Hi everyone, it's Garmin from New Leaf Designs and today I want to talk to you about the year of using what I have, which is a theme this year on my Patreon page. So it already started on January, but it will be going for the whole year. So the year of using what I have was actually brought on by, you know, wanting to buy less and use more of the yarn in my stash, the fabric that I have. I'm trying to look at the things I made and if there are some things that I don't really like seeing how I can customize them. In January, we are looking at our yarn stash. We are, first of all, we are looking at the yarns that we don't want to use anymore because if you've been a nitter or a cruise share or you've used yarn in some other way, if you've been doing that for a long time, then you're gonna have yarns that you bought when you started out. Like you don't think you're gonna use anymore. Maybe you bought yarn on sale and later, you know, you kind of figured out it wasn't your color, it wasn't your fiber. Maybe you bought a lot of acrylic and cotton and later on, you like yarns better. So tons of reasons. And I'm already grabbing the yarn in front of me because I want to talk about that later. So first of all, we're gonna be looking at the yarns that you don't want to keep anymore and that you can either style or donate or, you know, give away to friends. And then we're looking at the yarns that we have that we still want to use. Right now, I am highlighting some categories of yarn that I find difficult. So think bookle yarns or heavily very gated yarns with lots of colors. And another one is bulky single ply yarns or otherwise bulky roving yarns. So really unplied and very loose. So this video has gone up last Monday and I have another video coming up tomorrow. So there's lots of content already on my Patreon. So I will leave the link below for you to go and check that out. It's only $5 a month or five euros. I think a month if you want to subscribe and get all of the year of what I have content. And then you will also unlock all of the previous content at that year. So yeah, it's it's a great deal. I'm just I'm just saying. So now I am in the process of customizing this yarn. So in this series, I'm looking at yarns and thinking about, okay, what is exactly at the core of me not liking this yarn? Is it the color? Is it the fiber? What is it? And for this yarn, it is mainly the thickness because and the fact that it is single ply. So I don't particularly like thick yarns, but if it's plied, if it's sturdy, then I can use it for home deco items or whatever. But this yarn, because it is thick and unplied, unsp... well, is it unspun? No. Anyway, because it is not plied, it will loosen up, it will pill within days. I just know. And it is, you know, too bulky in the sense that, you know, I made a cardigan with this, but I never wear it because I can't wear any any sleeves underneath it. And yeah, it's just, it's not something that I gravitate towards. So what I did to customize this was, I spun it. I figured, well, I can pull it apart. So it's almost like roving that I buy to spin with. So I took one of the balls I still have left and I broke the yarn off in pieces like this. To make it easier, to spin. And then I spun it into thinner yarn. I'm so excited about this. Let me show you the texture because it is gorgeous. Look at that. I'm not a really regular spinner, so it is a bit thick and thin in places. But I don't mind that. That will give it lots of interesting texture. But it is plied. It is much sturdier than it was before. And it is of a thickness that I can really use. I think, I think I would knit this on four millimeter needles. And so this one is still in this gain. This one, I just wanted it up into a ball just because it's prettier to show you. But I'll be winding this into a skein as well because I will be dying this later because the color also doesn't, doesn't really suit me. And in the year, if using what I have, we will also be going over what colors suit you. I will be talking a little bit about color theory. There's so much. I'm so excited about this. So we are going to be looking at every aspect of your yarn stash, of your wardrobe so that we can figure out, okay, what is your style? What do you like and translate that into patterns that you are going to want to knit and that you are going to want to wear? And yeah, because I think it's so sad if you spend hours knitting or crocheting an item and then not wearing it because you realize, yeah, color doesn't really suit me or, yeah, puffy sleeves are not really my thing or, you know, and of course other than style, it's also about size. So I'm going to give you lots of tips on how to customize things for your size. Yeah, and I'm just really, I'm super excited about this year and I hope that it's a motivation for people to buy less and use more of what they have. And I've been kind of thinking about what this would mean for the fiber industry if we would all, you know, stop buying things and obviously that would not be, you know, beneficial to the yarn industry. But you can support your favorite yarn shops and makers. You can support them in so many more ways and just buying their physical products. So I'm going to write up a blog post about that or maybe a video. I don't know yet, but yeah, so it's definitely not that I don't want to support my fellow craft industry makers anymore. That's absolutely not at the heart of this. I just want to have more breathing space in my studio, in my yarn stash. It's just overwhelming me at the moment. And I feel like lots of people are experiencing that as well. So this is just one example of how you can transform your yarn. And I'm having lots of fun already in my Patreon group. So yeah, I'll put the link down below and you can check it out. Do let me know what you think of my yarn transformation. And if you have yarn like this as well, because when I first started knitting, this was super popular. I mean, it's still super popular because the garments that they show with this yarn are just so perfect. The stitch definition, you see this squishiness and you think, oh yes, it'll be so quick to knit and it looks so modern and no one will think that my knitting is old fashioned anymore because look, it's fashionable. But yeah, and so knitters bought a lot of this yarn and crochets. And then it kind of lays on a shelf and you're not using it or maybe you have made it into an item, but then you're not using that item. So yeah. Anyway, I wanted to chat a little bit more about this transformation because I'm getting fluff all over my face because it was just really fun to do. And I still have, well, I still have this much to spin. And yeah, and then we'll see. So I still had 500 grams of this bulky yarn, which might have made me like a t-shirt, like maybe a sweater vest. And now, after I'm finished spinning, I will have 500 grams of kind of four millimeter and needle wool. What's that? Worst it? Between decay and worst it. I don't know. So 500 grams of that. It's pretty decent. So yeah. I'm super happy with this and I would love for you to join me. So go ahead and check it out and I will see you in my next video. Bye bye.