Stash-Bashing FAIL

I'm coming clean- the stash-bashing has not been going as well as expected. It went great, at first. The beginning of the new year was great. I made my final purchase of yarn on December 30th and was completely prepared to go at least 6 months without buying yarn.

I got involved with the Block-A-Month CAL, and the suggestion of patterns was fabulous. I was able to work a number of squares in 'stash yarn' (basically project leftovers) and completed 2 12 square afghans by the end of March.

This is where things started to get tricky. I was now venturing into full skein territory. As some of you may know, I follow the craft show circuit in the fall with one of my aunts. Recently, I have been mainly crocheting hats, but also make some scarves and shawls. Since I have been making the hats out of easy-care acrylic, I have been reluctant to make afghan squares from these "untouched" skeins of yarn.

Which resulted in my moving on to other projects. A few dishcloths here and there, some headbands, a lot of repurposing woolen sweaters, dyeing wool based yarn, taking apart more sweaters, more dyeing, you get the idea. I got a bit carried away. Plus, it was early in the year- there was no craft shows to prepare for immediately, no one really wants to buy crocheted stuff after Christmas- I could make excuses all day. But I won't.

I bought yarn. Only a few skeins at a time, never large amounts. But added to the rest of the *stuff* that piles up in my oh-too-small room, and I start to get claustrophobic. And I'm not really claustrophobic. That's only happened once, in the Catacombs in Paris (If you've been there, you know what I'm talking about. If anyone's really curious, I could dig out some photos...)--- Anyway--- lots of bags of *stuff* and not enough time in the day to do anything with it. And just within the past week I bought 6 skeins of Vanna's Choice Baby (super clearance deal though!) and made a KnitPicks order (nearly all sale stuff) so I have an extra box and another bag (plus all the wedding stuff that's hanging around for a few more weeks too...)

So now, in an effort to start this whole thing over again, I'm going to make every effort to join with Marie/Underground Crafter's Holiday Stashdown Challenge, as well as Tricia/Crunchy Catholic Momma's Stash Bash each week.

I don't know if I should be setting lofty goals or not... But I'm thinking one finished project a week will be enough of a goal to start out. This way, I won't be overwhelmed by my *stuff* and will still be productive.