Year of Projects: July 1, 2021 – June 30, 2022

In my ongoing quest to pare down the stash (all stashed things – yarn, fiber, books – and just stuff), I’ve decided to participate in the upcoming Year of Projects group on Ravelry. I like the concept of this challenge because you can tailor it to what your own goals are, and stashbusting is definitely a goal for me, so that’s what I’m going with. I exported the list of my stash yarns from Ravelry into an Excel sheet, and then used a handy online random number generator to choose 20 stash yarns. I opted to go this way since, like many of us, I suspect, I tend to grab the new shiny stuff first and some beautiful yarns languishing in stash continue to.. well… languish. The RNG did a nice job pulling some older yarns and some newer ones, a mix of weights (although I have a mightily large fingering/sock weight yarn stash so there’s more of those than anything else), and some larger and smaller lots of yarns.

Below is a checklist of the yarns I want to use up in the next year. I’m working on matching up potential projects with the yarns the RNG pulled for me, and while I’ve listed my current suggestions, if I find a different pattern that works better or I want to move up in the queue for some other reason, I’m reserving the right to swap out patterns. This will also (hopefully!) give me the opportunity to use up some other yarns in conjunction with the ones specifically on this list. For instance, I will likely not use the Miss Babs Yummy sock yarn in Blackbird (a dark jet black) by itself, but will instead combine it with Jazz Club (also in stash but not on the RNG selected list) for a shawl of some kind. My goal will be to use up as much of the yarns as possible, but I’m okay with tossing a handful of yards at the end if it means using up most of it with an appropriate project.

It’s a fairly robust and optimistic list with a fair amount of yardage, including 4 sweater-sized amounts, so we’ll see if this is outside what I can realistically manage, but it at least gives me a place to start. One of the things I’ve struggled with in stash-downing is figuring out where to start. This RNG list of yarns will give me that starting point so perhaps that’s one hurdle met? The group looks for an update post once a week to share progress, and that will also help keep me on track, I think.

With all of that as an introduction, here are my YOP goals for the 2021-2022 timeframe:

1. Cascade Yarns Heritage Paints. Pattern: Painted Plains. I’ll need 2 other skeins, 1 full, one half-skein to knit this as written.
2. A Homespun House Sock. Pattern: Sonoran Wrap. I’ll need 3 other skeins, but I think the Hedgehog Fibres Sock in Method (below) will be one of them.
3. Hedgehog Fibres Sock. Pattern: Sonoran Wrap. See #2 above.
4. Sweet Sparrow Yarns in Bloduwedd. Pattern TBD.
5. Carodan Farm worsted weight in Oatmeal. Pattern: October Hat.
6. Berocco Ultra Alpaca Light in Winter White. Pattern TBD.
7. The Woolen Rabbit Merino Lace in Victorian Hydrangea. Pattern TBD.
8. Bare Naked Wools Precious (Aran weight). Pattern TBD.
9. Jaeger Matchmaker in Delft Blue. Pattern: Berneice Sweater.
10. Harrisville Highland in Pearl. Pattern: Range Shawl. I’ll need 3 other colors of Highland, which I have in stash and can pull.
11. Spun Right Round Sock in Dirty Denim. Pattern: Jujuy. I’ll need 2 other colors of fingering-weight yarn. I’ll be using Janis by Kaguya + 1 other.
12. Brooklyn Tweed Loft in Birdbook. Pattern: Barley Light Hat.
13. Bare Naked Wools Shetlandia. Pattern: Sea Fret Sweater.
14. Miss Babs Yummy Sock in Blackbird. Pattern: TBD but will combine with another skein for a larger project.
15. Handspun in Storm Cloud. Pattern: TBD.
16. Dragon Hoard DK in Fire Whiskey. Pattern: TBD.
17. Woodsong Farm in Brick Red. Pattern: TBD.
18. Spun Right Round Sock in Blender. Pattern: TBD but possibly plain vanilla socks.
19. Black Sheep Sport in Terracotta. Pattern: TBD.
20. Suburban Stitcher Sock in Maple. Pattern: TBD.

I think that covers me to get started July 1. I’m excited for this challenge and hope to make some good headway into the ongoing stash decrease project! I plan to check in again just before the end of the month with some pattern selection updates, and then will have my weekly progress check-in posts here as well.