knit fast, die warm

Couple of days ago a lady electrician came to check wiring and fitting in our house. She noticed that I have a stash of knitting yarns (I readily admit to compulsive yarn-buying, me) and mentioned a wool shop in Saffron Walden. It happened to be in one of the nooks you hardly go to, unless you have a specific place in mind - a passage between King Street and High Street where Mocha cafe is. It doesn't even show on the googlemap as a separate track.

Of course I felt I must go check it out, and today I did. The motto "Knit fast, die warm" was on a blackboard outside. The shop is small and cute, with a lot of interesting yarns, considering the available space. For example, the blue ruffle scarf is made of a pre-kitted strip of loose netting, which you crochet tightly on on side. I never seen one of those yarns before, and spent a minute trying to imagine how much time it must have taken to knit that much ruffle in what looks like a very fine yarn (came up with "an awful lot" figure ). With that strip thing, you can make two scarves a day, if you feel so inclined :)

what is Cassandra wearing today?

She's wearing a monkey-head knitted hat and no arms.

In the article below it is explained that one hand went missing last week. When I popped into the shop today, Pamela told me that since then one arm turned up, then another went missing, so the mannequin is guarding its street corner "completely 'armless".

She also told me of her call to the police. She wished to report a theft, she said. Policewoman on the other end of the line, preparing it write it down, asked what was missing. An arm, said Pamela. You can probably imagine that it was not a very straightforward affair, that report.