Kitchener Capers
Yesterday I loaded the Holey Moley into my backpack, hopped on my bike and road down to the Yarn Barn. I slept late, so I missed most of the morning crowd, but I did see Susie, Sarah and Mary Lou. Sarah and Mary Lou are a pair - I think they’re cousins.
Susie was just putting the finishing touches on a poncho made out of recycled Himalayan silk on these massive 25 needles. I forget what Sarah was working on. We mostly just joke and bait each other when we’re both there. Mary Lou was having a tough day. She didn’t pull any of her work out, but just sat there and flipped through patterns kind of distractedly. She’s pretty old - in her 80s I think. I asked her what was up. She smiled tiredly, winked, and said “It’s just one of those days you have when you get old. You’ll see.”
I cranked away on the poncho for a while, chatting about this and that with everyone at the table. It was a regular hen’s cluckfest (with one rooster sitting in) for about an hour, and then a lady named Althea showed up. She had just driven down from Austin, and she was holding two identical baby blue sweaters.
Well, not identical. They were obviously the same pattern and the same yarn, but one was faded and a little threadbare, while the other was bright and whole. Upon closer inspection, the newer one wasn’t finished yet - the back of the collar had to be grafted together. Althea explained that she had made the first one 30 years ago to wear when she worked as a checker in a grocery store. Then ten years ago, she started the second one as a replacement. But then it got put up and it lay there until recently when she decided to finish it. The only problem was that she didn’t remember how the collar had to be finished, and she’s given away all of her knitting books since she started it.
I looked at the collar and figured it needed to be grafted. I haven’t don’t that before, so I grabbed a book off the racks and found directions. Susie produced a set of small circular needle points that fit into the stitches (they were just sort of hanging there at the ends) and ran them through. Then I took a tapestry needle and started running the yarn through as Susie read the directions. We joked about how it felt like a surgical team, with me being the doctor and Susies being the nurse. Althea decided she would be the anesthesiologist, since that pays pretty well. I flipped one of the sweater’s cuffs into her lap and said “Here, keep its pulse steady.”
Eventually we got it done. Hopefully I’ll have something else to graft again soon so that I don’t forget how to do it. Althea was pleased as could be that the sweater was finally done.
So, that was my good karma for the day. Today I’ll try and properly execute my dharma by going over to Kelly’s and rubbing the dogs’ tummies.