Did you know God has a sense of humor? I’ve experienced it firsthand this past week and I’m still laughing.
It began on Thanksgiving Day. I had no plans on my days off except to work on crochet projects I’m trying to get done for Christmas. One was a Christmas stocking. Now you must understand, our family has matching stockings and I wanted to make one just like the others - you know, so they wouldn’t be mismatched or look different.
Problem #1: I couldn’t find the pattern I’d used on the others. It was a pattern I bought for a dime when I visited a craft fair back when I was in high school. It was typed (with a real typewriter) on a plain page, smudges, typos and all. I have had it so long and used it so often, certain lines are barely readable with all the creases, fading, etc. I really wanted to find that pattern.
Problem #2: the other project I wanted to work on required an H size crochet hook. H is a common size, used for a lot of projects, but I couldn’t find one. I checked my hook collection which should contain every hook size known to exist in multiple quantities (see photo), but no H. I checked again. I checked three times and four. No H. I checked the drawers containing craft things, I checked bags containing yarn for current projects. I even checked under chair cushions. Still no H.
So what was a girl to do? I had days off from work and couldn’t work on either of these projects. The only option was to tackle the mess in my storage room. Do you have a junk drawer that’s crammed full of stuff and anytime you lose something, that’s a good place to start looking? Well, I am embarrassed to admit it, but the honest truth is that not only do I have a junk drawer, I have an entire junk room. Oh sure, we call it the computer room or the sewing room or it’s even been referred to as the “study” a time or two. Now that’s a word from the past (or from one of Randon’s clue games). Anyway, this junk room surely held both my missing pattern and an H crochet hook, if I could only find them.
Early Friday morning I began pulling stuff out of the the junk room and didn’t stop until most of the room was bare. Yeah - that solved nothing except transferring the junk from one room to another. Now began the hard part. Going through it, getting rid of what I didn’t need and putting it all back in some semblance of order. This process took the better part of Friday and Saturday and still isn’t completely done. I actually found the stocking pattern. I am going to make about a gazillion copies of it and put them all in different places so I’ll be able to find it again whenever I want. I don’t dare put it in the logical place, with my crochet patterns. No. That’s too easy. I like to make things really hard.
I found all sorts of interesting things during this process including the left half of three one-dollar bills. I found them all in different places, stuck into random piles of other stuff. I can only presume this was one of Randon’s tricks, though I can’t imagine why he did this - but this is so Randon, it just makes me laugh out loud.
As you’ve probably guessed by now, I didn’t find an H crochet hook. It’s not like they cost a fortune, and my husband would certainly buy me one when he went back to town on Monday. And anyway, I could make the Christmas stocking now. So I did, on Saturday night, until I ran out of red yarn and had to order some more. Now what? There was still a Hallmark Christmas movie on TV and I needed to get this crocheting done. I picked up the pattern again for the project I wanted to start. Lo and behold, the size hook I needed was an I - NOT an H. I had several I’s. I started crocheting with my I hook thinking how God must be smiling. Not only had He answered my prayers to find my pattern and the hook I needed for my project, but He’d seen to it that I cleaned out that awful mess that needed to be done a long time ago and given me a little love-note from Randon in the form of 3 half-dollar-bills in the process. Yes, God definitely has a sense of humor, but He wasn’t done yet.
Fast forward to a week later. It is Saturday night, I’m happily working away on my crochet project with my I hook. I didn’t bother to buy the H yet because I put it on my Christmas list instead, figuring Santa could easily slip one or two of those into my stocking on Christmas Eve. Then, I get to the part in the pattern that says “Switch from the I hook to the H hook”. You know that thing we learned in school about always reading the directions clear through before you begin? Yeah, I didn’t do that. Now I had just lost a whole day of this weekend because I wouldn’t be able to work on my crochet project the next day. I’d have to ask The Hubs to buy me a hook on Monday and maybe I could get on with it Monday evening. Feeling sad, I laid down my crocheting and decided I might as well just go to bed. As I was getting ready for bed, I started thinking about all the places I’d looked for my H hook and didn’t find it. I was certain there was no place else I even knew to look.
Ever have one of those moments when something totally weird pops into your head and you have no idea where it came from? Well, I had one of those moments just then, except I’m pretty sure I know where it came from. “You didn’t look in the pencil cans.” Say what?
The pencil cans are actually three tall cups I kept on top of the little chest of drawers in the junk room. I had them there for the boys so they could always find a pencil when they needed to do their homework. My youngest son graduated from college a year ago, which tells you how long those cups have been there and also how long it’s been since anyone used them. Why would I look there for a crochet hook? Why would I even think about these cups in the first place? I was tempted to just go on to bed, but I have learned over the years that it’s not a good idea to ignore those random thoughts that seem illogical at the time. Anyway, what could it hurt to check?
I picked up the first cup. Crammed full of pencils with worn off erasers, desperately needing to be sharpened. Second cup - much the same with a few ink pens that no longer worked and a stray crayon or two. I’m thinking I really need to get rid of this stuff when I notice an old pompom saved from some long ago sporting event pep rally, also laying on top of the chest-of-drawers. “I should throw that thing away too,” I said to myself. I picked up the pompom and guess what I found?
No, not an H crochet hook, but the other half of two of the dollar bills! Randon must be laughing his head off watching me from heaven. I picked up the halves and compared them to the other halves I’d found last week. Yep - two perfect matches. I’m laughing to myself as I lay them on the kitchen table so Hubby can see in the morning and have a laugh as well. Off to bed now.
“But wait - what about the third cup of pencils?” The voice wasn’t audible, but it may as well have been. I went back to the room, picked up the third cup, and there among the eraserless, dull pencils and dried up ink pens was a bright red H crochet hook.
So, God is belly laughing right now and I’m laughing with Him - and Randon, as I crochet away with my H hook. And the other half-dollar still missing? I’ll bet you three bucks I find it someday!
