The Minimalist Knitter's Handbook
knitting more while owning less
Contents
Introduction Portrait Of A Minimalist Knitter.... .5 Why Minimalist Knitting?.. .6 A Growing Movement.. Retraining Your Inner Magpie.. ....8 Letting Go Knowing Is Half The Battle ... ..11 Bad Idea Yarn Skeins. ..12 Knitting Through Your Special Stash. ..13 Pattern - Luxury Cowl.... .14 Tackling Your WiP Bin .... .15 Ditch The Stash: Five Tricks For Getting Rid Of All That Yarn You Don't Use .. ...17 Design your own knit club.. ...20 Pattern - Charity Hat.. ..21 Give it Away .... .22 Stash Busters.... ...23 Pattern: Stash Blanket.. ..24 Knitting Needles: Use or Toss .. ..25 Five Things Every Knitter Needs in Their Notions Bag . ..26 Organizing Your Patterns - Tackle The Books First... .28 Organizing Your Patterns - PDF Pare-Down!. .29
Life As A Minimalist Knitter
The Three-Month Rule. .32 Project-Only Purchases... .33 Pattern: Katie Mitts... .34 A Question Of Storage . .35 Tackling Those "New Yarn" Cravings . .36 Ten Minimalist Knitting Choices You Can Make Today.. ...37
Links, Thanks, and Technical Stuffs
Appendix A: Helpful Links . 40 Appendix B: Great Big Charity List .. 41 Acknowledgements.. 42 Credits . .43 One of the most widely recognized crafts around the world today, knitting has moved from "your mother's work" to something both men and women of all generations have fallen in love with. We are seen on subways and park benches knitting, gathered in book shops, even knitting at sporting events, movies, and at parties! However, along with the benefits of knitting - handmade garments, reduced stress levels - there are a few unfortunate side effects. One of these tends to be a large yarn and notions stash. We knitters are like magpies - drawn in by shiny things, always looking for the new pretty to satisfy us. Several months ago, surrounded by yarn I didn't knit with and needles I never used, I took a stand, declaring myself a minimalist knitter. I did not use or need much of what I had accumulated in the many years of my knitting hobby - in fact, I found the greatest joy from the simplest of tools, the most basic of yarn, and the same patterns used repeatedly to make items for charity and others. I believe that any knitter can join my ranks, knit through their stashes, and become minimalist knitters. While not an easy journey, the process is well worth the final product - and isn't that what we all love most about knitting, after all?!
Portrait Of A Minimalist Knitter
I have not always been a minimalist knitter. In fact, like most knitters I have been known to squirrel away yarn in closets and cabinets faster than I can knit, hoarding knitting needles and patterns like the end of days was coming. When I decided in May 2010 to pare down my stash and take on the role of a Minimalist Knitter, those who knew me best responded with fits of giggling. My stash and yarn shopping habits had become well known - infamous really - and the thought of my not only NoT buying yarn but also knitting my stash down to nothing seemed an unattainable goal. Undaunted, I attacked my yarn stash, cataloging it, organizing it, and taking the first steps to paring it down. Now just a few months later, I can proudly say I am a practicing minimalist knitter! I'm knitting from a small stash of yarn containing no more than 40 skeins at a time, and only purchase new yarn on a project by project basis. My next goal? Take that stash to less than 20 skeins at a time! Moving from busting at the seams to 40 skeins in less than six months was a huge undertaking! Now that I'm here I know three things for certain: 1. I had to give up all yarn purchases until my stash was completelydepleted. 2. I had to learn to knit from my stash and only my stash, and be willing to donate yarn I wasn't going to use. 3. I had to be willing to look at knitting a different way - it is not about the acquisition of new yarn, after all, but the process of knitting and the finished product that is knit. If I had faltered on any one of these three things before cementing the new habit of minimalist knitting, I would have failed miserably. To be a minimalist knitter is a life-altering choice for a knitter to be sure, but one worth making!
Why Minimalist Knitting?
The question most knitters have asked me is why? Why give up so much of your stash, forego the fun of heading to the yarn store simply to look around and see what's new? why keep yourself from one of the foundational truths we knitters have come to accept - to knit is to stash. It's true - to knit is to stash has been the prevailing methodology of knitters for decades. Not long after picking up my first pair of needles I began to stash yarn in closets and bins, on shelves and flat surfaces, believing I was saving up yarn for all the amazing future projects I would make. In reality, I kept knitting the same projects all the time, and would buy yarn for new projects as I decided to knit them. This meant, like most knitters I know, I ended up with a full stash of yarn I had no real intention of using, and all of the guilt-ridden buyer's remorse to go with it. As blog after blog cropped up around me espousing the benefits of minimalism, a theory began to formulate in my mind. Would I perhaps be a happier knitter if I was not surrounded by the ghosts of so many projects unrealized? Would I find more joy in my knitting time if I was using yarn I loved rather than yarnI felt I had to use because it was in my stash? Could I make it out of a yarn store with only the yarn I needed for the NEXT project I was going to knit? And most importantly, was it possible to be a knitter, loving every aspect of both the process and the finished product of knitting, while not also having all the stuff that always seemed to come alongside? Can we, as knitters, learn to love and live with less?
A Growing Movement
I am by no means the only knitter practicing a minimalist knitting lifestyle. Knitters around the globe are being affected by the changing economies in their home countries, and are remembering how to knit more with less, tackling their WIP bins and their over-grown stashes of yarn. I have found dozens of like-minded knitters on Ravelry who have decided to go "cold sheep" and knit from their stash for a pre-determined period of time. Those in my home town knitting circles have shared their desires to pare down their yarn stashes and get back to knitting with what they love, one project at a time. While many knitters continue to store away yarn for a rainy day, more and more knitters are jumping on board with the idea of minimalist knitting to one degree or another.
