Back Story

This is a long story. And if you didn't read my last post, you'll likely be confused. Otherwise, get a snack and some knitting and here we go....

I've kept quiet about my backstory knowledge for a long time. There's been so much flak here about the whole thing and J has been more then gracious about it. Certainly more gracious then I would ever be capable of - but y'all know me! She's wanted to avoid the whole mess and just concentrate on running her business and providing a good, solid yarn shop. She's never said a bad word about K or her shop, only nice things. I know she'll probably be very unhappy with me telling all that I know but it's not fair that the other side isn't being told. It's not fair for people to judge J when they don't have all the facts. I've kept quiet as long as I could. These are the facts as I know them to be true....

So there I was....

Dave and I were looking to buy a business and leave Tucson. We started that search in 2005. One broker told Dave to figure out what our interests were and call related businesses. Even if they weren't listed as "For Sale", sometimes a business owner has it in the back of their mind that they want to sell and just needs that little push of outside interest to pursue it.

We went to YarnArts the first time we came to Parker, CO (November 2005). It was a nice little shop, well stocked but in a really bad location. On the outskirts of Parker in this sort of rundown shopping corner. I went in and looked around while D waited in the car. I picked out yarn for a scarf for D's aunt and when I went to pay, the nice, lovely older women running the store realized they hadn't even turned on the register! It was 2 in the afternoon. Not a particularly good sign, but it was a Tuesday so no worries.

After that bit of advice from the broker, I would call YarnArts every now and then (when we were still in Tucson) and talk to the owner, K. After explaining the business broker's advice, I would ask if she was interested in selling and she would laugh and say, "No, we only opened less then a year ago!"

A year later, D and I moved our family to Parker when D bought the FedEx route in town. I went to visit YarnArts again and found that it had moved. It was in a much better location and a much better space. Very spacious and open and at least twice the size of the previous location. I was surprised to see that with all that extra space, she didn't have much more yarn then before. A bit more but the shelves were never quite full. I introduced myself in person and joked that I was the vulture calling every now and then to see if she wanted to sell. She laughed and said if I'd asked her a month earlier she certainly would've! She'd just installed a new computer system and was having nothing but trouble with it. I gave her my info, sat and knit awhile and then left.

I went in the shop several times and liked the place just fine. A few months later, K put out an email to her entire email list of people that she was considering selling. I went over there to talk to her about it and it turns out she wanted to talk to me about it first but had lost my info. So she put this email out there and hoped I would see it (and also to put it out there to others in case I'd changed my mind).

I talked to D about it and he said to get her info. I went back to K and we talked for several hours over several days. Then weeks. Then months.

When she and I talked initially, she wasn't sure if she wanted to bring on a partner or just sell outright. The first time we talked, it was for 2 hours. At first I was all for a partnership and if she wanted to phase out after 6 months to a year, we'd put in the contracts to revisit these issues at that time. After our initial talk I knew there was no way I'd partner. In her own words, K is "very scattered". I'm not Joe Businesswoman by any stretch of the imagination but K was telling me crazy stuff that I couldn't get behind. She had an employee that was double billing her - billing her for both a teacher pay during classes and employee pay in the same hour. You're supposed to get one or the other, not both. K said she didn't catch it for a couple of months. She also told me this, "You know the little finger-walking symbol associated with the Yellow Pages? Well, it's not trademarked and people send out scam bills. I paid these for 6 months before I finally called Yellow Pages and asked why I was getting a bill every 2 weeks or so. They told me about the scam bills and I stopped paying them." ????? 6 months??

I told here that in our yearlong search for a business, D and I had some pretty decent experience as to what we needed to see on paper. Buying and selling a business is a ton of paperwork and some of those papers we'd be needing were things like her FFE's (list of fixtures, furniture and equipment and their current worth), her tax returns since opening, her P & L's (profit and loss statements) since she opened, and her inventory list.

I asked her for these papers forever. It took her over 5 months to get them together and get them to me (around August/September last year) and the stuff she gave me (as far as P&L's) were only through April, not to date (i.e. August/Sept). During this time, she'd had 2 big yarn sales. Her store was really bare bones and she wasn't restocking because, as she told me, "I don't want to restock in case the new owner wants to take the store in a different direction and carry other things." Well that's all well and good if she was ready to sell right away but she wasn't. As I said, it was months (and 2 big sales) before she got me any paperwork. I know there were other parties that were interested and she told me they hadn't gotten anymore paperwork then I. So now she's actually losing clients - I mean she's gotta be, right? With very little in stock, the same little stock, why would you keep coming back? And the new owner will have to spend a significant amount of money right off the bat (I'm talking between $5K - $10K) to bring the shop back up to the level one would expect to find in a yarn shop, particularly one of that size.

