How telling is that?!!! I found that appropriate bit of lace wall hanging in a little shop in the seashore town of Rehoboth Beach, DE, where I spent a couple of days with my friend and knitting guru, Kathryn. There were many little hangings and this was the only one with that on it. There it was, hanging apart at the front of a peg with some others with a different message. It was down at knee level and seemed to leap off the rack at me just as I walked by. I wonder why.
Kathryn and I had been planning a knitting getaway ever since Stitches East. She found this great little B & B on the Internet and we set a date, booked the Garden and Wedgwood Rooms and met there, she from VA and me from PA. Although she brought the book One Skein, yarn and needles to make cupcakes from the pattern inside, we got no knitting done. I brought my ubiquitous summer sock along, my latest started sweater and the yarn and pattern for something I haven't started yet. Still, no knitting was done. I didn't even knit a stitch on the sock. We shopped. I mean WE SHOPPED!
The Rehoboth Beach area is an outlet mall Mecca and the regular shops in the town and in Lewes were great as well. We did the obligatory yarn shop crawl, but were disappointed to some extent. We went to Knitty Gritty in Rehoboth Beach and found it to be a knitting and needlepoint shop. It has been my experience that stores that try to cater to more than one hobby usually fall short. Knitty Gritty proved my point. There were needlepoint and knitting yarn and supplies. I score it needlepoint 3, knitting 1. Needlepoint wins the game at Knitty Gritty, but not by much. Both were lacking. I do not have to visit there again unless I revive my needlepoint obsession. And maybe not even then if I check my stash. Yes, I have a stash of needlepoint canvases and Paternayan yarn from 1970 something. So what!
We also went to Ginger Moon in Lewes, DE. It turned out to be an antique store which carried knitting yarn, "Fine Yarn & Antiques" it says on the card. There we met the proprietor, Evie McPhee, who was knitting away on some fabu something in a myriad of fine yarns. All the yarns she carried were indeed fine. All kinds of silks and wools and combinations, all top end, grouped in colors and spilling from drawers and doors of antique chests and cabinets. The effect was quite enticing and had I a pattern in mind I might have bought a skein or two of something. The displays were that striking. However, I came away with only the new Vogue Knitting Special Collector's Issue for Fall 2007 in the knitting category.
Then, from the antiques category, I bought a non antique new cotton rag rug in bright yellow and pale sky blue for my new kitchen-in-the-making and, lest I forget, a rabbit picture hand painted in "o3" on a weathered board that was to be for my new kitchen also, but will better match the rabbit theme at the Cape Cod place. It is also 'non antique.' The "03" is 2003.
I will return to Ginger Moon. The yarn and antiques work very well together and there was enough of both. I just need to have a project in mind and many ducats in my pockets.
In another shop in Lewes, Twila Farrell, I bought my find of the day. In addition to "The Sock Lady," I could be called "The Shoe Lady." My shoe collecting had been stuck in a Birkenstock and Crocs rut lately, but I am redeemed. I got this brand new, fabulously funky pair of Dick & Jayne platform, peep-toe, slingbacks at half price. Shades of the 1940s! I feel I need some black trousers, a white rayon shirt and a snood. I could knit a snood!
Back at the Rehoboth Beach outlets there were some very good bargains which came home with me from the LL Bean store--three pairs of pants at $4.95 each for me and some shirts and knit tops for much more for the darling husband who would be unloading the minivan upon my return.
Although a great time was had, there was knitting--NOT! . . . Maybe next time.
Bona Fide Knitter
