Totally floored
Wednesday January 03rd 2007, 12:55 pm
Filed under: Knit

I learned so much when I lost my ring. I’d quit wearing my original wedding ring when I’d been in critical condition and on megadoses of steroids and it absolutely didn’t fit, and I never got back in the habit. The blood diamond thing had bothered me ever since I learned about it a few years ago; the idea of wearing something that would contribute to the societal pressure to wear a diamond to declare you’re married… When, to me, the ring my grandfather had watched being made for my grandmother on an Indian reservation, something like 80 years ago, held a stone that was symbol enough to me of their love. So. I wore my simple silver band with the four small turquoise stones, one for each of my children, and that was fine with my husband.

Till it disappeared one cold day when my hands got too thin, the day after Thanksgiving. I always wondered if it went down the sink and clogged the plumbing at my husband’s boss’s house, and if he was just too nice to say so.

I looked around, and Richard got me a new turquoise ring, but meantime, I learned:

That the major American turquoise mines got tapped out in the big Native American jewelry fad of my growing up years. That, and, the way they mine gold these days has changed, so that instead of revealing turquoise veins as a secondary part of the process, the stuff is crushed and lost instead. (What a waste.) The better American stones now are often still produced by the old-fashioned pick and shovel it out method (with maybe a compressor helping). Hard work.

That turquoise rarely has crystals, so it can be fairly fragile.

That turquoise can change and turn greener over time if it’s exposed to a lot of lotions and chemicals and various things which people tend to come in contact with. (I like green, so I kind of shrug at that one.)

That a lot of turquoise these days is stabilized so as not to change color and to be stronger, but those stones, although shinier, are less valuable, being less natural.

I learned about a few individual Navajo and Zuni artists and to see their work online. I actually bought a few more pieces, which is the first time I can think of in all my married life that I’ve gone out and bought jewelry; I’m not a big jewelry person. But I loved their work, I wanted to honor the artists, and, frankly, I was horrified at how little they were getting for it these days. Maybe that’s partly from my experiences as a knitter–like the woman who demanded that I make her a handspun handknit angora shawl for her just like mine, and that she was going to pay me: twenty-five dollars. That’s a lot of money, you know! She said it in a tone to make clear I should be grateful for the opportunity. I offered to teach her to knit, by way of shrugging her off nicely. She, clueless, demanded to know when hers would be done by. (Excuse me?) I just laughed it off, while quite mindful that I live in a time and place where, financially, shrugging her off was an option available to me.

This morning, five minutes before leaving to take my parents to the airport to fly home, I happened to glance at something shiny down at the piano bench’s leg. I had vacuumed there umpteen times. It must have fallen right at the leg, and gotten bumped back out into view when my son Richard moved the bench one of the times he played the piano recently.

The stones a light turquoise and not shiny, although the silver is. Perfect.

Lookee there.


9 Comments so far
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You found it?! That’s fantastic!

Comment by Michelle 01.03.07 @ 4:11 pm

I did! I did!!

Comment by AlisonH 01.03.07 @ 4:58 pm

Hooray! What a blessing!

I was at the Rug Hut today when Karen agreed to her new premises. Stop in for more details. She says there is to be a big sale this weekend! Watch her web site.

And again: Hooray for your ring!

Comment by Lilly 01.03.07 @ 5:59 pm

Oh good! Did she get the place down Winchester near Summer Winds? I still have a house guest, I don’t think I can get out there before next week.

Comment by AlisonH 01.03.07 @ 7:36 pm

Alison,

What a wonderful story. Thanks for sharing. Hope 2007 continues to be as wonderful.

Vera.

Comment by Anonymous 01.03.07 @ 9:56 pm

Wow how absolutely fabulous to think it was right there all along just waiting to be found and find its way back to your ring finger where it belongs.
good karma.
good start for the new year 2007
it sets the pace for good things to come for a good year, a healthy year, a happy year.
Ronni

Comment by knittingdiva1 01.04.07 @ 12:26 am

Yippee! Hooray! I wonder what adventures it had before it came back to rest under your piano bench! Don’t you wish it could tell you?

Comment by Kristine 01.04.07 @ 2:16 am

I’mn so glad you found it! You deserve it. 🙂

Comment by Joni 01.04.07 @ 5:07 am

how wonderful that you found the ring so close to home!

Comment by Mary Anne 01.05.07 @ 1:45 pm



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