CH 279: Destashing, Designs and #Knit20for2020

Show Sponsors Alongside an eclectic yarn range, which includes Hazel Knits, Icelandic Lopi & CoopKnits, we stock a carefully chosen selection of needles and notions. We’ve also recently launched ‘hand dyed by meadowyarn’, our very own in-house, hand-dyed yarn range. Working in our tiny dye studio, nestled in the Suffolk countryside, we are able to indulge our love of colour, producing complex tonal, kettle-dyed shades across a range of weights and bases. With regular updates our collections evolve and grow, inspired by the landscape and people around us. Find all your favourite luxury yarns and discover plenty more at A Yarn Story, Bath’s premier yarn store based in Walcot Street, Bath, UK. From gorgeous skeins by The Fibre Co and Walcot Yarns to a fine selection from Shibui Knits, La Bien Aimée, House of a la Mode, and Julie Asselin, there is plenty for the discerning knitter to enjoy. With friendly and knowledgeable staff to help you browse, there is plenty for the discerning knitter to enjoy. Visit the store at Walcot Street, Bath or shop online at www.ayarnstory.co.uk. It's the first podcast of 2020! Today I'm talking about embarking on a big destash to aid Australian bushfire fundraising. I also have news about my design plans for the upcoming year, and a fun little challenge we can all do together to nourish our creativity and stretch our knitting skills in 2020. Show Links Go Fund Me for First Nations Communities of Australia Affected by Bushfires The Happier Podcast The Literary Life Podcast #20for2020reads Use the hashtag #Knit20for2020 to join the challenge Clio Pullover by Elizabeth Doherty SHOW TRANSCRIPT:Welcome to the Curious Handmade Podcast. You're listening to Episode 279. This podcast is all about crafting a life of happiness and creativity. I'm Your host, Helen, and you can find me on Ravelry as HellsBells and on social media as Curious Handmade. You can also find full show notes on my website at curioushandmade.com. Hello and happy new year. This is the first Curious Handmade show for 2020 and I'm happy to be back chatting with you. It's pretty busy here still because school doesn't go back from our long summer holiday here in Australia until the end of January, so we're having our summer holiday and it's pretty busy with the kids trying to keep them entertained, bit of a challenge to get any work done. I'm happy to have a short window to record. They've gone out to jump on trampolines at the Big Boing, so I'm snatching a few minutes to record an episode. It was meant to be published on Friday a few days ago, but I'm just doing my best at the moment. I have a new office and studio so I've been spending a bit of time trying to set that up and get organized. I'm unpacking yarn and trying to organize that into some kind of order and yeah, that's a bit of a challenge. I have way too much. I've talked about this quite a bit in the past about how I want to do a destash of my yarn. Last year was crazy busy. It was really hectic with moving countries and still keeping up a design and podcasting schedule as well as quite a few trips. So I didn't manage to destash at all. Last year I did kind of declutter most of the house before we moved so I was pretty happy about that but the yarn was the one thing that I either couldn't or didn't do before we left. But now I'm thinking maybe there's a nice opportunity here. If you've been listening to the news or seen any social media, you will be aware of the terrible bushfires we've been experiencing here in Australia. There's been a huge amount of fundraising happening and I thought what I could do is to destash some yarn and donate the proceeds to some charities to support bushfire charity work that's happening at the moment. I was thinking about donating pattern sales and things like that, but I thought it might be nice to send this yarn to peo...