Nina threw herself a birthday party and invited her friends. She told me to bring my knitting so she could work on hers. So I did.
I pulled mine out first, a white lace cowl in Malabrigo Rios at about the 2/3 mark, and then she showed off her much more elaborate project. Gorgeous. Another friend there was also a knitter. And one said with some regret that it had skipped a generation and she didn’t–but she took a picture of what I was working on to send to her (daughter I think? It was loud in there) because she so admired it.
Turns out she was the woman who had translated all those letters Nina had found in her mother’s closet that had been sent back and forth between relatives in concentration camps during the Holocaust.
Pattern repeat #12, done. (Checking the time) it really needs at least one more after that, all I can hope for is she doesn’t leave early. She and someone else got quite into a conversation–good, good, keep talking, guys.
Repeat #13 got done. That’s shorter than I normally prefer but it was just long enough to look okay to my eyes. I cast off.
Sitting next to me looking the other way as they talked, she didn’t notice at all.
I retrieved my purse, where there’s always a yarn needle in the change pocket of the wallet. I sat down on the floor in the kitchen where I knew her view of me would be blocked and wove those ends in. I should have some folding scissors in there somewhere… No sign of them. I asked Nina. She got hers and snipped those two little umbilical cords to its beginnings off and the thing was born.
The interpreter of those letters was dumbfounded. And ecstatic.
I explained that its nubbly texture would disappear and the lace lie flat and stretch out the moment it touched water, it’s the nature of the thing.
Totally fine by her, and she put it on and hugged me.
She took it off again to stroke the softness of the Rios.
And at last she did leave a little early, like I’d had a feeling she might.
I was a little wistful that I didn’t have one to give to any of the other friends but they all said that for all those hours she’d put into doing that great gift for our Nina and her family she had earned every stitch of it. And she had.
Nina said as we were leaving, That was the right person for that. That was perfect.
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Stealth gifts are the best 🙂 Unexpected and well deserved by the recipient. There’s a lot of joy in giving like that. Thanks for sharing!
Comment by Anne 01.18.25 @ 11:21 pmWonderful! An extra special party.
Comment by DebbieR 01.19.25 @ 8:03 amLeave a comment
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