Tax Evasion

So, to put off reading the materials for my federal tax class, I spent a good part of last night organizing my stashbusting efforts for the coming year. I started on my Lion Brand yarn – I went to their website and looked up the yarns I have accumulated and the list of free patterns; here is what I came up with:

For Tiffany: Clever Stripes Scarf
As you may or may not recall, I picked up some Lion Cashmere Blend yarn on clearance over the summer to knit up some armwarmers with. (This is one of the rare circumstances in which I bought yarn with an actual plan for how to use it). What you don’t know, is that a month later I went back to the store and the “sister yarn” to the cashmere, Tiffany, was on clearance. So I picked up two balls of the red Tiffany to match my red cashmere. I know this makes no sense, since I already know what I’m using the cashmere for, and there is no Tiffany involved, but I did it anyway. I can’t resist a yummy yarn on clearance. So, Tiffany is a fuzzy yarn and I really hate it when I impulsively buy fuzzy yarns because, I very rarely use novelty yarns in anything. (Though, this never stops me from buying them).

This scarf is totally intriguing to me. The fuzzy yarn is only an accent, on an accessory, so I think I can deal with the novelty effect. And, I think the idea of mixing a felting yarn with a non-felting yarn is cool. I will need to pick up some black wool – but I promise not to do it until immediately before I knit the scarf, so as not to add to the stash.

For Moonlight Mohair: FuzzyTurtleneck
I have a Moonlight Mohair addiction. I just love the colorways and the texture and that fun bit of metallic running through it. But it’s about $8 a ball which is a lot to spend on something noveltyesque (see above). My favorite color is rainforest, so once I bought two balls of the rainforest with a 40% off coupon and that’s all I could bear to spend. Recently, the MM has been coming up on clearance everywhere, but never in rainforest. So I broke down and bought a ton of balls in another blueish color, that I’m not so in love with, but I still like the texture of the yarn. So my stash dilemma here is that I don’t really have enough of the color I’m in love with to make much (I’m still looking for a small project), and I have too much of the other color that I have to make something large with it. I think I’ll try out this tank, but I probably won’t wear it as a vest like she’s doing – just over a cami. It looks like a quick knit too. Should be good for some instant stashbusting.

There are also some fun little crochet birds in Happy Hooker that use the MM, that I plan to make – though they use such a minimal amount of the yarn it is hardly helpful in any stashbusting effort…. unless I made 100 of them.

For Incredible: Open Rose & Glittery Flower; houndstooth cardigan
Again, the flowers aren’t going to do a whole lot of stashbusting, but they will at least give me a way to use this cool yarn – I can stick ’em to a bag or something. The houndstooth cardigan is awesome – it won’t fit me since it’s a plus size pattern – but I’d like to experience with that yarn combo & stitch pattern. I think I also have a pattern for a shrug made out of ribbon yarn somewhere, which is what I had in mind when I bought the yarn, but these options might be better.