Open letter
Dear transit riders,
When you are on the bus or the subway, and you see a fellow passenger drop her or his mittens, the decent thing to do is to get that passenger's attention and point out the dropped mitts. Maybe you don't care about your mittens, maybe you regard mittens as disposable items and go through several pairs each season, and that's your prerogative. However, please don't assume that others feel the same way. The person who drops her mittens on the bus or the metro may have knit those mittens herself and regarded them as irreplaceable. She may have spent hours twisting their little cables and wrangling their little bobbles, and when she finds herself suddenly without those mitts at the end of her trip across town, she may feel sad. After all, neither the bus nor the metro was crowded, but she's pretty sure somebody must have noticed when she stood up and the mittens fell from her lap to the floor.
In closing, I do not mean to suggest that any given loss of mittens is your fault; each of us is responsible for our own seasonal accessories. But are we not also responsible to some degree for one another? We all get on the bus and keep to ourselves, but we watch and we see, and sometimes we can help. And let's not forget there are innocent victims in this situation: the mittens.
Yours in the spirit of community and public transport,
Alison
49 comments:
Oh I'm so sad for you! They were so beautiful! Do they have a lost and found depository?
That's so heart breaking :( I hope they have a lost & found. :(
So disheartening! Did you lose both?
Oh, the pain! I am sorry for your loss. Do you have enough yarn to knit a replacement mitten?
Oh no! So sad. It would be kind of people on the bus to tell other people when they drop things. I was on the bus today and a very nice man informed a girl that some change had fallen out of her bag.
Last year I lost a pair of mittens that my grandmother made for me (not on the bus) I felt awful. I also felt like perhaps even adults should have idiot strings for their mittens.
Aww, that sucks that you lost those mittens! They're gorgeous. And all the hard work you put into them. Maybe someone will find them. Maybe check with STCUM lost & found?
Total bummer. And I was just contemplating making those myself. I feel your pain.
Oh no! Not only beautiful, but practically brand new. . .
Elizabeth D
Hmmm, I would like to think I would say something if I saw them go astray, but they are so beautiful, my evil twin might have come out and snatched them up! No, I would have said something, I am sure!!!
Let us know when you are starting another pair and maybe we will follow along with you.
Kathy B.
Oh no!!!!! Maybe they'll turn up? That would be kind of Christmas miracle.
Sad day!!
Oh, that's just sad!
Yeesh! That really bites.
The good news? You can now make new mittens and add that half an inch that you wished for!
Yeah, sorry. That's probably not making you feel any better.
Ugh! I'm sorry you lost them. Reading this gave me an awful pang in my gut. They were beautiful.
I'm so sorry you lost your mittens! As soon as you said cables and bobbles I had a feeling those were the ones.
Oh, how awful! I feel your pain.
Aw! That's so sad. :(
I guess the upside is more knitting?
How tragic! It brings up painful memories:
http://unraveling.typepad.com/unraveling/2007/12/in-memorium.html
oh! sad mitten tragedy. I hope they have them in lost and found?
My condolences. I lost my very favorite scarf in Portland, and trolled Craig's list for weeks trying to be reunited.
So sorry you lost those beautiful mittens.
DH has been teasing me about putting I-cord between my mittens, as they do for a small child. The cord then runs across the shoulders and down the sleeves of the coat. You can take the mittens off your hands & let them hang if you wish. Today it doesn't sound as silly as I thought.
Oh no! I was going to type the same thing as Ingrid...now you have a chance to remake them and add the extra length you'd wanted!
Oh no!
I'm sure they were spied quickly by a mitten-lover and have been scooped up.
I feel your pain, as I have been struggling with the pattern myself - and I don't struggle easily!
I'm going to have to magic-loop them to get them to work!
Ouch! Maybe there is a place where these things are picked up and stored. I know there are a few places to go for things lost on Boston's transportation system depending on where the item was lost. It's worth checking for something in your area.
hooo dear ! your druid mittens ! I'm so sorry for you !
Maybe you made someone happy with them ? - someone who didn't see you loosing the mittens but came in the bus after -
that's total crapiness. crap! hopefully some bus driver drops them into the lost and found.
on a funny note, the word verification for this post is 'pstain' which made me giggle.
