Announcing our Stash Less March Prize

An exciting day today - I get to announce a prize I've been thinking about for yonks! This prize is the other part of the 2016 Stash Less Challenge, and I invite you to be part of it.

You all know that Stash Less has become part of my everyday life. Over the course of the last year, it has irreparably changed the way I think about an unwieldy overflowing stash. I now see my paired-down stash and my scraps as an opportunity. A chance for to play!

I wrote a while ago about Why Restrictions Rock and how the restrictions I placed on my purchasing have also encouraged me to think a bit left of field. Most importantly though, they have got me actually using my stash after years of simply hoarding it based on it's specialness, it's prettiness, or simply the idea that I "might" want to use it for something else.

Specialness, prettiness and maybes, meant that I put off using things I had, and went out to purchase new supplies when I wanted to make something. Instead now, when I have the glimmer of an idea, I head to my fabric cupboard. In most instances I have something that would work, even if I have to modify the idea a little.

I've seen this happening for you too on Instagram, (and your blogs where you have tagged me). Ideas are coming directly out of the process of thinking about your stash in a different way. A freeing up is occurring whereby you are using things you had "saved for something special" because of the realisation that that special is right now, or simply because you have nothing else suitable.

So the March Stash Less Prize aims to celebrate your creative use of your stash.

Dress made from scraps.

Dresses made from hoarded pretty!

The March Stash Less Creativity Prize

This prize aims to highlight and celebrate the creativity that comes from playing with, and finally using your stash.

What you need to do - it's pretty simple;
1. Hashtag your project on instagram using the #stash_less* tag by March 25th
2. Tell us a little story about how Stash Less impacted your making of this project - was it using scraps, a special fabric, or simply seeing your stash in a different light.... you tell us.

What will happen;
1. A short list will be posted in the last week of March.
2. A couple of crafty curator type friends will judge the best one.
3. We will send you a prize!

It is open to anyone, anywhere in the world and the prize will be about $100 of goods - probably in the form of books, patterns etc. We will take into account your interests when we are deciding on a prize.

Anything that has already been posted under the hashtag will be included in this prize round!

Let me know what you think! For me, I can't wait to see what you come up with.

Felicia x

*I'll also look at the #stashless hashtag, as some people are understandably forgetting the hyphen.

Smoothness trick for knitting in the round.

A simple trick today but one that hopefully will make you very happy. I've used it a lot in the last few weeks, as posting about my Simple Hat Pattern has suddenly lead to my current slightly manic "hat knitting period". And so I thought I would share the joy of a jag-less* join in the round.

*jag-less / jog-less / step-less are used interchangably.

So what does the jog/jag/step look like and how do you get it.

For years, I used to start knitting in the round by casting on, making sure that I hadn't twisted the stitches, and then I would knit the first stitch on the left hand needle. Straight forward enough. And of course, I got the jaggedy step at the point in which I started knitting.

The big jag/step at the start of the round that I used to get.

A second picture of the same jag so you can see it up close.

Then I discovered this super simple smoothness trick.**

How to do a smooth jag-less join for knitting in the round.

Step 1: Cast on your stitches as your pattern suggests, but cast on one extra stitch.

Step 2: Join to knit in the round by putting your stitches next to one another as you normally would. But instead of knitting the first stitch on the left hand needle, move the first stitch to the right hand needle without knitting it. In other words slip the first stitch purlwise.

Cast on your stitches plus one extra stitch.

Slip the first stitch purlwise.

Step 2a: Ideally you would place a marker on the right hand needle after you slip the stitch. No marker is shown as I didn't use one - it would have made more sense for the post though - yes? :) A marker will help you when you are new at this.

Step 3: Start knitting by knitting the next stitch on the left hand needle which would have been the second stitch you cast on.

Slip the first stitch you cast on from the left needle to the right. Then knit (what was) the second stitch on the left hand needle.

After the stitch has been knit. The first stitch on the right hand needle is your first knit stitch and what we call the beginning of the round. The second stitch on the right hand needle is the slipped stitch.

Note that I was knitting ribbing for a hat in the photos and so you can see the knit 2, purl 2 in the photos below after I have knitted the full round.

Step 4: The next step is to knit (as the pattern is written) right around until you get to the second last stitch before your marker. This will include the last unknit stitch and the slipped stitch. You can see this below.

Step 5: The final step is to knit the two stitches left in the round together in pattern - the unknit stitch and the slipped stitch. That is you either do a k2tog or a p2tog. This gets rid of the extra stitch you cast on and creates a smooth join.

In my case in this picture I actually purl the two stitches together.

On the left hand needle you can see the last stitch that is unknit so far, then the stitch that you originally slipped from the left needle to the right. The third stitch from the needle tip is the first stitch I knitted in the round. It was a knit stitch - you can see that the 3&4th stitches on the needle, were knit stitches, and the 5&6th stitches were purl stitches which were the first four stitches of my rib.

I purl them together in pattern. It is by doing this step - knitting the last unknit stitch together with the slipped stitch that you close the gap, and dejag the start of the round.

This simple process will give you a start of round without the jog/jag/step and fill your knitter's heart with joy.

