Working on project from a yarn stash is very different from working on a project for which the yarn has been specifically purchased, something I am reminded of as I am nearing the midpoint of stash down 2014.

I have no doubt that one day science will be able to explain the difference in a crafter’s brain when she works from what she has for a project versus when she buys all that she thinks she needs as she goes along on a project, but for now I can only reflect on how my focus changes when I work from my stash.

First, time I might other wise spend looking any number of lovely yarns is instead used to study the list of projects that I keep meaning to get to but which, for whatever reason, have never quite make it to the top of my to-do list.

Then, with the project in mind, I go through my overly large stash and look for the colors that I know I have. Most often, I find what I’m looking for, but when I can’t find a yarn that I am certain I have I either clean and organize until I find it, or I revise my plan.

Either way, I win.

This weekend, excited by all of the possibilities that Beth Hall’s Crochet Seafarer’s Cap had to offer, I had trouble keeping on track with the two I started, but I was able to fight back the temptation and finished crocheting not only the blue suede hat I hat begun:

but the grape fizzy one as well:

Now all that’s left is to sew the joining seam, an trick out the grape fizz hat.

And while I don’t know exactly what my next crochet adventure will be, I know that I will have a lot of fun figuring it out.