I will admit to a little knit envy! Two of my knitting buddies are off to Stitches West in California and I have found myself daydreaming about what that kind of knitting adventure would be like. Imagine being surrounded by THOUSANDS of knitters, aisle after aisle of vendors, classes, and a Convention Centre full of people who understand the yarn obsession.

While they were busy packing for their trip, I took to stash diving. There were two aims in mind. The first was to update my stash on Ravelry. The second was to clear out any stash that was unlikely to be used and to donate that to Knit-One-Give-One (KOGO). Another knitting buddy mentioned this charity at the Richmond Knitters SnB last Monday. I went through a hat knitting obsession a few years ago and knit far too many hats that were far too small for me. It was wonderful to discover that there is a charity that not only takes donations of full balls of yarn, but also unwanted hand knits. I took a very large bag of donations – mostly yarn, but some hats and scarves as well – to Wondoflex in Malvern, who are a collection point for KOGO. Ok… I didn’t walk out of Wondoflex empty-handed, but I took in more than I left with.

A few knitting podcasts are talking about appreciating your stash and this is something that I need to get better at doing. I’ll have a bright idea for a project and rather than ‘shopping the stash’, I tend to jump online and order. Now that my Ravelry stash is up to date, I am hoping that one of my 2015 knitting resolutions will be to shop the stash before shopping online. I am also trying to put myself on a yarn diet until Bendigo in July, although diets and me have never had a happy relationship! Another 2015 resolution is to knit more for charity, especially now that I know about KOGO.

So while my pals are in sunny California being intoxicated by Stitches West yarn fumes, I will explore my stash and see what projects I can dream up!