I've also been doing some stashdiving again.

Periodically, I get a desire to make scarves. I don't know why - I just like them. I like being able to cast on x number of stitches, pick a stitch pattern, and go with it, without having to worry about shaping or decreases or whether it'll fit.

I also like to knit scarves during the dog days of summer - it's partly a reminder and partly a superstitious belief in sympathetic magic - I knit them to remind myself that it won't ALWAYS be 107* in the shade and so humid that you can cut big slices out of the air with a knife. And I knit them in the vague and superstitious hope that I can some how "call down" cooler weather by making cool-weather wear.

I dug out some Schachenmayr Nomatta "Kent" that I originally bought for socks (I went through a phase when every yarn I saw was evaluated based on its sockworthiness. I have an awful lot of 3 and 4 ball lots of things from Elann, which I now rather doubt would make the best socks.). I started it using the "boyfriend scarf" pattern from the Last Minute Knitted Gifts book. (Hey, if I believe I can make cool weather appear, maybe I can make a Potential Wearer of the scarf appear....).

I also have some marled 501 yarn in a nice green, for a knit-purl pattern scarf. (I plan to keep that one, unless it stands up and tells me a particular person it needs to go to). And I have perhaps 5-6 ounces of nice purple Blackberry Ridge yarn that was left over from my Tilling the Soil vest. And I have some old, old Tiffani bought back in like, 2000 or so, three balls each in red, green, and brown - 300 some yards of each color. I suppose that will become striped scarves, or a striped scarf and hat set. And I've got bunches of Wool-Ease bought for socks, but you know, any more - Wool-Ease socks, meh. It's too warm here, even in the winter, for them. And I have some Zitron Cambridge in an orange and black colorway I thought would make cool socks when I bought it, but now I think, not so much. And it has to be handwashed. I think all of those will become scarves of some sort.

I guess these will be for the Gift Box Project I've talked about off and on, or will be sent off to whatever charity group seems to need scarves to give out to people to keep them warm.

I also found three balls of Mondial "Fur" in sort of a mustard color, that I had used for the shaggy zippered vest in an old issue of Vogue Knitting. I don't know what to do with three balls of "Fur" - it's a furry yarn but is less obnoxious than some, seeing as it's actually made of wool.

It's times like this I had an SnB group, or a knitting guild near me, so I could take all my odd balls out and go, "Okay, what do I do with these?" and some wise person would make a good suggestion, or else someone would squeal "OMG! Fur in that dyelot! I NEED three more balls of that - would you like to trade?"

I never quite know what to do with the dribs and drabs of leftover yarn I have - I'm not the kind of person who always knits with the same weight of yarn, or the same texture, or the same fiber composition, so it's not like I have a giant bag of superwash aran-weight that I could make a scrap afghan out of. It's more like I have partial balls of dk tweed, and a partial ball of a fat fuzzy mohair, and a few balls of the Fur - things that really don't play well together. So I wind up searching for small projects to do with them.

I suppose if I knew of a knitting school group, or a charity group, that used small quantities of odd yarn for things, I could send them on, but it feels kind of mingy to me to just send two or three balls of stuff - which realistically, couldn't be used for much more than a purse or hat - without being specifically told, "Oh, yes, we WANT small amounts of yarn."

I suppose I could use the Fur as an edging on a scarf - something like Rockstar from Knitty - and either send it off to a charity group if it looks good enough, or give it as a gift, or keep it as a Terrible Warning (as in, if you can't be a Good Example...) if it turns out badly. I don't know. I suppose I could make bears of it but frankly I didn't love the Fur enough to do much more than use it as an edging on something.

What do you do with the odds and ends in your stash? And don't tell me, "oh, no, I NEVER have yarn left over, I always buy exactly the right amount" 'cos I won't believe you. And I can't send/take it back, because most of my oddment yarn is either from Elann or was purchased so long ago that the company I bought it from is out of business/new owner/restocked/the sort of people who will look at you and go 'you want to do WHAT?'.

(Eh - I'm just feeling a little blah this morning. Part of it is the fact that it was like 78* and 94% humidity when I got up - BEFORE the sun was up, y'all - and it only promises to get worse as the day wears on.

I'm also having the crazy dreams again - one last night involved my having a big, big potluck. And Alphabet potluck. I called up 26 people and told them, one by one, "You bring a food that starts with A." "You bring something that starts with B." And I was living in a brownstone house, like the ones I remember having seen on Sesame Street. I also had a dream where I thought a couple friends of mine killed a man and were wanting me to help conceal the body, and I was standing in line at the Dollar Store buying bags of potting soil in one of the horrible fake-brands that they have (where it's a name similar to a real brand, except it's not the real brand, it's for sale at the Dollar Store) and wondering if they were arrested, if I would be in trouble because I bought potting soil that I figured they were going to use to hide the remains, but which could have been used for an innocent purpose. I hate my dreams sometimes.

A big part of it, though, is the fact that I have a cavity - a teeny tiny one, but still a cavity - that I have to get filled this afternoon. Ugh. Needles, and hands in my mouth, and high-pitched drills. I will probably need to go lie down in a darkened room for a while after it's over).