Boxed In(28)
“Hmmm, no, I hadn’t.” Annie moved on to another skein, this time a silver, alpaca wool, as she thought. “Do you think if I make two pieces in Tunisian crochet with all the rounds the same, and then use the reverse side for the pillow back, that it will work? I saw urchin baskets using combinations of natural reed with taupe stripes and natural with navy stripes. It would be fun to do some of both.”
“I can’t think of any reason why that wouldn’t work,” said Kate. “How about working up a test piece for each color combination, and then if they work, you can buy more. If you need to tweak anything, you can exchange whatever you need. Did you have a yarn in mind?”
“Natural fiber, definitely. Maybe a merino and cotton mix?”
“We have a wonderful forty percent merino and sixty percent linen that will be strong enough to keep the pillow’s shape but also be soft to the touch.” Kate scanned the rainbow collection of yarns. She pulled out one with the color name “champagne” and handed it to Annie. “How does that feel?”
Annie felt the yarn, picturing herself working with it for the next month. “This feels like a winner. I knew you’d be a great help, Kate. This color even mimics the natural wood stripe of the baskets. Now I only need to pick out the accent colors.”
“Is there anything else I can help you with, Annie?” To the casual shopper Kate was the perfect example of stellar customer service, but Annie noticed a slight tinge of something else in her voice. Glancing at her watch, she realized how long she and Alice had taken in their decisions. It was past five o’clock. Annie knew Kate probably had things to do before she went home to Vanessa. She didn’t want to hinder her.
“No, Kate. I’ll just grab more of this champagne and some French blue and … it’s a tie between the sandalwood and cream, so I’ll get some of both for test swatches.” Annie stacked the skeins of yarn on the counter and sidled up to Alice, who had just pulled down two different shades of aida cloth to compare. She whispered, “It’s getting late. Have you found everything? I’m sure Kate needs to get home soon.” Louder she said, “We better finish so we can still surprise Mary Beth. It’ll be no fun if she comes out by herself.”
“And you know how much I love a good surprise,” said Alice. She lifted one of the pieces of cloth to Annie’s eye level. “I think this is the one for this project.”
Annie looked from the cloth to the floss collection in Alice’s shopping basket. “They both would work beautifully, but I like that one a touch better too.”
Alice slid the other cloth back in its place on the display, and carried her basket to the front counter. “Kate, I’m ready for checkout.” She placed some cash next to her basket. “We’ll be right back.” Kate smiled as she watched her friends tiptoe toward the door of the shop’s office. She was ringing up the floss when Alice noticed some felted animals grazing on the kid’s craft table. Plucking up a sheep in one hand and a cow in the other, she mimed a knocking motion to Annie. Annie rapped four times on the office door.
Mary Beth’s chair creaked. “Come in.” Annie opened the door a couple inches and then stepped back to give Alice a clear path. The sheep entered the office first, prancing on air and trilling, “How are ewwwwe?” The cow trailed behind, “I’m moooody.”
“How udderly ridiculous!” Mary Beth exclaimed, as she removed her reading glasses. “Come in, all four of ewe.”
Annie rescued the cow from Alice’s hand. “These are adorable. I have to round up a few for the twins’ Christmas box.”
“That can be arranged.” Mary Beth swiveled her chair to face a computer. “Give me a few seconds to close out this program before I forget.” Several taps and a couple clicks later, Mary Beth reversed her swivel. “OK, another task done. So did Cecil have any new information for you?”
Alice nudged Annie. “I guess we know now that Mary Beth had lunch at the same time our esteemed mayor did.”
“And you would be wrong.” Mary Beth shook her finger at Alice. “The mayor had breakfast at The Cup & Saucer. Peggy pumped him for information and then served it to me at lunch alongside my burger. Well?”
“Nothing really new, actually, although Cecil did confirm that the items did not belong to him, and that he had never seen them. Also, the collar was definitely for a female, like the curator thought. But he did give me the idea of posting descriptions of the box and collar on some genealogy websites.”