My Dashed Yarn Dreams Can Now Be Yours

Someone ELSE can knit a fabulous Central Park Hoodie out of these 7 hanks of Cascade 220 Tweed in lovely Magenta... now selling for 99 cents on eBay. My carpal tunneled hands certainly can't!

It hurt, but I did it! As promised, I instituted a ruthless yarn stash purge, and began listing anything that seemed vaguely salable on Ebay. The proceeds, if any, will offset the cost of the Medela Pump In Style I just bought.

Here are the lots I've put up so far, and the dreams delusions that have died with them.

1. Central Park Hoodie dreams. From the moment I saw the Central Park Hoodie on Ravelry, I had to have one. But I can't. Goodbye, tweedy magenta hoodie!

   

2. Organic yarn blend dreams. I'll blame Interweave Knits again. They did a review of organic yarns (Fall 2007?) so I picked up a couple of skeins of Vermont Organic Fiber Company O-Wool Balance. (As of this writing, going for 99 cents on eBay).

   

   I even handwound them sitting by the fire on a lovely camping trip at Macedonia Brook State Park in Connecticut:

   

   They were going to be a lightweight tweedy striped hat for Masheka. But he only wears black or gray hats. Goodbye manly yet colorful hat!

3. Chanukah and Christmas Scarf Dreams. Before my hands gave out, I bought a LOT of random balls of yarn in different colors to make holiday gifts, mainly from this gorgeous book, Knitting New Scarves:

   

   As you might have noticed from my mini-wardrobe contest plans, I love mixing purple and chartreuse. These three skeins of Morehouse Farm Merino (no bids yet!) would have made a lovely long modern scarf or two. But I can barely knit for myself and Cartoonist Baby, never mind for others. Goodbye scarves!

   

4. Stranded colorwork dreams. I wanted to get beyond making basic striped hats like this one:
   

   ... So I acquired a whole mess of Cascade 220 and 220 Heathers with some vague idea of making super-warm and colorful winter accessories, such as Adrian Bizilia's Entomology Hat & Mittens:

   

   I made some small samples, and had schemes of charting my own patterns after practicing with purchased ones. Oh well! Goodbye Cascade colorwork dreams!

   

   Currently at $1.29 on eBay

   

   Currently at 99 cents on eBay

So those are a few of the dreams I've let go. And here are a few I'm still clinging to--at least for now:

1. Baby sweater dreams. Unlike adult-sized hoodies, baby sweaters are doable even at my glacial pace. Here's the Baby Surprise Jacket I made for Cartoonist Baby this past winter, though I still haven't figured out a baby-safe closing device (maybe giant sew-on snaps?):
   

   And I just started making her another Elizabeth Zimmerman number, the lacy Baby Sweater on Two Needles from Knitter's Almanac, with some superwash yarn I hand-dyed in 2008:

   
2. Endpaper Mitts Dreams. Cascade colorwork I can survive without. But Koigu Premium Merino colorwork? Hmmm... I got these at Purl Soho:
   

   To make Eunny Jang's free Endpaper Mitts pattern:

   
3. Sock dreams, baby and otherwise. Besides the kettle-dyed pink worsted, I also painted a bunch of sock blanks and some blank lace weight on the same day:
   

   ... And really, sock yarn takes up SO little space! And teeny Better than Booties Baby Socks like these are quick and easy:

   

   They were just leftovers from my Monkey socks.

4. Puff-Sleeved Feminine Cardigan dreams. I'm waffling on the bag of eggplant merino I bought to make this lovely pattern by Stephanie Japel from Fitted Knits. But DK-weight sweaters are not really suited for the glacial knitter, no matter how cute or retro looking.

   

5. Malabrigo and Alpaca dreams. Thus far I have not managed to get rid of a single skein of Malabrigo. Don't care how much it pills--I wear my purple Malabrigo hat all the time, and my Malabrigo Fetching Mitts came in handy in today's chilly weather:
   

   I'm also having trouble purging the eight skeins of lovely straight-from-the-farm undyed alpaca I bought at the Windsor County Fair in Maine. I do LOVE alpaca yarn as a rule--the below is my Misti Alpaca Chunky Cherry Garcia neck cowl...

   

   ...which I wear on all cold days--including today. But I don't really do neutral colors like brown or cream, even though I DID meet the adorable alpacas who produced them:

   

   So they should probably go. Maybe? Er...

Whew! Enough yarn talk for now. I need to stop writing about decluttering and get back to actually doing it!

P.S. Thanks to all of your for your wonderful suggestions on what to do with our destashed yarn, fabric art supplies and the like! I'll likely donate a bag of random balls or skeins that I'm not selling (and anything that doesn't sell on eBay) to an organization that makes hats and blankets for preemies, as they were asking for yarn on Freecyle and offered to pick up. Which is ideal, since we are carless Brooklynites and I am SO pregnant and Cartoonist Baby will be here SO soon!