Random Act of Knitting

Hoping the intended recipient would not think I was out of my mind, or stalking him, or God only knows what other sort of weirdness I might be capable of, I mailed this hat on February 25th.

The yarn is a gorgeous, hand-dyed superwash merino from String Theory in Blue Hill, Maine. The colorway is called "Cedar," and it was an absolute pleasure to knit with.
The pattern is one I found on Ravelry: Windschief by Stephen West. I love the swath of diagonal ribbing, because it makes me think of the way a fella's hair might blow back in the wind as he drives along with the car top down.
The evergreen colors called to mind a beautiful song by Grant Hart, "Evergreen Memorial Drive." The link will actually take you to a video of two songs, the first being "2541," which is also a nice song, but "Evergreen" is the one that kept running through my head while I worked on this.

I probably went on far too long in the letter I enclosed with the hat, and I had more than one "my God, what was I thinking" moment in the last couple of weeks. And then, on Friday, a letter!

"I knew before the box was opened that it contained a hat. It was on my head in 2 seconds, flat. I was in need of a spring hat...the textured section is very foxy indeed..."

His full response was somewhat longer than that, and I will treasure it always, along with his music.

And I have the joy of knowing I was able to give a small comfort to yet another musician who has given me so much over the course of many years.

Socks for Larry Kirwan.

A hat for Grant Hart.

Larry is due for another pair of socks. It has been about a year since the last pair. Oops! I'd better get cracking on that sometime soon.

And see if I can get Grant to tell me how big his feet are...