It's a Start

A few weeks ago, as part of Work Avoidance, I began to clean up the room we refer to as the Library. I had books sliding and piled and disorganized and decided that it looked awful and I needed to do something constructive rather than venture into the studio. I straightened the books and emptied all the top shelves of the bookcases leaving room for new books I plan to get.

Then LUCKY ME Caryl Fallert decided to clean out her yarn stash and sent a big box of gorgeous yarns to me, arriving on my BIRTHDAY just when I was about to take a nice nap (still recovering from yesterday's yarn sale!).
She sent the stash on the top picture, and I think that is one of my purples, just placed there for contrast. I had to wind them into cakes to get the full feel of the yarns, and then I had to display them, which led to rewinding leftovers, and color coordination of several boxes, and drawers of other yarns. Seeing them like this will help me to know what I actually own and prevent buying anymore blues, purples and turquoises. HA!

How to use leftovers, even the smallest bits.

The other side of the room now looks like it could be organized a bit more. This is in no way all my stash, but it is a good start to getting it all within eyeshot. This room faces north and the windows are higher, so I will not fret too much about fading, at this point. I am planning to use this stuff up now that it is out on display.
I have a bunch of bulky hand dyeds on the left including ten skeins of Manos Del Uruguay, two big skeins of Bulky Merino from Schaecter and a big gorgeous skein of hand dyed Curly Locks from Emily Parson (a nice birthday gift with a shawl pattern to make it too) along with dk Smart yarns, and a bin of white silk balls and 19 cotton/acrylic blend balls I got on Ebay. The center holds my new reds and pinks, and is hiding a bunch of variegated Noro Kureyon, which I will add to my other dozen collected skeins in about seven different colorways. The reds in the box and the purples under it are mostly fancy yarns, which were bought as a kit and now I have lost interest in the original design and will make up something you-neek-ly my own from them.

Here's the way this group is divided. The left is the yarn from Caryl, which is wood nymph colors, since she is a redhead. The center is wool in brights, and single balls wound from partial skeins. The third section is variegated yarns, silk and merino, hand dyed beatiful stuff and lots of leftovers. Caryl also sent along some heirloom hand dyed hand spun bulky yarn from New Zealand. She bought it in 1989 which makes it the aforementioned heirloom. When I pulled it out of the box, I lost hold and it fell into a pile, tangling as I lifted it up again. I spent over an hour trying to untangle and wind it into balls, which was a great way to get to know the feel and color of the yarn. There must be close to 600 yards there!

Since I make a lot of patchwork knitting I have no anxiety about not knowing the content, or washablity of my yarns. They can all be used in a single project, or spread out over several and eventually will be either washed by hand or dry cleaned.

I spent my birthday evening winding and stacking cakes of yarn to the comforting and familar reruns of Law and Order. Tonight Dave is taking me out for steak, and I am getting a real haircut and eyebrow wax at 1pm this afternoon, so all I really have time for today is just a few hours of knitting!