Dream knitting or finishing my stash

Once upon a time... there was a girl...

Who wanted to knit, but had no idea about yarn...

In case you didn't guess, that's me...

At the beginning of my knitting times, I had no idea how much yarn I would need to knit anything...

So I would buy more yarn than I needed... Sometimes, double the amount...

You see, I had no idea that if you buy fingering or sport weight yarn you get tones of meters, which means you need probably 300-400grams of yarn and not 800grams that I used to buy...

Later, I became better at estimating, but only by little...

That left me with a lot of leftovers, which sometimes were enough for a second and maybe a third project...

I decided to finish with this yarn before I buy new one...

That being said, if I want to knit something specific and I don't have the yarn I will buy... But only as much as I need... aka as much as the design says...

Now, most of my yarn has acrylic... As a blend or it is 100% acrylic...

I know that some people might say "oh, you knit with acrylic... that is not yarn"... I don't care... 

This yarn is perfectly nice, it is perfectly ready to use and I paid for it...

In Greece, where I live, knitters don't realize yet that wool is not that expensive and that you can find commercial wool for the same money (and sometimes less) than acrylic...

And to be honest, I didn't have the chance when I started to try 100% merino wool... Now I have and I love it... But it is not sustainable at all to have perfectly fine yarn and throw it away just because it has acrylic... 

Plus, the yarn I used to buy was soft and good quality acrylic... So, I will use it...

Let's dig in on my stash...

These are the leftovers from my dress... It is sport weight yarn and I had bought 800grams for a cardigan... I have already knit the dress which you have seen on one of my journals and I plan to knit a long sleeved summer cardigan to pair it with the dress... Judging by the dress I will still have leftovers, which I will think what I will do... 

A couple of years back, I bought yarn to make a cardigan for my cousin... A cabled one... With a pattern I made... And - as you can imagine - it was wrong... So I frogged it... I knit for him the flax (which you can see on my journals), I knit the Florence set for my friend (hat, cowl and mittens) and I still have yarn left...

I will discuss my plans for that in a moment...

This is probably the yarn I bought for my boyfriend... I knit my first scarf with it... That was not exactly miscalculation, but I used to buy yarn from Turkey and you could only buy a package of 4 skeins, not singles... I wanted to make the scarf black and red, so I bought 4 black and 4 red skeins... I used more black because I wanted to make it striped and the red was less...

I plan to make the Rug sweater with those... It will be my first colourwork sweater and it will be kind of scappy... I will use these and if I need more I will use this: 

I have no idea where I found it and what I made with it... But it seems that if I knit it double it will have the same thickness as the previous one and it will work... If I run out I will use the blue as well... I will use a lot of colours on this one... If it turns out good, I will wear it outside, if not I will use it inside the house... To keep me warm in the winter...

I will start with a provisional cast on and in case I run out, I will use for the neck this:

I also noticed that I have leftovers that could pair together to make something with a colourwork...

The one is green (which looks blue on the picture) and the other one is striped... I could use it to make a colourwork or mosaic cowl or hat... Haven't found a pattern yet, but I could try it... This or I could use to to make a scrappy shawl or blanket...

Next one the list is this... It is leftovers from my mother's cardigan...

I will probably pair it with this and make a shawl... It has great contrast and I could make it stripped or something else...

Next one on the list is the leftovers I have from another cardigan for my mother...

I also found some more which is not on the picture... I got a gift a few years ago with 200grams of white yarn... I could pair it to make something colourwork again... 

Something else I do is to re-purpose my knitwear... If I have store-bought sweater that I don't like or don't wear for any reason, I frog it... I found a video online once and it explained how you can recognize if you can frog it or not... this is where this yarn came from...

It was an oversized cardigan, a gift from a friend, that didn't actually fit in my wardrobe.. I don't exactly remember, but it was wool and some other "luxurious" fiber... From the look of it it is fingering weight yarn, which will become either a sweater (probably slightly fitted, to be sure I have enough) or a cardigan...

Last but not least my frogged scarf and hat...

This is approximately 400grams of yarn and the smaller ball was a hat and the other two a scarf... It was really nice and warm, but it was terribly long... if I had to take it off because I was hot I had nowhere to put it... I plan to make a cowl, a hat and mittens... I think I have plenty... 

I like to knit and I like to wear what I make... Inside the house and outside of it...

I plan to knit all of those and - if I have more leftovers - I plan to make a leftover blanket... I have a few more balls but they are not that much...

I put them in a bag and when I will have more I will start knitting...

I am thinking to do a corner to corner blanket... I will start with whatever colour and when that finishes, I will continue with the next... And so on...

If you have any ideas about how I could use any of the leftovers I have, comment bellow.. 

How is your stash going??? Do you do what I did??? Take everything out and decide what to do with those before you buy new yarn??? Or you just buy what you like...

I don't say that something is right or wrong... I just feel that they get valuable space on my closet... If I could use them I will and if I don't like the outcome I could donate them... Someone might like them... Or even better, I could give the to someone who needs them...