Dear Brainylady:
I fell asleep in your lap and slipped off when you stood up. No one noticed me until you were gone. Please don't be sad; a mittenless person picked me up and we offered each other comfort.
xo
the mittens.
I mourn the mittens with you. It's a horrible feeling, and I'm sorry they're gone. I hope by some miracle you get them back.
Oh, what a shame! What to do, what to do...
I most certainly agree that, for a few moments of encapsulated togetherness that is the bus riding, we are our brother's keeper. I would have notified you of their slipped moorings, without question.
Truly, contact the lost and found. Some kind hearted, knitterly person might have found them and turned them in, having recognized their pricelessness.
Oh dear, maybe if they are not turned into the transit lost and found they will end up as part of Karina Bergman's Lost Mitten Project. http://www.kaleidoscopeart.com/Mitten%20main%20page.html
People are truly idiots sometimes.
I almost lost my new colorwork mittens walking to the metro yesterday. I dropped one and didn't notice until I was almost at the station. Luckily I found it on my walk back to my car. There were at least 5 people behind me when I was walking and no one said a thing to me about dropping a mitten. I feel your pain!
Sorry - hope you find them.
-Jody
Mittens, RIP.
Next up on the needles...mittens?
Oh no! Last night, just a few hours after I read your post, my brand new Porom beret (BrooklynTweed's pattern) fell out of my pocket as I was racing to catch the subway. I seriously feel your pain.
Mittens are funny. It's 30C, sunny, with thunderstorms predicted for the afternoon here.
Oh that's so sad! :(
As I was reading this I started to think "Oh no not the pretty alpaca druid mittens oh no OH NO!". And then it was.
I lost a pair of mittens that were special to me once and I comforted myself with thinking that someone who really needed them had picked them up. It sucks though, because winter is long and has barely started. I second (third? fifth?) the motion to check the STCUM lost and found - you never know.
Oh, sorry, sorry, sorry! I feel your pain. Last December I lost a pair of mitts and a pair of gloves. Not on the bus but out of my own car, but the same way. The gloves I made sitting at my dad's hospital bedside.
Aw, I hate it when that happens!
I'm so sorry that you lost your mittens! I hope you get them back. I had a good experience today, I dropped my leather gloves in the mail and a nice lady let me know that I had dropped them. I was so happy that she had the kindness to tell me so, but sad thinking of the hours that you spent on your mitts not to have someone notice and tell you that you dropped yours. Good luck!
oh no! this is my worst nightmare when it comes to handknit items :( maybe you should get some clips! i'm thinking about getting some for myself.
There's nothing worse than lost mittens, unless it's a lost lace scarf (grr). I hope they are found!
How awful to lose that/those mitts. That's the trouble with knitting mitts they always seem to get lost; I've contemplated attaching the old string through the sleeve but my 13 year old daughter says that would be embarassing. I'd rather look a little dorky than loose a hand knit though.
I think someone kept your beautiful mittens for themselves. Or perhaps they found a home with someone who needs them more than you do.
Think of this as a gift to whoever found them. After all, most of what are knitted are gifted anyway. And it's not like you hate to knit mittens. The next pair you knit will be your best.
Are you serious? Those were nice mittens, but it wasn't really anybody's fault but your own. You made it across town and didn't notice you had chilly hands? Shit happens. Knit another pair.
Let's see that under another light... Your mittens found another house, with other loving hands cuddling in them.
It is sad you cannot see them any more but the one who saw you lost them and did not say anything probably takes good care of them now.
;-)
XXX
Hey Brainylady,
I hope you are well. I miss your blogging. Hoping you are busy getting ready for a cheerful and happy holiday season and a break from your academic work.
Happy Knitting,
Margaret
Sorry about your beautiful mittens!
I feel your pain and I still remember fondly the alpaca scarf that fell out of my coat on the Embarcadero, while running to catch the ferry. I had knit it and years later realized that it was knit out of two different dye lots, so I knit it again, strand after strand in fingering weight blue Indiecita. So sad!
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