2012 Stash-busting Challenge Update and Link-up!

Finally, my friends!  I apologize for the wait.  We have 38 people signed up for the 2012 Stash-busting Challenge (it's not too late to sign up) but haven't had an update since February (so sorry about that!).

According to my Ravelry projects and the stark proof in my yarn storage area, I've completed 15 projects from my stash this year and still have at least 6 WIPs.  How many projects did you work on from your stash so far in 2012?  I feel that I could have finished many more had I not taken up sewing in March!  But thankfully I'm catching up quickly with Baby #2 on his way.

Here is a look at what I've done since the last update, and below that is a link-up so you can show off how you've been putting your stash to good use. I apologize in advance for the lackluster photos and background -- I don't yet have a model for many of these projects!

Here goes!

This is Carina Spencer's Small Things Sweater with the bonnet from her Giftwrap Sweaters eBook. The eBook was a thoughtful gift from a reader who should know that I have plans to make the sweet romper from the book, as well. The yarn is from Brambleberry Yarns and I love the color -- Cynthia hand-dyed the yarn with natural, plant-based dyes.

This is the gift wrap sweater in Lion Brand's Fishermen's Wool.  The yarn is leftover from a fall table runner I crocheted and felted two years ago (that's it? seems longer).  The wool feels stiff and crunchy at first, but softens after blocking and wearing.  I didn't have enough suitable buttons on hand for this one, so I guess it counts as a WIP, doesn't it?

This is Baby Sweater Vest, an interesting knit designed to keep you from having to put as vest over a small baby's head.  That said, it came out bigger than I expected, a size I wouldn't mind stuffing a baby's head into.  It's in Knit Picks' Wool of the Andes Bare, leftover from my Gallatin Sweater Coat. I strayed from my typical color schemes with the red buttons, but I'm glad I did.  I love them and they remind me of a dress I had when I was three or four years old.  How's that for long-held memories?

I'm sure you're all familiar with Ginny's simple newborn hat with a touch of lace.  It was one of the first things I cast on for our new baby, in Knit Picks Shine Sport.

This is my second Milo vest and definitely not my last.  I made it with the leftover DK weight Knit Picks Swish (superwash) from Nathan's sailboat sweater.  This is such a hardcore stash-buster that I had to make garish stripes out of the stuff to make it work.  I think I'll get used to the colors when there's a cute baby sporting them...Or at least, I hope.  I started a pair of mittens with the scant leftovers and ditched them -- the yellow and red striping reminded me too much of Ronald McDonald and I couldn't bear to make Nathan wear them, much less look at them while I knitted.

I loooooved knitting this Newborn Vertebrae buttonless cardigan in Knit Picks Palette leftovers.  I hope to find the time to knit him the Baby Vertebrae version for 0-3 months in worsted weight.  The sweater was written in plain stockinette, but I jazzed it up with a fair isle pattern from the Knitting Stitches Visual Encyclopedia.

I admit that this sweet sweater was the longest-ever WIP to sit in my stash.  I started it well before Nathan was a twinkle in our eyes -- I'm not even sure if we were married when I first knitted all the pieces!  I didn't have a recipient in mind, just a pattern I wanted to knit and some hard-to-work-with cotton boucle yarn I inherited from a colleague years ago. The yarn was so hard to work with that I gave up on sewing the pieces together -- there was no way that I could get a darning needle through this clunky mess, so I put it down and let years pass by.

But just a week or two ago I had a bright idea -- you know, the kind you get while you're in the shower or as you're drifting to sleep at night -- to sew the pieces together with my sewing machine!!!  Needless to say, it worked, and in time for my second child to arrive.  That didn't take long, really!  Only six or seven years.

 

This sweater, a Dale pattern, is the bane of my existence.  I started it when I was pregnant with Nathan and you can see how much I've learned about myself as a knitter since then.  1) I hate weaving in ends. 2) I hate seaming.  And this pattern has heaps of both.  I pledge to finish it in time for Baby #2 to wear -- I've done almost all of the work already -- but it's so hard to pick up and weave in all those ends, knowing how much seaming is left and that a collar still needs to be added.  I really hated adding the button placket as an afterthought and haven't touched a similar pattern since.  The little had just needs some fake grafting and some i-cord ties.  What's stopping me?  All those ends to weave in.

But I do love these old-fashioned buttons (or at least I think they're old-fashioned; they remind me of my grandmother), so I'll do my best to press forward.

I still have yet to finish a smaller version of Bit Snowy Owl for the baby's room (this one includes a jingle ball for his amusement) and a pair of mittens for Nathan.  The owl is made from unknown yarn gifted to me by a different co-worker and the mittens are Knit Picks DK City Tweed leftovers from a vest and sweater.  I love how well the colors go together despite the yarn being purchased separately.

Lastly is my Aestlight Shawl, which still hasn't been blocked (how embarrassing).  This yarn was the last to enter my stash last year, a gift from my husband.  I'd better block it soon so I can start wearing it this fall.  Silly me, last Christmas I thought I'd have been wearing it last winter!  I might have, if it weren't for the edging.  I found it tedious and kept losing interest.

Now it's your turn.  What have you been churning out from your stash?