No longer do I shuffle apologetically into the wool shop. All year I have been practising my knitting skills and now confidently turn a cable stitch, whip up natty lace work scarves and have a back catalogue of baby knits and sweaters for every family member to my credit.
So, with the air of a maestro, I strode into The Workbasket, barely able to contain my excitement and impatience because I had seen a sign on the door “WE CAN CAN CAN”. Yes! The latest fashion in wool is back in stock.
At the Monday afternoon’s knitting circle, Clicking Needles, I had hoped to prove that the ladies’ schooling last year had paid dividends and show off my latest endeavour: a cashmere cardigan. Unfortunately, my wool and needles are packed in my golf bag (which is still yet to arrive, but that’s another story), so I rootled around in the village hall’s cupboard and founds some balls of double-knit, borrowed a pair of size 8 needles and settled down to knit a finger puppet for a child in Malawi - “Make sure you knit the face in brown wool, please!”:
Yes, I appreciate the wee fella needs his features stitching in, but you get the general idea.
Jean and Janet, meanwhile, were knitting lady mice in the style of Beatrix Potter’s Mrs Tittlemouse whilst Therese and Jeanette were drooling over their ribbon lace wool, a triumph in ingenuity and the latest craze to sweep through the Highland knitters: Can Can wool.
I want it, I cried, salivating at its sheer beauty and elegance. You could get it at The Woolbasket, they said, but it’s all sold out.
So you can now appreciate that it was with racing heart and mustering all my self-control that I steadily walked to the counter of The Workbasket, praying the sign on the door wasn’t a hoax.
The lady behind the counter – she who had so patiently and long-sufferingly dealt with my pathetic queries just 12 months ago – was, I think, somewhat surprised that I would want Can Can wool as she evidently remembered my tussles with garter stitch and wool tension. But she is a professional – and she recovered herself to show me a whole shelf of Can Can wool in various colours. I chose the red and then – and this is slightly shameful – I asked her if it came with instructions.
She sighed – obviously it was too good to be true that the returning Aussie had indeed upskilled sufficiently to master Can Can wool – and she unravelled the wool and gave me a step by step lesson, referring me to YouTube should I falter when left to my own devices.
“There’s two hundred grams to the ball and that’ll make two scarves,” she said.
“Oh! How will I know when I’m half way through the ball?”
“Just weigh the wool.” Of course. Silly me.
Later that night I began on my first, practice, scarf. Jeanette wants the second one so I am under pressure and scrutiny from one of the village’s leading craftsladies to prove that I really am now ‘one of them’.
Be amazed .... be very amazed:
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