Revealing

Stumbling out of the house this morning in the darkness brought about by the advent of Daylight Savings Time and the fact that it is really an hour earlier than I am supposed to be up and functioning, I had me a little epiphany. Early morning epiphanies don't always work out. It's early and I don't always catch them. But, they come when they come so a Sheep has to adjust.

This morning I learned that I may not be as crusty and hard-boiled as I thought. I might actually be a little on the mushy side.

The clerk who sells me my coffee, gasoline and breakfast-on-the-fly practically every morning at the little convenience store down the street has decided that it is time for a change in our relationship. She would like us to be on a first-name basis. It only makes sense really...I see her as much as I see anybody else in my life and she is far nicer to me than most people are at 6:30 in the morning. But, for years now, she has called me "dear," "hon" or "sweetie." There was one time where she went to a rather scary place and called me "honey bunny." I'm not normally one for the overuse of endearments, particularly those that come from the people behind the counter.

But she is really quite good at it. She has the knack. She can pull it off. And I sort of like it when she makes with the gushy talk. Sure, she probably does it to everyone. It's not like I'm really her honey bunny or anything. But it was a nice touch so bright and early in the morning. Made a Sheep feel special. Today, though, she asked for my name and introduced herself. Now we are on a first name basis and I will not hear my morning mushiness.

I feel sort of odd knowing that this bothers me...

While you are sitting there digesting this disturbing piece of information and trying to decide whether or not to think less of me for my "endearment neediness," I'll give you a little something to look at. I mentioned yesterday that I was doing a test knit and was waiting for the pattern-mistress to give the go-ahead for posting the picture. She did, I did and here it be:

The Arched Bag With Zipper!

That's right...a zipper! I hand-sewed a zipper all by myself without any help from anybody and only one pin-related injury! This pattern came to me from Annie who is starting up her very own on-line store. I was thrilled to be able to test the pattern and am pleased to report that it is flawless. I took my time with this, knitting here and there whenever I had a minute and still finished it in a week. Real knitters could pull this off, complete with felting, in a weekend. I used Patons Classic Wool in merino and very little of it at that. It was really a pleasure to knit up and I'm just thrilled that Annie let me try this out. I don't just throw around the word, "clever" all willy nilly. But this pattern is just that: clever. Any time you can make your knitting bend, it's going to be a fun day.

That might even be better than being called "honey bunny" by convenience store clerks at 6:30 in the morning. In fact, I'm pretty sure that it is.

SA