"Knitting is very conducive to thought. It is nice to knit a while, put down the needles, write a while, then take up the sock again." Dorothy Day

There's been a severe Hubert drought lately. So much so, I found myself questioning whether Hubert's etchings are nothing more than pigments of my imagination. To atone for my recent bout of doubt, in a rare moment of repose, I sat down with my laptop (and a wine spritzer for fortification) to catch up on some Hubert hunting. Lo and behold, a Hubert etching for sale on ebay popped up on my screen, coincidentally of a scene set in the very location along the Seine where I've been seeking out bouquinistes.

With only hours to go before the auction ended, I was due at a friend's house for our weekly knitting group during the very critical last minutes of bidding. Already the black sheep of this wild and woolly group, as soon as I arrived at Knitter 1's house I announced that I would have to leave early to monitor the auction bidding. Wayward knitter that I am, the baby blanket I've been working on for 2 years has been getting smaller and smaller each week because I'm continuously pulling out rows with dropped stitches.  Hence the reason for my husband's increasing skepticism as to what we actually do each Wednesday night - he suspects knitting is really a cover for a ladies' night of watching porn and drinking cosmos.

My announcement to bolt early was met with protest and Knitter 1, loyal friend and Hubert supporter, dragged out her laptop for me to log on and commence bidding for the coveted etching. As the final moments of bidding grew near, the screen suddenly turned black; the battery power ran out. Knitter 1 scrambled for the power cord, Knitter 2 cracked jokes to keep the tension level down, and Knitter 3, used to my obsessive-compulsiveness, just shook her head, rolled her eyes and continued knitting. Fortunately, the power came back on and the computer booted up just in time for the final countdown. I anticipated a last-minute bidding war on the ebay front line but I was the one and only bidder and as the last seconds ticked by, up popped that familiar ebay slogan: "Congratulations, You are the Winning Bidder!" Winning Hubert was easy, if only finding Hubert were as simple...