Serendipity

I love that word, don't you?

Yesterday, I listened to Brenda Dayne's most recent episode of 'Cast On', entitled "Heads Up", and spoke about working hard to make herself finish knitting the Modern Quilt Wrap, designed by Mags Kandis. She described it as a project that she was finding hard to get back into, until she took it with her to complete on train trips to and from Cardiff one day. Then, she says, she got her 'knitting mojo back', and found it just flying off the needles.

She went on from there to discuss planning a journey somewhere not too far away, but somewhere you'd always wanted to go but had never got around to. Take public transport (let someone else do the driving), pack a lunch, and bring a specific project for the journey. Luverly.

Back to today. Not that this journey was specifically planned for my knitting, but I happen to find the coincidence, the parallels between Brenda's story and my day to be quite serendipitous.

I spent today at one of the major hospitals in Sydney, (I'm fine, no need to worry!) keeping Pete company as he had to have a biopsy today (again, no need to panic - quite a routine procedure) and this is an all day event. First, we are up at 4.00AM in order to get to Sydney in time for Pete to have blood tests first thing in the morning, then a spot of breakfast before an ultrasound and biopsy.

Then comes the fun part. The poor bugger then has to lie flat on his back for four hours, with a heavy sandbag weight on the biopsy site to prevent any bleeding. It's not much fun for Pete, and I hope my being there was at most, helpful and at least, not too irritating.

I used this opportunity to make a real go on the Hearts and Stars baby blanket for my good friend Ali. I have to say, I was terribly proud of my progress - eighteen rows done in one day! That might not sound like much, but for me when there's a pattern of knit, purl and moss stitches to keep track of and the rows are reasonably long (for me, anyway!), that feels like a bit of an achievement.

Such was my project for the journey. It shook it up a bit for me, gave me some great progress and inspiration (read: kick up the bum) to really really push to the end. I can't wait to see it blocked.

Plus, it won't be long before I'll be giving it to Ali and a very special little girl.

Baby Ava Rose was born in the early hours of this morning. How's that for serendipity?