Enjoy and ask any questions if I've confused you!

Felicia x

**Where I discovered the trick has been lost to the sands of time sadly. But thank you whoever you are.

Making Time for Creative Play

As of yesterday, all three of my children are in school. A new era is upon our family, with new ideas and a sparkly feeling of freedom.

That said, I'm also feeling a little cautious. One thing I’ve learned in my years of parenting, is that without scheduling time to follow my joy, it just doesn’t happen. Spare time gets sucked up with endless numbers of jobs. Washing, buying sandals, feeding chickens, and work meetings, mean that my making often revolves around what needs to be done.

My crafting time gets taken up with craft jobs, rather than craft joy. There is of course joy in nearly all my craft but I very rarely get to make on a whim and just follow the creative spark. Experimentation occurs but generally only within the context of a given need. A kid needs shorts, I need some tops or a friend has just had a baby and so a quilt needs to be rustled up. Now creating to meet a given need is also fun, but nearly everything I make falls into the category of need-based making. You have to get your jobs done before you can have some fun - right? These days, I'm not so convinced.

What’s crappy about my current needs-based system, is that I have an ongoing deep-seated longing for time to play that is not being addressed. I have all these ideas - they buzz around my head in a frustrated fashion, thrown into the "one-day I'll get to it" category. These are the ideas that aren't based on a "need". These ideas fall into the “wouldn’t it be great if I could just play with that material” or “i wish I could just see what that would look like” or “I wish I could try that”. Just for fun. For the sheer joy of figuring out what was possible and what it might look like.

I'll give you a quick example. Ever since I got the Gee's Bend book I've been a little obsessed. Every time I look at it I see something new. Some kind of stunning alchemy of quiltmaking that is so different to my own. This week I'm moving into my new study space, and as I have less room, I'm having to go through what I own and downsize. This has meant scrap-sorting. And the scrap-sorting has lead to a brain-buzzing question "could I make something like those quilts?"

I mean look at it!

Could I? If I had a go, and did some practice, and put some scraps together. It is totally different to my normal kind of making. Maybe it wouldn't work at first, but when I started chucking scraps together I would learn about what was needed through practice. As I have written before - planning only takes you so far - sometimes the only way to figure out whether an idea will work is by making. The making gets your fingers involved with the materials, and it is there that magic is often made. Could I create in that way? Could I?

Since I wrote the What we can learn from watching kids craft post the idea of experimentation, and the lack of it in my crafting, has been bothering me. I’ve feel like I’ve fallen into a grownup (?) mindset whereby I’m always trying to achieve things. To get things done. To move things forward. I feel like I don’t have the space to experiment, or the time. In craft, and life, I write lists that say things like “post X, call Y”. I wake up and I start to cross things off. Grownup stuff. Grownup responsibilities. Using time to play – unless it is with my children or with my girlfriends – is something that has disappeared off my list of things to do.

As I’ve thought more about it, I’ve realized that I’m actually jealous of the kids and their seemingly endless time to experiment. And jealousy is an important emotion to watch for. It always has something to teach me, and what it’s trying to teach me is normally very bloody obvious. In this case – I crave time to play with my craft.

I recently read Better Than Before by Gretchen Rubin – a wonderful book – and one of the things that Gretchen very clearly laid out for me is that we need to (if we are a certain type of person) schedule time for every-single-thing we want to do. That includes the things that you would love to do but don't need to do. The things that will simply bring you joy. 

Scheduling them, is often the only way you actually get to do them. Without assigning specific time for play, there are always things that will take a higher priority in the short term.

So today when I was sitting in a cafe, having the first solo coffee of my new found freedom, I decided that I needed to firmly plant a stake in my schedule. And so here is my stake.

I'm scheduling time to play with my craft. Time I can’t use for “needed craft” and I can’t use for “comfort craft”. I can only use it for play - to experiment with ideas and just go with the bliss of the day.

I’m thinking an hour a week. I’d love two, but I don’t know if I can fit that in yet. I plan on being religious about it. No distractions. A lot of experimentation. I'm smiling with anticipation and joy as I type this!

Is time to play something that you lack? Is scheduling something that you think about, or something you've done? Do you make time to play? Have you come up with a way to make play happen? Do you just do it naturally? Any and all thoughts gratefully received!

Felicia x

Connection through time.

On the way home from our summer holiday last week we popped in to Canberra. As you do - the nation's capital and all that. We took the kids for a quick one hour walk around Government House, and on our way out of town we decided to take them to the Australian War Memorial. We weren't surewhether it was the right decision as my kids are still young. We've talked mental illness, disability, homelessness.....but we haven't yet got to war in any detail.

And so we were looking through the exhibits in a pretty superficial way - one that was keeping them away from photos of things they weren’t yet ready to understand. But I kept coming across craft made during the war that I didn't want to leave.

The jumper in the photos is one such item*. I don't know anything about the facts of this jumper. All I know is what you see in the photo below and what a quick internet search will tell me. It was made by a soldier called Duncan - Sergeant Duncan CarseIdine - his Red Cross Wounded and Missing record is online and shows he was a prisoner of war in Limburg, Germany from 1917-1918. I don't know any details about it's making other than that I can see it was made from scraps. It has colourwork and cables and a saddle shoulder. There is at least seven colours of yarn.

