I went through a phase of checking and tracking my stash thoroughly and often. At that time I found 10kg of yarn, and embarked on a journey of using it up. It was fun to have a focus and I made great progress in reducing all the odds and ends that were hanging about, both by making and donating.

In the past few months I’ve put some more yarns in a donation box (I have yet to find a place to donate it to but we’re absolutely calling that ‘out of stash’ because I get to make my own rules about this) and things are very neat and tidy. I have stuck to the rule of only buying yarn when I have a project in mind for it, but crucially NOT to the rule of only buying yarn when I’m ready to cast on… So there are many projects in potentia, and only a few bits and pieces that don’t have a known destination yet.

I decided I would write this post *from memory* first, then look, take photos, and see how accurate my recall was. I’m confident going in that I know what’s there… but also I can hear future me chuckling at that hubris. Here we go.

I purposely have a selection of small, colourful acrylic skeins. These are for future colourwork pieces, particularly items for small people. These are fine just living in their box until called on.

I have some cotton odds and ends which are sans purpose at present. These include leftovers from the Amber Fox and Loopy Giraffe. There may be amigurumi in their futures. The colours make a reasonably nice palette together – the yellow is a bit of an outlier.

Sock yarn! I’ve been into socks lately, which has led to me finishing three pairs in a month. I used this brand of yarn on my first pair and I have to say they’re felting a bit, having been through several washes. So I may want to make future pairs a little bigger to allow for that. My first pair in just one colour used 64g, so I need to buy additional contrast yarn to make two pairs from these, as there’s only 11g of the black left… Quel dommage.

100g of nice variegated orange and white DK yarn. A gift. Possibly the second oldest resident of the stash. No plans.

100g of black Feels Like Butta. I think this will be a nice, soft hat.

Some other random orange, Stylecraft Special I think. This is the oldest yarn but I think I’ll put it in the donation box (ie the ‘doesn’t exist’ box). (This was already in the ‘doesn’t exist’ box).

Ooh… is there some other Feels Like Butta in burgundy and/or orange? Or did they get used? Hmm. It’s all been used.

Alpaca! Two skeins bought from the alpaca farm, plus more Baa Ram Ewe in a lovely green. A v-neck, buttoned cardigan with little colourwork alpacas which I can visualise very clearly but need to find or make a pattern for.

Two balls of Jewelspun chunky that I got for Christmas. Needs paired with a neutral for a chunky jumper, maybe?

Two balls of chunky yarn, one from New Lanark, which are destined to be slippers.

And, excluding current projects, I think that’s it?

Post-check reality

I was pretty close! I had forgotten the leftover yarn from my second pair of socks. There’s 49g of the self-striping and 66g of the blue. Perhaps a second pair of identical socks? My mum really loves the first lot.

The only other thing I’d forgotten is this tiny ball of Exquisite, left over from my half-finger gloves and hood. There’s 17g of it, so it’s too big for the scrap jars (which are for any yarn with under 10g remaining) but too small for much else.

I have just under 1.8kg in total. As you’ve seen, almost all of it has a project attached (at least in theory) so I’m well-stocked for a good, what, six months? Or until I see a pattern I get over-excited about. Whichever comes first.