Knitting From the Stash, Maybe orKnitting Under the Influence

The plan: Loving the Cabled Tea Cozy in The Knitter's Book of Yarn, I look over the pattern and decide that I have yarn in my stash for this project. Manos isn't exactly like Malibrigo, but I figure that it can't be all that far off and I'm a tight knitter when knitting all of those cables, so into the Manos stash I go.

The process: Start pairing up skeins. This one is too similar, that one is too boring, the other one is too blue (what?! Did I just say that?), is this all I have in this stash? I just couldn't come up with a combination that pleased me. (I don't know where this reputation for being fickle comes from.) The thing is, whether I was being influenced by the photo of the tea cozy, or by Not Plain Jane's blue and green cozy, or my recent attraction to all things blue and green I can't say. I just really wanted one side to be green. This called for yarn store visits and I found this green Manos at the second one. I head home and cast on with the green.

I choose this blue to go with the green. Lovely, right? Blue and green, just what I wanted. So I'm not knitting the entire cozy from stash yarn, but buying a skein of yarn to go with stash yarn is still good. I cast on the green and knit and knit and think and knit and notice my new bag sitting next to me and the influence thing happens again. That blue, well. It is a little bright, maybe a darker blue would make me happier. No. Keep knitting. I move the bag, but by then the damage to my brain had been done. Off I go, two more yarn shops before I find two darker shades of blue. While the other one matched the bag a little better, I preferred this one, so another yarn purchase and...... wait! Am I still knitting from the stash?

See that darker blue? That works, doesn't it.

Three hundred forty-three to go. And already I'm knitting under the influence.

Comments

[Debi]

Maybe this isn't the right answer but I liked all the possibilities :)

[Norma]

Wait, I'm confused. Why two colors?

[CyndiG]

I love the way we can so easily justify yarn purchases! It's a gift!

[margeneq]

Knitting from the stash is not all it's cracked up to be. Enjoy the process of finding the right colors and knitting in the colors you want. Stash be damned! ;-)

[Kate]

i have the same Vera B pattern! :) And, I have been staring at the tea cozy--- I am thinking pink and purple!

[Karen]

You have to like what you're knitting so the purchase was justified. Your tea cozy will be lovely.

[Cheryl S.]

If it was around my neck, I'd say that Manos is nothing like Malabrigo. Mmmmmm Malabrigo! But around a teapot, no problem. As for knitting from the stash... no comment.

[Beth S.]

I'd say your heart was in the right place. And it's not like any of that "too blue" Malabrigo isn't going to come in handy at some point... ;-)

[Karen]

Well you get an "A" for effort for trying to knit from the stash. You had to do it, once you noticed your bag. Maybe the next time you're knitting, you should keep your eyes closed. :)