Working from my stash for the past month or two has been easy. Things seemed to match up – the pattern, yarn, color. But I think I’ve almost reached the point where it is not working. (Save for sock yarn.) There’s a pattern I really want to knit but nothing in my stash matches the requirements. I tried to convince myself that I could use some silk/cotton/wool blend yarn I have on hand (even swatched), but it just seems wrong for a project that should be knit in 100% wool.
It seems that a lot of my stash is made up of left over balls, two of this two of that, because I pad the yarn requirements when buying for a project. Two balls left over from these socks. Two balls left after this sweater. And the thing is I don’t think I’ll knit something new with the yarn now or later. The yarn memories in it are too much – like this gorgeous cash iroha – failed attempt at knitting a sweater with it and now I have 8 skeins (2 different dye lots) that I know I’ll never use. I’d like to sell the yarn, all of it to one knitter, but I wonder if anyone would pay for a box of good, but orphaned balls of yarn. Maybe I should start buying only the amount of yarn the pattern requires, but I doubt it – the fear of running out of yarn is too great.