Monday, January 07, 2013

Stashdown Challenges

Last year, I joined the Ravelry group Stash Knit Down, mostly because I have a large stash of yarn that I bought years ago, which I haven't been knitting as quickly as I'd like. I joined this group because they have a thread (which could probably be its own group, it's so active) called "Cold Sheeping." The point of Cold Sheeping is to not buy yarn. At all. Or, at least, not outside of some planned exceptions. (I tell people about Cold Sheeping all the time, since I am a total adherent. I will no doubt talk about it more some other time.)

The group has many, many other ways to reduce stash and for members to help one another resist temptation and find creative ways to use what we have. There are lots of challenges, craft-alongs, knit-as-much-as-you-can dashes, "virtual retreats," and all kinds of ways to be happy in our own stash.

This year, I was super excited to participate in some special stash-down challenges. (I think I may even have annoyed some of the moderators in my exuberance, heh.)

Here's what I decided to join:
-Cold Sheep (same as last year- not buying any yarn, except the Hedgehog Fibres Sock Club)
-Epic Project-Along (does what it says on the label; I'll be working on my mitered square blanket, and then the lace Chuppah for a friend's wedding)
-"Diva" Dash (a year-long attempt to do away with 13 skeins of mystery/difficult stash yarn)
-A quarterly spinning stash-down (I have been neglecting my wheels something awful!)
and, the thing I was most excited for
-13 in 2013 (where we attempt, over the course of the year, to do 13 of x, 12 of y, 11 of z, etc. A la "12 Days of Christmas")

I'm confident of my ability to complete all of this. Not to mention, I will be doing my utmost to double-, triple-, or quadruple-dip each project into multiple categories and challenges. (Because, despite how it looks, I'm not crazy.)

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