Knitting catastrophes usually involve, well, knitting.  I, however, had a knitting near-catastrophe while simple picking up a knitting bag.  

I picked up a knitting bag and, in doing so, knocked over another knitting bag spilling the contents of the second bag and shooting one of my (very expensive!) Signature needles down the heat vent.  I did not actually see it go, but I heard the metallic clatter and realized that since it was nowhere in sight it must be out of sight — down the hole into the abyss and gone forever!

Well, hope springs eternal, does it not? Especially in matters related to knitting.  So, although I had already mentally consigned the needle to the abyss, I carefully lifted the grate — and to my astonishment, there was the needle!  It was wedged across the vent hole! Not lost forever down in the abyss!  I delicately plucked it from the brink of doom, said a prayer of thanks, and settled it back in the second knitting bag with its project.

Catastrophe averted.

Coincidently, the following day we were scheduled to have our heat pump serviced.  And that morning, I thought, "gee, if I hadn't been able to rescue my needle maybe the heat pump guy could have gotten it out of the vent."  Which made me suddenly visualize the vent system which runs under our one-story house.  A  system of tubes lying directly under the floorboards, of course — and so had my needle not fortuitously wedged across the vent hole, it would have tumbled all of 18 inches and just laid there.  Within reasonable reach — even if one is not a heat pump guy

What fascinates me about this whole story is that somehow I have been holding two distinctly different conceptions of our heat vent system in my brain — without realizing it — for decades!  One the accurate understanding of vent tubing attached horizontally to the sub-floor structure (look at me tossing around carpentry terms!) and the other a childhood fantasy of subterranean tunnels steeply slanted and reaching fathoms deep — probably to the fiery center of the earth from which comes our household heat!

All those heart-clenching moments when something of value almost fell down the heat vent…All those stern warnings to the children not to let things fall down the heat vent….All while envisioning the vertical tunnels, the fiery abyss!  And that sweet moment of deliverance when I found my knitting needle perched, precarious, but safe….

Well, catastrophe averted.