What I do know is that as I stood there in front of it I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes. And I've thought about it and Duncan ever since.

It made me grateful that I make. Grateful that I understood what was involved in making it. That I could feel the stitches in my hands. That I understood that to design and make what Duncan had made, it would have provided him with comfort and respite from whatever else was going on in his world. It would have given him that feeling of flow one enters when one is manifesting an idea into a tangible product. I was grateful that he had the chance to make it, and grateful that I could recognise the feeling.

It's the collar that really got me. Maybe it was the fashion at the time (?), but it felt to me like he just wanted to go on knitting.

Seeing pictures and exhibits at a War Memorial for me is often a disconnected, almost distant experience, as I don’t have a personal experience similar to the people whose stories are being shared. But the craft makes the exhibition something alive and deeply human.

Felicia x

*Photos were taken with permission.

Stash Less Challenge #1 - Taking Stock

In 2016 we invite you to join us in your own personal Stash Less project. Stash Less is a project whereby we work towards having a mindful stash. Each month we will be posting a challenge for you to use in your own journey of discovery and change. Please feel free to join in at any time. We can't wait to hear what you find out! Previous Stash Less posts can be found here.

Challenge #1 - Taking stock

So we want to start at the very beginning. A very good place to start. And that means taking stock; of what we have and how we came to have it.

All it involves is a couple of hours work, a pen, some paper and a bit of emotional recall.

Why do we start here? Because in order to change our behaviour around our consumption we need to understand why we consume. Understanding the why is the key to change. It gives us something to look for and tells us what our purchasing/stashing triggers are.

Some of you have been watching my journey and have been thinking about the Stash Less project for some time. Some of you have already created your own versions (which I love) and have already considered your stash. I would ask though, that if you have never gone through your whole stash before, that you do now. It is such a worthwhile exersize and one that cannot be overrated in terms of what it can tell you. On the simplest level it creates a baseline. On a deeper level it really allows you to be totally mindful of just how much you have. Taking the time to really sit down with all you own and go through it means that you don't allow yourself to have blindspots - bits of your stash you can't quite see as stashing.

I know when I sit with my stash and really do a proper inventory, my mind starts whirring at incredibly speed due to all the crazy, wonderful, exciting, magical possibilty that lies within it. And due to it's size. There is always more than I think there is when I take into consideration what is hidden in that cupboard, .... oh yeah and that basket over there. And then all those books, and my goodness all those patterns and then there is that special yarn that I keep in a different place...... And so on it goes.

Taking the time to take stock in a considered way will really change your perspective.

How to take stock

You need to write it down. All of it. If only so you can see it all on the pages at the end.

For those of you that want to be thorough I would suggest that you create a table. Write down the product, the amount you purchased, where you purchased it (online, a fair, a shop) and the why/s. There will generally be multiple whys. If it is something that has stayed in your stash for a long time you should also include information on why you haven't yet used it.

I have created the simplest of templates here if you want something to work from. I've left it as a .doc file so you can fiddle with it to your heart's content to make it something that would work for you.

The Craft Sessions Inventory Template

A quick word of warning. Depending on who you are, and how you stash, this might not be an enjoyable exercise for you. It might be difficult to sit with your stuff and your emotions around it. You might avoid it or you might want to walk out halfway through. Or you might need a friend to help you do it. It's all good - just pay attention to how you are feeling and remember that it is the feelings that we are really looking at. So all feelings, avoidance, boredom, annoyance..., are useful. Those feelings will tell you things about your relationship with your stash. And that is what we are trying to figure out.

A few words on "why"

The why could be multiple reasons and you should try to include as much detail as you remember. The why is actually up to three things;
1. The emotion that was "around" the purchase. Excitement, fomo, tiredness, desire, boredom, stress...
2. What you were purchasing it for? A particular project or as a base?
3. Why haven't used it yet.

After you get a little way into your inventory you will see patterns appear and this will get easier.

I have written a few posts about the "whys" I found, and what I learned, when I initial did an inventory of my stash, however I would encourage you to read it only after you have had a go at doing it by yourself, with your own head and heart. I'm worried that by reading them before you take stock, you will have my ideas in your head about why you might stash, and you might overlook a reason you have for purchasing that I haven't even thought of. When, and if, you read those posts then please read the comments. Other people have added the "extra" reasons they have found. So helpful!

A final word

If possible please set aside time to go through your whole stash in one go. This will really give you a good understanding of what you have. The brain is a crazy powerful thing and without doing this step properly, I believe there is the possibility that you (and I) can trick ourselves into believing what we want to believe about what we own.

For me it took me leaving my stash for six months to give me some clarity of perspective. Hopefully you can get yours in an afternoon.

If you are sharing your journey in any way on social media then please leave a link to your instagram, blog or facebook in the comments to this post. I'd also just love your comments on what you found, what you discovered about your whys or what surprised you about what you have. As always the instagram hastag is #stash_less.

I can't wait to hear what you learn!

Felicia x