She finally got all the paperwork together and gave it to me. I was looking through it and asking her what price she was going to put the store up for. She said she had a lawyer who specialized in pricing businesses. When she finally got all her stuff together and called the lawyer, the lawyer told K that it was going to be another 2 weeks before she could get to it as she (the lawyer) was going on vacation. K lost it. She was almost in tears when she told me this and she said she was just going to give the papers to her landlord and he would help her. She swore he was a great business man. I asked her if she really thought he'd be working in her best interest and what made her think he was a "great business man"? She said, "Well, he owns a couple of places here in town and he's really nice. He's always telling me I can get out of my lease at any time because he has 2 other businesses lined up that want my spot as a restaurant and he can charge them more." Again, I'm wondering why she thought he'd have her best interest at heart since it seems like he'd be just as happy to have her out of there.

OK, so he gives her a price. $100,000. One. Hundred. Thousand. Dollars. After seeing her tax returns and P&L's and stuff I knew what our answer was. Being open less then 3 years, she wasn't losing money per se but she wasn't clearing more then $6,000 (six thousand) a year either.

Just to be fair and get a more impartial opinion, we took the paperwork and the price to both our business broker and our accountant. The accountant said he'd slap us silly if we bought it. Our broker was more charitable and rational. After he stopped laughing, he said, "No way." He simply asked what were we getting for that price? For that much money, he posited, couldn't we open our own place and make it look like we wanted, carry what we wanted? "In fact," he asked, "Couldn't you open your own, the way you want, for much less?"

Indeed.

So, of course, we passed. Towards the end of our dealings with K, we started the process of buying the business I currently have. She didn't sell it (shocker) and she moved it again. I'm on her email list but I never got any notice of her moving. Apparently, neither did most of the people who frequented her place. We all thought she just closed her doors. It was until a couple of months later, when she sent out an email about her latest sale, that I knew she even still existed! She moved to downtown Parker in this little upstairs side shop. It's smaller then her original space but, still not as well-stocked as you would think.

One of the other interested parties for K's shop, J., did just what the broker asked us about. She decided that, for the money, she could open her own place and make it what she wanted. It was a very Fate oriented thing for her. She talked to a friend (who owns a shop in northern Denver) and others about the ethics of opening another shop in Parker (population about 40,000) and everyone told her to follow her heart and live her life. She found the perfect spot that she wanted but it wasn't really available. Someone else was looking at it for something else but the landlord said it wasn't a done deal and they were in "escrow". J said to herself that she'd give it until a certain date and if it didn't work out for that space, then that was that.

On the morning of J's arbitrary final date, the landlord called her and offered her the space. She opened her shop (late Dec? early Jan?) and it's fabulous!

If she'd waited a year or whatever to open, she wouldn't have been able to get this space that she wanted and if, by chance it was still available, there's no way she would've been able to get it for the same cost. It's near the movie theater and there's now plans in place to build a Brunswick Zone (giant bowling alley/fun center) in the open field in front of the theater. Upping the traffic significantly - also upping the price for new tenants in the area.

I was still going to both shops but eventually stopped going to K's place. I couldn't stand to listen to her. She would complain to anyone within earshot about the new store. She would bad mouth and spill bitterness in your ear every chance it came up. And believe me, if it didn't come up, she'd bring it up. I asked her why she was so mad at J in particular and K told me that J had her P&L's and used those to open her own place. With the dealings I had with K, trying to get paperwork out of her was like pulling teeth and I'm pretty sure whatever J might've had, wasn't all that accurate (if it's anything like what K gave me) and like I've already said, for the price K was asking? I would've done the same thing J did if I'd had the resources.

The last time I went into K's, she was at it again. Bitter, bitter, bitter. Complain, complain, complain. I couldn't take it anymore and finally told her, "K. Stop. You have to stop this! You guys aren't that far apart physically [about 2 miles, but in Parker, it's a world away] but you have completely different styles and Parker is only growing so there's plenty of business for everyone! You don't even carry the same stuff."