Retraining Your Inner Magpie
The hard part about becoming a minimalist knitter sits squarely in your yarn closet - all that yarn needs to be either knit with or given away. This is the hardest part for any knitter, for we are like magpies, picking up shiny bits of yarn here and there and storing them away for a rainy day. What is needed is a boot camp style re-training of your magpie knitter brain, and that's where this e-book steps in. We knitters need the step-by-step instructions - look at any pattern book for the proof of that. While we all learn the jargon quickly enough, we still need our knits laid out row by row and section by section. This e-book aims to model itself after a knitting pattern in this way, breaking down the how-to of minimalist knitting into bite-sized chunks so you can dive in and not worry about gettingoverwhelmed! We'll tackle the taming of the stash, and then I'll even offer up some advice on living as a minimalist knitter once you've got your stash under control! While in no way comprehensive, this can be considered a Minimalist Knitting course for knitters at any stage on their minimalist journey.
Letting Go
For most knitters, our minimalist journey must begin with letting go - of all the yarn, all the needles and notions, and most of all of the ideas we have about what it is to be a knitter. The process can be exciting, but it can also feel incredibly overwhelming. When I began my minimalist knitting journey, I had no idea where to start, and would get exhausted and nervous quickly. Once I figured out the letting go can be freeing and exhilarating, it became much easier - and a lot more fun! At its core, letting go must be taken literally - as much as you are letting go of the picture of yourself as a traditional knitter, you must also do the hard work of paring down your knitting stash. For me, this meant taking one skein at a time out of my yarn closet and making a tough but instantaneous decision about it; for you it may look a bit different. Ultimately, you will end up with the same result I did - a much smaller stash, and a much lighter knitting life.
Knowing Is Half The Battle
How many times have you found yourself heading out to the yarn shop to pick up a few skeins of yarn for a specific project, only to head home with a bag full of new yarn to discover you had something suitable already in your stash? Or you've decided to ask only for sock yarn for your birthday to build up a depleted stash only to discover 100 skeins sitting in a bin you forgot you had? The unfortunate truth of the matter is that you cannot begin to even THiNK about paring down your yarn stash unless you know what you actually have. What this means, quite simply, is that you need to take stock. Create an inventory list if you will. When I made mine I used the Stash feature on Ravelry - you may just want to set up an Excel spreadsheet. However you catalog your yarn, you need to take a look at every single skein of yarn you own. Did you buy it for a specific project that has yet to be knit? Group all that yarn together and place the pattern with it - now you know what you will knit with it. Was it gift yarn you aren't sure you want to keep? Place that note on your list as well. While you organize your yarn, you may feel the urge to purge. Go with that urge as much as possible! When I made my first stash organization list, I found I had a few distinct groups of yarn in my stash that I could pare down, donate, and get rid of.They were: Bad Idea Yarn Skeins Special Stash yarns Works in progress
Bad Idea Yarn Skeins
You know the yarn - it sits in the far corners of your stash, buried under all the pretty yarn, the squishy yarn, and your favorite yarn. It's the yarn you picked up because it was on sale, or because your knitting friends promised you'd love it. Maybe it was given to you as a gift or as part of someone's de-stashing efforts. No matter how it got into your stash, every knitter has it - the bad idea yarn skein. Not sure which yarns in your stash are Bad Idea Yarn Skeins? I've devised a simple test to help you easily figure out the most likely suspects. When you look at, think about, or touch the yarn, do you have to resist the urge to bury it at the back of your stash? Has it languished in your stash for more than a year for reasons other than sentimentality? Have you attempted to pair it up with a project at least three times, and simply given up? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you are in possession of Bad Idea Yarn Skeins! In my case, it was novelty yarns. I picked up knitting steam right around the time novelty yarn scarves were becoming immensely popular, and my mom and I began to knit them to donate to a local oncology ward. As the craze wore thin, I still had plenty of skeins of the stuff in my stash. If you're honest about your yarn stash, you will admit you've got at least one of these types of skeins buried somewhere. Chances are you can pinpoint exactly where they're hidden, stuffed off to the side so you don't have to look at them when you search for yarn to pair up with your next project. These skeins represent the easiest way to jump on board with minimalist knitting. You don't want them around, and most likely only hold onto them out of knitter's guilt - the feeling that you really should knit with that skein, even though just the thought of it makes you squeamish. Let go of the guilt and then let go of those skeins! Organizations around the world are constantly looking for yarn donations for their charity projects - a simple search on Lion Brand's Charity Connections page will help you find the perfect charity to send your yarn to! Once you've rid yourself of your Bad ldea Yarn Skeins, your stash should feel lighter - and so should you!
