Wednesday, June 22, 2005
I visited a certain yarn store on Newbury with the intention of buying Rowan 4-ply for Orangina, but instead came out with Filatura di Crosa "Mirto". The gauge is 26 stitches/10cm and the material is a cotton/linen/rayon blend. Filatura di Crosa has left a bad taste in my mouth ever since I visited its boutique in Taipei where each skein of yarn cost inexplicably between $20 and $40 USD. I still haven't figured that one out. Mirto was about $6.50 per skein.
So the only reason why I didn't get Rowan 4-ply was because the owner didn't stock any. That's different than saying she had none in stock. She literally had no Rowan yarns. What a crazy business decision. I'm not necessarily a big Rowan fan, but I do know 99% of other knitters out there are. Yarn Lady (that's what I'll call her) is the nicest lady but the biggest scatterbrain on the planet. It also doesn't help that rather than grouping yarn by brand, she groups them by color. Visually this is very pretty, but usually we knitters walk in with a particular yarn in mind, then we decide on a color among what's available, right?
I walk in, look around, have the usual thought of Ah pretty, so many colors...but ah crap, so where do I start...?. I think organizing yarn this way is great for new knitters who come in without a pattern in mind, ie those who are more lured by all the pretty colors than by specific material or gauge, etc.
Like if was just starting out and I visited this store, I would have tried to stuff every orange-tinted yarn in my mouth, and declared this the most spectacular yarn store ever to have opened before my head exploded.
But for those who have something specific in mind...Finally I ask, "Where are your cottons?" and she points in every which way.
"Oh," she sighs as if aware she's a victim of her own shaky organizational skills. "They're everywhere, as usual. There...there...there..."
When she tells me she has no Rowan save for the 1 ball of Glace (which I can barely make it because it is literally 10 feet above on the top-most shelf), I am reaffirmed why it is that I don't patronize this particular YS. I go in with happy anticipation of what I'm going to find, and walk out disappointed. Then she suddenly turns to me and says, "You were here awhile ago looking for cottons weren't you?" The last time I was there was back in March, trying to find some cotton blend suitable for the Apricot Jacket. She had told me back then that it was "too early" in the season for cottons (?) and that she would be ordering some soon. I had nodded and told her I'd come back, and then went to Windsor Buttons for my yarn. Or maybe it was Woolcott. Point is I don't seem to have problems finding what I need everywhere else.
"Well," continues Yarn Lady, "I meant to order some more cottons but I would have nowhere to put them, as the existing inventory hasn't much moved." You know how you have those moments where a small piece of information can instantly reset your attitute? She just made the offhand comment that she had no space for new stuff and I suddenly felt terrible. OK so maybe she doesn't have Rowan, but she has lots of everything else, if you don't mind sifting through each and every ball. I almost want to tell her not to organize her stock by color but it really isn't my business. Instead I made the conscious decision that I would try to patronize her store when I could. She's just trying to make an honest living, you know? That's when I found the FdC Mirto and decided it would work for Orangina. We later had a great conversation at the cash register about her homeland and my homeland, and I walked out of there feeling great about my purchase instead of feeling unfulfilled.
So my Orangina is going to be stark white. I was debating between yet another ecru color, but Yarn Lady declared me to be a "winter cool." Alrighty then, white it is. I've casted on 27 stitches less than the smallest size. This is going to be Baby Whiteygina. Or something.
Filed Under: General Knitting | Orangina