Paranoid? Moi?

I miss my old LYS...

I recently moved house, away from a gorgeous LYS to a smaller one I hadn't been to much. This one stocks a fairly bog standard lot of stuff - your patons and heirloom and what have you, the fanciest they stock is Jo Sharp certainly no Rowan's or Noro's (oh so sad).

So yesterday I needed to get some dpns to do the heel part of my sock (I'm sure it can be done in magic loop but being my first pair I thought I should do it normally to see how it's done). I walk into the store, straight over to thee needles and spy the ones I need, the assistant in the store hovers nearby asking if I need help, no thanks found what I need. I hear the two ladies sitting on the couch knitting talking about young people and how they wear not much in this cold weather and don't seem to feel the cold and deducted that they probably got onto that subject by the fact that I walked in with wet hair (hello? curly hair + hairdryer = fuzz ball!) (and maybe I was a teeny bit paranoid). Then I heard them go onto talking about a 'knit 'n bitch' that goes on in Canberra 'oh not too fond of THAT name, I mean honestly' I smile knowingly and move over to check out the yarn.

I spy some yarn with a pattern book next to it that might do some nice patterns for my rowan kid silk haze (that I have been hoarding FOREVER it's so yummy) so I pick up the yarn to check out the gauge, meterage and all that. So I whip out my phone and start writing the info into it (yes I am a techo nerd and have a pocket pc as a phone, comes in handy for writing this type of info down). Well this was obviously suss to the store assistant who then hovered closer (she had been keeping an eye on me like I was gonna steal something since I got in the store) and asked again if I need any help. I mean really, if I need help I know where you are! You don't have to keep asking me! I suspect she was just asking to be nosy more than anything. (paranoia settling in for a cuppa now).
My suspicitions of nosey store assistant were confirmed when she got a CLIMBED UP ON A LADDER directly behind me to do some sort of nothing or another (to look over my shoulder if you ask me) (paranoia cracking open the bikkies right about now). So I moved away to the other side of the store, saw nothing I liked and went to the counter.
Well if this woman had looks that would kill I'd be in my grave by now she was just grumpy and mean looking. Maybe that's just her, I thought. But then another 'older' lady came up to the counter to ask for help and she was all nice as pie.

So what was that all about? What is it with ageism in LYS's? If that had been at my old LYS there would be nice helpful ladies doing their best to get me anything I need. And this isn't the first time I had had this sort of treatment for that store, last time I had the same feeling of 'you don't belong in here' *sigh* I think from now on I'll be making the trip back to my old LYS where I don't get spied on.

Onto nicer things, I have been dreaming about the getaway satchel in the fall IK (when will they get that issue here?? Hurry up borders!) but being that it is way beyond my limited intarsia skills and also being that I have never felted before, I thought I would try the french market bag instead. So I went and got some cheapo holiday yarn from k-mart (apparently felts like a dream). My DH spied me buying it and was all 'more yarn? What about my jumper?' yes well I am getting there, it takes FOREVER to knit that jumper.