Knitting Through Your Special Stash
Every knitter has a "special stash" of yarn. You know the stuff: these are the skeins bought on vacation, the yarns with price tags that meant we could only buy one skein, or yarn given to us by very special people. Most knitters won't use it, choosing instead to keep the skeins around as a reminder of the person, place, or time the yarnwas acquired. The fear that you will ruin the yarn by knitting it into a lessthan-perfect item or that somehow the yarn will lose its special meaning once knit locks you into place, and the yarn sits un-knit - loved on and admired yes, but not knit up. I refuse to keep a special stash. I say SPEND OUT {to borrow a Gretchen Rubin phrase}. Chances are you have attached more importance to this yarn that it rightly deserves. Sure, you had a great experience at Rhineback in 2002, but will keeping that yarn on a shelf remind you of those times any better than you alreadyrememberthem? The yarn was purchased not to be left on a shelf or in a box, but to be used and loved! What better way to honor your memories associated with the yarn in question than to knit it into something you will love and cherish? Here are a few suggestions to get you started: Vacation Yarn: Knit up a pattern that reminds you of the place the yarn was purchased. Make it something you can wear often, but that will not wear out quickly - think scarf or cowl - so you can enjoy it for years. Expensive single skein yarns: Go for simple patterns that allow the yarn to shine. Stockinette stitch lets gorgeous yarn stand out where intricate patterns overwhelm it. Small shawls and cowls, or even mitts will show off gorgeous yarn perfectly. Yarn That Reminds You of Someone: Knit yourself something you think that person would love to see you in. Knit something FOR that person! More than anything, if you know you'll never end up knitting that special stash yarn, don't buy it to begin with. Make your memories in other ways, and leave your yarn purchases to those skeins you know you'll use.
Pattern - Luxury Cowl
This cowl can be made using any weight yarn - the thicker the yarn, the wider the cowl! Using the provisional cast on method found on Knitty.com, cast on 26 stitches. Row 1, and all odd rows: knit all Row 2 (and all even rows): knit 5, purl 16, knit 5/ Repeat these two rows until you are almost out of yarn. Place provisional stitches onto a needle, and perform 3- needle bind-off to close cowl into a circle. Your cowl's length will be determined by the yardage in your skein. Wrap around your neck a time or two, and enjoy! {photos show a cowl knit with a single skein of bulky yarn and size 13 needles.}
Tackling Your WIP Bin
Once upon a time, I had myself fooled into thinking I was a one project at a time kind of girl. As I started to consolidate my knitting stash and work towards a minimalist knitting existence, I realized just how many WiPs [works in progress] I actually had on-hand. Part of my year-long goal has been to rid myself of all those WIPs, and hopefully end up as someone that has one or two WIPs going at any given time. I've been working through my WIP pile for a few months now, and I've come to a very harsh decision. There are really only two options when it comes to yourWipbin:
You can either frog it or you can finish it.
Those half-finished sweaters and blankets, those single socks waiting patiently for a mate - they all ended up in your WIP bin for a reason. Maybe the pattern wasn't as amazing as it looked, or you tired of all the edging the thing needed. Whatever your reason, you need to figure out if it's a big enough hindrance to keep you from finishing the project or not. Sometimes the decisions can be hard to make, but if the goal is a pared down, minimalist knitting life, the WiPs have to go!
Finish it up.
If the project is one you still want to finish, or there's so little left to be done you can power through before donating the item, let this be the next knitting project you finish. As you finish each WlP, be sure to decide immediately what to do with it. Is it becoming a holiday present? Then add it to your holiday present stash. Will it be donated? Then make up the envelope and get it into the mail. If you don't have a home in mind for your WiPs while you're knitting, they are more likely to fall back into the unfinished knits bin.
Don't be afraid to frog.
We all have projects we started with the best of intentions, but didn't finish for one reason or another. Examine each project individually, and decide if you really want to finish that project RIGHT NOW. If you do, knit on that until it's done. If you don't, frog it right then and there. The yarn that's been sitting unloved can be repurposed for another project, or it can be donated to someone else. Don't simply wind the yarn up into cakes and toss them into your stash, however. If you're going to frog your project, let that yarn become either the next project you cast on, or give it to someonewhowilluseitandloveit.
No More Unfinished Knits.
As you work through your WiP bin, keep this goal in mind - this will be the last time you have to tackle an unfinished knits pile. From this day forward, let no project languish unfinished. Apply these two basic ideas to any and every project you are knitting AS SOON AS you start to feel yourself straying to a new project. Stash yarn is still stash yarn until it's been made into something useable! Ditch The Stash: Five Tricks For Getting Rid Of All That Yarn You Don't Use As a minimalist knitter, my goal is to only have enough yarn in my possession to knit projects for a three-month time frame. Projects I know I want to knit, using yarn and needles I know I love to knit with. For most knitters, this isn't the case. Most knitters are slaves to their yarn stash, carrying around guilt over skeins left un-knit. With the minimalist movement taking hold of the world, people everywhere are paring down their possessions, focusing on what truly matters to them, and loving more and more minutes of their days. It's time for knitters to join the ranks! Rather than hold onto all that yarn you're probably never going to use, pare it down to the stuff you love and KNOw you'll use soon, and let the rest of it go. It can be scary to start weeding through your yarn stash, but if you want to live with less and feel joy from your knitting rather than guilt at owning so much stash you will never use, the following five tips can help you weed through half your stash in as little time as a weekend! 1. Figure out what you actually knit. Before you even dive into your stash, do an hour of recon work and figure out what you actually knit. If you've got a Ravelry account {my Ravelry handle is "adevinelife"}, look at your finished projects. If you keep a Flickr account, start surfing backwards. Make note of specific types of projects you see a lot of - hats, baby items, sweaters, shawls. Dig a bit deeper and figure out which needles you use most often - are you a size 8 queen, or do you stick to the smaller needles, working mostly in the 3-4 range? What yarn fibers do you love most? Do you spend most of your time with wool, or do you love cotton or acrylics more? Doing the work of figuring out what you love to knit, and love to knit with, will help you decipher what you don't use. For me, it became clear I don't use much sport weight yarn, cotton, or any needles that range outside of the 5-10 range. 