Yarnalong: Spring planning

Hi friends, and happy Wednesday!

Not much has changed on my needles (still working on my socks — more on that tomorrow) or my nightstand (still reading and enjoying The Yorkshire Shepherdess — but it’s almost done, so I need to decide what’s next!).  But today is the first day of March, and boy does spring feel like it’s on its way, so I thought today we could chat a bit about planning spring projects!

At the beginning of the year, I mentioned that I had been working hard, with the help of Mr. N, to get my yarn stash photographed and onto Ravelry.  I’ve been hoping to spend some time here talking through trying to get my stash, longstanding unfinished objects, and knits that I don’t really wear in hand — but for today, I thought I’d share how getting my stash on Ravelry has helped me see the potential in the yarn I already have (for the most part!)

When I saw the preview for the new Pom Pom issue, for example, I fell in love with the Arrosa shawl.  Rather than digging through stash looking for yarn that might be suitable or heading straight to my LYS or an online knit shop to buy yarn, I opened up my stash on Ravelry and chose some gorgeous Uncommon Thread Everyday Sock in Confetti that I think will be perfect for the project (and I might use Peony or Highlighter for the last contrast rows — thoughts?)

The Pom Pom team also nudged me to rediscover potential in some very old stash — I was listening to last month’s Pomcast, which featured an interview with Daphne Marinopoulos of the Fibre Company.  During the interview, Marinopoulos mentioned a yarn the company used to make, which she loved, but that they had to give up on years ago because it was too hard to mill — Fibre Company Savannah DK.  As she was talking, I thought, hey, don’t I have some of that in my stash.  Over to Ravelry I went and found four skeins of the yarn, which is a blend of wool, cotton, soy silk, and linen.

I bought this yarn on sale sometime in 2008 or 2009, I think — at the time, I thought I would do a colorwork hat and mitts with it.  Subsequently, I scoffed at my past self for thinking a yarn with cotton and linen would be good for winter accessories (especially as I was living in Minnesota at the time!), and the yarn languished.  Listening to the Pomcast though, and hearing the Fibre Company proprietress talk about the years she’s spent trying to get this yarn back in production, made me look again at yarn I had long written off as foolish stash enhancement.  Comparing my yardage in my Ravelry stash with some other projects, I’ve deciced I’m going to try to whip up a simple, sleeveless colorblock shell with these skeins, something I think I could get a lot of wear out of in California this summer!

Thinking about lightweight sweaters, though, sent me down a yarn-lined rabbit hole — what other skeins do I have in stash sat waiting to become spring and summer garments?

There are these lovelies, forming a kit to knit a Gilda sweater:

And this Green Moutain Spinnery Cotton Comfort, bought at Maryland Sheep and Wool last year for a Morning Mist:

And just as I was hunkering down to try to decide between these three sweaters, I sat down with an older Fruity Knitting podcast episode, featuring Joji Locatelli.  Among the many patterns Locatelli chatted about was her Granito sweater, which has been in my favorites since it was released. As she was chatting about it, she mentioned it was knit out of a merino-linen blend.  Off to my Ravelry stash I went, and found that I have four skeins of Madelinetosh Dandelion, also a merino-linen blend, and more than enough for the sweater. What’s a gal to do?!

The process of going through my stash also led me to pick out colors for a Find Your Fade, way back when I started my stash cataloguing in December … and I still haven’t managed to cast on.  Now that the KAL is finished and everyone’s Fades are coming off the needles, maybe I’ll finally get started …

So I’m a bit spoiled for choice at the moment, but struggling to decide what to cast on next! I leave for a week and a half in California on Friday, so I want to make sure I have plenty to knit with me!  I’m leaning toward taking the yarn for the Arrosa shawl that I started this post with as it’s fairly compact.  And I *might* have a Zauberball on order to be sent to Mr. N’s address for the Hyacinthus Armwarmers, the first project in A Year of Techniques … because the other great thing about having your stash catalogued is you can definitively say hey, that’s a yarn I don’t have in my stash, so let’s buy it!  And a shawl and armwarmers, along with my in-progress socks, is probably enough for my time in Los Angeles. But I still have time to change my mind before Friday — what project would you start with? And which sweater should I tackle once I’m back?

You can head over to the original Yarnalong post to see what everyone’s knitting and reading this week and check out other fun projects at Frontier Dreams. And I always love to hear what you’re up to in the comments — I’d especially love to hear what you’re reading, as I need some suggestions for my trip!