I have mentioned before that I am following Lynne Rowe’s Use it or Lose it campaign.  It has been very much like a spring clean of my yarn stash – I have been through all of it thoroughly and if I could see no use for it then it was given to a worthy cause.  I have also refrained from buying new yarn, which has proved extremely difficult and I have to confess to a couple of lapses.  The first was to buy some red yarn to make poppies for our knitgroup’s annual poppy display (which increases every year) and the other to buy some double knit sock yarn (most of which has been used).

One of the joys of reviewing all my stash is finding yarn I haven’t looked at or used for a long time.  I have found some fabulous yarn bases and glorious colours, and it has made me want to find good uses for it.   So I decided to log it all, and that is what I have been doing this last weekend.

I have 7 tubs of yarn now (much reduced from before) and my logging has resulted in some interesting statistics.  Of course, I could just keep these to myself as I do find the amount of yarn I still have rather embarassing,  But if I confess then maybe it will inspire me (or embarass me) into making sure I use it!  So here goes:

My 7 tubs hold 153 skeins/balls of yarn, a total of almost 12kg in weight and almost 50km in length.  My logic told me I should use the aran and chunky yarn first, as it is thicker and will make up quickly – but I have less than 1km of that and it really is too warm here right now to knit or crochet heavy items.   So I have decided to look at the laceweight, which does amount to over 21km!   Amongst this is some kidsilk yarn – and that is what I have been playing with.   Here’s a small selection from my stash:

I have some lovely colours and I really enjoy working with it but it is like marmite – some people hate it and some people love it.  I love the cloud-like quality that I achieve when crocheting it, it is so light that it is perfect from summer wear (but not next to my sensitive skin!).  If you love it then maybe I can entice you to join in a CAL here on the blog.  This is a one ball CAL, meaning 1 x 25g or about 200m of yarn.  There are lots of brands you could use – such as Rowan Kidsilk Haze, Debbie Bliss Angel and Willow & Lark Plume, so if you don’t have any in your stash you have plenty of choice if you want to buy some.   The CAL is for a skinny scarf and is very simple, and it could be used with any yarn so if you don’t like or have any kidsilk yarn then you could join in using something else.

I will publish more details in a few days, so watch this space.   Oh, and if you like a bit of sparkle then you could add a simple beaded edge 🙂

Happy crocheting xxx