Good Advice

Dear Catherine,
Here is your horoscope
for Tuesday, April 17:

Life doesn't have to be difficult. Sometimes things can seem convoluted, but they don't have to stay that way. Take a step back. Figure out the simplest and most feasible solution. Then do it.

I would be happy to follow this advice, but unfortunately, arson is a crime. The simplest, most feasible path to a fresh start in the near future would be to burn this place down. Instead, I have started a notebook of things that must be done to get the house ready to sell. I do not allow myself to handle matches after reviewing this notebook.

Boy is coming down today, to spend a few days helping his Dear Decrepit Mother clean out the garage and attic. We have a plan of attack - he will haul old chemicals and other bad things to the county disposal site in his ancient bomber Honda, which would never even notice a new spill, while I will use my pretty Baby to take loads of clean non-garage sale items to Goodwill. The things that fall in between these two categories will be tagged for a garage sale if sale-worthy, or go into the trash.

Much of the yarn stash is going to a garage sale. I have spent the past couple of days contemplating the stash, and realized that I have little affection for so much of it, it has become Stuff. I'm keeping the good stuff, what there is of it. Ditto the magazines - they are just Stuff. After I thumbed through them I realized that there is practically zero chance that I will make anything out of 99% of the magazine patterns in my collection. I'm keeping a lot of other patterns and almost all of the books, but the magazines, eh. I haven't bought a magazine in quite a while, I look through them and don't see anything I'll make. And don't get me started on the new Interweave Crochet, which I thumbed through and put back on the rack. I'm a lot more realistic now about what I'll actually MAKE, vs. "virtual knitting" - buying yarn and pattern and thinking really hard about doing it, but never getting around to it. I have a backlog of things I really do want to make, and many, many more things I now realize I don't really want to do.

I went through a phase of mad stashing from 2001-2003, it was a form of self medication while my husband was sick. Some days the sight of a package on the front step was the best mood lifter ever. I bought from several online vendors and of course Elann and eBay, and when I look at my stash I see that I bought a lot of stuff on impulse and with good intentions, but never used it. The moment passed. And the need to stash yarn has passed, and now it's time to pass the yarn on too.