Stash Down 2011

This year I have been doing a bit of a stash down attempt. Basically I looked at my Coal bunker and thought that i should reduce the amount of items I have in it.  I have fabrics that are 20 years old sitting there waiting to do something about it.  I want to get the shelves down considerably so I am not overflowing.  Some of the stash has been shared with a local charity shop as I was honest with self that I was never going to use it at all.  Part of my stash includes fabrics stashed by my grandmother.  Nothing like inheriting stash.

So far this year everything has been knitted, sewed or crocheted from the stash. I have mainly only done minor purchases such as lining for daughter Carnaby skirt and buttons. These purchases have not ended up as stash but rather helped the stash to enter into the wonderful world of being finished projects. The one yarn purchase I have done this year was some crochet thread so I could do a surprise project for the daughter.  This project is currently on the back burner since daughter is on holidays so I can not seem to get anything done without her putting her sticky beak in.

After the tour de fleece I have a lot handspun which I will be using for projects but when I sorted out the coal bunker I noticed I still had a lot of hand spun which I had not found a use for.  So as part of the stash down I want use up my hand spun as much as possible.  The Moorlit fleece which is a now a nice yarn will need to get a decent photo before I knit it up into a cardi for hubby. This will be his Christmas pressie this year.  I still have the 500gms of BFL in a Mocha which I will have to work out what I am going to use it for.  There Shetland braid from Wonkyknitter which I had in the stash which was spun and then knitted into a Haurni shawl.  I have blocked it but I will need to re block it as I wont ask the children what happened.  We have reached August and I have not done a major yarn purchase it is amazing.  

Sock yarn wise I am almost getting to the bare cupboard situation. Currently I am knitting some socks in some King Cole Zig Zag that I had in the stash which I had regretted purchasing. The stash down attitude has helped me to use this yarn cause I had in the past gone meh, not that keen to use.  The yarn has too short of yarn colour change and I am not enamoured with it.  Additionally I don't think the yarn is particularly sympathetic to the pattern and it would have probably better knit in a plain coloured yarn. As I am knitting my H pattern in the yarn which is top down design I a suddenly hit upon a solution. Don't make the socks for me.  Make them for someone who will like the colours.  Simples! My sock foot is suddenly shorted from a size 8.5 to a tiddly 3.5.  Sanity back in check and the feeling of absolute relief when I get the first sock done.   But I still have a second sock to finish.  Must knit this second sock now to brake the chance of a large hiatus or the dreaded second sock syndrome.

Invictus by William Ernest Henley 1875

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

---

This poem to me has always meant taking control or having responsibility for one's own destiny. As some may already know I recently received a new diagnosis this month to challenge me with my other health issues. This new challenge while not totally unexpected with my history has created a new impact on my life and is currently imposing itself on me. The upside to this new diagnosis is that there is a light at the end of the tunnel as I am fully treatable and expected to make a full recovery. Not a bad prognosis.

The two side effects of the treatment include the interaction of the chemotherapy (oral and topical) drugs and my still not sure which one of the auto immunes ?fibromyalgia? plus those I have already added to my collection of rheumatoid issues, and the unpleasantness of the topical chemo on my face. I can put up with a countenance which will terrify children as I know it is temporary and I keep saying to self that is a free cosmetic treatment. My skin after this will be so young looking due to the dermal peel effect from the chemo creme. My line manager could not understand my attitude when I described it as positive side effect while showing her the patient information leaflet and its oh so graphic photos. Just because I will look like an ugly muttly does not mean I can not come into work. Some of the students are scared of me already due to my lack of tolerance for fools so this will just make me even more of the office fire breathing dragon.

So beside the mug only a mother could love, the other downside is that the chemo has a greater impact on me (knocks me about up and down the stairs) due to the rheumatoid issues. Due to trouncing that this manifestation of maladies is having on me I have reduced my working hours to a half time load. Even though I have more time to knit or create I am not getting this opportunity since I am frequently finding myself having a very quiet interlude where I drift off for forty winks or more. My propensity to nod off on a extended granny nap has caused a total knitting hiatus. 

So a final word of caution that everyone can do from my experience please check your skin if you notice any changes in shape, colour, texture, an itch or bleeding get your butt down to the GP's and get it checked out that means everyone even if you have a darker skin pigment. If I had left it a couple of months I would have radically different prognosis. Thanks for all the supporters and well wishers you have been wonderful in more ways than you can know and we will keep ticking along.