Chicken Soup for the Soul: My Hilarious, Heroic, Human Dog

I have a tale in this recent Chicken Soup for the Soul books:

https://smile.amazon.com/Chicken-Soup-Soul-Hilarious-Companionship/dp/1611590787/ 

My tale is called "Gypsy," and it's a story about my rat terrier and how she appointed herself my guardian, companion and entertainer. You can find it on page 88.

 

 

 

And if you're a dog lover, I also have a nice dog tale in another Chicken Soup book: 


Chicken Soup for the Soul: Life Lessons from the Dog: 101 Tales of Family, Friendship & Fun

 It tells the story of my childhood beagle named Kleo, and how his faithfulness went beyond all expectations.

 

What is a stash, and why do you have one/need one?

 Lots of knitters have what they call a "stash" of yarn. It may just be a closet with a few shelves of yarn, or it might be an entire "craft room," devoted to the arts of knitting, crocheting, perhaps beads for certain patterns, or tatting.

This tends to lead the husband to say, "Why are you buying more yarn? You've got a ton  of it in your craft room." Just like the sheep on a t-shirt I bought at a sheep and wool festival--three female sheep are knitting together. Meanwhile, in the background, a male sheep is walking out with his suitcases in his hands. One of the female knitters says to the other, "It's his own fault. He told her, it's the stash or him." 

That pretty much says it all...we fiber artists don't consider our stashes as simply an overgrown collection of yarns in all the various colors, sizes, weights, and let's not leave out the many different feels of various yarn. A dyed-in-the-wool (haha) fiber artist will also touch a yarn that appeals to her, not just look at the color or weight. We may or may not ever use a particular yarn skein, but just looking at it, and stroking it is enough.

Of course, we DO buy yarn sometimes with a particular project in mind, and that's okay too. That does give us a ready answer to the "Why do you need more yarn? question from the husbands. 

We simply say, "See this sweater pattern? I'm going to make this.  So I DO use my stash." And then stick out our tongues.

Try to think of your stash as a "collection." For example, in addition to my yarn stash, I collect antique ladies' compacts, giraffes, and tarot decks. Like the yarn, they are pretty to look at and delightful to hold. They can cheer me up on a tough day, and shopping for new additions to my collections gives me great pleasure.

So don't feel guilty about YOUR yarn stash...just think of it as a giraffe. :-)

SECRET SANTA YARN KIT

This dratted pandemic is sure lasting longer than I expected. It's changed my life in so many ways. One of the ways is a small thing, but irritating. That is, I can no longer go to my local yarn store to buy yarn, choose a pattern, find the size knitting needles I need, or go to a knit-along with other knitters. And you crocheters are in the same boat.

Of course, I could pull something out of my stash to work on...one of the many UFOs in my craft room. But usually I had put them aside when I got bored with them, and they're unlikely to have improved in that respect while sitting in a corner.

Frustrated, I have been wracking my brain for something unique to do with yarn. Then it occurred to me: I remembered one year, perhaps ten or twelve years ago, when one of the yarn stores participating in the annual Sheep & Wool Festival had lovely knitting bags filled with a wide variety of yarn...different colors, different weights, different textures. They also included a pattern for a "Goddess Shawl," but you weren't obligated to make that pattern. 

It was wonderful to take a chance on a bag full of yarn that I might never have picked out for myself, but something about it called to me. I made a shawl using all the yarns in the bag...pinks, browns and oranges, fake fur yarn, multi-color ribbon yarn. It was a lot of fun, and it's the most unique shawl I own.

My two adult daughters and my sister were in the same boat now...knitters and crocheters, without being able to shop for supplies in person. And yes, there is always shopping by mail. But we fiber fanatics like to look at the yarn in person, touch it, maybe put it to our cheek, before we choose. Online yarn stores are a nice alternative if you can't get to a physical store to shop, but definitely second best.

Then I remembered those surprise yarn kits and thought, "Why can't we do this amongst the four of us?" I proposed it, and my two daughters and my sister were quite enthusiastic about the idea. One daughter suggested a "Secret Santa" event where each of us would buy for another person. For this, we needed my husband to match the four of us so no one would know who they'd been chosen by. Or as he put it, he was "Fulfilling my role as impartial-chooser-of-names-from-a-hat." I love it!

We've decided to give a few guidelines to each other. They include "Knitting or Crocheting or Surprise me?" "favorite colors," and "items you'd be interested in making." We also included a spending limit, and decided though it's only February right now, aiming at Christmas would give us plenty of time to come  up with a bagful of goodies. It's an exciting activity, and we are all looking forward to Christmas this year with extra-special joy.

So, do YOU have any special fiber-related activities? Do share!