Flashing the Stash for Socktoberfest!

I'm ashamed to admit that I am one of those persons whose sock stash cannot be shown in one picture nor gathered together at once! I grabbed as much of it from a couple of places in my bedroom, took out the new stuff I already showed off, then divided roughly into handpainteds, solids (roughly) and self-striping/variegated. I can't beleve how much time it took just to resurrect most of it-then I couldn't get it all back where it came from! How'd that happen? My original intent and justification for taking the time to do this was that I could re-organize alot of the stash and make it fit better into the various nooks and crannies where they were placed! Not so, apparently...

Here are some of my handpainteds: STR, Lorna's Laces, Mountain Colors Bearfoot, Lisa Souza, Cherry Tree Hill...
Hand-painteds 


Mostly solids...I just love the Merino 2000! Washes up really well for socks! Missing from this lot are all the solid sock yarns I got from Elann.com. My Kool-Aid dyed and Easter Egg leftovers dyed yarns have been tossed in the front. Some awesome cashmere mixed in!

Mostly solids; a couple of my home-dyed in front 


I do still love seeing the patterning and colors reveal themselves with the self-striping variety, though I just haven't been as motivated to knit them as I have been to challenge myself with textures and cables which generally aren't the best patterns for the self-striping stuff...but here is my variety...

Self-striping and variegated 


Well! That doesn't look so bad, now does it? Of course, as I said, I left out all the other yarns that I already earlier posted: KPPPM, some STR, etc...And this is not all of my yarn stash-none of the Cascade Fixation/Elann Fixation-like are shown. I also have more self-striping and probably solids that are around and not shown, either. But let's pretend that's all of it, shall we?

Moving on...

Here are the Socktoberfest Questions:

Do you have certain patterns planned for some of the yarns? Some, yes, others, no...and still others I planned after finding patterns and looking through my stash.

Do you buy yarn and then choose a pattern?With my sock stash, for the most part, yes. However, I find that after purchasing a gazillion self-patterning when I first started sock knitting, I started adding to my sock stash based on type of pattern. e.g., solids and lights for more textured socks or to show off a cabled pattern I might have in the back of my mind to knit, sportweight solids for quicker knits, etc...

Does a certain sock yarn you have in your stash take you back to a certain event? (where you were when you bought/received it? what was going on in your life at the time!)Some do. I can mostly remember where and when I bought the yarn-envision the petting, the drooling and the cave-in, the excuse for/of purchasing! Time-wise, I don't necessarily have any memories attached, though my first Koigu PPPM I completely remember buying-my first sock yarn and purchased at Stitches West from Foxy Knits! Ah, yes...the start of it all!