Stashing

Inspired by all the really organized knitters out there, I been updating and improving my yarn spreadsheet and my Ravelry stash. Lately I've been fighting back some crazy yarn-buying urges as my creative ideas have been bubbling, but I feel I lack the materials to render them properly. The spreadsheet gives me a clear overview of what I have when creativity strikes and seeing it all laid bare helps to squelch the yarn lust.

Although, in some cases, I really don't have (and can't afford) what I need and this is immanently frustrating! Now that I sew and embroider more, I find this frustration unique to a creative endeavor in knitting. With many of the 'fine arts', an inspiration, idea, sketch and the finished item (painting, sculpture, etc) can be completed in a relatively short amount of time. But knitting takes longer and is more dependant on specific tools and supplies. Lately I've been overwhelmed with various ideas and despite the fact that I sketch them and record them, there's always a lag before I can put needle to yarn and actually render my creation. I need measurements (both myself and my swatch) and then the actual knitting, which for a full length, long-sleeved sweater can take months. I make most of my "creative" decisions while I'm actually knitting, so I very rarely get exactly what I sketched. I'm right in the middle of knitting one such top and while I'm really loving how it's coming out, I'm feeling the drag of time, as thousands of other possibilities keep popping up.

This is the appeal of the 1-skein project. Just one skein of yarn to wrangle and nearly instant gratification. When I listened to Stash & Burn last night and they mentioned their 1-skein contest, I decided it was a perfect way to get started on Christmas gifts and clean up some of those single skeins in my stash. Every year I say I'm just going to make one thing for everyone and be done with it, but then I get sidetracked by pretty patterns and new yarn and never make anything easy or thrifty. I'm hoping that if I start NOW and just knit some things out of yarn I have, I'll end up giving them away when the time comes. We'll see.
The projects I'm considering:
Fetching
Hats, lots of hats
Kolenya
Endpaper mitts (I don't have the yarn for this yet....)
Hemlock Ring Blanket (more than one skein, but this would be a great, quick Christmas gift)
And a few Market-ish Bags