Haul from crazy grandma

[sonnets_and_stitches]

Note: This is not a rant. This is just background!

 

I have a grandmother who is known more for the volume of her gifts than the quality of them. She'll avoid spending a dime on the purchase of a gift, but will then spend days and hundreds of dollars in travel costs to drive across the continent and deliver the "free" gift.

 

For our wedding, for example, she went through her linen closet and gave us five suitcases worth of mismatched ratty towels and pilled sheets. One Christmas when I was in college, she gave me FIFTY bottles of shampoo - 48 fl. oz each. The next Christmas, she gave me SEVENTY MORE bottles of the same shampoo, some of it crystalized in the bottle. I kept the crystalized shampoo because it could be reconstituted, and contacted local women's abuse shelters until I could find enough takers for all that shampoo. She once gave my dad FIFTY cans of soup as a present. He doesn't like soup.

 

(I'm not complaining - I think she's very funny. Insane, but funny.)

 

So she appeared on my mother's doorstep this weekend, with a suitcase of yarn! Apparently she heard that I've been crocheting, and chose this as the golden opportunity to bequeath her old yarn. Much of it is older than I am (according to the labels), and it all smells musty. Some of it isn't worsted acrylic, but I have no idea what it may be! This will be an adventure, to be sure!

 

Anyhow, I was delighted, because it nearly doubled my stash, even sharing some of the yarn with my sister. Hooray!

 

~ Joy

[Pharmagurumi]

That's pretty funny. Grandmothers can be crazy like that.

[HomekeepingGran]

Hey, I'm a grandmother!

 

When we were young Grandmother put dimes into our birthday cards. Along about our teen years we graduated to dollar bills, but never went over that. I got dollars in cards from her after I married! It was always cute!

[eebrs]

I love the background. That sounds like my husband's grandma (only more extreme). She gave us a ton of food for my bridal shower. Some of it I'm sure came from her cupboards!

 

Congratulations on doubling your stash!

[angelfire]

that is a cute story...congrats on the yarn

[copchic905]

yep sounds like my gram too....she says it's due to livin' thru the depression.

[wayinpa]

Oh Please Let Her Know For Sure How Much You Love It!!! It Will Probably Make Her Day!!!

[CrochettingMama]

Yay for Grandma's. You better love every moment of your wacky grandma while you have her!!!

I hope you can get the smell out of your new yarn!

[sonnets_and_stitches]

Carla, it's not grandmothers who are crazy. It's this grandmother who is crazy.

 

I forgot to tell you guys that one skein had a twig in it, with leaves! :leaf

 

I always thank her for her gifts sincerely, but she says things like "I know you don't like it" or "If you want, I'll take it back with me, all the way back home." I'm also the only grandchild out of all my cousins who is given anything. When I asked her why she never gives to her other grandchildren (including my thoughtful brother and sweet little sister), she told me they never thank her!

 

Oh - does anyone have advice on how to take the musty smell out of unknown yarns? Can I throw them in a pillowcase or mesh laundry bag and into the washer?

 

~ Joy

[charitas32]

Maybe if you put some lavender in with the yarn it would get rid of the musty smell or those spray fabric fresheners.

 

On the crazy gran note mine used to sew pockets in her corset to keep her money safe so if you were out shopping with her you had to stand holding the item she wanted to buy in the shop while she went in search of the nearest loo. My beloved wins hands down, as when clearing out his grans house after her death they found 50 bottles of salad cream, a handrawn plough and several boxes of american army rations fifty years out of date. What kind of emergancy was she expecting?

[HomekeepingGran]

You may have some wool in the lot. I don't think I would try just tossing them into a pillowcase and into the washer. Perhaps some sunshine would help?

[sonnets_and_stitches]

As far as I know, there's not a local shop which sells wool yarn. Otherwise I would take some of my yarns and compare how it feels to the shop yarn, try to identify it.

