During April, I made the most progress of any month so far in this challenge. Not coincidentally, this was also the month that I defended my Ph.D. dissertation – I was doing a lot of knitting to relieve stress! I completed several items, although as you’ll see, most of them were small. That’s kind of what you get when trying to knit through your stash – it’s time to get creative and figure out how to use up small quantities of yarn that aren’t enough for a whole hat/scarf/blanket/etc. The total quantity of yarn I used this month was 360 g, or 7.2% of the original amount.

My first completed item this month was the orange baby blanket I’ve been making steady progress on all year. I made a big push on this blanket during the first couple weeks of April, using up 220 g of yarn. I purchased the orange yarn (along with some reddish pink yarn) three years ago intending to use it for cute table decorations for my wedding…but then I realized that it’s crazy to try to make yarn-based centerpieces mere weeks before your wedding, with so many other details to manage! I already made another heart baby blanket with the other yarn, so I’m thinking it will be fun to use the two blankets for my future children, to remind us of how much fun we had at our wedding.

Finished blanket just after blocking

All folded up!

The rest of the items I made this month were all plaited headbands from my forthcoming pattern. I used up a lot of the Malabrigo remnants from past projects, and the result is very colorful. First, I refined the pattern I used for the purple headband featured in last month’s inventory to make three more like it (turquoise, pink, and green). Then I developed a wide version intended to cover the ears and made two of these (orange and yellow). Finally, I modified the original pattern to fit a child’s head (I hope!) in order to use a smaller quantity of yarn (red). The original and child’s patterns take 15-20 g of Malabrigo each, while the wide version takes about 30 g. (The turquoise one didn’t make it into the group picture because I already gave it away to my sister!)

Wide, regular, and child’s headbands

Overall, I’m happy with my progress this month. If I can maintain this pace for the rest of the year, I’ll be in really good shape for completing the stash challenge in a reasonable amount of time. Back to knitting!

Year-to-Date Statistics

• 68 different yarns remaining
• 4305 g remaining (86.1%)
• 11 projects completed in 2015