Let’s just say, I got ahead of myself and knit a few rounds without realizing that I needed to shift the marker at the start of the row. The result was very, very bad.

The beret is no more. Let us never speak of it again.

I took a few days off from knitting until I could figure out the exact perfect project to start on that I knew would lead me to nothing but success (or at least without feeling too stabby). I decided to pull out some of my most favorite yarn of all time (Dream in Color Classy worsted) and get started on a cardigan for this fall.

Because the yarn comes in hanks, I had to wind it. Hanks of yarn look like this:

(This is not Dream in Color Classy. This is Hazel Knits Artisan Sock. But I like this picture.)

Hanks are large loops of yarn that are twisted back on themselves. For smaller businesses that hand dye their own yarns, this saves a step of having to wind each and every skein after the dyeing process (which in turn probably saves the consumer a  little extra money).

I used to wind my hanks into balls by hand, draping the loop of yarn over my knees and then just winding, winding, winding away. This continued for about a month when I started knitting, and then I decided to spend a little of my yarn budget on a swift and ball winder. It was probably the best money I ever spent.

For the non-knitters reading this, here’s how a swift and ballwinder work. First, you slip the large loop of yarn onto the swift. Mine can be adjusted to keep an even but not-too-tight tension.

Then, finding the end of the yarn (it’s usually knotted and needs to be snipped), bring it over the the ball winder, threading it through the tension guide and affixing it to the top. I usually use tape to make sure the yarn tail doesn’t get sucked into the spinning vortex of the ball winder.

Then, start turning the handle of the ballwinder! The yarn will be pulled directly from the spinning swift onto the ballwinder, creating a perfect yarn cake as seen in the photo below:

From there, it’s time to start knitting!

Which I did. Which I’ll show you next time. Stay tuned!

Speaking of which – I still have some nice yarn available on my Ravelry Stash page, if you’re interested!

Anyway, I think I’ve definitely made some good progress on my goal of selling, using or donating my entire yarn stash that was current as of March 18, 2008, which at the time was 25.8 miles of yarn. I really thought I was crazy at the time.

But I’m making progress! Here’s where we stand as of today:

So far, I’ve moved 64% of that 25.8 miles out of my stash, leaving just 16,648 yards, or 9.46 miles. Like I said, most of that I’ve sold, and in looking at what’s left I think that a lot of it will be donated, particularly the leftovers of the Cotton Ease I bought for the Babette blankets. Donating just that yarn will reduce the yardage significantly.

Now, as I’ve mentioned before, I am still acquiring yarn during this stash-busting phase. But I’ve been much more judicious about the yarns I’m choosing to bring into the stash, and am trying to fill the stash with yarns I know I’ll love, love, love to knit with (like Dream in Color Classy – oh, how I love thee).  So I’m definitely not trying to reach a zero-sum yarn stash situation, but I am trying to control the size and quality of the yarns I keep around.

And it’s working! And I’m much, much more confident that I’ll be able to reach this goal than I was when I made it. Thank goodness I still have over a year to go!

The reason I’m adding the ads is purely selfish – I want a new camera. I’ve been working on my Flickr 365 project for a little over three months now, and while my point & shoot has done an admirable job, I’ve begun to notice its limitations.

In fact, last week my awesome co-worker Brooke (who is an incredible photographer AND she reads this site – everyone say hi to Brooke!) let me play around with her fancy-pants Canon DSLR. Isn’t it pretty?

We work downtown near Riverside park, so I took a quick walk and took a few photos, both with the fancy-pants camera and again with my trusty point & shoot. I really didn’t think there’d be a huge difference.

Oh, but there was. Check out these black-eyed Susans:

Perfectly lovely photo of perfectly lovely flowers. This is the point & shoot.

Wow! Look at the colors, and the depth of field! See how the blooms just pop!

That second photo was taken with the fancy-pants camera with the kit lens, everything set to automatic and without any post-processing (as in, no Photoshopping).

Playing with the DSLR camera for the afternoon convinced me.� I’ve decided that I’d really, really like a fancy-pants camera. And while it’s not exactly in the budget right now, I think I can swing it if I sell some yarn and make a few cutbacks here and there.

