April came and went without leaving a trace, it seems. And all of a sudden spring arrived. With the first shy greens showing on trees and bushes and dark moody skies that threaten loads of rain and hail storms but really just want to show off.

Time for some spring cleaning! Let’s start with cleaning out the yarn drawers, organize those beauties, pat them and hug them tightly, and then… cast on. Anything really. As long as it keeps you from actually cleaning anything else.

Especially when I went through my Sockables to see what I can come up with for these colourful sweet leftovers. (See a few ideas for leftover projects and scrap blending techniques here). There is still so much left, even after now almost two years of yarn diet!!! (Read about the first year, here)

I’ve been infected with a terrible sweater-virus, that makes me knit through my stash at light-speed , a quick pace…. well, kind of fast.

So far I used 1770grams of fingering weight yarn from stash this year! That’s 17 balls of yarn, you guys! Put that in a box! Ha!

I almost lost my game of yarn chicken, tough, while knitting my fifth project for the UseWhatYouHaveKAL2019, although I was able to finish the sweater without sleeves, so it makes for a sweet little summer shirt.

You have to love the FREE pattern (Driftwood by Isabell Kraemer) but I will need to remember to add a few increases forthe bust next time and more rounds as I like it longer. I ran out of yarn, though, after finishing the body section and had to dig deep to find a similar yellow in my stash for button band and sleevies. Phew, thank goodness for scrap yarns! Even the buttons are from deep stash! I call THAT using what I had 🙂

Where’s your photographer of choice when you need him? Well, this must do. I kind of like the short sleevies, this could be my summer favorite!

Since this was so much fun and I never really dared to knit anyting bigger than a shawl, I’m officially hooked. Knitting garments is so rewarding! (IF they fit :P) You can easily use up a few skeins that have been waiting for their big day forever and it really feels great to be able to walk out the door showing them off to the world.

So the next cast on is a comparatively boring repeat-knit from my first Elfe-tee, as I really liked the fit and WANT to use these yummy cakes of superthin Merino that I bought during my year in China 2005! WHAAAAAAT??!

I can’t believe it’s that old. But I’m so glad to finally use it!

And since I can’t decide on which of the two colours to use first, I mix the two. Isn’t this the most difficult to capture colourway ever??

So while I’ll probably be stuck on this one for the next month, I’ll also be working on some new patterns, but, psssst!

First I need to show you what you can win this month for the #UseWhatYouHaveKAL2019!

Our last winner Miesmuschel graciously decided to sponsor the next prize and offers this lovely package to the lucky winner this month including

• The book “Knitting Never Felt Better: the definitive guide to fabulous felting” by Nicky Epstein (new!)
• a pack of roving in multiple colors along with a needle-felting pen
• And for when you feel peckish 2 chocolate bars and a bag of Llama cookies

Congratulations to Dominicroche, who won these pretty skeins for her beautiful Heart of the Mountain socks.

So do you need any more excuses to dig trough your stash and cast on one of your queued patterns?

Come and join us, knit from stash and and use a pattern that you have but haven’t used yet! It’s fun to check things off your to-do-list!

Happy knitting and good luck!