Kochoran Angora and Mr. Hyde

My enthusiasm for good yarn trumps most weather, party because I love the wool, but I am also enabled by air conditioning.  I am devoted to the Kochoran; the angora has me in its paws.  I have never allowed myself to buy some before because it's usually ::gulp:: twenty dollars a skein, but a sale can wear down even the strong willed, or the moderately so, and I am able to find a minute here and there during the day to pat the bunny.

Can you feel it?  Close your eyes, touch the screen, and feel the fuzzies.

Good, eh?

Being Memorial Day, I hung out the flag. 
And I weeded.
And I marinated chicken and eggplants for the grill later.

Having performed three out of the four Memorial Day traditions ( I just couldn't face the parade, you might understand why), I was free to be kidnapped by my gardening-impaired pal Megan (who got the Dunkin' Donut mittens?  You remember Megan, don'tcha?)  to cruise the gardening centers to look for things to put in the ground to make her yard pretty, but that require absolutely no work.  We ended up with some gorgeous specimens of nepeta Six Hills Giant and salvia May Night. 

But while we were toodling around, and this is relevant to the Kochoran I promise, we parked downtown to buy some of that killer lemonade you can only get at street fairs because -- get this -- there was a street fair going on.  We found a space for the car (a miracle in its own right) and threaded through the crowd to buy the lemonade.  When we got back in the car, we drove off, and suddenly I wondered where the knitting was.

Yes, so devoted to the bunny am I that I was knitting as we hopped the garden shops.  You think it's funny, or pathetic, or cute maybe, but Megan was driving, and some of those places out here in the 'burbs take ten whole minutes to get to.  Lots of stitching time in my book.  When we went to get the lemonade, so as not to stick anyone in the crowd,  I left the knitting in the car.

With the windows down.  There were plants and books and groceries in the car too, but the knitting was missing as far as I could tell.

(I am so gratified to know that right now, you're thinking what I was thinking, because Megan didn't get it until I had to tell her myself.  This is what unites us while we live among the muggles).

I made Megan stop the car.  I moved everything in the car around, I looked under my seat, I looked under Megan's seat, we took the plants out of the way back.  We searched.

Megan wondered out loud, who would steal knitting?

I said: It's expensive yarn, and it was on an Addi Turbo.  All it takes is one knitter  to walk by with poor impulse control and woof, no more knitting. Angora, girl.  It's a powerful thing.  It's like musk in rutting season to a knitter."

"I thought that was cashmere." (she may not be a knitter herself, but Megan's been my friend for a long time.  She's picked it up through osmosis.)  I conceded that it depends entirely on the knitter.  Some fall for merino.  We all have our kinks, and clearly one among us likes to jack yarn.

And then, you may have guessed (because you are less cynical than am I), Megan unlatched the fold down seat and revealed the knitting on the floor.  It had slipped back there and been hidden from sight.  ::sigh:: Everything was okay.

As my blood pressure returned to normal ( I was mostly concerned with the two days of knitting I would have to make up, and where would I get enough yarn to finish Earnshaw? etc etc.)  Megan shook her head that I would think that the world has someone in it who would steal -- of all things! -- knitting out of a parked car.  So little faith in humanity I must have.

Yet she's never seen the scrum in front of the Socks That Rock rack during the first five minutes at Rhinebeck: how could she understand?  She hasn't pushed the refresh button six times to try and make it on to Vesper Julia's site when the yarn goes up for sale.  She's never had someone say they'd like to make off with the sweater she's wearing in a way that seems at once like a compliment and a threat.  While I love knitters, and think that knitters are almost universally lovely people, I also know that the yarn sometimes brings out the Mr. Hyde in all of us.

So I hereby apologize to all of you for thinking such things, but you know it.  You just might be tempted, if only for a second.  And I love that about you.

Comments

[Suzanne V. (Yarnhog)]

Last summer, my husband and I went to Paris to celebrate our tenth wedding anniversary. On day three, we went to Versailles, to stay at the Trianon Palace Hotel--and yes, it is every bit as magnificent as it sounds. Our luggage had been brought up to our palacial suite before we arrived, and as I started to step out the French doors, onto the gorgeous balcony overlooking the gardens of Versailles, I noticed...my knitting bag was missing! Much chaos and hysteria ensued. Screw Paris, Versailles, and miles of manicured gardens: where the hell was my knitting?! (Yes, it was found, safe and sound, but not before half the hotel staff was convinced I was more than a little crazy. My husband, of course, already knew.)

