things: tweed and semi solids.
Specifically?
Silkroad Aran Tweed in Winter Grass, a sweaters worth. Especially this pattern. (Although, does it look like a shorter sweater?)
The Sanguine Gryphon, especially the silk, the worsted, the sock….I love it all. I have so much heavily variagated yarn, and very little handpaints that lean more towards the semi-solid type.
I’ve been thinking a lot about my stash lately, how unpractical it really is. It’s huge, massive, an entire closet worth and I’m quite sure the friends I’ve shown it to think I’m a little bit crackers. It’s beautiful and will keep me in scarves, shawls and socks for a lifetime.
But lately I find I want to knit something and have no yarn for the project. Case in point? What the Skeptic wants for Christmas (legwarmers and a cowl to keep him warm for winter biking) I have nothing for. If I want to make plain old mittens for the boys, I pretty much come up empty, unless I raid the few bags of yarn I’ve been saving for sweaters, eliminating the possibility of a sweater.
So what is the point of my stash?? A collection? My own personal yarn shop? A bit of both?? Plus I sort of miss the days when I had very little yarn. I’d see a project, go shopping, come home and cast on! But having so much yarn makes me a bit stifled, as if I must knit from the stash first and save those other projects for another day. Especially when I’ve got to crunch the budget like we do now. But at the same time it is great to grab something and cast on, and never leave the house.
I’m guessing it’s all a bit of a balance and I’m thinking way too hard about this, but…I sure would love a bag of tweed right now!! Or no, the silk… love that silk!
Knittymama 
Nothing wrong with selling some of your yarn on Ravelry. 🙂 And yes, that is a sort of cropped sweater.
yeah, what Chris said.
next time you need a ball or two, do you want to shop my destash page? 😉
Mmmm….those look like some lovely yarns. And when feel frustrated with my stash (and yarn-purchasing habits), I sell it. Then I buy more!
I’d make mittens and baby sweaters 🙂 My stash is pretty huge now but since my nearest decent yarn shop is in London, it is nice to go and look at the stash.
Hmmmm. Seeing “the few bags of yarn I’ve been saving for sweaters” makes me wonder if perhaps your knitting ambition is greater than your knitting reality. If you’ve got multiple sweaters’ worth of yarn lying about, then perhaps you’ve bitten off more sweater than you can chew. 🙂
So how about sacrificing one of those bags for the mittens, legwarmers, and other items that you’re jonesing to make NOW? If/when you’re ever ready to knit that particular sweater, you can always reacquire the yarn. Or maybe you’ll be so busy with other sweater and other projects that you’ll never miss this one.
Yep, the stash can be a ball and chain. Over the summer I was great about using up worsted weight oddballs or pairs, but the sock yarn… I’ve also learned that worsted weight wool with a bit of silk or cashmere is my favorite.
Have you thought about trading yarn with your knitting friends? It could be fun and useful.
I donate my oddballs (leftovers) or list them on my destash page on Ravelry – you should consider listing some stuff as trades. You might just get some Tweed.
(Really like that sweater, and yes it’s cropped a bit.)
I say go treat yourself
I find myself with the same dilemma at times. I’m trying to knit from my stash, but they’re usually colours and things that I’ve purchased because I like them, of course. So when I need to knit something for the holidays as I am right now, I’m finding myself having to shop for the yarn.
But I guess that’s ok. I’m trying to balance out having to buy yarn to knit something for someone and then “shopping” through my stash to see what to knit for myself 🙂