You know what that means – stash sale! Stay tuned for the announcement, I’ve got lots of gorgeous yarn that would love a new home.

I’m not sure how accurately that picture portrays it, but everything is covered in about a half inch thick layer of ice, then snow on top of it. Tree limbs are snapping power lines all over the city, cars are frozen in their spots, and from the looks of it (at least in our apartment complex) no one in Louisville owns a snow shovel. Yes, that includes me and Mr. Martini. (Hey, we don’t have a driveway!)

The first day I was home from work, I was able to actually get some work done remotely, which was great. The second day, however, our DSL pooped out, and the modem flashed a little red light all day long. Which was annoying, to say the least.

While I waited to be reconnected to the outside world, I did a little housekeeping. Specifically, I reorganized my stash, which I had been meaning to do since we moved in.

Here’s what it looked like before, spread out on our queen sized Ikea bed:

This is completely unacceptable. I have a white dresser in my closet whose sole purpose is to hold the stash. However, the stash has grown and can no longer fit exclusively in the dresser. Plus, I have random half-completed projects in various project bags, which is just taking up space. All in all, it’s one big mess. This will not do.

My goal for this reorganization was to fit all of the yarn that I would ever plan to use into the dresser. The rest? Well, we’ll get to that in a minute.

So that’s what I did. An hour and 15 minutes later, I had this:

At the top of the picture are the three works in progress I have on my needles (a cowl, a scarf, and a sweater).

The two drawers on the right hold all of my worsted weight yarns (upper drawer) and all of my sock yarns (lower drawer). The drawer on the left is all of my bulky yarn, pattern kits, and all projects that need completed (blocked, seamed, buttons sewn on, etc) or frogged (three different half-completed single socks). These three drawers now hold all of the yarns I love, and will want to use. The trick – nothing can go into these drawers unless something comes out, either completed or sold.

Two of the smaller white bins in the middle hold all of the leftover scraps from various completed projects. I like to hang on to these in case of repairs. I’ve already dug into these boxes on more than one occasion. The other white bin holds the yarn and finished squares for my Babette blanket.

The yarn that I knew I wasn’t in love with, that I probably wouldn’t use anytime soon got separated into two places.

First, the large bin in the middle. This yarn is for sale, and in most cases is already posted as such on Ravelry. I added a few items to this bin, and I’ll be adding them to my sale page on Ravelry soon.

And finally, the big blue bag on the left. This is all of the yarn that I can’t sell (or wouldn’t be worth selling). Half balls of Cotton Ease, leftover acrylics, etc. All of this yarn has been grouped together into the big blue bag. If I don’t use this yarn in the next six months, it’s going to be donated to charity. I’m just going to give it away.

I can’t tell you how happy this made me. I’ve hated not being able to see what my  yarn looks like except by the pictures on Ravelry. Now I know that I can open a drawer and see exactly what I have, and make plans for how to use it. Granted, a lot of this yarn was bought in the early days of knitting, when I didn’t really know what I liked. Now that I know, I think I can be more conscious going forward of only buying yarn when I need it, or when I have “room” for it (both in the drawers and in the budget).

It feels like a fresh start, perfect for the new year.

Except…

Well, since I was out of town for a few days, I didn’t get to work on some of the crafty projects I had planned, which means the blog fodder is thin. Hmm.

I know! How about a 101 in 1001 update! Most specifically, #23 – Sell or use entire current yarn stash (in hand as of 3/18/08).

When I last reported on the progress of this goal way back in March, I had sold a whopping 360 yards, leaving 45,310 yards left in my stash.

I’m happy to report that I’ve made a lot more progress since then. In fact, I’m almost halfway to my goal!

That’s right folks! I’ve sold, knitted or donated (in swaps or to charity) 40% of my stash that I had on hand on March 18, 2008. And it’s only November!

Granted, I still have a long, long, LONG way to go. Bug I have some ideas to get rid of even more. I really think that I’ll be able to get rid of everything by the goal date at the end of 2010. Hopefully most will be knitted up.

Which means, family and friends, be prepared to receive a LOT of hand-knit items for Christmas 2010 in my desperate attempt to knit up my stash in time for the December 2010 deadline. Just giving you fair warning. Let me know ahead of time if you’re allergic to wool. Just in case.