Fresh Air

It was knitting tonight. 

As always, we gather at the cafe.  We order our lattes and our dinners and/or desserts.  We all sit in the same place every week.  We chat about who’s working on what and who’s been up to what.  It’s pretty much the same every time.  I always look forward to seeing what every one has been up to and what every one is working on.  Sometimes, we share patterns and ideas.  It’s a nice group and we all get along very well.

Often times, people come into the cafe and wander around wondering what we’re knitting/crocheting.  It’s cute sometimes.  People shout out orders as they walk by and we all smile and laugh (but never take them seriously). 

Tonight I met the most lovely and enchanting woman.  Her name is Norma Peachey.  Even her name is lovely! 

She came into the cafe and I’m sure we all though that she was another one of the passers-by wondering what we were up to.  But, she stopped.  She started telling us about her love of wool.  I think she even used the word “wool-aholic”.  I got her a chair and she ordered a drink with foam on top and she told us about herself. 

She was born in “the time of the war” in England.  Her and her husband moved to Canada in the early eighties.  They live in a stone farm house and her son runs “Peachey Apiaries” (I had to look that one up – it means a group of beehives) – pure natural honey.  Mrs. Peachey (how cute is that?) lost her husband some time ago (I wonder if he was as lovely as she is) and she ran the Bed & Breakfast called “Winook Farm” for a time until she had to stop as she got older and the work became too strenuous. 

She told a story about going to the yarn shop down the road when she was a little girl and only being able to purchase one skein of wool at one time; how she would go home and knit up that skein and return to the shop to pick up another. 

When she and her husband moved to Canada, more specifically to the small village of St. Andrews West about 110 kilometres from the capital of Ottawa, they purchased a farm.  They had sheep!  (How cool is that?)  Mrs. Peachey spun and weaved and knit. 

She came tonight to sell us the remainder of her wool because she doesn’t knit, spin or weave anymore.

The moment she started to speak, I was instantly drawn to her.  I couldn’t stop asking her questions.  I want to know her.  Plus, she kept calling me “Love”, which made me smile from the inside out.

I’m going to go visit her.  I really hope I have the opportunity to get to know her.  But, even if I only see her at circle, I’ll be happy because her presence alone (as she may not knit) is like a breath of fresh air.  I wanted to take her picture so you could see how sweet, yet spunky she seems.  I thought it might be a little intimidating on her first visit.

In the meantime, I started my Wurm last night.  It was a bit small so I ripped it back and will start over with the medium… maybe after Christmas.  I just realized that there are too many things to do before Christmas and that I should probably get a move on.  When did it get so…. NOVEMBER!

Someday… I won’t have to work so much and I’ll have time to knit.  I might even be able to make time for learning to spin and weave.  What if I even had time to design and write. 

…. In a perfect world….