[Juno]

I would totally steal your knitting. In fact, you better keep an close eye on that black cashmere you're knitting right now.......

(PS. NOT That Guy.)

[Kathy]

Phew! Sounds like my day -- flag, Whole Foods, garden shop.

[Laurie]

Lovely confluence of pleasures, even with momentary panic. Yes, I would worry about open windows, but I was born-n-raised here in New England.

[Charity]

I admit it, I would be tempted, only for a moment. Sorry for your panic - I'm so glad it all worked out (and I drive around with knitting, too). :0)

[Anne]

And you were only considering the two-legged potential culprits! I bet those squirrels have always envied the angora bunnies, too...

[Lee Ann]

It may be stupid of me to pass by the clearly gorgeous fuzziness and point out a typo, though it's my metier so I can't help it (and often wish I could stop doing it), but...

"party because I love the wool" is the best typo of the year.

[Marlene]

I left my sock-in-progress in plain sight in the car today. I briefly wondered if anyone would go to all the effort to break in and steal it. I figured the odds were against it. Firstly, not too many knitters roaming around here (that I know of anyway). Secondly, I've never met a knitter yet that would steal a WIP. Perhaps a fresh ball or two of angora, but never one with a project attached.

[Wanda]

You never know when a knitter might go weak in the knees over some pretty angora lying there, unattended, You don't have to worry about me and the angora b/c I'm allergic, but not everyone is. Thankfully the yarn was reclaimed and all is right with the world.

[kmkat]

Hilarious! And I'm glad you found the yarn. Think of the pain if Megan hadn't unlatched that seat until, say, Labor Day!

[Gena]

Phew! You had me all worried that there was actually a knitting thief out there! I'm glad you found it before too long!

[Teej]

I'm glad you found your knitting. I have to admit that on occasion I've been far more concerned about leaving some of my hand-knit finished objects in my office unattended, particularly my Birch shawl. Fortunately, it's been seen on me by enough people and my office is enough off the beaten path that someone would have to *plan* to take it and (so far) I'm unwilling to believe that folks are that desparate for butter-soft handknits!

[Dava]

Oh, imagine the bad karma of stolen knitting!

[Anna]

If it's any consolation I just traveled with the new wheel in the trunk and had visions of it being stolen. It made it safely!

[Kellee]

Seriously, only the fear of the extreme Kharmic Debt has kept me on the straight and narrow in some of my worst moments. At least I know I can rely on that though, in that upon chatting with an LYS owner once who confessed that her current display solution for her SeaSilk came about because of theft issues, my entire body shuddered as I contemplated the endless and painful games that the knitting muses would play upon the poor soul that ever tried to knit lace with stolen laceweight yarn.

Ugh. Makes me a little shaky even now.

[Lucia]

Dang! Another opportunity lost.

You've no doubt heard that you should never leave your car unlocked in New England in August. If you do, you will come back to find it full of zucchini.

[Helena]

I always thought that no one would steal yarn or knitting. I figured that knitters have too much respect for each other, and that muggles, well what would they do with it.

Apparently I was wrong!

A friend and I ordered some yarn. We had it delivered to his place, and sometime in between the time the mailman dropped it off and he got home from work, someone stole the package of yarn.

It never showed up, but luckily the company we ordered from sent us out replacement yarn. Delivered to his work.

I'm glad you found your knitting!

[Beth S.]

All's well that ends well. And even if it hadn't, you would have known that your car had been burgled by someone with exquisite taste... and isn't that a compliment of sorts? ;-)

[Opal]

Oh my, my pulse started racing and my breath stopped while I was reading this. The suspense nearly killed me! I'm so glad that nothing happened to the precious Kochoran, and I totally understand the anxious moments when you couldn't find it. I'm so glad it all turned out roses.

[Madge]

Awww, the Knitting Goddess smiled upon you and kept your angora safe.

[vanessa]

phew!

[Alison Hyde]

I was sure it must have dropped out of your bag at some garden store or something. Glad you got it back! But wait, though, isn't Mr. Hyde the, um, good guy?

[kniternet]

Pat the bunny - I love it! Glad the knitting was safe all along.

[benedetta]

i am not a cynical or pessimistic person, but was very relieved to read the end and see the angora was found safe and sound.

after my huge tray of homemade ravioli for Christmas lunch was stolen from my locked car on Christmas Eve, i kind of not trust people to really know about bad karma at all...

[Erika]

It's so nice to read that I'm not the only cynical one in this world who thinks that 98% of people are potential thieves, even if they are accidental thieves. I'm glad you found your knitting.