I have some clever “crafty” friends who visit here. For them in particular, the photo alongside is the now finished afghan that featured in the previous post, dumped in its unfinished heap showing only the colours and a glimpse of the pattern. It doesn’t take long to finish these items, but I still have a great deal of yarn left in my stash. Several consecutive lifetimes just might be necessary to see it used up… unless I can figure a way to churn them out in my sleep!

I have often wondered why some people gather up and collect things, unable to let them go, nor sort and dispense with them when no longer useful. Many years ago we inherited a lovely old oak writing desk. It came complete with stuffing - over 40 years of receipts for everything imaginable! It was so fully stuffed that it could not be used for that which it was made - as a writing desk. Not anymore, and it is a now a lovely and useful piece of furniture gracing our home.

For most things on this planet I find I am perfectly able to appreciate them, enjoy seeing them, but not have to own them. It is simply good that they exist in the world. I can admire but not want them myself. This is a happy way to be, especially when some things cost more than one might be able to pay. On the other hand, I am not coping with hunger nor any other deprivation of basic needs, and I am well aware that my happy disposition in relation to things might be quite different if that was not so.

Throwing out rubbish is one thing, but deciding on what is rubbish in the first place is something quite else. It is said that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. But go back a step and consider why one acquires something in the first place… and often takes more than one needs. My collection of fabrics and yarn arose from far more than project leftovers, but on a “need” to have more for future projects. Quilters liken their fabric stashes to an artist’s palette where plenty of choice is necessary for creative expression. But look in my pantry and you’ll see it is well stocked as well. Clearly I don’t like to run short. Same goes for yarn.

For me I suspect that has something to do with my past. Hospitalized as an infant at a time when down-to-earth nurses hustled mothers out of the ward saying “she’ll be just fine”, I was left for a fortnight, too young to understand, to despair and grieve the loss of my mother. The family legend has it that I refused anything to do with her when 2 weeks later she returned to take me home, and for weeks afterwards grabbed and clutched food in both hands instead, whether hungry or not. Thanks to the research of people like Bowlby and Robertson in the field of separation anxiety in young children, we now have a more enlightened approach to treating sick infants (and their mothers) such that these adverse effects are largely avoided. But perhaps that accounts for my well stocked pantry… and yarn and fabric supplies!

It is often said that we come into this world with no material possessions, and we leave the same way, unable to take anything with us. That being so, and personal history aside, I am endeavouring to be a good steward of those material possessions I have acquired in between. I have more than I need, recognizing that “want” and “need” are often two very different things. As I write, some of the worst bush fires in Australian history are raging through the state of Victoria, wiping out entire towns and communities, incinerating people, their pets, the wildlife, and leaving just cinders behind. Those that have escaped with their lives and nothing else are saying “we’re alive, and that’s the main thing” as their lost possessions are weighed up in relation to what really matters the most. It is worth giving a thought… what really does matter the most?

And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

(Matthew 6:28-34. NIV)

I cannot take any of my possession with me when it comes my time to exit this world, but I can share them wisely with others - as a good steward of that which I have been given. My eternal security is not found in grabbing such things and clutching them close to me, as I did as a devastated infant, but in giving them away wherever genuine need appears on my path through this life. And doing this with wisdom from above, I can be assured that I will not go without in those things that really do matter, ultimately, eternally, most of all.

The Cold Knees Project is a fun name for my attempt to make a dent in my stash of yarn that I have collected over many years.

Being someone who was taught to crochet and knit from the age of 4 years, and enjoying these needlecraft activities ever after, it will not be surprising to fellow “yarn-aholics” that I now have quite a hoard of brightly coloured balls of wool - well, wool and many blends of wool and various other fibres.

On a drive to downsize my material possessions, I spent a day hauling out all these packages of yarn, sorting them, deciding what to give away, and what projects I could use them up on. Much of it was re-packed into sacks to go to the “To Russia With Love” project. A number of dedicated knitters use donated yarn to make warm clothing for children in Russian orphanages. This seemed a very worthy project, and so I lessened my stash considerably by making a donation in that direction. But what of the rest? Then an idea came to me…

The City Mission had mentioned in a newsletter how they work to keep the elderly living in their own homes for as long as possible, rather than having to go into residential care, but during the winter it gets increasingly hard for these folk to keep warm when the cost of electricity makes adequate heating unaffordable. I’m all for people being able to live in their own homes for as long as possible, if that is what they want to do. Perhaps those balls of yarn could be turned into afghans which might help to keep cold knees a little warmer in winter? And so my Cold Knees Project was born.

My friend Donna, who has recently learnt to crochet, is just discovering how addicting it is to collect yarn with all kinds of projects in mind. She is just a beginner when it comes to yarn - read her confession here - although from what I have heard, her house positively bulges with collections of other craft materials!

Another friend from Sleepy Cat Hollow is crocheting scarves to donate to the Kids Kottages, protective shelters where police or social workers bring children after they have been removed from their families. Most children at Kids Kottage are there because their families are suspected of severe abuse or neglect, but some children are placed because no one else is available to care for them during parental incarceration or hospitalization. As well as the scarves, and being a quilter too, she is also planning to make and donate quilts. Hmm, quilts are on my inventory list for the Cold Knees Project too. If only there were more hours in the day… I could certainly use them!

Yet another friend from Sewing Sunsets is hopelessly attached to her sewing machine and addicted to dressmaking. As well as publishing sewing tutorials, she has found a mission for herself in churning out clothes for children of needy families, and in making gifts to cheer others and help brighten their days.

There is a wellknown saying that goes “It is more blessed to give than receive.” Value cannot always be measured in monetary terms alone. A gift that has special meaning is often treasured beyond the monetary value of the item as appraised by some objective criterion. There is treasure in the gift, plus more accrued to it by the one receiving the gift, and even more again by the blessing received by the giver. The accumulation is treasure indeed.

A friend and I both learnt exactly that when I gave her one of my quilts. Seemingly tragic events in her life had provoked her to make a serious attempt to end it. The circumstances were intensely humiliating, and she was still struggling with shame and a clinical depression when the quilt arrived “out of the blue”. I learnt some time later how much that quilt meant to her, and was humbled to know that something I enjoyed making could help that much. She pulled through, often burying herself in that quilt for consolation, and turned the corner to be living a much more rewarding life achieving goals she had once believed were totally out of reach.

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
(Matthew 6:19-21)

The Christian worldview accepts that every action and every outcome must sooner or later be measured against an ultimate norm for its ultimate value. This kind of treasure is not stored in this temporal world but is weighed for good measure in the eternal one that continues beyond. Good deeds in themselves will not secure anyone’s salvation, and so it needs to be said that salvation is itself a gift ~ from God through our faith in Christ. But wherever you invest your treasure, there indeed will your heart be also.