Stash Tidying - Joan Lennon

 

(Public Domain Pictures)

I've been stash tidying. It's a spring thing. (Yes, cleaning is supposed to be the spring thing, but...) I've been going through stashes of wool from dozens of projects over 40 or so years. I've joined a Facebook page called Sew, Knit, Crochet for the NHS and using up yarn to make twiddle mitts*, newborn hats, bonding squares** and syringe driver bags.*** 

We're not talking Shetland lace here - I've been choosing the simplest possible patterns because if I don't have to think about the stitches, I find I can usefully think about bits of my writing.

Which is the other stash I'm going through. Files and files of stories, poems, novels - some half-finished, some complete. What is resurrectable? What was just an interesting experiment that I'd forgotten all about? What could I finish? What can I tweak and finesse and get out into the world for somebody to read? 

Stashes tidied can become twiddle mitts, baby hats, bonding squares, syringe driver bags, and books, and we can make a connection with people we never meet. We don't know the when, the how or the who but does that make it not real? It's a kind of invisible community. 

And when I've done tidying stashes, THEN I'll get on with cleaning...

(You may already know these things, but they were new to me:

*twiddle mitts - for dementia patients, to soothe and warm restless hands. 

**bonding squares - for premature babies in ICU. Small matched squares help mothers and babies connect when the tubes and incubators get in the way. The mother wears one square next to her skin and the baby has theirs with them, and then the squares are swapped every 12 hours. The scent of the mother comforts the baby, and the scent of the baby encourages the mother's milk production.

***syringe driver bags - for palliative care patients, allowing freedom of movement while keeping up medicine and pain relief.

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