(non) progress on the scarf exchange project

One of my works in progress is a scarf for the international scarf exchange III, and after ascertaining that my downstream pal (who's in Australia---how cool is that?) likes 100% natural fibers, I picked out a nice Koigu 100% merino from my stash. I was excited because I even had 2 skeins in my pal's liked color of green (with traces of other colors she also said she liked). I picked out a pattern and got ready to start.

So I wound my yarn into center pull balls, and I've been working on a swatch using some leftover Koigu in another color and.....I'm underwhelmed. Y'know how you get an idea about something in your mind and no matter how "ok" the thing that you're working on is, it's just not going to make you happy because it's not what you have in your mind? Well, I think I want to make my pal a scarf that has some silk in it.

And the Koigu , while even a little glossy looking, just doesn't have any silk in it. And I love Koigu, which I've used happily on other projects. But I think I have to recognize that this combo of yarn and pattern is just *not* going to make me happy right now.

'Course the bummer is that I'd previously declared a moratorium on ordering new yarn until I've used up some of what I have in my stash. And, other than some Cascade fingering silk in the wrong color, I don't really have anything that I think would work for my pal in my stash.

What a dilemma!?! Or at least it would be if I had any willpower at all.

Happily (or unhappily, depending on whether you're my secret pal or my scale), I don't. So I've gone ahead and ordered some Cascade fingering silk in better colors and some Marjaana (I think) wool-silk blend. At least it was all on sale. Perhaps when it gets here, it will be nice and tell me that at least some of it wants to be a scarf and what pattern it would like to be worked into. In the meantime, I think the Koigu is going back into the stash. I don't think it's too disapointed. I think it really wants to be gloves anyway.