 

Hmmm, sunshine. How would that work? Spread it out on a towel on a lawn for a few hours?

[Dorothy]

I read some where that if you put cat litter in with the yarn it would take out the smell

[snugsmontreal]

several boxes of american army rations fifty years out of date.

i hope those sold those, they are worth money to collectors! i know my grandparents have some of them in a box inthe basement collecting dust, not full just a few stamps left for bread milk etc

[crochetbycharlene]

How funny!

[Carol]

How funny. I had an aunt just like that. Every time we visited, she'd hand us a grocery bag full of stuff she'd bought at yard sales. You might find an old slip, a salt and pepper shaker, a few paper plates, a brooch with jewels missing, some cracked dishes...

 

We would try to "forget" our "gifts" and leave her house without them, but every time we did that, we'd arrive home only to find she'd stashed the bags in the backseat of our car! Or, she'd give them to my dad when he went to visit my uncle (her DH) and say, "Carol forgot this. Would you take it to her?"

 

She was such a character.

[Mandys76]

My DH's Nan is sooo like that. She does some hilarious things. Always giving us food that's completely out of date. It's got to the point where we take it just to stop her eating it herself or serving it up to someone else!

 

She gave me a cake mix a little while ago that expired in March....1972!!! That's two years before DH was even born! It was quite funny, it still had the price tag on it...23 cents.

[lhasaapsolady]

How lucky you are to have a grandmother, even if she is a bit quirky. Gotta LUV her.

[Auntie Kellie]

Gotta love the eccentricities of some people. My nana always encouraged me when I started crocheting because you never knew when WW3 would start and everyone would need to start making their own clothes again. I used to love sitting beside her on her bed, watching Wheel of Fortune with her while she'd tell me stories of her childhood in Britain during the War. She'd always have slippers or a granny blanket in the works during these times. I wish I could've had her teach me how to make those slippers, they were so warm and great for sliding across the kitchen floor. When she passed away, my stepmom asked me if I wanted to write something up to be said at the funeral so I figured I'd add one of her stories. That's when I was told that most of her stories were made up. Even if she embellished her childhood, those days we spent together just talking about them and watching TV while she crocheted are still my fondest memories of her. Anyone have a tissue I could use?

 

Hugs and cookies

Auntie K

[mizduck]

Betcha wish you had some of that shampoo left now...you could use it to wash the mustiness out of the yarn!! That's such a great story. I'm sure you gave your grandma a great big hug! A twig....with leaves!

 

P.S. Never underestimate the power of Febreze!

[sonnets_and_stitches]

I love how this has turned into the "crazy older women in our lives" thread!

 

When I graduated from high school, this same grandma gave me "Graduate Barbie." It was not a collector's Barbie, just a regular one. The box was dinged up very badly and the text on the box said things like, "The paper Barbie is holding is very special. It's called a diploma. Maybe one day you will get a diploma too!"

 

It's not like I collected Barbies. The last time I had owned a Barbie, I was six years old, and I chewed her feet off at the ankles.

 

Okay, back to freshening the yarn. I have kitty litter, sunshine, fabric spray, lavendar . . .

 

How would I use sunshine or kitty litter to freshen yarn?

 

~ Joy

[birdlady1]

She doesn't sound too crazy to me!

[Happy SAHM]

Sounds like you have a wonderful Grandma!!!

When I buy yarn at the thrift stores I always wash it before I use it.

I put each skein into a knee high nylon tie a knot at the top and throw it in the washer and dryer. I got this idea from the ville but I can't remember where or who from but it works great.

[OnceUponAHook]

Do you know anyone who has ozone equipment?

 

My SIL has a business of this thing - it uses fans that they use in vehicles and homes and it gets rid of smoke and musty smells.

 

If you are using a small object, you place it in an enclosed area or room and run the fans in there and it takes the smells out.

[copchic905]

I always use fabric softeners & throw them in my yarn storage tubs.