2. Flip Your Stash. Now the hard work begins - you need to dump out every container of yarn you have into the middle of the floor. I'm not joking here - don't let any of it sit in a box. You can do this one box or container at a time, or you can do what I did and make one huge pile of all my yarn on the floor all at once. Allow yourself to feel overwhelmed. You didn't acquire this yarn overnight, and each ball and skein of yarn was brought into your home with the intention of being knit up into something amazing. Give yourself a few minutes to freak out at the amount of yarn you have, and then grab some garbage bags or boxes and get to work. 3. Divide and Conquer. Remember that list you made earlier of what you liked to knit and didn't like to knit? Now it's time to use it - and be ruthless with it. Start at the top of your big pile, grabbing one skein at a time {or one batch of skeins, if you've got several of the same colorway together}. Ask yourself the following questions: Has this yarn been in your stash for more than six months, without a specific project attached to it? Did you buy this yarn with a specific project in mind, but it's sat in your stash for more than a year? Did you think you'd love knitting with this yarn, but it turns out you HATED it? Is it a yarn weight or fiber that's not on your "use it all the time" list? If you answered yes to any of these questions, get rid of it! Grab that yarn and put it into a box or bag to be donated. Once you've done this, you should only have yarn left that falls under the "love to knit with this yarn" category or the "it's the right weight and fiber type" category. 4. Get rid of the donate pile. There are hundreds of organizations that will gladly take your yarn off your hands! Check with local organizations first. Not sure where to call? Here's a fewsuggestions: Check with your local knitting groups and non-profits. Ask your local nursing homes if they have a crochet/knitting group. They may want any acrylic you have. Lion Brand yarn has a great charity connection space, where you can search for organizations that are looking for yarn donations. Search your state first, the states around you next. When all else fails, you can bag up that yarn and take it to the Goodwill. There's always a knitter poking around the bins that will squeal with delight at the treasures you'll have left for them. Only keep the donation bags around for three days. Send emails to as many charities as you can, and offer to drop off any yarn to local charities to save on postage. If you keep the bags around longer than three days, you're more likely to open them back up. 5. Go back through your "to keep" pile. Once you've donated all the yarn in your "get rid of it" pile, you'll want to take one last pass through your "to keep" pile. Do you have more than three months worth of knitting there? If so, pare down again, or do the following if you can't bear to let go of any more yarn: Set aside yarn for specific projects. Figure out a few fun and simple projects you can make for the holidays to give away, and bag up yarn for that purpose. Create a "knitting club" for yourself with all the single skeins. Connect specific yarn with specific projects, and draw one project at a time until all the single skeins are used up. It's a fun way to keep the surprise in your knitting. Exhausted?I bet! But I also bet your stash has been significantly depleted. Now here comes the hard part:
In six months, do it again.
Chances are you'll have accumulated new yarn in the interim, you'll fall less in love with some of those skeins of yarn you had to keep, and you'll have a better handle on how much you can knit with over a few months' time. By repeating this process every six months, you'll keep your stash manageable. I'll be honest here - I've actually gone through this process twice in the last month. I know how hard it can be to let go of yarn you spent good money on and had pure intentions of knitting with. For me, the desire to be a minimalist knitter has won out over my desire to use up every skein in my stash. I know how fast I can knit, what projects I'll actually complete, and what yarn it takes to do that. This means I have to repeatedly do the hard work of deciding what I can and can't keep in my yarn stash. It's a process I'm not done with, but am willing to commit to - and these steps are exactly how I commit myself to it.
Design your own knit club
If you like knitting a particular item very much, say socks or hats, you may find you have accumulated a large stash of yarn specific to this type of knitting. This is not yarn you want to give away, but the thought of finding a way to knit it all can overwhelm quickly. One fun idea I've put to use, with great success, is to create my very own Knit Club! Modeled after the one the Yarn Harlot created for herself as a way to knit through some of her sock yarns, my Knit Club helped me knit through my One Hundred Hats project with ease. Knit Clubs started when indie yarn dyers began to send out monthly packages to customers, complete with not just a brand new skein of yarn but also a pattern to knit that skein with. Quickly taking hold in the knitting community, sock clubs have been the most popular. Setting up your own Knit Club is super easy - simply pair up single skeins of yarn with single-skein patterns, and knit through them one at a time. Keep them hidden, and grab one at a time at random for a mini surprise! Hints to keep in mind when setting up your Knit Club: Set up your Knit Club to run for a specific amount of time. For example, knit through one item from your Knit Club each month for a year. Keep things do-able, and be sure to leave time for other knitting. One project a month is about the limit to keep this sort of thing fun. Pair up the patterns with the yarn beforehand. At first I tried to pair up the yarn with a pattern on the fly, and this quickly became too stressful. I took one afternoon and paired up skeins with patterns, each in its own bag, and the whole thing instantly became easy and fun! Consider the yarn when picking out a pattern. If the yarn has lots of color change or texture, a simpler pattern may be best, to help showcase the yarn. Single color skeins lend themselves to patterns with more oomph, and are a great way to show off stitch work. Thanks to personalized knit clubs, you'll have your yarn stash pared down in no time, and bunches of great projects to show for it - all with minimal stress and effort!
Pattern - Charity Hat
This simple hat is great for knitters of any skill level, and works up fast to make an adorable and whimsical topper fon any age!
Materials:
size $8\;16^{\circ}$ circular needles size 8 DPNs worsted weight yarn Tapestry yarn Sizes: x-small (small, medium, large) $=15$ (17, 19, 21) inches - this hat will fit from a young toddler through to an adult Directions: Cast on 68 (76, 84, 92) Rows 1-8: Knit 2, purl 2 around. This will create a $2\mathtt{x}2$ ribbed brim. To form the body of the hat, knit all stitches around until hat measures 7 (8, 9, 10) inches from cast on edge. Bind off all stitches.
