Wow, what a ride. This year has been a blast, knitwise and otherwise. Not even my two small monsters (aka kids) who keep me busy at most times couldn’t keep me from destashing the hell out of my drawers. I’m proud to say that even with considerable intakes (for the #24pairsofsocks challenge I set for myself and from yarn I needed for my designs and also from gifts (thanks to my mother-in-law who discovered that she can make me a very happy girl if she gives me yarn), my stash has been reduced even further than after last year’s 12 month yarn diet!

Here’s why:

1: I knit from STASH only, unless it’s for a new design.

2: I knit a lot. And since I discovered that knitting several projects simultaneously (well, almost – I whish I could do that) and knitting in the near dark while Knitflixing I could tick off a lot more projects a lot faster than I thought.

3: It was so much fun collaborating with makers and dyers for the giveaways I hosted for my new pattern releases that I motivated myself to make more beautiful things together with more beautiful people. Read more about these releases in previous posts on this blog)

So this is up next:

I want to invite you to join my UseWhatYouHaveKAL2019 to knit the head off your stash and to make 2019 a happy colourful feel-good-year in which you really made the coolest things from what you already have. Doesn’t that sound too good to be true?? Come and join the knitting frenzy!

Here are my favourite moments of the knitting year 2018:

I published 11 new patterns this year.

Besides that I completed 67 projects in 2018, many of them containing more than one item (for example my 24 pairs of socks size 47 are just one project :).

40 pairs of socks (24 in xxl!!), 30 pairs of mittens and fingerless mittens, and a whole bunch of toys. There will be many more coming next year, oh yeah!!

I used 6894 grams of yarn, most of it fingering weight. That’s 63 balls of sock weight yarn!!! Where did it all go?? (and why don’t I see the gaps in my drawers I ask you???) See some pictures of my current stash below.

My biggest achievement I guess are the 24 pairs in xxl for my husband’ advent calendar and Christmas gift. I still can’t believe it only took months to knit them and I’m super happy that he had neither a clue nor could he have been any happier to receive them! I guess I’m off the hook for the next few years sock-wise for him 🙂

Obviously the advent-calendar-opening-face when my husband realized that probably his complaints have been heard and he will finally receive a wagonload of socks from me 😛

and even better: The sequel-face when he realized that the 24 single socks he’s so meticulously been trying to match to each other have 24 partners (who came neatly wrapped as a Christmas gift) 🙂

My happy scrappy sock-parade that I added to my own drawer are cherished every day now.

And of course I’m proud of the gift I gave myself for Chhristmas: This sweater made entirely from yarns that I received as gifts. I am now going to live in it.

I conclude this year with this happy pair of fingerless mittens, which marks the completion of ALL WIPS of 2018! I am now officially WIP-free and all my project bags are empty. Such a strange feeling!

Time to get ready for next year’s big challenge, the UseWhatYouHaveKAL2019!

This is my stash today. Minus my self dyed yarns.

There are 151 patterns in my queue today and 323 patterns in my library. That’s loads to choose from and I WILL!

So now I’m off digging into my stash to be ready for the KAL and can’t wait to meet you all again next year!

Happy knitting and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!