K: Well, well...she's carrying Berroco and Lamb's Pride. And she has Rowan and I don't know how she swung that since Rowan has territories. The Berroco guy told me she straight up lied about where her shop was going to be.
Me: OK. Let's be reasonable here. Every yarn store carries Berroco and Lamb's Pride and the Berroco yarns she has are completely different types then what you have! Rowan hasn't had territories in over a year now and like the Berroco, she has different Rowan yarns. And as far as the Berroco guy "lying", he's just covering his ass (or trying to avoid confrontation). I mean think about it, K, he had to ship that yarn somewhere and I'm sure he's got access to MapQuest. You have to stop worrying about her and run your business like a business.

After that, I stopped going to K.'s except for sales. The next sale I went to was a month after the conversation I'd had with her. I went because I wanted to get some Rowan (the only time I buy Rowan is on sale!) but it was all gone. I asked her where it was and she said she'd sent it back to Rowan - she didn't like the way they did business. She was always doing stuff like that. It seems like shooting yourself in the foot to me.

K closed her doors last month. Here's the letter she sent out about her closing:

Dear Friends of YarnArts:

As many of you already know, I have for quite a while been wanting to get out of the retail business to spend more time with my wonderful supportive husband and three children whom I adore.

So many people have asked me not to close because they love the cozy atmosphere and friendly, caring social aspects. But I stayed open mostly for the fantastic loyal friends that have helped me out at the store these past three years.

Sophia, Hanny, Pixie, Nancy, Kristina, Kathryn... I can't say "thank you" enough. I feel I have been truly blessed with their support and integrity of these trusting and honorable "gems" as one customer called them. You are all op-notch ladies with so much talent and willingness to help others, I could not have done it without you. Now, for the first time in three years, I will have some free time to actually learn from your awesome knitting and crochet artistry teachings.

Over the years I have met many wonderful customers, whom I now consider friends. Thank you for your patronage, it has been my honor and pleasure to serve the "commuKnitty". It's been an exciting and interesting ride, and I have learned many lessons about business (including how cutthroat it can be at times). I'm simply not competitive enough to play like that, it's not in my nature, nor do I have the desire to be like that. Many people have asked me what I want to do next. That's easy, I wish to take a walk to remember and smell the roses with my family and friends.

All my best wishes to those of you who have supported YarnArts. Thank you so very much.

It makes me sad that she had to get that last little dig in. "Cutthroat"?? "Competitive"? Really? J is the least cutthroat or competitive person I've met. When people would come into her shop and say that they were sad that K's place had closed, J would say, "Oh she's not closed! She just moved!" and would tell them how to get to K's new location (which also means that roughly 3 months after K moved, people still didn't know she'd moved and not closed). J would also refer people to K's (or any other store) for things K carried that J didn't have.

So, yea. She's closed. I'm sure she blames it on J but from what I've seen, she wouldn't have survived the year either way. I only say she blames it on J because to hear K tell it, that's how she feels. And don't get me wrong - I do understand how it can be frustrating and disappointing when you're trying to sell your business and then someone goes and opens competition close by.

I have very serious, very valid reasons for believing K wouldn't have survived the year either way. I've seen K's paperwork, I've seen how K runs her store - both behind the scenes and as a customer. If you've been open 3 years and you're not carrying knitting magazines? Why?? It wasn't until her final location that she finally got knitting mag's to sell. Ever since that first sale after her first announcement to sell last year, she hasn't replenished her addi turbo needle stock. At. All. She never fully restocked her yarns after that first sale either.

I went to her final sale (who can pass up a good sale?). I was there right when she opened that first day of her last sale. There were 2 yarns that had enough skeins to actually make a sweater (one had 2 colors with enough and the other had 3 colors with enough). That's how it always was with her place. One of the things K told me was that she learned to knit only about 6 months before she opened her shop. She saw a need in Parker and decided to fill it. Her shop had all kinds of novelty stuff and tons of felting wool. That's what she makes - scarves and felted bags. Once you were past the scarf and felted bag stage of knitting, there was really nothing else there for you.

