So, the wool cable hat I am knitting for my Dad is nearly
done.  (Huzzah!)  Cables eat up a lot of time – and a lot of
yarn (I will have to ravel the swatch to finish it!).  But it has all been worth it – the hat is gorgeous
(at least, I think so!).  And nearly
done.

The interesting thing about this project is the number of
“incidents” that have occurred in its making. 
Numbers going awry, for example. 
Ribbing-to-cable-column issues that sort of sprang up out of nowhere.  Cables twisting the wrong way (and requiring
“surgery”).  More little mistakes than I
usually ever make.  For most of one
evening, Sarah and I both firmly believed that 5+7=13!  Really. 
And it was like I would suddenly
see something wrong – the number, the ribbing, the cable – like it just sort of
happened.

I am a better knitter than that!  Pretty careful and
double-checking-all-the-time-ish.  And
yet these errors would just appear.  Oh,
I fixed everything, but it has been maddening. 
At one point, I thought “This hat does not want to be finished!”  But now I have a different theory.

I think the spirit of my Grandpa is hanging out and playing
around. 

It sounds like eccentricity gone a bit deep, but it just came to me the
other day.  See, the hat is for my Dad
who has been recovering from a terribly serious bout of pneumonia that he
suffered last spring.  And surely Grandpa
has been watching over him.  Now, Grandpa
was a clever man who enjoyed a bit of mischief. 
Dad is doing well now and maybe Grandpa has been sort of casting around
for entertainment.  And here was a nice
cabled hat to play with.

I have no hard-and-fast philosophies about spirits in our
world, but I know Grandpa!