I had a lovely little old lady in the shop today who just DEPRESSED THE HECK out of me.

She came in at lunchtime and wanted to know where the Feathers was. I showed it to her, and then answered her questions about how many balls she’d need to make a couple scarves. As we walked back over to the counter, she happily told me that the scarves were a special request from her niece, who was going over to Italy soon. She thought it would be a nice idea to take some handknitted scarves to the Italians who were hosting her. “That IS a great idea!” I agreed. “But… why not use a merino, or one of the natural yarns that’s actually from Australia? I’m sure her hosts would love to see what we produce!” She agreed with me, but added, “Oh, but that’s so much more expensive.” She was so nice – and so excited to be fulfilling her niece’s request – that I couldn’t really bring myself to argue with her. So I sold her her $30 worth of novelty acrylic and watched her head out the door. Sad.

I apologise in advance to the people of Italy, and I’d like to add that while Feathers scarves are indeed a fair representation of what Australians have been knitting in the past five years, they’re in no way an example of the finest knitted garments this country can produce.