NaNoBlogMo 2 - Starting Off Small

Starting off easy in my NaNoBlogMo challenge, with something small and cute. I wish I could say I made the adorable creature you see in the picture above, but I can only take credit for his jaunty scarf.

That's Zeraffe (as in part Zebra/part Giraffe). My friend Benno (real name Paul), had Zeraffe with him in college. I remember the months were getting cold and Zeraffe has a rather long neck...clearly he needed a little something to keep warm. I dug out some leftover chunky red yarn I had from making a friend's blanket and whipped up a simple garter stitch scarf.

I was surprised and happy when I saw this picture on Benno's facebook about two years later, with Zeraffe still wearing his scarf. The picture above was taken in Nanjing, where Benno studied for a semester (apparently Zeraffe did too!).

I can't really remember at what point I went from buying only what I needed to make my current knitting project (and using up most if not all of it), to buying yarn with no project in mind and collecting any leftovers. When I first started knitting, if I didn't have a project in progress then I had no yarn. Now I have a stash of yarn that I think would make any seasoned knitter proud. While it does tend to take up more than a fair bit of room, it does allow me to do projects on the fly, such as Zeraffe's scarf.