Finishing:
Turn hat inside out. Sew top of hat together, and then weave in all ends.
Give it Away That pile of yarn you no longer want - the bad idea skeins and the yarn you no longer love - cannot continue to stay in your home. Yarn is tricky, and if left unattended it will find its way back into your stash, potentially breeding new little balls of yarn as it goes! Your best bet is to get rid of the yarn you've decided to destash as soon as you've made the decision. While you can commit to selling your unwanted yarn via Ravelry or Etsy, you'll end up holding onto it far longer than necessary. Instead, I advocate giving it away. 1. Donate your yarn to charity. There are hundreds of charitable organizations that will take your yarn off your hands. Great for all those skeins you've purged from your stash but don't know what to do with! {See Appendix B for some suggestions} 2. Have a rummage sale, yarn style, and invite your knitterly friends over to grab whatever they want from your discard pile. Ideally we'd be convincing all knitters to join the minimalist movement, but for now it's best to focus on your stash - and if other knitters will love and cherish it, then the yarn has ended up in good hands! 3. Drop it off at the Goodwill. When all else fails, bag up that yarn and take it to your local thrift store. More than likely some savvy fiber shopper will happen upon it and snap it up, grateful for your paring down. 4. Donate it to a nursing home or school. Teachers love using yarn for craft projects with their students, and crafters living in nursing homes will be grateful for the donations. Bottom line - don't toss the yarn! There's someone out there who will be grateful for it, and the faster you can get that unneeded yarn out of your stash, the happier you'll be. Stash Busters When you get down to the last vestiges of your stash, you may start getting frustrated. You are almost there, what can one or two balls of yarn for new projects hurt? Before you cave in, bust through the last bits of your stash with some great projects designed just for that purpose! Here's a few ideas - I've used all of these to use up the last bits of my stash! Baby items use up small bits of yarn, and are great for your cotton and acrylic stashes. You can whip through baby hats and booties in an evening, and your local hospital will be ecstatic to have the hand-knits for their babes! Hats are a great way to knock through single skeins in colorways you're not super excited about. Woolen hats can be donated to a variety of charities, and chances are you know someone who will love to receive a hand-knit hat in one of those colors you can't figure out why you purchased. But my all-time favorite way to bust through my stash? Knitted squares. Knitting squares for charity is a great way to bust through a lot of stash in a short amount of time. Pattern: Stash Blanket Don't know what to do with all those tiny leftover bits of yarn left over? Make yourself a stash blanket! It can be a great way to use up every last bit of yarn, and will leave you with an amazing record of past yarns used!
Materials:
Size 9 circular needle $-\,24^{\prime\prime}$ cable or longer preferred All those worsted weight yarn remnants
Directions:
Cast on 230 stitches using the long-tail cast on method. Knit every stitch until you're almost out of whatever ball of yarn you're using. To attach a new ball of yarn, simply tie the old yarn to the new yarn using a simple knot. Leave those knotted bits hanging out as a design element! Continue on in this manner until the blanket is at your desired length, and then bind off all stitches.
Knitting Needles: Use or Toss
Take a good hard look at the patterns you've knit from in the last six months. Chances are a pattern will emerge - yarn weight and needle size tend to be consistent for most knitters, even if project type isn't. You won't find many avid sock and shawl knitters {fingering yarn and small needles} that also love to knit bulky sweaters up regularly, for example. We tend to stick with what we love when it comes to our knitting needles - despite what our needle stash looks like. In my case, it was worsted weight yarns and sizes 6-10 needles. I really didn't use much else, and when I did I wasn't happy. So I made the choice to limit my knitting needles down to only what I loved to use. To pare down, simply grab every knitting needle you can find, and divide them up by size. Then bag up all those needles that don't fit in with what you knit $75\%$ of the time. Take that bag with you to knit group and give those needles away, or donate them to a local knitting charity. Then commit to only knitting with needles that you actually use! This was by far the easiest part of my own personal paredown. I was shocked when I realized just how many needles I had that I couldn't find any evidence of ever having used. It was a mystery why I picked them up in the first place as well as why I was still holding onto them! Quick as can be they went off to the donation pile, and I was left with enough room in my needle stash bin to also store all my notions! If you find a pattern you LovE, but it uses a needle you don't normally use, either alter the pattern to use the size needles you have, or don't make it. Don't buy needles you'll only use once - in reality, you don't use those needles for a reason, so the project you think you'll love that uses those needles? Probably won't get made because you won't want to use the needles.
