Sad, Sorry, Year-End Yarn Tales

This December, Fred and I were, what I referred to as, the abandoned old folks.

#1 son in Hearst rarely comes south at Christmas time.  My DIL works retail and that  means lots of 9am - 9pm days throughout December and a 6 pm closing on Christmas Eve.  Add to that scenario the questionable weather and winter driving conditions  and they wisely stay home.

Son #2, living closer as he does, has always been home for Christmas. This year though, he and his Lady of Spain left Canada on December 19 to head to  her home  for a visit with the Spanish side of their family.  After a week on the Spain leg of their journey, they left for 10 days in Kenya.  Lady of Spain works for  Me to We.  With that organisation, she and Peter were going to spend 10 days in Kenya, visiting the Maasai Mamas that produce the bead work sold in the Me to We shops.

Luckily for Fred and me, my Peterborough Sis takes in abandoned old folks and feeds them Christmas dinner.   We even stayed overnight.  And what doesall this have to do with 'sad, sorry, year- end yarn tales'?

Well, after overnighting at Sis' house, we took advantage of having a spare set of keys to Peter's downtown Toronto Condo and treated ourselves to a couple of days in the big smoke.  On the Saturday we planned to lunch at my favourite, Saturday-in-Toronto lunch venue - The Rex.  The Rex is a great place with 24/7 music.  Every Saturday, 12 noon to 3pm, Danny Marks performs.  I love Danny. I have all his CDs - both of them.  He is a great entertainer, loves the audience and they love him.  He's not a bad singer either.

Now, you need to know that Romni Wools is conveniently located between  the condo and The Rex.  Remember the three most important things about real estate:  Location, Location, Location.    I left  the condo early so I could  spend an hour at Romni before meeting Fred at The Rex.  Little did I know that it was Romni's  Biggest Sale Day Of The Year.

My first clue came when  I walked in the door and a teenage girl was offering coat check services.  My second clue was when  I looked up to see Glenna C approaching the exit with a BIG bag of yarn.  "Oh, you made it" she said to me as if it were obvious  I had intended to come to the Biggest Sale Day Of The Year.    "I left you some yarn." she added.   Heading for the back of the store and the 'wall of worsted',  my third clue was the store-length line of customers waiting to check out and the incredibly crowded aisles.

If you know Romni Wools, you know that it doesn't take many shoppers  to fill the aisles and make shopping there an exercise in extreme gymnastics.  Whatever vision you may have of shopping at Romni,  multiply it many times over to get an idea of The Biggest Sale Day Of The Year.  It wasn't long before I couldn't stand the heat - literally - the temperature.  I headed to the basement.  Although cooler there, it was no less crowded.  I do not shop well under these extreme conditions, but eventually I did find a bag of '$2 a ball' yarn that had been  tossed onto the floor.  In it,  I found some gorgeous novelty yarn in spring shades of teal, orange and cream.  Three balls should be enough for a wonderful spring scarf, I thought and headed up the stairs.

The  line-up to pay now came all the way to the back of the store, crossed in front of the entire  'wall of worsted'  and  and snaked half way back towards the front of the store.  Yikes!  I glanced at my watch and still had lots of time, so chose to get in line.

It wasn't long before I overheard a customer talking  on her cell phone.  Her end of the conversation went something like this.  " Hi.  It's me.  Yea, I'm going to be late.  I've been in line at Romni Wools for half an hour and the line hasn't moved." 

That was enough for me.  I  wormed my way back to the far corner of the basement, returned my 3 balls of yarn to the $2 bag, retrieved my coat and left.  Sadly, empty handed.  But not before one of the clerks had told me that Romni was Canada's largest yarn store and the fourth largest store in North America.  All the more reason to avoid The Biggest Sale Day Of The Year.

And as often is the case, one sorry, sad yarn story leads to another.  When packing up to leave the condo at the end of our visit, I forgot my knitting bag.   FORGOT.    MY.    KNITTING.    BAG!    Never place your knitting bag in a hidden corner of the room.  My bag contains both sets of my needles of choice - my Knit Picks Needles and all their cables.  My entire set of sock knitting needles and my case with every double pointed needle I own. Thank goodness my Denise Needles were at home.

Two, sorry, sad, yarn tales to end my year.