What kind of awful person. . .

In case any of you don't read The Panopticon (you should, he's hysterical and talented) I thought I would cross post his recent news flash.

I've just had a conversation with Mary Ann, the owner of Knitter's Niche at 3026 N. Southport. Knitter's Niche isn't a big place, but it's one of Chicago's oldest yarn shops and Mary Ann is known far and wide for her deep knowledge (particularly of lace knitting), her enthusiasm, and her loveably gruff persona.

On Monday night, somebody broke into the shop and made off with $5,000 worth of yarn and, perhaps worse, eight lace stoles representing years of Mary Ann's work.

Whoever the thief or thieves are, they know the craft. With the exception of an entire shelf of inexpensive cotton, all the yarns taken were the cream of the crop, including chunky and worsted weight hand-dyed Misti Alpaca.

The finished works taken included:

• a white lace stole with clematis edging
• a capelet of mossy green, hand-dyed kidsilk with ribbon trim
• a stole in grey-beige hand-dyed alpaca
• a shoulder scarf in sage green cashmere
• a stole in rose hand-dyed cashmere/silk
• a stole in pink hand-dyed kidsilk
• a large feather-and-fan stole in variegated red, turquoise and copper bamboo/silk

The person(s) responsible took all this–but didn't touch the cash box.

If you have any information, please get in touch with Mary Ann at (773) 472-9276.

And if you're the person who did this, I hope:

• every skein of yarn you own or touch gets moths,
• every finished object you've ever made gets torn to pieces, and
  
• your fingers twist into knots so painful you can never knit, crochet or otherwise create anything ever again.

Stealing somebody's merchandise is wrong. Stealing years of someone's creativity is disgusting.

And karma, may I remind you, is a bitch.

Isn't that just about the worst thing you can imagine? I can't believe someone who knows the massive amount of work that goes into a lace shawl would even consider such an act.