I tend to believe the old Elizabeth Zimmerman saying, "All knitters good people."

But it ain't necessarily so.

Someone broke into a Chicago-area yarn shop and stole, not just the best yarn in the place, but eight lace shawls. And left the cash box there.

Lace shawls, people. For those of you who knit, you are gasping in horror right now. For those of you who don't knit - a lace shawl can take anywhere from months to years to knit. It is the pinnacle (IMHO) of the knitting art. It is like knitting a baby. It is like knitting a Master's Thesis. I consider the most complex lace shawl I ever finished (Song of Hiawatha) to be my masterpiece of knitting.

If the theft happened to me, I would be heartsick. I would literally be in mourning. And I'd want to kill the b****** who stole it.

I post this, mainly to publicize it. I realize most if not all people who read my blog will have seen this elsewhere but...if you see a lace shawl fitting the descriptions given on Franklin's blog (and hopefully there will be photographs available later...the owner was looking to see if she had some) up for sale, call the shop owner (her number is on the linked post).

People have likened the theft of the shawls to an art theft, and I agree. The amount of work that goes into a lace shawl is certainly comparable to the work that goes into a painting.

Sadly, these kinds of thefts happen. Quilters who show quilts can share stories. There's also a horrifying tale (I don't remember the details now but it's in Spike Milligan's book about quilting) of a quilter who had her quilt vandalized...someone threw bleach on it right in the middle of a quilt show.

So anyway. I'm hoping that the resolution of this will be that the thief is apprehended with all the shawls and yarn, the shawls go back to their owner, the yarn goes back to the shop (and maybe sells out all the faster for having the 'fame' of having been stolen) and the thief winds up in prison. I realize that's a somewhat vain hope, but still.