So K and her "loyal" fans are completely poisoned against J. But my thinking is, a) they only have one side of the story and b) why not find out for yourself? Why be bitter about something that didn't even belong to you and why listen to someone who clearly couldn't see the other side? If K was honest with herself she'd admit that J's opening had very little to do with K's closing. At her second location, when I was talking to K about buying, I'd come to see her and she'd be laying down on her couch in the store, dozing. The couch was towards the back but still - you can't do that sort of thing! So unprofessional! And she was always telling me she didn't have time to do half the things she wanted to do with the store (like making the phone call necessary to have knitting mag's to sell) but, again, can't get much done if you're napping.

If you read all the comments on knitmap (the last of which, as of my last post, was asking about broomsticks), you read Marly/YarnThing's comment. She's so much more eloquent and diplomatic then I. I adore her! If you don't like J's shop or are unhappy with her opening or whatever, then don't go. Waste the expensive gas to go to shops that are 15 - 20 minutes away. But don't play little, bitter, sabotage games. It just makes you look small.

Which brings me to String in Highlands Ranch. WTF is going on out there? At one point, there were 63 snotty, mean comments on knitmap. Well, not all 63 - some were good. But whenever a person left a good comment, the mean girls would shred them. Then all the comments were gone and 3 new comments were left. One good, 2 mean. Erased again and already 6 mean comments (which may all be gone again, not sure). Let it go people! Why so bitter? If anyone has the backstory on that, I'd like to know (on your blog, not on mine - linky, linky). But either way, why try to sabotage the only game in your town? If you don't like it (policies, inventory, staff, whatever) - go somewhere else! If there's legitimate complaints (like how they never used to answer their phone. They do now.) fine but I just don't think knitmap should be the venue to be able to vent personal issues.

If knitmap were mine, I certainly wouldn't allow anonymous comments. Step up people, leave your name and if you have something bad to say then say it - don't hide behind a computer screen. And if there were obviously personal issues coming through, I wouldn't allow those comments to be published. That's just me though. When I rule the world....

I've linked to this backstory in the Purls of Wisdom comments section of knitmap so I'm fully expecting a vicious sh**storm. And I'm sure most of it will be anonymous. Bring it on. In fact, my personal email is under my pic on this blog. Let's have coffee and discuss it like adults.

Ready to weather it, Ruth!

P. S. Warned you it was long! Next week - yarn, I promise!

It Makes Me Sad

Why does there always have to be So. Much. Drama?

Go to the links (preferably in order) and read the comments. All of them.

I'll give the Back Story on the first set of comments and my take on the second in my next post.

Saddened, Ruth!

Weekend O' Fun

What a great weekend I had!

About a month ago, I met a woman at the Sit 'n Knit at Purls of Wisdom and she lives in my neighborhood. (For those counting, that's two women besides me in my neighborhood that have the "obsession"!) Her name is Donna and she and her husband Darren moved here in April from Miami.

A couple of weeks ago, they had a get-together at their house for Darren's birthday. He's English and there was another English couple they knew from Miami visiting and a bunch of work friends and Jen (owner of Purls). We let the kids have a "sleepover" at the grandparents house and we went to the party. Excellent fun! We drank to our heart's content, ate good food, enjoyed excellent company and felt like grown-ups for a change instead of just parents all the time.

Now, I don't know if I've mentioned this but my husband is almost perfect. The only thing that keeps him from being so perfect I'd have to keep him under lock and key so people wouldn't try to steal him for cloning purposes is that he's not social and he doesn't dance. Not social. There's an understatement. He hates people. He hates bars and crowds and is sort of shy and doesn't like meeting new people.

He had such a great time at the party that he wanted to know more about Donna and Darren. Long story short, on this past Saturday, we dropped our kids at the grandparents and the four of us adults went to Elitch Gardens! (Dave and I LOVE rollercoasters. Part of our honeymoon, we went park hopping in California.) The four of us had such a great time! We got there right when the park opened and within an hour and a half we hit all the major rides. We went on the MindEraser one more time and then off to lunch at P. F. Chang's. (Dave and Darren both really like Chang's.)


It's kind of funny because in the middle of our time at the park, we went on this tiny log ride. I mean tiny. It goes up a hill, turns right and goes level for about 6 feet, turns right again, goes downhill into the water and under a bridge and then your done. But. That downhill slams an enormous wave onto the bridge so even if you duck the wave when you hit, the water comes sluicing off the bridge as you go under and you are SOAKED to the bone. No avoiding it. So even an hour later, when we showed up at the restaurant, we were all still wet!

