Somehow, I've accumulated a stash.
Here it is, spread out across my bedroom floor. I'm not quite sure how it happened... Oh, who am I kidding, I know.
I usually only buy yarn with a specific project in mind, and I always get at least one skein more than what I need, with the intent to return whatever I don't use; but then I never actually make the return. So, there are 1.5 skeins left over from a scarf I made Ben for Christmas 2010, 1.5 skeins from each of the scarves I made for our mothers that same Christmas, a few skeins left over from various baby sweaters. Leftovers from Katell, the sweater that is in perpetual hibernation even though all that's left is weaving ends in.
My mother-in-law-to-be intended to pick up knitting, and bought a bunch of yarn. It languished in her closet untouched for a year or so, when, inspired by a Hoarders marathon, she cleaned out the closets and gave the yarn to me.
Sometimes, I shop for yarn for a specific project and get distracted by other pretty yarns, and I pick those bright shiny pretty yarns in addition to what I was looking for. Then I never seem to find quite the right project for them, or I find a great pattern but just don't have enough.
The stash has outgrown its current home in a banana leaf basket in my closet, but I'm not ready to part with anything. I've spent the afternoon updating my Ravelry stash, adding pictures, and now, finally, sorting yarn. Set aside the yarns I've mentally attached to projects, the yarns I intend to use to design something. Ultimately these will stay in the banana basket in the closet, and the rest will go somewhere else, more out of the way, to be revisited later. I'll go through again once I've completed some projects, and revisit the yarns I don't see myself using at this time. If I still don't love them, I'll start trading or donating. For now, at least, I feel more in control.
