It’s cold and dark at nights now. This means I am back to knitting during the cosy evening hours. William’s afghan, predicted to take the three weeks of the Winter Olympics, has taken thirty seven weeks and counting, BUT I am closing in on the project. Really. I am down to the last side of knitted edging. I would show you how close I am, but this would take the surprise out of the amazing moment of triumph photo in which you see William wrapped in the finished product, a photo I will be taking really soon. Really.

As this afghan project draws to a close, thoughts drift to the next project. For some bizarre reason, I am drawn to doing another afghan. Usually I am so sick of afghans when I finish one that the very word afghan makes me shudder. I need to knit a veritable flock of socks to recover.

But this time, an afghan pattern in a book called Mason Dixon Knitting keeps calling. The pattern is called Curve of Pursuit and was created by a mathematician in England. Way back when I first saw an example of the afghan in the book, I emailed the address given in Mason Dixon Knitting to start the process of buying the pattern. Then I waited with baited breath. And waited. Then I emailed again. And again. Then waited. And waited. My pursuit of Curve of Pursuit did not go well.

So, I gave up for awhile. I know what can happen when you get mentioned in a book or magazine that people are reading. You can get REALLY BUSY! At one point, a mention of one of our Flower Essences by a specific healer more than doubled our volume of orders overnight. I have been told by an MBA toting cousin that more companies fail because of too rapid growth than for any other reason. I remember to say this fun fact a lot during negotiations with the Angels about growth. Oh the Angels! They probably recognize me by the way my heels are dug into the ground so I as to slow things down. For many years we doubled in size every year. I am happy with the more moderate growth of the last few years. I enjoy this more moderate size growth because it allows us to do every order with love and makes it possible for me to bring on new people to work here in a more orderly fashion than say, that year of the famous overnight bump when we made nine year old Will pack orders when he got home from grade school. Here’s some milk and cookies and that pile of invoices is yours!

Anyways, back to Curve of Pursuit. Yesterday it occurred to me that I could google this pattern and when I did, I found myself on eBay where I was promised I could Buy It Now! I have been avoiding eBay for a couple of years, mostly because I couldn’t remember my user ID or password. Also there was the eBay cautionary tale of Kevin Ramos-Glew getting caught up in someone else’s snowblower scam, an experience in which he found himself listed as the purveyor of six snowblowers for sale with all payments sent to the scam artist. Then there was my brother in law’s eBay adventure with the nonexistent Kubota tractor he almost bought from someone in Bulgaria. Anyways, there seemed some sensible reasons to remain the only American not shopping on eBay, but in the face of my growing obsession to get this pattern, I was suddenly willing to jump through all the eBay hoops to find out what my user ID was and reset my password. This proved a lively little pre dawn half hour in which I sprinted back and forth between this computer where I had started the whole eBay re-entry process and another room of the building where I had to go to pick up all the cryptic email that eBay sent me to move along this re-entry process.

Having been prompted by eBay to remember who I was, I was ready to Buy It Now! But sadly, eBay both send me a heart message of congratulations that I had purchased this pattern on eBay and my life would be forfeit if I didn’t stand by my obligation to pay for this product while simultaneously telling me that because I had not filled in the shipping and handling fee with what was owed in pounds sterling, I could not proceed to Pay Pal to pay and therefore could not receive my pattern. I did not know how much shipping in pounds sterling it was going to cost to send me this slim life giving pattern, but it was a moot point, because for the life of me, I could not figure out how to get back to my mid process transaction.

Suffering this agony of defeat, I sent the English mathematician a note via eBay email telling of my heroic but unsuccessful efforts to buy the pattern. Miracle of miracles, I received, the next day, an email from the mathematician himself who reported also having trouble with Pay Pal. We agreed that I would send a check by mail for the pattern and he would send the pattern.

So, my pursuit of Curve of Pursuit may or may not be drawing to a close, but Will’s afghan will be done this weekend. Really. I am certain I will finish it this weekend. Certain. As Will would say “Famous Last Words”, probably while giving me tips on packing an order. He really set a high standard for the rest of us!