I got my first "Sample Skeins" subscription mailing from elann.com last night. At first I was kind of disappointed, because all of the samples (5, since there are five Tuesdays in September) were very similar colors, all earth-tones, browns and beiges and whites. And then this morning I wondered if they do that on purpose, so you might actually be able to make something out of the samples.
They send about 10 yards of each, unless something is particularly expensive, so I suppose it's possible I could make some kind of narrow scarf out of it all, or something. They're all very different weights, though, but still, it could be interesting.