I have a shop that sells wonderful, high quality yarn near my home. (Unfortunately its other supplies cater almost exclusively to knitters...grrr.....) Anyway, it always has a few bags of yarn kits with knitting patterns available at huge discounts. For instance, last week I purchased 3 hanks of Delicious Kollage for $5.00! Each skein is normally $9.00 at this store. Altogether I purchased 11 skeins of different yarns for only $25! Quite a bargain!

My question is this: if I have no particular pattern or project in mind, how many skeins of yarn would it be best to purchase in general. Will three be enough to complete many projects and therefore a good number to buy? Would it be better to buy four? I guess I am trying to optimize my value for the yarn. I would like to have an idea of what would be enough without having a whole lot of scraps.

When you find a yarn you particularly love, how many do your purchase?