Stop me if this sounds unfamiliar…
You receive a lovely gift of a voucher to a wool shop. So you go along and choose something that costs ever so slightly more than the voucher (despite all your intentions to stick to the budget).
‘What are you making?’ the owner asks. ‘I was thinking of a lace shawl.’ you remark breezily, neglecting to mention that you’ve never knitted lace in your life.
It occurs to you that perhaps you should dip a preliminary toe in the sea of lace knitting before subjecting your gorgeous purchase to excessive ripping out. Into the stash you go, vaguely check your meterage and cast on.
Of course, it becomes obvious that you don’t have enough wool to finish, and you even think about just having a tiny look in the wool shop on the off chance they have something in a coordinating colour.
Your sensible self is desperately running alongside shouting things like, ‘This was meant to be a stash-only project!’ and, ‘You weren’t meant to spend any money on it!’
You come to your senses (also, because it’s a Monday, the wool shop is closed) and check the stash again, only to discover a ball of wool so close in colour and weight it seems almost impossible it was bought 4,000 miles and several years apart from its new shawl-mate.
This is why there is stash…