Treasures-in-Law

While we were celebrating Mini~Dee's 13th birthday last month, Fred, one of my brothers-in-law, called me over. "Dee," he said quietly, "I have something for you. I know you'll put this to good use." He handed me a metal pencil case which I recognized immediately. It was the pencil case I gave him to house a special crochet hook he had loaned to me so I could send it to PieceWork magazine to photograph for an article Gwen Blakley Kinsler had written.

I held my breath in anticipation of what would be inside. Slowly I opened it, and even more slowly removed the tissue paper. Dare I guess? What if my guess is wrong? Once the tissue paper revealed the gem inside I think it was at that point I screamed with joy. Did someone catch that on film? If so, it might be worth something if it's sent to America's Funniest Home Videos...

Yes! YES! YES!! It was indeed the very hook he had lent me back in 2007!! He acquired it at a flea market (or tag sale) with the hope his wife would take to crochet (she hasn't yet -- I'm still working on that! {{grins}} ). The first time he showed me this hook I snapped a picture with my cell phone and sent the snapshot to Nancy Nehring who is an expert on crochet hooks. She proclaimed the hook to be made of cow shinbone, and dates the hook to the period of 1860-1880: The American Civil War period! Fred was thrilled with his find! So was I.

And so it was, last month, that he handed me this beautiful hook, origin unknown, to keep forever and ever! I have the best brother-in-law!

Or so I thought!

Today, I received an email from Lindsey:

I was with my weekly knit and crochet group at B&N in Waterbury
tonight. This guy stops by and he talks to us and says "Yeah, my
sister-in-law is really in to this. She has this group ..." and I
recognize the HHCC name and ask "what's her name" and he says "Dee
Stanziano". So [Dee] I met your brother-in-law tonight!

That would be my brother-in-law Robert, walking up to complete strangers to help promote the art of crochet!

So I take that back about having the best brother-in-law. I need to change that to plural form: I HAVE THE BEST BROTHERS-IN-LAW -- EVER! :)