Five Things Every Knitter Needs in Their Notions Bag
A trip to any craft store or yarn shop will showcase not just gorgeous yarn to pet, fondle, and eventually knit with, but also a plethora of knitting tools you will feel compelled to add to your pile. Besides knitting needles and crochet hooks you will find package after package of product designed to meet a specific need - a need you may not even have been aware of! Over the years I've bought into plenty of these products, and have learned over time that most of these items are simply not necessary. In reality, there are five simple items that any knitter should have in their notions bag, leaving all the rest to languish on store shelves without remorse. 1. Tape Measure. This is an invaluable tool. You can use it to measure a person for a sweater or hat, and figure out the length of someone's foot for socks. You can also use a tape measure to figure out your knitting gauge and measure your finished items to figure out its size. I've also used my tape measure to find Wraps Per Inch of questionable yarn (thereby being able to determine yarn weight) and to measure storage spaces! 2. Stitch Markers. Those more minimalist than I may say you can get away with not having stitch markers - simply keep better track of your stitches or use waste yarn! I have found however, that my stitch markers have become an invaluable resource. I purchased a package just under a decade ago now, and despite losing a few to cat playtime, I still have the majority of them with me. Stitch markers can let you know at a glance the beginning of a row in circular knitting; they can mark where to increase/decrease for sleeves on a sweater, and can be used to mark where a pattern repeat begins. You can even use removable stitch markers (mine look like little safety pins!) to mark rows if you need to knit a certain number for your pattern. 3. Pencil. Mine are mechanical, yours may be of the lead and wood variety, but either way a pencil can be invaluable. I use mine to grab escaping stitches, to mark on patterns which sections I've finished, and to track rows when I need to keep a super accurate count. 4. Scissors. If there's one thing you should have on hand at all times while knitting, it's a pair of scissors. You use them to snip ends after they've been woven in, which is invaluable unless you want to weave in ends until their bitter ends. 1 knowI don't! 5. Darning needle. Last but not least, you'll need a darning needle. This somewhat single-use item is used to weave in ends. I'd recommend getting a plastic, blunt-tipped needle for this, rather than a metal sewing needle - the sharper the needle tip, the more likely you are to split your yarn. Most knitters will find they have a few extra items in their notions kits, but I find that with these five basic items those other notions aren't necessary. You can ditch your cabling needles simply by using one of your DPNs. That gauge guide isn't necessary now that you've got your tape measure onhand always. Safety pins aren't needed thanks to stitch markers. Row counters can be left at home thanks to your multi-use pencil! Not sure if you're ready to get rid of everything in your notions bag besides these five items? Consider bagging them up and storing them away in a closet for six months - if you don't pull the bag out, you didn't need what was in it! Six months from now, donate all those unneeded notions to a charitable organization or school knitting club - they'll be grateful for your de-cluttering!
Organizing Your Patterns - Tackle The Books First
Patterns are easy to acquire and hide away. Knitting books fit quite nicely on your bookshelves, and those PDF patterns we all have grown to love hide out on your computers, taking up no space at all! This does not mean they can be left alone - pattern clutter is still knitting clutter! Most of us have a library of knitting books we rarely use. We've bought the books because they were full of patterns we thought we would love to knit, only to have them sit on our shelvesunused. To combat this, go through each book and mark every pattern you know you'll want to knit. Only keep those with patterns you use over and over, or patterns you have on the docket to knit in the next three months. Once you've got every knitting book you own marked up in this way {l used stickie flags}, follow these steps to pare down your knitting books: If you've knit from the book and don't see knitting from it again in the next year, donate it to your library. If the book only has one pattern flagged in it, chances are you can get rid of it. Donate it to the library so you can check the book out if you decide you want to knit that pattern in the future. If you know another knitter that has the book, write down the patterns you'd like to knit and then donate the book. If you decide you want to knit one of those patterns in the future, borrow the book from your friend who has it! By following these three steps I pared down my knitting book collection to 10 books! You may end up with more, but your collection will shrink by leaps and bounds.
Organizing Your Patterns - PDF Pare-Down!
In today's digital age, we've all got dozens of PDF knitting patterns saved on our hard drives all willy-nilly, downloaded for free with every intention of being used one day. It's time to weed through those to find the patterns you actually use! First, if you don't already have a folder set up on your computer for patterns, do so. I named mine "patterns", and then transferred all patterns I'd purchased or downloaded to this folder. Next, within your patterns folder, divide up your individual patterns by finished product type, who will end up with them {men, women, etc}, or come up with your own system. I set up a separate file for baby and kid-related stuff, and then divided the rest of the patterns by type - sweaters, hats, etc. Also set up a separate file for any pattern e-books you've purchased. This way you'll be able to find those easier. As you place patterns into folders, open up each pattern and decide if you still want to keep it. Chances are half of the patterns you've saved are ones you'll never knit again. If you're leery of getting rid of these patterns, set up a "to toss" file in your larger patterns file. Place any patterns you don't think you want any longer in this file. Save them there for a year - if you haven't opened that file up once, dump the whole thing without looking!
Life As A Minimalist Knitter
Now that you've done the hard work of paring down your knitting stash, it may be a bit difficult to imagine what comes next. How do you avoid jumping right back into your old knitterly ways now that you don't need to figure out how to pare down, and instead need to figure out how to live as a minimalistknitter? In reality, living as a minimalist knitter can seem just as hard as the getting there - the struggle to not buy yarn now is just as hard as it was before. Once you get used to it however, it can be fun and freeing! I've implemented a few “rules and regulations" to help keep myself on the path of minimalist knitting now that my stash busting is complete. Part of this involves keeping up with the tactics employed during my pare-down days: avoid yarn shops, knit what I've got, and remember what I love to knit With. The exciting part of living as a minimalist knitter is knowing you can head to the yarn shop and pick up yarn you need, and you know you'll be knitting with it right away! You don't feel tied down by your stash - you are freed up to love and use youryarn now! The Three-Month Rule The easiest way to keep yourself on the minimalist path is through the three-month rule. Reality says you will end up with a small stash again - you'll buy eight skeins to knit a sweater with, but then quickly want to cast on a hat for a friend's birthday. The three-month rule can help keep your yarn stash to a minimum, and ensure you're using everything you've got! The three-month rule is simple:
If you can't get to it in the next 3 months, don't buy the yarn for it.
