So the one place I go in order to have my federally mandated social contact for the week is The Coffee Shoppe. This has been my place of choice since it opened in 2002. It has moved from one building to another, has changed hands a total of three times now, but it still has my coffee. Sweet, delicious, life-giving coffee. mmmm.
Anyway, the new owner is one of the former baristas named Brian. This is confusing, as one of the other former baristas was also named Brian. And to make matters worse, Brian and Brian have known each other since grade school, so I just took to calling them Thing One and Thing Two for a while. They were not offended; au contraire, they liked their nicknames. But then Brian left and Brian was left behind and now Brian is working at the snooty French restaurant the next town over and Brian is the new owner (along with Duvall) of the Coffee Shoppe.
I assume that’s clear; if not, I suggest you press on.
So, Coffee Shoppe Brian, as the new owner, had gotten some nice arty books and glossy mags for the patrons to browse. I went in there about a month ago, and there, laying on the counter with the newspapers, was an issue from 19-freaking-71 of MON TRICOT (a French knitting magazine that was translated and sold in the US from the very very late 60′s to the early 80′s and yes, I have a rather comprehensive collection of them)! I scooped it up and underneath that was a pattern book for crocheted doll clothes from the 40′s that was so incredibly freaky/creepy/just plain weird — I scooped that up as well. I danced over to Brian and offered to pay good US dollars for these items, and he said…
“No, just keep them, I got them at Goodwill. Oh, but wait a minute, lemme show you something in the knitting magazine.”
The Something was a knitted vest, simple, done in reverse stockinette…but with a TIE knitted into it in stockinette stitch. And Brian turns to me, and said,
” Can you make me one of these??”
Of COURSE I could, but after the holidays. And then he said the magic words:
”I’ll pay you — in coffee.”
Say no more. Barter society it is. Knitted goods for coffee. Pictures to come, along with a link to my crochet blog, where I’m gonna put up some of the pictures from the doll booklet.
I am so very jealous of your deal with Brian. That is genius. And Yep, their coffee is the stuff of life. Will look forward to pictures of the finished item. I’ll look forward to seeing Brian wear it too.