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February 13, 2006
Olympics in Peril
Where do I start?
About mid-last week, I was beginning to get a bit worried about the fate of my Olympic yarn (end of this post). I was headed for DC for a combined work/play trip, and had everything precisely planned to allow for maximum Olympic progress under the circumstances. Early in the week, I made a schematic of my favorite sweater with tons of notes on measurements. Thursday evening, in the quiet solitude of a hotel room, I would swatch and plug numbers into my schematic to produce the rough outlines of a pattern. Then I could spend the rest of the weekend knitting while chatting with friends. Seems like a pretty good plan, right?
Well, sure, if you actually have your yarn. I will not belabor the story (here's the gist of it), but I learned on Wednesday afternoon that the yarn wasn't coming. With less than 24 hours before I was to take off for the nation's capitol, I needed to work fast to salvage this project. So I went where any 21st century knitter goes when she gets in a bind: Google. The result? Knit Happens saved my Olympic dreams.
When I saw that they had Samoa in some nice colors on their website, I sent Kristine -- the owner -- a plea an e-mail asking about availability in the store. (Seriously, if e-mail "tone of voice" could be translated into audible tone of voice, my email would have shrieked with desperation when she opened it.) Despite my near hysteria, she responded quickly and calmly. Less than 24 hours later I got off a plane at National Airport, drove 6 miles down the road and walked into the store to pick up my yarn.
It was, without a doubt, one of the best yarn buying experiences I have ever had. I don't think the transaction posed a huge inconvenience for Kristine and the gang at Knit Happens, but it really meant a lot to me. (YARN STORE OWNERS TAKE NOTE: This is how you get and keep customer loyalty.) And did I mention the store itself? Beautiful and friendly. I can't think of another yarn store that had more awesome sock yarn -- Lorna's Laces, KPPPM, Cherry Hill, ArtYarns Supermerino and Ultramerino -- in more varied colorways than this one.
I did make some progress on the sweater, but that'll have to wait for at least a day. In addition to a yarn debacle, this weekend's snow fall also caused a travel debacle. Our flight back was cancelled last night, so Jason and I were on an early morning shuttle this morning. I'm living on little sleep, no shower, and out of a suitcase. Give me 24 hours to regroup, and I'll be back -- I still have so much to tell you!
*But wait!, you say. That's not the red we heard about! Here's the thing . Back when I ordered the Samoa (the first time), I had been on the fence between the bold solid red and the subtle orange/red/pink variegation of Samoa Mouline number 504 colorway. I first went with the safe bet -- solid red -- but Knit Happens only had the variegated version available. I figured this whole debacle was a sign to take the risk and buy the variegated colorway, and boy am I glad I did. It's gorgeous.
Posted by shannon at February 13, 2006 6:14 PM