I’ve been squeeing a lot this last 24 hours.

Two weeks ago, when my friend (let’s call her friend 1) told me she had a stash for me to adopt, she described great yarn in my sort of colours – enough of some for entire garments. The following Friday friends of this friend (let’s call them friends 2), who are also the beau and I’s friends, but who see friend 1 more often than we do, came to a social get-together and handed over several bags of yarn. I assumed friend 1 had encountered friend 2 and, expecting them to see us at the social get-togther, gave them the yarn to give to me.

Now, friend 1 does knit, and knows about good yarn, so I was quite puzzled to find the yarn was either acrylic or the closest thing I’ve seen to greasy steel wool. My friend knows fibre. She wouldn’t get it this wrong. Some of the colours were the sort I like, but not most of them. And there wasn’t enough of anything (except the greasy steel wool) to make a whole garment, really.

Well, I was still immensely grateful that my friends had thought of me when a pile of yarn needed a home. A few days ago I was talking to friend 1 and she mentioned having all this yarn for me. I said, “wait… you said that in future tense, not past tense. Do you still have the yarn? What did friend 2 give me last Friday?”

It turned out that friend 2 gave me a stash from a different source, and the nice, plentiful yarn that friend 1 had for me was still waiting for me to adopt it.

So last night we headed over to her house and she presented me with a HUGE garbage bag AND an additional box full of yarn. Just the sheer amount of it… you could have knocked me over with a feather. Pulling out balls from the numerous bags, I discovered cashmere and alpaca and cotton and camel. (Camel!) It was like some fibrey lucky dip where I got to keep all the prizes.

When I got home I spread it over our three-seater couch, matching up plies and fibres:

It filled the whole couch, and more. There was cashmere:

There was alpaca:

There was alpaca silk:

And (squeeee!) camel:

There was some slubby art yarn, very different to the rest of the stash.

There was a box of silk cord of various thicknesses. Not sure what it’s for, but I have a love for cute wooden spools and a hunch that the yarn will be great for delicate crochet, or macrame or something.

I always check the shopping bags old yarn comes in. These two were interesting: a shop I’ve never heard of, and it looks like Wondoflex had two other stores once, or perhaps a business alliance of some sort with two others.

And then I found this – a stash tease if ever there was one:

It was too overwhelming to do any more than just lay it out last night. This morning I gave it all a closer look, and moved what I wanted to keep onto the other couch. To the left (of the top photo) are the “ooooh-aaaah” yarns, in the middle is a lot of 5ply wool and cotton, and to the right is the box of reels and some yarn I think I’ll dye up.

And the bottom pic is what I don’t think I’ll use and will find a new home for. About a third of the yarn, I’m guessing. (I do have some self-control. Just a bit.)

Since there were some signs of moth activity in one batch, I’ve put all the yarn I’m keeping into zip-lock bags, squishing air out so it fits (almost) into the box. This has the double benefit of putting the yarn ‘in quarantine’ for a while to see if any moths hatch, and of keeping it separate from the ‘official’ stash.

I know that, according to my KFYS rules, gift yarn is exempt. Somehow, by sticking to the rules, I’ve ended up with more yarn in my storage boxes than I started with. It’s almost as though the Yarn Harlot’s knitting goddess is playing a game with me.

But if it means I end up with cashmere and camel yarn to play with… do you hear me complaining?

Maybe I should. Then she might send some silk my way.