It's that time of year when I get a desperate urge to tidy, sort and catalogue. I'm not sure where it comes from, but spring cleaning is definitely more winter cleaning in my house! I last went through and made sure that all of my stash was on Ravelry in December 2011: Gulp! At that point in time, I had nearly 5,000 patterns in my Ravelry library and 38,638m of yarn (or enough to go from here to Illchester!).
I spent this afternoon photographing and sorting (checking moth repellents were in place while I was at it), and I'm proud to say that all my yarn is now catalogued on Ravelry. So I nervously downloaded the Excel spreadsheet that tells how much yarn I have... and our survey says: 21,852.7m HUZZAH!! That's 13.5 miles, which is considerably less than the 24 miles last time.
My aim over the last few years has been to work through some of the gorgeous yarns in my stash, and projects in my queue. Everytime I get the yarn out to have a hunt for something, I'm struck by how many beautiful things are waiting to be made here. I didn't manage to hit many of my Knit the Stash 2013 targets - it was a busy year! But last year I did quite well at working through some of those patterns that I've had my eye on for ages.
Now that the stash has been beaten into submission, I'm onto the next stage, which is a serious case of startitis... I've been browsing Ravelry for patterns, and matching up yarn and designs. There are so many brilliant garments and accessories just waiting to be made. This year I think that I'll have a go at making some kids jumpers - for my own, but also for a few special friends and family with little ones on the way. I've got some yarns in just the right quantities for kids sweaters - amounts that until now have been too little for a garment, and too much for an accessory. I've been sucked down a rabbit-hole of cute kids and baby patterns... I may be a while...
Don't forget to enter the Vivacious Volume 1 giveaway. It's open for another week. Full details here: Vivacious Volume 1