Common Kibitzing

Posted by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

https://www.yarnharlot.ca/2026/02/security/

https://www.yarnharlot.ca/?p=9867

I’m sick today – some minor sort of dread lurgy the main symptoms of which seems to be low self-esteem and the overwhelming urge to lay around glumly watching the Olympics. It’s a raging snow-ice storm outside and I am so sick of winter that I can scarcely look out the window, so I thought I’d break up the misery of the day by telling you a little story.

A little over a week ago I got a phone call that someone had an emergency (minor) and needed my help. I immediately booked a flight to the (even more) frozen (even further) North and set about packing my knitting. I’d be gone a week, I was going somewhere really cold, and to my way of thinking this somehow equalled a metric tonne of knitting that I’d be doing. I put my Self-Imposed-Sock-Club socks in there, then I put the shawl I’m working on in there, then I went and got all the extra yarn for the shawl and added that. Then I frowned and fetched a little baby set that I’m working on and have barely started and laid that on top. This I thought, this was a decent amount of knitting. Loads really. Then I opened instagram saw the Canada Mittens and thought – I should make those. I should make those right now. Actually (as the Olympics flickered on the screen near me) I realized that all the knitting in my suitcase was trash and I should make several pairs of those right now. Lucky for me the yarn shop that made the pattern and had the yarn (Briggs & Little sport, the OG Canadian brand for yarn) is nearby-ish and they have been super quick to ship in the past, and so I ordered a ball of each of the red and white, then paused… hovered my hand over the cart to checkout online and… ordered more. 2 red and 2 white. That’s lots. I’m good. I added a little note that said something like “Quickest possible delivery please” noted that I was leaving on Sunday (this was Friday and let me assure you this seemed really reasonable to me) and clicked send.

Almost immediately someone awesome emailed and said no. It was too late, there’s no delivery pickup on weekends so the soonest they could mail it was Monday. Did I want to come get it, they asked? I did. I did very much want to come and get it, but Galt House of Yarn is in Cambridge and I was in Toronto and Joe had the car and so it was a no. I thought about it for a minute (I cannot stress to you how much I wanted this yarn right away) and then asked the next best thing. Could they ship it to my destination- send it North? They could – swiftly the shipping address was changed, I was assured it would arrive there at the end of the week, and I set about maturely coping with the disappointment of waiting a week for yarn I wanted right now.

Apparently I was both terrible at this and transparent about it, because the next day (Saturday) Joe offered to drive to the shop and pick it up for me. “Really?” I asked “No…” he said “I’m just trying to torture you.” That was a joke it turned out, and Joe left for the yarn shop in the afternoon. For my part, I took Elliot skating and sent a quick email to the yarn shop telling them that my glorious spouse was on his way to get the order. A little bit later – when Joe was pretty much in the parking lot of the shop, they emailed back to say that my glorious spouse was no match for their intrepid shipping staff and that they had already shipped it – a staff member choosing to do me a solid by taking it to Canada Post themselves so it would have a head start getting up North.

I sat there, and then I laughed out loud. I’d been defeated by fabulousness and fantastic people who were so dedicated to getting me my yarn that I couldn’t have it, and in that moment I snapped, and told Joe to get more. “Just get it” I texted. “Just tell them to give you a skein of red and a skein of white just like the two red and two white they shipped. Just say that.”

Now Joe’s been a knitting adjacent spouse for a long time, so he didn’t say anything. He didn’t say “Hold on, you’ve already got this yarn coming could you perhaps … wait a few days?” He didn’t say “How many pairs of these mittens are you fixing to make Steph?” He didn’t say “My bride, my sweet – are you sure?” He said nothing. He especially didn’t say anything when after reflecting for a few seconds, I texted again and said “Double that. Just tell them to sell you what they shipped.” Moments later Joe walked into that yarn shop and said that, and you know what? The yarn shop didn’t say anything about it either.

He brought home the yarn, I cast on my mittens, putting two balls into my carry on, and put the other two balls (I wound them) into my suitcase – even though there would be four balls arriving in a few days. Nobody said a single word about that either. I got on the plane, I stayed there for a week before coming home with this much of ONE mitten knit and pretty much all eight skeins intact.

Further to that, I do not feel like this was a learning opportunity and I am happy with all my choices.

Peace out. Go Canada Go.

PS – probably worth mentioning that there are one or two spots left at the Spring Retreat at Port Ludlow in a few weeks, if you’d like to talk about yarn in person, and if you happen to be more of the day-tripper type, there’s room in Debbi’s ace class where you make a custom dummy out of ducktape and an old teeshirt. email to info@strungalong.ca if you’re the type.

https://www.yarnharlot.ca/2026/02/security/

https://www.yarnharlot.ca/?p=9867