Cleaning My Craft Room // Part IV

 

 

If you want to read about the whole craft room cleaning journey, check out Parts 1, 2, and 3! 

Cleaning my craft room has slowed way down. I started going through my yarn. Since yarn is the main craft item I use and I’m so familiar with my stash, I thought it’d be relatively easy to go through.

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I’m realizing, though, that there are 3 reasons I’m struggling to determine what to keep and what to let go of.

One, I want to knit ALL the yarn. I received 4-5 garbage bags full of yarn from a friend who moved out of state. Much of it is not necessarily yarn I’d buy for myself, but I have so many project ideas for knitting I could give away.

Two, I am asking myself more questions than usual when determining whether to keep or let go of the yarn. In general I ask myself, “Do I love it?” and “Will I use it?” A few more questions came to me, though, and I thought I’d try using them as well. 

I started grouping some skeins of yarn together and asking myself, “Do I have a project in mind?” This has been the downfall. I look at the yarn and think of a project, so I think “I have to keep this yarn.” But I have too many ideas for too many projects that there’s no way I can finish them all. So I tell myself I can’t keep all the yarn. Then I feel stuck.

Three, I have not been able to resist starting some projects—instead of cleaning. I can’t blame myself though—I had just asked myself to see if I could think of a project for different skeins of yarn. And I thought of them. And I wanted to start them.

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Luckily, I finished a project and have been able to hold new projects down to 2. First, I finished my tube scarf this week. I bet I sewed 50 knots where I joined yarns. I was too worried the knots would slip out because the yarn is a bit slick so I sewed each with thread.

 

I’m really happy with how colorful and fun the tube scarf turned out. If I were to do it again, I may go with shorter groupings of the solid colors–for ex, right now, I have 4 stripes of orange in a row. If I were to re-do the scarf, I may use 2 orange stripes, switch to another color and add the other 2 orange stripes later. I just think I may have liked how that looks. 

Even without that change, though, I really like it.

 

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My first new project is a baby blanket. I’m using one of the patterns I design and sell: the Wavy Checkerboard Baby Blanket. It’s a simple pattern that adds some texture to the blanket. 

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Finally, I started a set of fingerless gloves in the same yarns I used for the tube scarf I just finished. I’d like to use as much of the Caron Simply Soft and Red Heart Soft skeins I have left over. 

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Both new projects are going well. Plus, if I have the yarn in project bags, I can fit more skeins of yarn I’m going through in my armoire. I get to keep more yarn! 

Peace Out (and In),

Julie