stash versus hoard, please respond!
Friends, I received the following note from my knitty friend Jen's fiance today. We'll call him G.On the weekend the three of us were out enjoying a coffee and a browse at the local Chapters/Starbucks combo, when inevitably, we got into a discussion about yarn, projects, patterns, magazines, etc. Now, G was an awfully good sport, listening to the two knitters banter on and on about, well, all things knitting.
But then he asked, "how much yarn do you have?" Friends, I must say, I felt a little violated, and knew he was digging for some anti-stash ammunition. He continued, "Do you HOARD the way she does?"
Well that did it. "It's called STASHING. Not HOARDING." came the reply. There's something about the word hoarding that disagrees with my knitterly sensibilities. Thereafter, I (maturely) refused to acknowledge any further references to "hoarding".
Then came the letter:
Miss Ewe,
Jen told me about your blog and your mentioning of stash vs. hoard. Our discussion has spurred me to check out therespective dictionary definitions of stash & hoard and they end up being synonyms for each other. The other synonyms listed are cache, stockpile and store.
I still think hoard is best, but hey that's only my opinion. I will say that as an example of word usage, my dictonarysaid this for stash: "A 'stash' of narcotics."
Hmmmmm.....maybe yarn is closer to crack than I thought? Keep on hoarding! :->
take care,
Now... I will point out that this is all said and written with a very good humour, and G is a lovely person in general, but ladies: have at him.
What do you think?
posted by miss ewe @ 10:56 a.m.
8 Comments:
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I sort of like the "hoard" reference. Brings to mind images of a huge, beautiful she-dragon, crouching over her hard-earned jewels. I like to think of my relationship with my stash that way. I'm the owner of a vast, customized, delectable collection of treasures. If it and I were alone together, that'd me just fine. Plus, if you tried to steal it I'd kill ya...
I like your description of "hoard," renee. I could get behind that one.
Perhaps I take issue with it because of the negative connotations associated with the word. "Stash" sounds a little less compulsive than "hoard."
Or perhaps I'm just looking for excuses... ;)
D'oh! I thought I could edit that comment, but ended up deleting it.
Gist: G is wonderful, I love him very much, I get defensive about the word "hoard."
We hoard jewels (thanks renee). Stash narcotics. Stockpile ammunition. Store dried goods. Maintain a cache of chocolate covered almonds for those bad days.
What an oddly negative assortment of words...how about collect? Amass? Keep in reserve? Save? Accumulate?
The thing with hoarding is that it implies we don't share...which may be true of some but not of others. We not share our stash yarn, but we certainly give away a lot of what we make with it. So, its kind of hoarding for a good reason.
(Don't let him know that its because we're really afraid of commitment to any one skein)
Miss Ewe,
Well, I certainly received a fair and well-crafted riposte from you (very expected) - although I was surprised to see my personal email to you reproduced in full on your blog (very unexpected). Noted for the future.
I stand by my position that "the h-word" sounds more apt and even more positive than stash. To me, stash = drugs.
However, I certainly didn't want you to feel even "a little" violated by my query. I sincerely apologize to you for that.
Upon reflection, I agree with Stitch-dom's commentary - I think I'll use "amass" or "keep in reserve" in the future.
I love Jen very much, and though I tease her sometimes about her KIR (yarn Kept-In-Reserve), I know that knitting gives her much pleasure and satisfaction and that's a very good thing.
G
Whenever my man starts to look like he's going to mention the size of my stash (I like it, drug implications and all!) I tell him it's not nearly the size of the amount of beer he consumes, and unless he wants me to start monitoring that he can keep his eyes off the size of my stash :) It all evens out in the end.
Seeing as my blog is called Needle Exchange, you can probably imagine my opinion on the subject.
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