Sue

Community and craft

My local yarn shop is delightful. The largest in our mid-large size metropolitan area, it boasts a full range of yarns in all weights and fibers.

The yarn inventory is extensive - so much so that most of the part-time staff doesn’t have a complete grasp of the yarn in stock. There’s no electronic inventory and POS system, so staff has to rely completely on their own knowledge. It’s unfortunate, but completely understandable that one employee may not know every single cotton/acrylic yarn in the store.

The shop’s sit and knit groups have historically been cliquish and unwelcoming. They monopolize the two large tables in the back of the store, making it difficult to look at the yarn behind and around them, and they typically ignore everyone. The behave as if the store is their living room, and I don’t walk into people’s living rooms without an invitation, so I typically avoid the back of the store when groups are there.

Enter Sue

Tuesday morning I popped in to make one more attempt at locating a cotton-acrylic blend DK yarn for my new grand-niece’s blanket. ¹ I was a bit discouraged by the presence of not one, but two knitting groups; nevertheless, fueled by desperation, I started to edge my way around one of the tables when a woman said “Can I move this chair for you?” I accepted, and as I continued to browse in the space vacated by the chair, the same smiling woman asked “Do you need help? Just ask Sue!” This was followed by good-natured laughter.

Normally I turn down all unofficial offers of help, because I’m so delightful that way - but for whatever reason, I paused a second and said “Actually yes!” I explained my dilemma - do I knit with 100% cotton with an oversized needle to allow for shrinkage? I want the baby’s parents to be able to throw the blanket in the dryer. Or do I stick with the so-so acrylic?

Sue sprung into action from her seat next to the woman who had spoken, walking me down an aisle I’d previously looked at without success, to show me King Cole Cotton Top in a lovely shade of teal. At 25% cotton/75% acrylic, this yarn has stability and some softness, and it’s really springy. (It’s a shame that the staff couldn’t have pointed out this yarn a month ago, but seriously - there is so much yarn in this store.)

Look at that beautifully muted teal color and check out the subtle white marls caused by the cotton. I’m in love with this yarn.

I bought four skeins of the yarn² and as I was paying, Sue appeared again, now wearing her project. “Here’s the sweater I was working on. What do you think?” Sue’s figure is generous and somewhat pear-shaped, and the ecru sweater-in-progress, with competed ribbing on the hem but live stitches around the neckline, fit her perfectly. Knit in a fine gauge, the sweater had all-over V shaped cables against stockinette stitch.

She and the sweater looked beautiful, and I told her so. As we talked about the challenges of fitting knitted objects to our non-standard body shapes, I could feel my face shape itself in my mother’s’ expression of polite, but slightly anxious, interest, mouth twitching and eyebrows raised as I listened and responded. (It was very strange, as if I were channeling Mom, but I was truly happy to be talking with this bold woman. Perhaps I was also a bit uncomfortable.)

Everyone needs a Sue sometimes.

In this small town on the edge of a bigger city, almost everyone grew up together, so it’s hard for non-natives to make new friends. I virtually never run into acquaintances at the grocery store, library, or yarn store. I do have friends, but we meet at pre-arranged times, and since I work full-time, there’s not much room for spontaneous plans. Sue’s spontaneous conversation was a gift. Sue is a gift. I wonder if anyone has told her this.

It’s a good idea to accept help.

Although Sue gets the credit for reaching out - something I do often, by the way, but never at the yarn shop - I need to remember another important aspect of this interaction: when help was offered, I accepted it. This is NOT something I do often, and it was no casual response for me. I processed the offer and made a conscious decision to break out of my self-sufficient mindset and accept, and as I explained the problem I felt grateful to be heard.

Maybe I’ll go back next week.

1. I’d tried this several weeks ago, but one of the part-time staff I mentioned earlier told me that there was no such animal in the store. She talked me into a very soft 100% acrylic that developed a strong halo and looked more and more worn as I worked with it.

2. Cotton Top is SO soft, but has a lot of body. It comes in a wide range of pastels and neutrals, and knitting with it is such a tactile pleasure. That cotton ply, which is white and gives a subtle marled effect, adds some bulk to the acrylic plies and makes each stitch so satisfying to complete. (I do not work for or get paid by King Cole Yarn. I’d never even heard of them before this shopping trip.)