Gettin' busy with the ball winder or Raiders of the Lost Acrylic

So I was making grocery bag "yarn" yesterday and had the ballwinder out. My acrylic stash--or part of it...if I'm being honest there are probably 6-10 skeins of acrylic in the downstairs closet with the "good" yarn--started calling to me to be organized and rescued from moldering away in a bin in the master closet. Most of this stash of yarn I've had for 10 years or so--let's call them "the crochet years"-- back when I was still doing almost all crochet and no knitting:



This is the stash after much time with the ballwinder:



Some lovely UFOs I came across along the way:

My dear friend Rebecca, when she found out she was pregnant with her son (I think he's about 9 now), was into all the latest research about stimulating babies' eyes with black and white and polka dots. I was asked to make a baby blanket with black and white. *twitch* I made two attempts. I tried, Beck, I really tried! See, here's the proof!

I'm thinking about sending these to her so she can make something out of them. Maybe a doll blanket for her daughter. I think either one would make a nice stole; they're just long enough. Anyway, I'm going to send her the guilt and get it out of my house! That poor baby never did get an afghan from me. :(

I was going to make this scrap yarn afghan for a friend and use up all the scraps in my stash. The pattern was going to require I make 803 little squares. Yeah, I got bored. In the "after" shot above there's a Payless Shoe Source bag stuffed with the squares and the yarn for joining. Pictured here are a completed strip of squares and a strip in the process of being joined together.



These are some strips I started when I got tired of the little granny squares:



The only things I completed the first time I tried to learn to knit were dishcloths. This square is the only thing I completed the second time I tried to learn to knit. It was supposed to be just one square of an entire afghan of squares. Yeah, it's still the only square.



I found this square that was supposed to be part of an afghan. I think I'll make the leaves, add a border and sew it to the back of the above knitted square. Instant seasonal pillow cover!



Things I've learned from this endeavor:
1. I have an embarrassing amount of white and off white yarn.
2. I bought THREE balls of acrylic sport weight yarn to make that garter stitch scarf back when I first tried to learn to knit. WTF am I going to do with THREE balls of acrylic sport weight yarn? IN BLACK?? I have sworn off black altogether so this creates a bit of a quandry. If anyone wants some sport weight acrylic black yarn, give me a holler.
3. I actually used to do some pretty good work. I should crochet some more. But not with acrylic.