Neva McIntosh and the beauty of the Internet

I spent a semester abroad in London my junior year of college.  One weekend (a long one) I journeyed up to Scotland.  On the Great Mile I found a small store owned by a woman named Neva McIntosh.  She hand knit beautiful sweaters.  The price was right and I wanted to bring one home with me. 

I picked the colors.  God knows why I picked grey and rose but I did.  The sweater showed up at my doorstep in London a few weeks later.  I wore the sweater to death.  Then it went into the world where all old clothes go to die that you can’t get rid of, the so called attic. 

Fast forward about 20 years, Freds parent go to Edinburgh and find the store.  They get me another sweater, a beautiful classic white button down sweater with brown wooden buttons.  I loved it.  Apparently so did the dry cleaner because they lost it.  I still mourn for that sweater.  It isn’t something I would buy myself but I loved it and wore it often.  I tried to replace it but it just wasn't the same.

I believe Neva has moved on because when I was in Scotland a few years back I could not find her store.  I looked everywhere including the world wide yellow pages called the Internet. 

Last week I got an email from a woman in Canada who had looked up Neva and found my blog post about looking for her in Scotland.  She had bought a sweater roughly around the same time I did when we were in college.  She too had kept her beloved sweater in the attic and had not touched it for years.  She reached out to me to see if I was interested in the sweater before selling it on eBay.  I figured why not.

She sent it to me as a gift.  I am not so sure that I will wear it but the story is great.  You have to love the internet.  Maybe one of my nieces will cuddle up in this sweater when we go skiing next year.