While we were eating lunch, we were talking about other restaurants and Dave suggested next time we go and hit this burger joint that got voted best in Colorado. That's right, my husband the antisocial, was suggesting another activity! I'm so proud of him!

As an aside, when we told Donna and Darren about our honeymoon on the rollercoasters, Donna mentioned they haven't gone on a honeymoon yet. I told Dave that they were still newlyweds (married October last year). Dave said, "Really? That's cool! Ruth and I are Shouldn't'aweds." He's funny! Soooooo very funny.

When we got home, there was a note on our door from the neighbor up the street. T walks to school every day with the 2 kids in that house (Boy A and Girl A). Their mom invited T and D2 to go to Chuck E. Cheese that night for Girl A's birthday. We went and picked up the kids. I got 2 presents and wrapped them and when it was time, I drove them to the Chuck place and hung out for a couple of hours.

Actually, I bought 4 presents because on Sunday, we had another birthday party to go to. Dave had an online poker tournament he won a spot in so I took the boys on my own. It was a bit tricky trying to watch both boys run around 4 different pools at this community pool place but I didn't want them to miss it. The boy whose party we went to used to be in T's class and they were good friends. The boy's family had moved and this party was likely the last time they'd ever see each other.

2 hours at the pool and then 2 hours at the boy's new house and then home, change clothes, go to grandparents for dinner. After dinner, home for baths and bedtime. Sweet, sweet bedti....zzzzz

Happy but exhausted, Ruth!

Summer Reading

I've been keeping fairly true to my 2008 Reading Goals. The Tom Jones book put me behind some (also the books I've been sneaking in between my list books). Tom Jones was written in the 1700s and is a difficult read. It took me almost a week to read the first 40 pages! It's 18 "books" with little chapters in each book. Each book is about 25-40 pages, 850 some pages in all. I'm reading a "book" between each regular book I read. I should have this beast finished by the end of the year. It's a good read, just difficult, old-style English.

I loved Beloved. Loved it. It's as I remember other Toni Morrison books I've read - it makes your heart hurt but it's so beautifully written, you can't stop reading. Ms. Morrison shows us the basest, cruelest, most evil that the human race can be but then just when it feels as though she's reaching inside you to pull out your heart and show it to you, you come to that part of the book where you realize that she's reaching inside you to show you where your heart is. She shows you the beauty as well as the horror that is our pitiful, lovely species. Perfection.

I just finished Oscar Wiled and a Death of No Importance. What a waste that was. It's a fluffy mystery and with the cast of characters involved it could've been sensational. It wasn't. It was trite and fairly obvious. I knew about 1/3 of the way through who the murderers were (I was just a little off as to their motives). Very disappointing.

Is it pathetic and sad that I've already decided next year's reading? I'm pretty well decided that I'm only going to read books with sequels. On my bookshelves I have Stephen King's Dark Tower series, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series, The Hobbit/Lord of the Rings/Silmarillion series, The Complete Sherlock Holmes, and many others that I've had for years and (with the exceptional exception of The Hobbit) have never read. I'm ending this year with Roots which would naturally have me starting next year with it's sequel Queenie!

I think for my in between books next year, I'm going to try to clear off my paperback shelf. It's 3 deep with mostly scary books (which are usually my favorite choice) and I need to read them, donate them to the library and move on! Like most of the books on my shelves, had them for years, haven't read them, but still buy more. No more buying, just reading what I've got and maybe borrowing from the library every now and then!

Wordhound, Ruth!

MASSIVE DeStash!

I've been talking about doing it forEVER but I finally went through ALL my yarn and reorganized. I have a HUGE Bin-O-Yarn that I'm letting go.

The link for my DeStash is here. All prices include Shipping and Handling (click on the pictures for yarn details and prices). I have much more to come but photographing all my stuff is becoming a second job!

I take Paypal and if you'd like the stuff I'm sellin', email me (Ruth AT 5elementknitr DOT com). I'll invoice you and when payment is made, I'll remove the pic's from the DeStash Flickr set and mail it off to you.

Please spread the word. Please - I want this stuff gone! Yes, there's fun fur but there's also lovely cottons and laceweight mohair blends and some rockin' Alpaca. There's even some beads and jewelry findings.

The fun fur would make great pet beds! haha!

Downsizing, Ruth!

