Eulogy for a Green Needle
Alas, my beloved No. 5 Green Aluminum Flea Market Needle has been widowed. Her mate was tragically lost on a Bronx-bound C train last night in a scramble to disembark at 59th Street when said train suddenly announced it was going express. I stuffed my lace edging hurriedly into my bag, which I did not zip closed, and by the time I transfered to the 1, the needle was gone. Not only does this make me peevish for the utilitarian reason that it’s my only pair of #5s and I wasn’t finished with the lace edging (fortune smiles upon me: the Denise circulars I’ve borrowed from Amanda for the Lotus Blossom Shawl are also #5s). It’s that these needles are such a beautiful shade of shiny green, like the under-canopy of a sunlit forest, and they’re probably older than I am, and I was so happy to find them at the flea market for a measley couple of bucks. That needle soldiered so faithfully through its one and only project, the lace-trimmed bolero (and it brought out the bronze highlights of the Chai silk so spectacularly), as it’s probably done for hundreds of other projects for other knitters before it came to me, and now it won’t get to knit anything else again. The best its poor mate can hope for is to be involved in a three-needle bind-off, and that, my friends, is a sad fate for such a useful needle. These babies were indestructible. I could have still been knitting with them sixty years from now. Look for me haunting the flea markets in search of…well, I may need a little time before I can think of another pair of #5s as replacements.
Posted: September 16th, 2005 at 6:48 am
I once dropped a ball of yarn on a train, and there was a very long trail dangling from my bag. Some very kind soul grabbed the ball and ran after me so that I didn’t loose my yarn. Since then, no matter what, I do a knitting inventory before I leave the train.
Posted: September 16th, 2005 at 8:44 am
ah, the sad sad tale of an orphaned knitting needle. now all you need is a wicked stepmother and a fairy prince to seal the deal 😉
Posted: September 16th, 2005 at 10:46 am
Dear needle protector and forlorn widowed needle:
As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so life well used brings happy death.
Leonardo da Vinci (1452 – 1519)
RIP, dear needle
Posted: September 17th, 2005 at 6:22 pm
sob
Posted: September 18th, 2005 at 12:26 am
i am sending my condolences….may your needle find a one armed knitter who will love it equally as much.