Oblivious

When I was still married, we had a joke that, while some people marry into money, Dan married into knitting.  There was never any shortage of fresh handknits appearing in the pipeline.  On my end, I would say that I married into planning.  I am not sure but I suspect that some members of Dan's family enjoy the planning of various events more than the event itself.  Certainly the planning sessions around events often lasted longer than the event.  This is all fine because people should spend their time doing what they love!

It has been curious for me, however, to see how I fare without the back-up of eight master planners (Dan is from a large family).  I only make lists when things reach a fever pitch and even then, it is with reluctance.  There have been a few times when I realized that I was unprepared for something but, for the most part, things have a way of working out.  Mostly, I am cool with relying on that vague sense that things will continue to move forward whether or not I have a clue how it will all unfold.

So it came to pass that I organized and created a huge installation in South Dakota and it wasn't until I was packing up my stuff to drive out there that I realized that I was going to have to leave my spinning wheel there for several months.  Somehow I just never made the connection.  Throughout the planning and making of the project, I would glance over at my wheel, gathering dust, and think, "soon, baby, soon!"  After all the work was done, I would have no other commitments and I could hang out with my spinning wheel once again.  I never took the next step to realize that baby was on a one-way trip to South Dakota.  Well, at least temporarily.

My wheel is part of the SpinCycle room in the fun house and it is most definitely still in South Dakota as I type this.  I had a little (large) moment of panic - my mind racing to come up with solutions.  Spindle spinning just wasn't going to cut it (sorry).  I actually contemplated buying another wheel although I really didn't want to because (1) they cost a fortune and (2) they take up space.

Yeah, yeah, I know.  First world problems.  I get it!  Still the anxiety of a spinning wheel-less existence was feeling pretty real to me.  The day after I returned, I was bemoaning my fate to a friend who said, "can you rent one?"  Whaa?

One Facebook post and two hours later and I had my rental wheel!

Thank you, Helen!  This wheel was gathering dust over at her house so now it is happily doing what wheels want to do, which is spin.  Payment shall be in yarn, which also works out perfectly because it allows me to do what I want to do, which is spin (and it allows Helen to do what she wants to do, which is knit).

Sometimes the stars align and a complete lack of planning results in just the right thing.