Pride

Yarn Harlot wrote about the Pride march near her and where to find some cool rainbow yarn. She also put some excellent quotes from people who see that there's nothing wrong with being gay. The post is here. Out of nearly 200 commenters only 2 were negative.

Here's one of them:

" Ok, that does it. You just lost me. I can no longer support someone who promotes homosexual lifestyles. Sorry hun. You just dropped off my blog AND my book list. Anyone want some Yarn Harlot books, cheap?"

Posted by: Patricia at July 1, 2008 5:59 PM

Here's what I wrote:

"Hey, Patricia - you're going to give up all your Harlot books because she "supports homosexual lifestyles"?

Hell, I'll take 'em! Can I also go through all your music, books, movies and art? I guarantee most of what you have (all the secular stuff anyway) was created by people who are just fine with homosexuality, not to mention that quite a bit of the artistic world are ACTUALLY homosexual.

ooooh, and while we're at it, can I go through your clothes, furniture, home decor.. OH and your yarn! Do you have any hand-dyed yarn from indie dyers? Not to stereotype but most fashion, furniture, home decor designers I know or have seen on TV are part of the "family" (again, either in a supportive role or as actual players). Same goes for most indie dyers.

As anti-gay support statements go, yours was one of the most ignorant I've seen. And that's sayin' something!

Thanks and if you'd like to send me those books, you can find me at 5elementknitr.blogspot.com."

People slay me. Four of my closest friends in high school came out our senior year. When I was stationed at Ft. Huachuca, AZ (1994-96) I was surrounded by lesbians. On the Women's Medac Softball Team, out of 15 women, I was one of 2 1/2 that were straight. (Evelyn was bi. Her attitude was, "Why limit yourself?" Why indeed, Evelyn, why indeed.) My captain and my NCO (sergeant in charge) in the eye clinic were both women and both in monogamous relationships with other women.

When I met Dave, he used to tease me saying, "Seriously, babe, do you have any straight friends?" Of course, the majority of my friends were/are straight. My aunt is not. In the Army, they called themselves "the family" and I'm pretty sure that's not a phrase exclusive to the military.

I never saw what the big deal was. To each there own.

Friend of the Family, Ruth!

Out Of My Secret Closet

The Knitting Wildflower is having a blogiversary contest - it's here.

It says to tell a short story about a sock and such. My sock attempts have been abysmal. I think the problem is that I attempt these really difficult patterns. The first sock I ever attempted was also my first time on DPN's and my first chart knitting. I got to the end of the heel (top down) and when I looked at the sock, you could really tell when I figured out the DPN's because the first chart repeat (of 2) was much looser then the second. Rrrrrrrip-it! I'm about halfway through the first repeat again. I love the way the yarn looks with the pattern but the pattern has these evil Make Purls that are killing my hands.

Then there was the ill-fated Baudelaires from last year's Tour De France KAL. I'm in that KAL again this year and I'm considering trying to finish them. I have half of one foot finished. I got to the part where you have to do the increases but my increases would be beTWEEN the needles (magic loop). Couldn't figure it out. They are in the dreaded Closet Of No Return.

Of course, all I had to do was move the stitches around on the needles so the increases wouldln't be inbtw. Duh. I'm probably going to get them out and give it a go for this year's TDF KAL.

I suppose I could try a basic sock pattern but that seems so boring! I feel if I'm going to be knitting something I could buy (scarf, sweater, sock), I should be doing something fun and not just plain stockinette. I should probably do a boring basic one anyway, just to finish a pair. I have enough sock yarn for roughly 30 pair!

Do y'all have the equivalent of the Closet Of No Return? What/where is it? What's in it? I have everything I've either become stuck on or bored with. Mostly stuck on. Mostly, it's the designs I attempt. Most of my designs way outreach my actual knitting ability. I get to a part where I know what I want it to look like, I just don't know how to make it look like that!

The Hateful Bed Jacket is not in there. It's all sewn up and I've actually even worn it a coupla times. I did the edging for one sleeve, sewed it on and hated it. It looks very court jester-ish. I took the edging off and am just going to crochet a nice edging on. I'm still going to do the original edging for the rest of the jacket but I'm waiting on football season for that. It's an 8 repeat lace and every row is different. It also has a different stitch count every row, except for the 3 rows that are 17 stitches - but even these same number of stitches are each worked differently. Impossible to memorize. Hateful. Bed. Jacket.

Cleaning out my Closet, Ruth!