Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Two Good Things

Thing One

I set about knitting the Glencora Shawl on the train yesterday morning and dropped one of my point protectors. It's of the rubber, bullet-shaped variety. When it hit the floor of the car, it bounced and rolled. I sighed and gave it up for lost.

Then a man sitting nearby, a man I would place with utmost confidence in the "straight" category, leapt out of his seat, got down in the aisle, and then presented me with the protector, which he had gallantly saved from oblivion. "I figured you must need this," he said. "You looked pretty upset when you dropped it."

"Thank you so much," I said, and meant it. Without that protector, I would likely have lost a dozen or more lace stitches on the way to the office.

"No trouble," he said. "Just being neighborly. Whatever that is you're making, it looks pretty cool."

Miss Van Hoofen, please file this one under "Hope for Humanity."

Thing Two

Today is the blessed anniversary of the birth of a friend and hero. Blogger, knitter, spinner, quilter, underwear model, all around mensch.

I'm a fan of occasional verse, so I have composed the following haiku in honor of the day:
See the queer man knit.
Swift needles go clickety.
And check out those buns!
Dolores will be by with the cake later on. She may possibly be inside it.

18 comments:

Sally said...

Dolores in a cake? The mind boggles! What great luck with the point protector, chivalry is not dead! Happy Birthday Joe!!

Susan said...

The guy on the train sounds like dad. He'd look out for other people's crafty projects even if he didn't understand them, and he is good at being neighborly.

Happy birthday to QJ! I'd go over to his blog, but my obnoxious school web server sometimes blocks the site 'cause it has 'queer' in the title! Of course, I can read Marilyn's blog even with the F-bomb flying around all over the place (and images of icky wounds). Go figure. All in the name of keeping the students safe, eh? Stupid. Anyhow, the birthday wishes are no less heart-felt when delivered via your comments. Hope you don't mind.

City Wiccan said...

Awww! The story of the man made my heart flutter! How sweet! I love stories like this.

Anonymous said...

Hmmmmm . . . Dolores covered with frosting. It's a sure bet she'll be asking you to lick it off. After all, you do OWE her.

Nice story about the point protector. I once dropped my pocket protector, and no one offered assistance. Oh, well.

T in SP

Anonymous said...

Oh, that Haiku is fantabulous. Someday, when I have a special day, may I ask you to compose one for me?

dpaste said...

Mmmmmm, shepherd's pie.

Unknown said...

That verse brought a tear to my eye. Thank you.

I can't express how great it is that I played some small part in encouraging your work on this blog. It seems you were born to it.

Alice Few said...

I just caught up on Cast-On and loved what you did for the show! I would love to see 'the sweater' and the chart for the yoke...what a riot.

Can't wait to hear you again.

Alice
Astronomy a Go Go! podcast
astronomy.libsyn.com

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday to Joe, and the haiku is terrific! And congrats on the spinning wheel - it's beautiful! And kudos to the man on the train - there are good people out there when we least expect it!

pacalaga said...

Awww, see, straight guys aren't all bad! ;-)
Tell Dolores to keep her fleece out of the cake - she knows how hard it is to detangle.

Lyssa said...

I just wanted to say that I finally had time to listen to your episode of Cast On, and it was great! Your blog has become one of my favorites to read lately. Good luck with the spinning.

goblinbox said...

Straight boys aren't all rude idiots.

Oh, wait, did I just say that?

*giggle*

the fiddlin' fool said...

You never know... maybe he is a knitter in the larval stage...

badmommy said...

Hi Franklin -

I've become a reader of your blog via Cast-On - thank you so much for your wonderful work.

Love your bus story - I knit regularly during my commute (as well as pretty much anywhere else I can get away with it) and am still pleasantly surprised by some of the people who are interested in and/or knowledgeable about knitting. Great way to meet people.

Sue

Anonymous said...

While knitting on a crowded bus recently, I dropped a cable needle (a metal one - very noisy) which rolled under the seat behind me. It was quickly returned to me, but not without several people having to calmly shuffle out of the way of my gallant person.

In a couple of years of knitting on rush hour buses, only one person has ever commented to me. Sydney (Australia) commuters are so unflappable that I suspect someone could travel naked and barely raise eyebrows.

Leslie said...

Thinking of Dolores in a cake leads to this picture: 5 tiers, fluffy white frosting with small glittering sprinkles shaped like turquoise harlequin glasses. For Joe there would be crossed DPN's on top. You'd know it contained Dolores by the air hole in the back with ciggy ashes, smoke and VanHalen pouring forth.

Anonymous said...

I just wanted to say that I love love love that you're calling the shawl Glencora. Lady Glen is such a sweetie, in her own slightly daft but utterly glorious way.

I lost a ball of yarn on the bus last Friday. It leapt off my lap and rolled two seats down. It was quite the scene getting the people sitting in front of me to please, please look for it.

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