The most amazing miracle started off our hike near Mt. Ranier yesterday. My husband was loading up his big serious backpack with food and drinks for all eight walkers in our party and when he opened up a small top pocket, he said, "Oh, look," and held a lavender wad of fabric out to me.
It was the lovely silk scarf he'd given me once and, lo! my Veyla mitts. I had made them from a beautiful Ysolda Teague pattern, in a soft heathered alpaca yarn, with abalone shell buttons that I had bought on our honeymoon more than ten years ago.
They had disappeared three years ago, two household moves ago(!), and I had just recently given up hope of ever finding them. I must have left them on a store counter or on a bus or not checked the pockets of a coat before giving it away, I figured. I didn't even know which continent they were on.
I was pretty sad. I mean, to lose a handknit is always horrible. But I could have knit another pair. I might have even liked the second pair better. But there was no going back in time ten years and buying another set of honeymoon buttons. (Buttons just like them, sure, but you understand the irreplaceable sentimentality.)
So it's an absolute joy to have these things back in my life. Funny to think of them hiding out in that top pocket all this time, too, ever since our last trip to Schneeberg, outside Vienna. I still remember the fluffy sweet buns stuffed with plum jam!
And the hike we took yesterday was pretty spectacular, too, even if we were swatting mosquitoes all the time.
