Evolution of Stash Management

All the knitting is done except for the collar. I have several hours of working ends first.

While I was defiantly confident about having enough grey yarn, I became anxious just before the armhole decreases. As it turned out, I was right the first time. I finished with about 25 grams left. It was a good idea to not use the main color for the cuffs and welts as I would have surely run short.

Two of the color bands represent one-skein (four ounce)  members of the stash. I had eight ounces of the light yellow and used six. Would you consider this to be an odd-ball project?

I'm getting close to the bottom of the worsted stash. It is causing me to ruminate on what an odd ball actually is, and how to identify that I am finished with this self-imposed quest.

One could say that the last eight or so projects were odd ball projects. I did not have enough yarn for any single project and I did not collect the yarn with projects in mind. Instead, I trolled eBay accumulating the discards of others. I figured then that at about 50 cents/ounce it was a good deal. I suppose it was until I realized that I had a lot of wonderful lots but no real plan and no real projects.

After trying to organize what I had again and again I finally came to a strategy that I have been following the past few years. I found that I resisted using yarns where I had twelve or more ounces. I felt that that was enough for part of a sweater. Once I figured that out, I focused only on one weight and grouped the yarns into sweater sized projects. For some I bought a color to blend them together. The challenge was to use only stash.

I learned that sixteen ounces of vintage worsted was enough for half a 40" adult sweater. This is important as many multi-color sweaters depend upon a background color to provide continuity and a harmonious look. The sweater above used 13 ounces. I figure about 1.5 ounces for the welts (cuff, collar, waist), so an easy modification is to substitute something for the edges if I find myself a few ounces short of half.

The next two projects are true odd-ball projects, and represent the easiest approach to oddballs: Enough of one color for background and bands of coordinating color. The goal is to make them look intentional, like the one above.