Taking Inventory

Since we're moving toward summer, I decided it was time for me to wash my handknits and pack them away.  

I hesitate to do this too early in the season since then I end up digging out a pair of fingerless mitts - maybe even a pair of socks or a hat - to fend off the chill.  This weekend I reasoned with myself that the time had come for the big wool wash.

It is, after all, the end of May.  It should be safe to tuck things away for a few weeks.  But as I sit here this morning in the cool damp, I'm wondering if I'm going to need some woolly warmth.

I also use this washing ritual as an opportunity to assess my handknits.  What do I have plenty of?  What am I lacking?  

These aren't all my socks but most of them.  Somehow I thought I had more - it seems like I'm always knitting socks.  Then I remembered that a couple pairs that I knit this last year ended up as booth samples.  

I did find one pair that missed the bath, so there will be a repeat of this wool washing exercise.  A couple pairs are showing wear, so it looks like I'm in for the Summer of Socks, Round 2.  I also noted a lack of yellow, red and orange in my current collection.  I'll have to remedy that.

After everything was washed and accounted for, I was left with this.

Somewhere I must have a matching pair.  This has turned into a game of hide-and-go-seek between me and my handknits.  I'm off to find the last of them.  I have another day of washing ahead of me.