Stash-busting...

There is something about this time of year that makes me want to reach for the yarn bag. Or in my case the yarn bag, box under the bed, odd bag in the cupboard and chest of drawers in the spare room! I seem to have balls of yarn stuffed in every spare space, from projects over the years (some many years!) and the onset of colder, dark evenings made me want to reach for the crochet hook and get blanket making.

I finished the baby blanket that has been stored for 25 years half made...

I have no baby to give it to yet but at least it can go back in the drawer completed and just wait for the right occasion. I do love this pattern and think I would make it again but after all that white I was craving for a bit of colour. Then when hunting for a crochet hook I came across this stash of cotton yarns...

It was like falling upon a rainbow! Some of these date from my very first forays into crochet several years ago when I treated myself to a few balls of lovely Rowan hand knit cotton each time I spotted one in the 'end of lines' box in my yarn store. Of course, when you do this a bit aimlessly without a project in mind you often don't end up using them! Or I don't! So I decided I should do something with these but didn't want to make another granny blanket. Initially I wondered about a ripple but I had this urge to do a rainbow on the diagonal and came across a corner to corner pattern which grow in blocks - perfect! 

It grows quickly in blocks of 4 trebles and I am loving it. It is easy enough once you have the pattern in your head to do in front of a film or easy TV but different enough for me to keep my interest. And relatively few ends to sew in which is always a bonus in my book!

I had pretty much decided to just use up each colour but in fact the first 3 colours conveniently finished at the end of rows and when I got to the yellow it became obvious that a) that would be way too much yellow at once and b) I really needed another round of colours to balance things across the size of a blanket.

I slightly regret the few blocks of green at the beginning of the row but in the spirit of stash busting decided to leave it. Only guess what? Now I need to go and get some more of the dark purple, the light blue, green and orange so that I can repeat the rows! I still have a similar darker blue and the yellows and reds and I don't mind if they are not an exact match but it does rather defeat the object if I end up with more left over at the end!

I am trying to be a bit careful with pennies at the moment so I have put the rainbow project to one side and am really going for it with the rest of the yarn I have stowed! The current project is a complete mish mash of all the dark and bright yarns I have - using a huge hook and 2 strands of different yarns with easy rows of half trebles. I can't quite decide if I am going to like it or not but there is something satisfying about seeing these balls of wool that have been kicking around for years get used up and it is making a very cosy blanket to sit under of an evening! Might post photos at a later stage!

I wonder whether I will ever have the discipline to only buy wool for what I am making and not extra odd balls...

S x