Stash down preperation.

When my Auntie saw the Party on my needles shawl I made my mum for Christmas, she wanted one. The Party on my needles shawl is a large 3 colour crescent shaped shawl. The shawl took me 3 months to knit. With 12 months warning till Christmas knitting one should be no problem, except two of my cousins want one as well. Well that's 9 months of knitting, plus socks for three of my friends, plus jumpers for my niece and nephews and at some point I would like to knit my self something.

The next problem is finding 9 different colours of yarn in my stash suitable for shawls and machine washable. Solution Shopping spree. You'd think after my pre Christmas spree I would have dozens of skeins to pick from but that would be boring. 

Luckily or unluckily depending on your point of view I have 24 hour access to the internet which enabled me to buy 75 skeins of yarn totalling 12,100 meters in less then an hour.

My first stop was Knit Picks for 5 skeins of fellici for socks and 21 skeins of Dishie for my mini spa sets. I mean it's not as though I already have 30ish skeins of Fellici or 15 Skeins of Dishie in my stash waiting to be knit. My excuse is my friend has adult size feet that need 60-70 grams of yarn for a pair of shortie socks and Fellici only has 50g per skein meaning I need 2 skeins per pair. I like to give wash cloths in matching sets of colours that remind me of the recipient which means I need a large selection of colours to choose from, and most importantly I love gift shopping almost as much as I love Yarn.

Next came the shawl yarns.I picked out 9 colours of drops fabel and 3 colours of drops delight.

The main reason I pick Knit Picks and Drops yarns for gift knitting is they are cost effective.Dishie, Fabel, and Fellici yarns are also machine washable. I aim to buy machine washable yarns so when the recipient puts them in the washing machine the items won't be destroyed and I won't be devastated. 

I may also of brought a variety of yarns to make myself some reward knits. I can't wait to get knitting or see the looks on peoples faces when they open their gifts.

Wish me luck in my year of socks and shawls.

Happy New Year and most importantly Happy crafting.