If you're unsure of getting the project done in that timeframe, chances are you'll change your mind about knitting it or forget about it in that amount of time, anyhow. We knitters are fickle, after all - new patterns show up all the time that we want to knit, people have babies or decide they want hand-knits for their birthdays, and we've moved on before we realize it. The easiest way to do this is to keep a record of all the projects you want to knit. Do this in a notebook or go paperless and track items on Ravelry, but become a projectbased knitter. By having an idea of what you want to knit up in the next three to six months, you'll have a better idea of what you need when you head to the store. When you get to the store, buy only what you need for your next one or two projects. All knitters work at different paces, but we all only have a one to three project attention span. Beyond that, our minds change fast and furious! Remember this when you head to the store - pick up yarn you need now, not later - this will keep you to the three month rule with breathing room, and your stash will stay tamed.
Project-Only Purchases
Once your yarn stash has been completely obliterated, buy yarn on a project-by-project basis, keeping in mind what you truly do and don't like to knit. The point of minimalist knitting is not to eschew new yarn purchases all together. At that point you would cease to be a knitter! What we're doing here is owning up to how much yarn one knitter actually needs at any given time. If you are knitting a sweater, you will by default have more skeins in your stash than if you are knitting socks. And that's okay. The idea is to buy yarn that you need in order to start knitting specific projects, and to not buy more yarn until those projects are done. It is incredibly freeing to look in your little knitting bag and know that you have each of those skeins ear-marked for something specific, and that in a short amount of time those skeins will have been knit up and there will be room for more newskeinsofyarn! This satisfies the best part of picking out fun new yarns - you don't ever feel that guilt that comes along with yarn sitting in the closet or bins for months and years, and frees you up for guiltless knitting all the time!
Pattern: Katie Mitts
Note: This pattern was originally published in the Three-Season MittsE-book. These mitts are meant to be loose around the wrist and tighter at the elbow, to give a baggy and relaxed fit.
Materials:
One set size 7dpns One skein Paton's Classic Wool Darning needle Sizes: small (medium, large) - 6 (7, 8) inches around.
Gauge:
20 stitches $\times\,26\;\mathsf{r o w s}=4^{\prime\prime}$ in stockinette Directions: Cast on 40(44, 48) stitches. Join for working in the round and place marker. Knit in 1x1 rib for 10 rows. Work stockinette stitch for 8 (9, 10) inches. Making Thumb Hole: Row 1: Knit around to last seven stitches. Bind off all seven stitches. Row 2: Knit around to bound off stitches, cast on seven stitches. Knit in stockinette for 4 rows. Knit in 1x1 rib for 10 rows. Bind off in pattern.
A Question Of Storage
With no large stash left, the need for knitting storage should be drastically cut down. You still need a small space to store your yarn and notions, however - especially if you have animals or smaller children around who always seem very interested in your knitting projects! I advocate having only enough yarn, needles, and notions that you can store it all in one bag, box or basket. I keep all of mine in a large Land's End travel bag I received as a gift a year or so ago. I can carry it with me around the house and on trips, making it perfect for my knitting needs. With the bag by my side, I can pull out what I need for my current project, and then put it away at the end of my knitting session. No searching around for needles, notions, or that extra skein you ended up needing after all. You may decide to have a knitting bag like me - something you can carry with you and that will hold all your items. I've been known in the past to have a knitting basket that sat in our family room {where I do the majority of my knitting}, all the yarn balls poking out prettily. The main thing here is to be sure your storage does not grow bigger than the size of your stash. Use a bag or basket slightly smaller than you think you need. If you give your stash room to grow, grow it will! Once you have your storage solution in mind, do not let your stash grow larger. Do not let yourself purchase or re-purpose any other storage for your yarn than this original storage solution. The easiest - and quickest - way for your yarn stash to grow while you aren't looking is to have storage space available!
Tackling Those "New Yarn" Cravings
What to do when a shopping craving hits? We all have times when we want to start ten new projects - fine as long as it doesn't make you want to pick up new yarn! When you feel yourself drawn to the yarn shop despite the commitment to knit from your stash, here's a few tricks that might help. Learn something new. Grab your favorite needles and yarn, and teach yourself a new knitting technique, try out a new pattern, or swatch for your next project. Check out free patterns on Ravelry Go for a long walk. Whip through one of the projects on your Wip list. Set a date for when you CAN buy that new yarn you're craving. Hang out with a knitter. Meet a local knitter for coffee and share the projects you're working on - just feeling their yarn may help! Head to the store - but leave your money at home! There's nothing wrong with a little stash fondling from time to time; just don't bring your wallet so you're not tempted. Repurpose yarn from a sweater. Head to your local thrift shop and pick up a sweater you can take apart for the yarn - you'll have new-to-you yarn in your stash, and that old sweater will get new life! Ten Minimalist Knitting Choices You Can Make Today Excited about minimalist knitting, but feeling overwhelmed at all it will entail? I've been there, too! I had plenty of days where this process and lifestyle change seemed far too daunting to take on, and I wanted to run to the yarn shop credit card in hand! If you're having one of those days, or unsure of how much commitment you want to make to minimalist knitting, consider the following ten steps your cheat sheet. By doing one of these things once a day - or once a week, or even once a month - you will be setting yourself on the path towards a minimalist knitting life before you know it! One. Donate one skein of yarn. Everyone has at least one skein of yarn in their collection they wouldn't miss - find that skein and get rid of it. You can gift it to a fellow knitter, sell it on Ravelry, or