Something Good

When you re-read a classic, you do not see more in the book than you did before;
you see more in yourself than was there before.
-Clifton Fadiman

OK, maybe I exaggerated. There's at least one good thing that came from reorganizing my yarn stash. Three, even.

1. I Found This:

This is a, um, er, birthday gift from my college roommate. She had the good fortune to go to Nova Scotia in August, and the good taste to bring me my first-ever Fleece Artist yarn. That's Peter Rabbit, an angora blend, in absolutely wonderful colors. While I'm tempted to make The World's Most Decadent Pair of Socks, I don't want to ruin this treasure. I'm thinking a simple lace, like razor shell, maybe in a moebius? In the back is another fine Canadian yarn, Briggs and Little Durasport. It's a sport weight wool-nylon blend perfect for socks. The color has much more depth than you can see with the flash here. Isn't it nice when friends know you so well?

2. It Has Some Rhyme and Reason To It:

It turns out that my stash is not a completely disordered hodge-podge of yarn. While there are certainly outliers, the core stash is strikingly consistent. I reach for my favorites all the time.

Worsted weight wool? Cascade 220
"Rugged" worsted weight? Canadian - Briggs and Little. PEI. It all goes together.
Fancy Facecloths? Crystal Palace Cotton Chenille
Colorwork? Dale of Norway. Baby Ull. Heilo. Anything as long as it's Dale. Did you know that there are Dale patterns that call for "remnants" in the quantity section?
Cotton? Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece
Baby Clothes? Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece or Dale Baby Ull

The beauty of this (somewhat) consistency is that my leftovers go together. (This is, er, somewhat aided by the fact that I always buy too much yarn.) I used leftover Cascade 220 from Am Kamin, my Knitting Olympics project, to knit the soles of my new FiberTrends felted clogs. And the leftovers from my long-neglected Ribby Cardi will match the rest of the Am Kamin leftovers. Which match some random skeins I have. Which leads us to the third good thing about stash reorganization . . .

3. Think of the Possibilities:

Seeing it all together makes me aware of the possibilities. There's enough Cotton Fleece in complementary colors for several baby sweaters. And plenty of Cascade 220 for all the Christmas hats, or striped scarves, or felted slippers I might ever want to knit. And I can put a contrasting hem on anything.

It is somewhat sobering to realize that my yarn stash will probably never be significantly smaller than it is currently, regardless of my minor problem obsession fascination with knitting small round objects out of scraps. I create odd balls faster than I can knit them. You can only make so many Christmas ornaments. And you never do know when you'll need those 6 yards of Lopi in a contrasting color. So that's the stash. Full of possibilities.