"Everything happens for a reason"

I used think that was just a pithy saying offered up as a bone to people in unfortunate situations like if you don't get that job, you break up with someone, or when the shoes you want are no longer available in your size.

But I'm starting to think perhaps the saying is onto something...

There was a time when I was in a relationship that wasn't as amazing as the one I'm in now.  To make matters worse, the relationship came with what my current favorite comedy would call a "bastard devil dug".  One day, this evil dog somehow got to my knitting and wreaked havoc to my sock knitting needles.  I thought I was able to revive the situation, but I never did use them again. It just had too many bad memories attached to them.  I know only knitters would understand.

Let's move a little forward in our timeline.  I merrily attend Stitches West for the first time and I acquired some beautiful skeins of Claudia's Handpainted sock yarn in a bewitching color called Sante Fe. Now, the skeins were not marked with dye lots so I had to take a best guess under fluorescent lights and the additional watchful eye of Kris to find two skeins that were the same.  Unfortunately, skeined up skeins are deceptive and when I finally tried making socks with the yarn, I was horrified to discover that they were NOT twins, but merely quarreling siblings:

Despite being blurry, the colors do not lie.  They were both named Sante Fe but they cannot agree on what Sante Fe means.

Heartbroken again!

Let's swiftly move forward again.  Recent readers may recall my attempt at making socks for current fab boyfriend's sister's birthday (did ya get that?).  You may further recall that my first attempt didn't work out, which was again, unfortunate, as the maroon Lisa Souza really is lovely but it just didn't want to be socks!

Ok if you've endulged me enough to read this far, you're probably itching to know what the hell my point is.

Well my friends, my point is that everything does happen for a reason.  Unfortunate situations can turn around if you just let them bide their time and wait for a moment to shine:

That is Domesticat's Chevron scarf pattern.  Those needles are two of the sock needles that escaped from the devil dug.  The bolts of color are from the darker skein of the mismatched skeins.  The maroon motif coursing through is the sock yarn that would not be a sock.

Kismet.

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Thank you so much for the comments on the Not So Cropped sweater! Totally overwhelmed.  I wore it for the first time today and NO ONE at work said anything.  But you know what, for a handknit sweater, I think that's a pretty darned good sign.