donate it to charity, but get it out of your stash and your home. Two. Get rid of a set of knitting needles. We've all purchased a set of needles we'll never use again. Put it in your "to donate" box and take it on your next trip to the Goodwill. You won't miss it. Three. Organize your PDF patterns. Divide them up by finished product type, who will end up with them {men, women, etc}, or come up with your own system. As you work, open up each pattern and decide if you still want to keep it. Chances are half of the patterns you've saved are ones you'll never knit again. Four. Knit a hat - and give it away. There are people all around you that need warmth this winter, and you've got yarn and the skills to help out. Grab a skein of your workhorse wool and knit a hat you'll give away - then go find someone who looks cold and offer it to them. Five. Clean out your notions bag - get rid of anything you haven't used on your last ten projects. Notions bags are like purses; they collect crap. I like to clean out my notions bag a few times a year, and am always surprised at what I find inside. Most likely you'll be able to lighten your notions load by almost half. Six. Delete anything on your Ravelry queue that's been there for more than a year. With very few exceptions, if you haven't knit it by now, you most likely won't knit it anytime in the near future. And with Ravelry's amazing search capabilities, if you really want to find it again you'll be able to. Lighten that visual clutter! Seven. Frog a WiP. If it's been sitting in your "to finish knitting" pile for more than a year, you will probably never finish it. Whatever stalled you out the first time will continue to keep you stalled out indefinitely. Frog that project so you can use the yarn for another project. Better yet, once you frog it, give the yarn away! Eight. Finish a Wip. If it just needs a button band, cuffs on the sleeves, snaps sewn on, or the ends woven in, just finish it. Put down this book, go grab what you need, and take the time to get it done and out of your WiP pile. Nine. Knit outside. Connecting with nature brings a sense of peace and calm, centering you and helping you let go. It will get you away from your stash, all the knitting clutter you've accumulated, and re-focus your minimalist knitting mission. Ten. Re-purpose yarn from a thrift store sweater. There are dozens of sweaters in any thrift store that can be repurposed for new-to-you yarn. Find a tutorial if you don't already know how, and help give new life to used yarn rather than buying new.
Links, Thanks, and Technical Stuffs
Appendix A:Helpful Links Throughout this e-book, I've referenced a few of the sites I've found helpful on my knitting journey. I'm including links to them here, along with a short description of how I've used them. I'm also including a list of some great knitting blogs and pattern sources.
Websites:
· Ravelry - my go-to space for tracking my knitting, finding new patterns, and connecting with other knitters. · Etsy - a great space to purchase patterns and hand-spun yarn. · Gretchen Rubin - amazing. She's responsible for the Happiness Project, and it's changed how I look at my world. Rhineback - an amazing sheep and wool festival in New York State that happens once a year. Squam - camp for adults. They've got a book coming out, too! · Lion Brand Charity Connections - the go-to spot for finding a charity to donate your hand knits to. ·Yarn Harlot - humorist, blogger, knitter.
{A Few} Knitting Blogs and Pattern Sources:
There's no way I could ever give a comprehensive list of knitting blogs and pattern sources! These are just a few l love. A Friend To Knit With Close Knit, Portland Cosmic Pluto Crazy Aunt Purl Flint Knits Grumperina Hello Yarn ?Jane Richmond Jared Flood Knitting School Dropout Knitty Lee Meredith Never Not Knitting Soulemama Steven West Through The Loops Vickie Howell Wooly Wormehad
Appendix B: Great Big Charity List
One of my favorite ways to bust through my stash has always been to knit items for charity. Below is a short list of charities I've enjoyed sending items to throughout my knitting life. This list is by NO MEANS complete - there are thousands of charities that accept hand-knits, and this is just a short list of some of the larger ones. If you're interested in donating hand-knits locally, your best bet is to callocal non-profits, hospitals and nursing homes to see if they're accepting hand-knit donations. In my experience, most places love receiving items from knitters! Afghans for Afghans Binky Patrol .Caps For A Cure {yahoo group} Care Wear Children In Common Hats For The Homeless Head Huggers Heavenly Angels In Need Knit A Square Knitting For Noggins KZN Baby Pack Mittens For Akkol {yahoo group] Mother Bear Project Nest: Maine Newborns In Need Pink Slipper Project ?Project Hope Project Linus The Ghana Project The Ships Project Warm Up America Wool-Aid Acknowledgements Thanks to all of you in both the knitting and minimalist communities who have shown up to this space week after week to follow along with my crazy experiment! I've learned more from you than I can express. Special Thanks To: Everett Bogue, for writing Minimalist Business. It was the catalyst. Jane Richmond, for the most amazing hat patterns a girl could knit. Chris Guillebeau, for the reminders to be extraordinary.
And above all:
Thanks to my husband: for the yarn swift, the knitwear modeling, the excitement over new hand-knits, and for loving and supporting me through all my crazy ideas. I can't imagine living my life without you! Credits After more than a decade of wading through her yarn and needles, Robyn Devine has taken up the challenge of minimalist knitting. She is the author of the blog Minimalist Knitter as well as designs minimalist knitting patterns. Currently, Robyn knits out of one box containing less than 40 skeins of yarn, and donates most of her projects to charity. She is the force behind the One Hundred Hats project, and can be found most days knitting by the fire pit her husband built in their back yard. {All photographs are of yarn that used to be in her stash or project she's knit.}
Help save some trees and keep this e-book on your computer! All links in the appendixes are clickable, and by not printing this guide you can read it from anywhere, and help me save a small forest as well! I'd love to chat with you about this e-book, minimalist knitting, or whatever else - shoot me an e-mail at rmcdevine@gmail.com to get theconversationstarted! This e-book is un-copyrighted. This means that you can distribute it to your friends, family, and fellow-knitters without any issues! Check out what Leo Babauta has to say about un-copyright if you want to learn more.
