SAS CAREY

During Covid, I was isolated. I didn’t see anyone or leave my property. My future publisher came to meet me and, while talking about my memoir, asked me why I chose to live alone. I told him I was busy. Then my daughter and a close friend in California, who called each day, suggested that I set up a profile on Match.com. It took some convincing, but I agreed. For interests, I wrote, “I knit, run a non-profit, make documentaries, and read.”

I showed this to my daughter. “Knit, Mom? You put that first?”

“I like to knit.”

“But, Mom, you are an internationally recognized filmmaker. You travel to Mongolia. You do all kinds of cool things”.

“Knitting is cool,” I answered.

“Really, Mom? You do so many things more exciting than knitting.”

I changed the order of my interests.

When I found Lee’s profile, I wrote to him. Not only did Lee and I grow up in the same area and graduate from the same college, but his background was varied like mine. He had experience running a non-profit, had traveled, and designed and built houses. He didn’t answer my first email. I wrote a second email. Finally, he responded. I was impressed that he wrote clearly with a sense of humor and mentioned that he always enjoyed my columns. It was then that I realized he probably already knew about my knitting since I had written a column about it a few years before.

One of the stories he told me soon after we met was about his mother and father meeting. His mother was a knitter. When they met, she immediately knit a pair of socks to give him on their second date. This story was part of the mythology of his family. It delighted me.

The first time we took a trip in his truck, he drove to the Northeast Kingdom to check on some lumber. I knit during the whole trip. He kept glancing over. I didn’t know then, but he doesn’t like talking while driving. I am a Quaker. I know how to be quiet, especially when I am getting something done, like knitting a baby hat. At the end of the trip, he said it was great that I was knitting. He felt like he didn’t have to entertain me. After living alone for twenty-two years, I don’t need to be entertained.

Two years ago, for Christmas, I knit him socks. I hadn’t made socks in a couple of decades and the yarn and needles were smaller than I was used to, but I did it. He teared up when he got the present, remembering his mother making socks for his dad.

Recently, I decided to make myself a hat. I chose my favorite turquoise color with purple accents to match my winter jacket and winter coat. After twelve years of making hats for others, I was having fun creating a hat for myself. Lee kept checking on my progress, saying he liked the color and the pattern. “Will you make balls on top like the baby hats?”

I was deciding how I would finish it as I watched the colors come together. As soon as I finished the hat, I modeled it for Lee. The corkscrew fringe at the top of the hat tickled him. He lit up and laughed, so I think I will make one for him.

Sas Carey has spent thirty years traveling to Mongolia to support and preserve traditional Mongolian nomadic culture through healthcare, films, and stories. Now at home in Middlebury, clients may schedule visits for energy work and guidance.