Memory knitting, and a special surprise

So, we've been packing and unpacking and moving and re-moving things to try and consolidate two houses into one, and of course "for now" my yarn bins are in a closet and my needles are in the other house and my current scarf is not giving me any joy. Total knit aggravation. Tried to take the edge off by playing computer games instead as we got the computer room somewhat functional, but not working. Damn.

Then Peter says, "There's a set of double-points in the living room". And I think, and before saying something snarky about how that does me nae good without yarn (DUH!), I remember there's also a half-knit Christmas dishcloth on the needles in the living room. Peter's mom had started and restarted it a number of times before she settled on a pattern she liked (stockinette with a garter stitch border), and it's a little less than half done. So I grabbed it, and started knitting. And I felt really connected with her, and the crazy thing is, our gauge is almost identical - you can't really tell where she left off and I began.

So I'm going to finish it, a couple of rows here and there between moving stuff, and that's going to be one unbreakable connection to her. I won't wash any dishes with it, but it might go under one of her Christmas knickknacks on a table. It's certainly pretty enough.

Now, before this happened, yesterday we went to the funeral home to make arrangements for Peter's mom. And I was pretty upset afterwards, and we came home and I said, we should pick up the mail. And there was my gift-swap gift, an utterly stunning shawl from Alison Hyde! I was, as the ladies say, "gobsmacked." My thanks to her, and her further stunning story of how I came to receive that shawl, are all in a post in KnitTalk, which you can find here.

Quite a day. And now, unfortunately, break time is over and I have to go move more stuff. But Peter's on his way home with a Starbucks mocha for me (Double-tall hazelnut soy no whip mocha - I had to write him a note!), and then we'll have some lunch before moving on to the next thing. We're getting there. Tonight we have good friends coming over (and bringing our favourite pizza, god bless them!), for a quiet relaxed evening before the big move tomorrow - and thanks again, we have a number of willing strong bodies to help us with that, so it should go pretty smoothly.

Oh, one more thing - thanks to everyone who's sent supportive emails and "comment hugs" - they really do mean the world to me and Peter. This whole experience has been so overwhelming, but equally overwhelming is the love that's come out of it. We are blessed.