Monday, October 10, 2005

The Stash That Would Not Die

Yesterday I was organizing my yarn stash and I came across my long-ignored needlepointing stash. I sorted it out and got to thinking. The yarn was given to me nearly five years ago by my grandmother after she cleaned her attic. How old the yarn is, I have no idea, but it ranged from shockingly colored acrylic to subtly-toned pure wool.

When I first got it back in 2001 I knew raw resources such as this shouldn't sit around forever. I wracked my brain for ideas and eventually settled on needlepointing a bass guitar strap for my boyfriend.

That's right: needlepointing an entire bass guitar strap.

Previously, I had consigned and sold a Scotch plaid strap I'd made at a local guitar store. I've never owned a sewing machine that operated properly for more then five minutes altogether, so the strap was made entirely by hand. (As were my quilts, dresses, jacket linings... I had a lot of spare time.) Because that wasn't complicated enough, I decided to needlepoint the Celtic Tree of Life. It would be 37 inches long.

And then I made it.

Okay, I admit it's not quite finished. The needlepointing took only a couple months but the black canvas backing has taken years, simply because it's boring and tedious work. (You can see at the bottom of the strap the loose threads where I haven't finished it up.)

I know that sounds funny coming from someone who did 148 square inches of customized needlepointing in one go, but I think variety was what kept me interested.

However, the bass guitar strap did not significantly diminish the stash. In desperation, I made a pair of Fair Isle socks for a little girl I knew and then put the stash where it would be out of sight, out of mind. I haven't seen it since 2004. Now I have dredged it up again, something which in itself is not a problem, necessarily, except that it does beg the question:

"What am I going to do with it?"

I still have two big shoeboxes of it left!

No comments: