Knitting Kris: 5K Stash Dash

I've tried to participate in stash down programs in the past. What is stash (ask the muggles - or non-fibery people)?

Stash is the yarn in your posesssion - no matter where the storage location.

Some of you might not know what a stash down program is, or some may wonder why a knitter might be willing or excited about participating in such an event.

Here's the deal.

Knitter and spinners like yarn and fiber. Sometimes (okay, a lot of the time) we purchase yarn or fiber that we might not feel a need for at that exact moment, but it inspires us. So we purchase it with no intended purpose in mind. You might have problems believing this fact, but honestly, it happens more than you think. I know very few knitters who do not possess more yarn or fiber than planned projects.

Sometimes we save yarn that we just can't bear to knit with because we haven't found the perfect paring of pattern and yarn. Or maybe we are finishing other projects first before we are knitting that special skein of yarn we own.

There are many ways to use stash yarn. You can knit it. You can trade or sell it, if you no longer like it (Let's face it - yarn and fiber are sometimes like clothes - sometimes your taste changes and you no longer love that clown barf color you purchased when you started knitting 10 years ago). You can gift it, you can donate it.

Right now, I prefer to knit or spin it, so I have joined two of my favorite podcasters - the Knitgirllls, who are doing a 5K Stash Dash knitting event - beginning on May 23, 2014, and ending on August 7, 2014. So between this time, the goal is to knit or spin 5K of yarn or fiber from your stash.

How much is 5K of yarn if you are not a metric person? Great question! It's 5468 yards! That's a lot of knitting and spinning!

You might be wondering how anyone could knit or spin that much yardage during the time allotted, considering that the average plain hat usually takes up about 100 yards. There is a caveat that you can include yarn, fiber, or projects that you have been working on from before this period, but have not finished. To see official rules for this event, please visit Ravelry, and the Knitgirllls group.

This is a great motivation for me to finish a couple of projects that have been "on my needles" for way too long.

I've have been knitting blanket squares for probably over 5 years on and off for a Log Cabin Square blanket.

This is a very portable project, and you can make it as big or as small as you would like.

I'm using this project for part of my stash dash goal. I figure if I can finish it (I only need to knit the squares together and sew the blanket together), I can get quite good yardage to complete this task.

And the best part? I will have my awaited blanket finished in the end.

My husband made me a beautiful shelf years ago, and my father-in-law added a beautiful dowel to it to display this blanket. It's time for it to be done.