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Emily Wessel

Hi! I’m Emily Wessel, I design fun-to-knit patterns and helpful technique tutorials. I live in Edinburgh, Scotland with my husband and two kids, where I like to run, knit, learn languages, and hang out with friends. I am co-founder and designer at Tin Can Knits - www.tincanknits.com

20 Comments

  1. Mary
    March 23, 2021 @ 6:22 pm

    We all have that precious stash very good advice I found myself using them over the last year too❤️

  2. Kathryn
    March 22, 2021 @ 3:56 pm

    Thanks for that lovely pep talk! Paris silk, her comes the scissors. If I wreck it, I guess I’ll have to go back!

  3. Susan
    March 22, 2021 @ 1:40 pm

    While at a fiber festival a couple years ago, my single purchase was a hank of hand spun, hand dyed yarn. Expensive for me. I thought I might find a way to use it all (and I mean ALL) of it in a single project. It went into 3. A color work yoke in a sweater. A color work hat. Then I thought I’d make a second color work hat and realized there was enough for a full hat. All for me, by the way…..

  4. Pam Yurk
    March 22, 2021 @ 1:04 pm

    Thanks! It helps to remember that beauty needs to be seen. I’m going to go rummage right now!

  5. 2019knitter
    January 16, 2021 @ 3:42 pm

    Perfect timing for this blog. I am organizing my stash . Your three tips are helpful. I just cast on my on my first pair of rye socks, using stash yarn. Really like the pattern. Thank you for this blog and your patterns.

  6. janpriddyoregon
    August 27, 2020 @ 5:27 pm

    When I was hired for my first job, teaching at a Sacred Heart school in a wealthy neighborhood east of Seattle, I use to pass a lovely fabric store. That was 1976 and I was not earning much. I knew about Liberty scarves from shopping in Victoria, BC, and had two of them. That shop introduced me to Liberty cotton lawn, and I began collecting quarter-yard pieces. In the 2000s, I finally made my mother a small quilt from Liberty cottons. I made my granddaughter a blouse.

    I still buy a quarter-yard piece when I can. A former student brought me back two packs of small pieces on her last trip to London. So. These are all in my stash, waiting for an event to deserve them all.

    • Emily Wessel
      August 27, 2020 @ 10:53 pm

      This is a lovely story! Thanks for sharing, and good luck with your next project!

  7. Pam
    June 29, 2020 @ 10:07 am

    I’ve just begun to knit little baby hats with some washable hand-spun for a friend’s grand baby. I’ll ask them to hand-wash, but who knows once you give it away! The hats are so cute with those pretty colors. I’ve also used my cherished and beautiful yarn in stranded knitting hats for myself. It’s too pretty to sit on a shelf. Your youngsters are the best models, and I appreciate the info in this post.

  8. Olivia
    June 29, 2020 @ 5:31 am

    OMG those kilts! Beyond cute. And that houndstooth is screaming to be made into something! But your post has inspired me to use my one mistake purchase of $35 skein and knit it into a shawl. I’ve waited too long.

  9. ClickyNeedles
    June 26, 2020 @ 10:58 am

    You are so right! I have precious things, or find a project that I love only to find that I have too much yarn in my stash, so can’t use it. Right?
    I have made some small inroads during lockdown though!

    Clicky Needles

  10. vdweg
    June 26, 2020 @ 8:22 am

    Hello,

    Through the link Manage Subscriptions I tried to change my old mail-address into the new one, but that was very complicated on WordPress, even had to make my own account there and would be charged !, so I decided to ask you to change it for me.

    Thank you! Love your tutorials and am still puzzling which yarn to use for the Love Note Sweater :D

    Kind regards, Elsje van de Weg

    >

    • Alexa Ludeman
      June 29, 2020 @ 12:08 pm

      Hi Elsje – I couldn’t find subscriptions under either email address so you can go ahead and sign up with the new one!

  11. denise421win
    June 25, 2020 @ 11:20 am

    I have a stash too, trying to figure out what to do with it

  12. Nicky
    June 25, 2020 @ 9:55 am

    Great article. I have been building my stash for so long now that pretty much everything in it is beautiful and precious. I got rid of the other stuff ages ago! I started using stuff more after I found a moth had eaten bits of my most precious fibre. It seemed such a waste – an expensive yarn that lived in a box and was then ultimately thrown away. It could have been knit into something beautiful and used or gifted and actually enjoyed. I have never ruined a project so badly that I’ve binned the yarn, but here I was binning yarn that had never been used. Ridiculous.

  13. rogue1
    June 25, 2020 @ 9:47 am

    Those kilts! So cute.

  14. Katrina
    June 25, 2020 @ 9:03 am

    I read this and kept glancing at my wall of yarn where a few skeins haven’t been touched for fear of messing them up. I’m going to find a project for them. I will! Thanks for the nudge.

  15. Anita Jamieson
    June 25, 2020 @ 7:41 am

    Thank you for all your posts. This one on using stash is particularly motivating

  16. Brigid de Jong
    June 25, 2020 @ 7:40 am

    I think it’s easier to knit up something with my precious yarns than it is to cut into special fabric. Usually you can take a knitted object apart and re-use the yarn.

    • Alexa Ludeman
      June 25, 2020 @ 5:32 pm

      So true! You can always unravel yarn right?

  17. Elizabeth Ann
    June 25, 2020 @ 6:19 am

    Oh my gosh I love Liberty of London fabrics!
    I also have precious yarn that I have yet to cast on, if I could knit faster maybe I would use them sooner! I guess I need courage to cast them on!