Use it up!

There comes a point in a yarn-hoarder's life, though, where she does have to actually use up some of the stash.....if only to allow the bed in the guest bedroom to be recognised as a place for sleeping rather than a convenient surface to "store" said stash 😱  I felt I shouldn't shock you too much, my lovelies, by showing you a photo of the yarn hoard.....not least because I also have plenty of the woolly stuff stored in the base of the guest bed, too 😁

So I've decided that the time has definitely arrived when I should make some lovely things with my precious yarn and show you the end results rather than the stash instead ~ and, of course, during the autumn and winter is the ideal time to get cracking on these projects, plus it's a tad less embarrassing 😉  And let's face it, with the weather as it is at the moment I'm certainly not getting out into the garden anytime soon 😏  The teensy wee pile in the photo above is just a smidgeon of the hoard, simply odds 'n' sods that are leftovers from other projects.  I thought I'd start with these whilst I mull over what to make with the other yarns that I have more balls of.

I decided to start with a simple storage basket, which I thought would be handy for the bits and pieces I have gathered for some hand-sewing projects that I'd like to have a go at.

I used three strands of yarn held together: one Aran-weight and the other two double-knit.  I can't remember what size hook I used ~ possibly a 7mm 😕  I must admit that it was a bit hard-going on my hands and if I'd been making a blanket, say, then I would probably have used a larger hook.  As it was a basket, though, I wanted it a bit firmer.

I think I should have made it a tad smaller, to be honest, as it is a bit floppy!  I also managed to add in an extra stitch or two on some of the rounds.  As it's just something simple that I made for myself to use up some yarn oddments, I decided not to bother to frog it and start over ~ not least because of the soreness of my hands LOL

The basket didn't use up very much of the oddments, so I'm currently making another version of the "ordinarily extraordinary blanket".  I'm using a 5mm hook, with the yarn doubled-up, so it's growing quite quickly.  I'm not sure if I will have enough of these oddments to finish the blanket, as it's a fairly large one for the sofa.  However, a few months back I made a start (not that I've progressed very far!) on one of the Special Projects that I mentioned at the beginning of the year, so I'm sure there will be yarn leftover once I've completed it to add to the oddments pile 😄