The intent had been to do a bit of  a dash through the gang of yarn that lives in  a few  several   many suitcases in my home and come up with a selection of four or five different fibres to knit into a pair of  woodsman socks.

Two things changed that planned dash into a lingering stroll:  I am not very at all  good, like some people, at quickly looking at a group of things and  quickly picking out the ones that go together  harmoniously; I need to look slowly at all the candidates and pick and sort and place side by side and decide and decide again….   

The second delay – well, all you who have a stash know exactly what happened:  the yarn stash erased all sense of time as the  owner  steward of that wealth of yarn was (again) overcome by the beauty, the colour, the diversity, the potential, the history, the geography, the origins, the "good-lord-forgot-I-had-that" 's. 
Here's what I came up with for one pair of socks.   And this for another.

And there was the teeny bit of very unusual yarn…..and the yarn received as gifts that brought the givers to mind and heart……and the basket of fibre that,  for some reason, always 'speaks'…..  I had to pause (often!)  and visit…….