Enter at Your Own Risk

This morning I ran across an Etsy watercolor print, My stash, explained, by Julia Mills of JMillsPaints, that chimed a true note with me—so true, in fact, that I purchased it.Do you crochet or knit? If you do, you know that yarn is a Space Gobbler. When guests visit, they can sit on the couch only if you sweep away your tools of the trade and balls of yarn into a bag or basket.

When it’s time to take your son’s girlfriend on a tour of the house for the first time, and he cheerfully announces that you should show her your yarn stash, you hope she is not crushed by the stacks of tubs.

Yarn can be expensive, so you never throw out the leftovers. Instead, balls of yarn reside in baskets, bags and maybe even a couple of plastic tubs.

On the positive side, you have the joy of knowing that you keep the Ziploc® company in business.

On the negative side, your house will never be on a Tour of Homes. On second thought, there is no negative side because there’s no pressure to keep your house tidy all the time. It’s simply not in the cards.

The admission that you crochet or knit is rather freeing because you no longer need to make excuses when . . .

• you make 85 scarves from a combination of eyelash yarn and acrylic yarn long after the fad has passed, and then end up donating them because they won’t sell;

• you say yes to your younger brother when he asks if you can use 52 pounds of doily-weight crochet cotton that he discovered at a yard sale;

• you donate half a dozen grocery bags of baby fingering yarn to the senior community center because you don’t crochet baby blankets anymore;

• you shop yarn sales at Jo-Ann Fabrics and Michael’s, even if you have 21 tubs of skeins waiting for you in your basement;

• you teach your husband how to crochet so that he joins you, not teases you, when you go yarn shopping;

• your yarn habit leads to a button stash that is the envy of your sewing friends;

• you’ll always have a gift ready because it’s just a ball of yarn away; and

• you have a growing circle of friends because you’ll teach anyone who listens how to crochet or knit.

Enter my home at your own risk. You never know what you’ll take away.

© 2017 Judy Nolan. All rights reserved.