Neighbourhood swatch

Friday afternoon my husband came home from his shift and called me up pretty much immediately, as far as I could tell. The conversation went something like this:

Him: Um, honey?
Me: Yeah?
Him: Well...I came home from work just now, and there was this big blue bag...just sitting on the front porch...and it's full of yarn...

Ah. Yes.

You see, some weeks earlier, one of our neighbours who takes the bus with me in the morning (and who has thus been well exposed to the fact that I am A Knitter) had mentioned that she had quite a lot of yarn in her basement that she was never going to use, and she'd really like to declutter and get rid of it, and could I use it?

Well, I think you know what my answer was. :) Even if it was all acrylic, I could find a use for that, even if the use was to donate it somewhere good for charitable projects. She told me that she would drop it off at my place in the coming week. That didn't happen (no big deal, lives get busy), so I figured at some point she would either arrange a specific time to drop it off, or just dump it on the (enclosed) front porch one day when it was convenient for her. And indeed, that is what she did.

But can you imagine what was going through my husband's mind when he came home to find this bag there? Perhaps that my stash is now so out of control that other yarn has heard of it and has made its way from miles around to show up on our doorstep in the hopes of finding a home? :D (WIP Insanity's Shelter for Homeless Yarns?)

Anyhoo, yes, it was all acrylic, but that's not so bad. For one thing, I handed off a huge ball (I'm guessing two pounds?) to my mom for her charitable blanket projects. DD1 then claimed a bunch of it and disappeared into the workroom for awhile to play with the ball winder. :) After these depredations, here's what's left of the bag:

(Although two of DD1's balls have been added back in there. Guess which two they are. No, go on, guess. :)

But the crowning moment came when I realised that most of what was in the bag were dark browns, taupes, and creams. Perfect colours to match my brother's living room. Which, you'll may recall, he wants a blanket for. A blanket, I might add, which he probably couldn't be trusted to launder gently if it were made out of wool.

Oooh.

Yes, the Christmas knitting has begun.

(Although I'm not happy with how the fabric is turning out. I think I'm going to start all over again on 5mms instead of 6mms, and not double up the fuzzy cream yarn this time.)