Do you have beautiful yarn that you are saving for that special project? You don’t know what that project is, but you are sure you will know it when you see it. Do you, like Gollum in Lord of the Rings, keep that precious skein hidden waiting for that some day when inspiration strikes you. Well, I have lots of those skeins of yarn.  They are too special to just make something ordinary with. I need just the right project.

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/windshield

I was trying to sort through my yarn stash to pick out what yarn I am going to take with me on vacation. I am thinking I want to make Windshield, a slouchy hat using a DK weight yarn. Well, first of all, I thought it was a worsted weight yarn and went through all my special worsted weight yarn and I could not find one that seemed right.  If I have two balls of a yarn, I don’t want to use one and not the other, so those went back into storage. Do I really want a brown hat, even though it is a beautiful smooshy yarn?

I couldn’t find anything that I wanted to use.  Once I realized I was looking for the wrong gauge, it was on to my DK stash.  Nothing there felt right either.  Am I going to have to buy another special ball of yarn?  Surely I have some yarn that would look beautiful in this hat. Should I pick another pattern?

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/take-two-skirt

Well, then I got side tracked by all my beautiful fingering weight yarn- and there is a lot of it! I want to make a skirt for my daughter.  I like the Take two skirt by Ann Budd, but I want to shorten it. Not sure how that will work.  It is a lot of fingering weight knitting, so not sure whether I want to start that one, but I think I have the perfect yarn for it.

So I am no farther ahead, an hour later and no yarn picked out. I did find the helical hat that I am mostly done knitting and will take to finish off. I found a few balls of sock yarn I had forgotten about and might take to try some new variations on toe up socks.

But what about those special balls I still have in my stash? Should I take a couple with me just in case I get some inspiration? It would be two less balls in my stash if I actually do something with them. Or I could just set them on my dresser at the cottage and admire them until I take them home and put them away again.