The stash

Sorry for all of you family members who are addicts (you know who you are), but I am talking about my yarn stash not a drug stash. Seriously though the yarn has gotten out of hand (by my standards). So I have vowed not to buy any more yarn until I get rid of 3/4 of this stuff. I am just too tired of carting it around everytime I move and now the lid barely shuts. Besides I hate being a packrat. At least I can store it all in one spot, which I couldn't do a year ago. I once read about a woman who was hiding yarn from her husband behind her couch. Seriously. Most of the stash is yarn I received for free or bought very cheaply at this weird knitting mill closeout sale. Which would be great except I don't like half of it and don't know what to do with about 90% of it. I am of course too big of a tightwad to get rid of it so I am trying to find patterns that will work with what I have. As a result you will all be receiving Christmas/birthday gifts from the above pictured trunk. It's actually kind of fun, like those shows where people build robots from only stuff they have in their toolshed. I have learned to do fairisle knitting to combine yarns and make more interesting things. I am also knitting things for the Iowa Flood Project which will be donated to people who were victims of the recent Iowa floods. They are accepting adult items so I am focusing on adult sized hats/sweaters figuring that most people will be making baby items to donate. I have also started earlier on Christmas gifts than I ever have in my life which is also good--would be nice for once to not scramble at the last minute to finish everything. Sorry but this means no requests this year for Christmas--it's got to come from the stash so I don't care if you already have 20 scarves or orange isn't "your color." Some of you might be receiving Harry Potter themed gifts, obviously only the Harry Potter fans though, the rest of you will be getting orange scarves. So if you have a beige coat that will match you might want to hold onto it.