This weekend passed in a blur of Bike Rally. I know, I know. You’d think there would be a break, but it turns out (I discovered, after joining the Steering Committee) that once you’re into the planning of the thing, the work of getting the next year together starts right after you get off your bike in Montreal. So over the last week, my Co-Lead Cameron and I have had a startling number of meetings. (They all clumped up on us.) I don’t mind this so much, at least there’s lots of knitting on the subway as I troop back and forth, and even the occasional round or two during the meetings, or in between them. Sunday was like that, Cameron and I sat in a pub for hours, meeting the new Team Leads for the year, and talking through the process they’ll work on for the next eight months, and when it was finally over, we had a much deserved pint. Then we met a mutual friend and had a meal and a drink somewhere else, and then we walked to the subway, and I got on, and reached into my bag for my almost finished pair of socks, and…. nothing. Gone. They weren’t there.
I flashed back in my mind to when I’d had them last, and realized that when I’d reached beneath the table in the dark pub, meaning to put them in my purse, I must have missed, and dumped them on the floor instead. I immediately imagined them gone, and texted Cameron something like “$%^$#!!! I lost my knitting!” (It’s safe to assume that I used actual foul language there.) Then the train passed into an area with no service, and I sat there.
Losing knitting is always a serious bummer, but losing an almost finished pair of socks during the Christmas crunch was horrifying. I imagined a server picking it up and throwing it away, not realizing it was important. I tried to remember if the server had noticed me knitting, might remember it was mine and put it aside. The place had been busy. I guess I could forgive them it they’d tossed it. (Sort of.) By the time i got off the subway, far from the pub, I’d pretty much reconciled myself to it being gone forever, and I was trying to come up with a plan for how I’d make up the lost time.
Meanwhile, as the train hurtled through the darkness, so was Cameron. Now Cameron and I have been friends for several years, and he gets the knitting thing. Minutes after getting my text, he headed back through the night to the pub and conducted a search, and as I walked up the street to my house, I got a text. It was this photo,
and the words “I got it.”
My joy was complete. Or, it will be when we have another meeting today and I collect it from him. Sunday was cold and crappy out, and that was a nice thing to do, if knitting had a knight in shining armour on Sunday, it was Cameron. (It has occurred to me that he only did it so he didn’t have to listen to me whinge about it at every future meeting for the next month or so until I got over it, but I prefer to think of it the other way, even if it was self defence.)
Being without that knitting for a few days payed off though, in an almost (but for the buttons) finished baby sweater. I’ll show you tomorrow. I’m going to go collect my knitting, have our three meetings for today, and buy that man a beer.
(PS. He’s asked me to teach him to knit.)
(PPS. Today is Giving Tuesday, and it falls this year on World AIDS day. That means it’s pretty much a perfect day to make a little donation to the Rally, if you were so inclined. My page for this year is here, and just because I’m fond of him today, Cameron’s is here.)