The piece she knitted was nothing recognizable as a sweater or sock or hat, though its shape seemed to be deliberately crafted as she picked up a few stitches here, knitted a row or ten, bound off, then did the same there. If it had been extended to its full three-dimensional shape, it might have resembled a heat exchanger, with fins jutting off in various directions. The fiber she knitted varied from wool to wire to strips of shiny plastic, and now and then she linked in a feather or a microchip or a shiny glass bead.

“Soon, soon,” she crooned as she worked. “Soon it will be done and then…”