Wendy over at Wendy Knits, and her friend L-B, have decided to knit only from their own stash for the first nine months of 2007. They have posted rules, but suggest you come up with your own.

Call me crazy, but this is a bandwagon I’m going to jump on. Why? Let me count the reasons:

1) Some months back I decided I needed to buy a dedicated plastic storage container for my sock yarn stash. I could see the sock yarn stash was about to grow rapidly, and I figured when it was full it was time to put on the brakes. It is now full to bursting. And their are skeins and cakes of it hiding in baskets around the house, as well.

2) I’m running out of room in the Dungeon (my office), not helped by the aquisition of a weaving loom, spinning wheel, and the beginnings of a fleece stash.

3) I’m actually bursting to knit up some of the garments I’ve bought yarn for.

4) The hand pain and my current shoulder problem are making it very clear that less knitting is in order rather than more. And buying more yarn only makes me depressed at the thought I can’t knit it up.

So I’ve made myself a button (believe me, not easy when you’re using a tablet & mouse with the left hand) for my side bar:

And these are my rules:

1. The Knit-From-Your-Stash-a-Thon will start January 1, 2007 and run through September 30, 2007 — a period of nine months.

2. I will not buy any yarn during that period, with the following exceptions:

2.a. Cotton yarn for baby bath mitts does not count. (Unlike Wendy & L-B, I haven’t made an exception for sock yarn, but I did promise my new-mother friend I’d keep her in bath mitts.)

2.b. If someone asks for a specific knitted gift that I really and truly do not have the yarn for, I may buy yarn to knit that gift.

2.c. If I am knitting something and run out of yarn, I may purchase enough to complete the project.

2.d. I get one “Get Out of Jail Free” card — I’m allowed to fall off the wagon one time.

2.e. Yarn from which proceeds go to a good cause is exempt.

2.f. Yarn bought on international holidays is exempt.

3. I am allowed to receive gifts of yarn.

4. Spinning fiber of any sort is exempt. So is warp yarn for the loom. Gotta keep to the “varying types of movements might help avoid rsi” policy.

For the moment there’s no knitting, spinning, weaving or anything else happening. It’s just as well I have no holiday knitting commitments, as just typing this is making the back of my hand burn. And the chocolate socks… looks like I’m going to be wholly reliant on my testers to find any bugs in the pattern.