Over the years the little bits of leftover yarn in my stash have grown. I had quite a few that were all bulky/chunky weight yarn (most of them Puffin by Quince & Co.) and I wondered what I could make with them. When I saw the Tai Basket pattern by Pam Allen, I knew it would be the perfect project to use up some of my stash yarn. I chose the “cooling colors” I had in my stash, the greens, greys, blues, and the one purple I had, saving the warmer colors for another basket (browns and yellow.) When I saw how the colors were knitting up, I wasn’t sure how I felt about this basket. Would the colors “work” together? But there was an enthusiastic person by my side, exclaiming over the basket and putting in his request for one. Little did he know I was giving it to him. He loves it!

Knitting this basket used up more yarn that I’d thought with the yarn held double, so I used up a bunch of stash yarn in no time, which was awesome. I planned on knitting a second basket, and started one, but ran out of yarn that “went together” and will have to wait to finish it until I get some more leftover yarn. That’s a great problem to have, in my book. I don’t like having yarn sitting around unused and using up my stash yarn makes me so happy! I put some favorite blocks in the wooly basket, for the pictures, thinking of all the different things that could be organized and stashed in it. After I snapped a few pictures and handed the gift over, the blocks were immediately dumped out, the basket became a hat for dress up and since then it’s had many other uses as well. One thing’s for sure, this basket will certainly get a lot of use!

The other thing I loved about making this basket (besides using up all that stash yarn) was having a project I could finish quickly. That felt so good! I was feeling a bit boggled up with my knitting because I had a bunch of new projects I wanted to start that I was excited about, but felt that I needed to finish up some older projects first. One of those projects was a sweater I had been knitting for myself. Initially I didn’t pick up enough stitches around the edge, so it looked like a baby kicking bag instead of an adult sweater. The project turned out to be so frustrating for me that I had to set the project aside for a long time.

After all that time though, I felt like I should finish it, even though I wasn’t enthused, and struggled slowly along picking up stitches here and there for weeks (with handspun yarn that I should have been knitting with larger needles in the first place because it was too tight.) As I picked up the last stitch and breathed a sigh of relief, my knitting needle broke and all the stitches flew off. Weeks worth of tedious work were gone in seconds. In the car with my family at the time, I declared that I didn’t like that sweater. I had a strong urge to rip the whole sweater out right then and there, but decided to set it aside and decide later when my emotions had calmed about it. (In my earlier knitting days, when I heard about people unraveling sweaters, I would think ‘Oh no! Don’t unravel it! All that work!’, but now I’ve come to see it differently.)

The next day I thought about it. The urge was still there. I decided to try on the sweater to see if I even wanted to finish it. And you know what? It felt a bit too snug and it wasn’t very comfortable. I realized that I had been forcing myself to work on and finish a project that I wasn’t excited about. So, I unraveled that sweater! I knew I had made the right decision because it made me happy to unravel it (and be done with it!) and to think about all the new projects I wanted to start. As I wound up all that yarn and set is aside to be used for another project at some point, I felt that my knitting energy and enthusiasm had been freed up and I could move forward to create what inspires me. Now I’m moving along in my knitting again, finishing up projects, starting with this basket.

Tell me fellow knitters, what are your favorite ways to use up your stash yarn?

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P.S. Speaking of knitting, Laura M. Anderson published a knitting pattern called Bitty Caps Tee, featuring WoolyMossRoots buttons. It’s available for free on Ravelry! I think her pattern is simply adorable and the addition of the little heart button is so sweet. I updated the list of knitting patterns that feature our buttons, on our Ravelry group, and figured out how to feature a picture of each pattern, rather than just having a written list. I was happy to figure that out, I think it looks so pretty with all the pictures!