It’s that time of year in retail.

Once, I wrote about Christmas displays in September. This year, I’ll write another dark side of Christmas retail.

Theft increases close to Christmas. From the retail perspective, we’re close enough. People want gifts. The professional thieves are stealing stuff for resale. Scammers are working the returns desk trying to get extra cash. All the usual stuff, just with increased intensity.

Happens every year and it’s part of the holidays.

Opportunities for theft increase as staffing levels decrease. It’s hard(er) to steal something when helpful customer service people are watching your every move and offering to talk to you about every item you pick up. We’re in the home improvement business. A few of our customers plan major home improvements as family projects when everybody is home for the holidays, but the vast majority of our customers plan NOT to have the place all torn apart when the holiday guests are present. Our customers are too busy organizing holiday entertainment to have time for home improvement projects. Unlike many retail operations, Christmas is not our big season. Our busy time is the hundred days of spring. Because we don’t have the sales this time of year, we don’t have as much staff.

Opportunities are created.

Theft increases when the economy decreases. Many people at the margins are forced out of the formal economy and turn to desperate measures. We’re looking at an economic downturn and, indeed, desperate people are turning to desperate measures.

And that’s strike three.

For the past week or so at work, I have been dealing with multiple theft events per shift. I’m getting to the point I don’t trust my customers anymore. You could probably characterize me as nasty and suspicious. The whole situation puts a lot of stress on me – and many of my colleagues are equally stressed.

I don’t sell well when I’m suspicious. I have a hard time acting genuine when I don’t feel genuine. It’s similar to my difficulty selling products I don’t believe in, except it’s a difficulty selling to customers I don’t believe in. I don’t focus well when I’m trying to think about two things at once – and every time I’m helping a customer, half my mind is wondering what sort of scam they’re working and another 10% is watching the department around me trying to see who else is stealing what. The customer can tell I’m giving them less than 40% of my attention and I KNOW I have to give 100% to do a good job.

Times are really rough right now. My colleagues are trying hard. We’re supporting each other well. The emotional support is the best it’s been while I’ve been in this store. Problem is, there are some aspects of closing ranks against the customers instead of teaming up to help customers.

Readers, please, if you’re having difficulty getting help in a store this Christmas, please have a thought for the retail employees. It’s a really tough time of year for them, and they want to enjoy their holiday’s too. If there is extra security in a store, smile! That security is probably reducing the price you’re paying.

As for me? I solved the problem in a different manner. I started a new job yesterday.

Rapid sock knitting continues. I have finished one sock and I have the cuff complete on it’s mate. Continental is proving so much faster for me.

No pictures of the sock, but I do have the following pictures of Amelia. She’s getting larger and she’s getting quite the fuzzy face.

I love my new style of knitting. It’s so fast and it’s so easy. I took what, six months, for my first pair of socks? I’m making very rapid progress on the next sock. I am working the very basic top down pattern found in the Twisted Sisters Sock Workbook – and I’m almost to the toe decreases on the first sock. Much, much, faster!

I’m knitting the sock with some fiber from Drake, an alpaca we used to own. It’s some of the seconds and thirds that Mette at Ranch of the Oaks processed to sock yarn for me. It’s not soft alpaca, but it is warm alpaca and work socks don’t have to have the softest alpaca.

Sorry, no pictures. I’m too busy making socks.

I’m largely a self-taught knitter. I learned, mostly, from a Susan Bates book. I’m right handed and I learned to knit holding both the yarn and the working needle in my right hand and throwing a loop over the tip of the needle for every stitch. If one puts it in terms of “pickers” or “throwers", I was a thrower with a wild right elbow.

Step back thirty-five years to when I learned to crochet as a small child. I’m right-handed. I hold the crochet hook in my right hand and the yarn in my left hand. I simply push the hook through the desired loop, catch the yarn, and pull it back through. It’s fast, easy, and takes a minimum of effort.

One day at work, I was watching a colleague crochet in the break room. She was doing double crochet holding both the yarn and the hook in her right hand. It was almost painful to watch her throw the yarn over the hook every time – and her crochet seemed fairly slow. It didn’t look comfortable.

I started thinking about my knitting.

About this time, I managed to watch several knitting shows on television. The star knitters appeared to be holding the yarn in the left hand. Certainly, they weren’t making the big, painful, throwing motion with every stitch.

I thought some more about my knitting.

I read some blogs. I found several entries commenting on the difficulty of the “continental” style. I found no blogs praising the continental style as easier or faster.

It was as good as excuse as any to resist change.

I looked at my elbow the other night while I was knitting. I thought about my colleague and her crochet. I thought about all the examples on TV that were doing things differently.

I moved the yarn to my left hand.

It was awkward for all of two stitches.

It’s smoother. It’s faster. It’s easier. Tight stitches are less of a problem. My elbow moves less. My elbow doesn’t hurt. Having made the change earlier today, I find I am already knitting much faster.

Best of all, I can switch the yarn between purling and knitting smoothly – something I never achieved in two socks worth of two-two ribbing.

The downside? I am finding myself making some gauge adjustments.

I can’t tell you if I’m knitting in a proper continental style. I am holding the working needle in one hand, the yarn in the other, and picking up the yarn with the needle. I have no idea why I resisted change so long, but I’m glad I made the change.

Oh, yes, the next pair of socks. I’m working on the basic sock out of the Twisted Sisters book – top down. The yarn is millspun – Drake’s fiber prepared by Mette. I’ve got three or four inches of cuff already knit.

Proof of finished socks!

My first finished pair of knit socks.

They’re done. Note there are two, count them two, complete knit socks in this pair.

Yarn is Berroco Ultra Alpaca in Stonewash and Lobster. It’s 50% wool and 50% alpaca.

They’re done! I think I can call myself a knitter now.

The baby doves pictures in this post are back – except they’re smaller, younger, and cuter. (Sorry, no picture).

I have completed – I think – the knitting on the second sock. (Sorry, no picture.) I’m not sure the sock is done. No yarn has been cut. The bind off was a little tight. I have managed to loosen it some. I think it’s good now, but I can’t decide if that’s wishful thinking or if it’s really good. Tomorrow, I will decide if I need to re-knit the bind-off or not.

Is it standard practice to block socks?

Delia wrote:
that’s such a tease!!….OK…i’ll check back later

Sorry all. I’m still teasing. Still no picture and the sock is still not finished. The second sock of my first complete knitted pair of socks is six rows from being complete.

In blog update news, I have converted back as far as June into the new format. I believe images are working correctly for the converted posts. I believe internal links linking to converted posts are working, but I suspect I still have some broken links when it comes to posts that have not been converted yet.

I have made progress on the sock and on repairing the blog.

In blog news, All the posts for August have been converted into the new format. Comments have been replicated. Internal links that can be fixed have been fixed, but some remain pointing to unconverted posts.

On the more important topic, the second sock of my first complete pair of socks is within ten rows of binding off. I’m excited. (Sorry, no pictures.) There appear to be gauge issues. These issues appear to be minor. The socks haven’t been blocked yet – does one block socks? It remains to be seen what blocking does to the shape of my efforts. Right now, though, I think they fit!

There is, apparently, some sort of challenge about posting first sock pictures to the web. Anyone care to leave me a link in the comments?

Stay tuned. There might be a finished pair of socks post tomorrow.