KaneoheYachtsToday we have another one of our Loopy Legends in the Limelight! Capi has been a long-time customer and I know you’ll enjoy reading about her. (She also has one of the largest sock yarn stashes that we know about. You’ll see pictures!) So many of you emailed to ask if we’d be telling you more about the Loopy Legends, and we’ll do as many of them in the Limelight as we can. (Some of them may want to stay anonymous - but we’ll ask them. We think it’s more fun not to be anonymous when you’re a Legend.)

Loopy: Hi Capi! You have a very unique and memorable name. Was that your given name?
Capi: No. The day after I was born, Dad came to the hospital and casually asked what name my Mother had picked out. She told him, “Aldorpha Evangelina.” His comment: “Try again.” She then came up with Carol, which later turned out to be what everyone who had a blond-blue-eyed-female-type-kid was using. This was after the then popular Carole Lombard, who herself was actually born Jane Alice Peters. So all thru grammar school (we didn’t call it elementary back then) I was one of 5 or 6 or 9 Carols in my class. As I was getting ready to enter my township high school (5 towns), my girl friend across the street said, you definitely need a nickname. Putting our heads together, we came up with CAPI which is really just CArol PIke - the first two letters of my first and last name. It stuck and I have been Capi ever since.

This worked to my advantage at one point in my life, back when I was a shrimp fisherman-woman-person down in Mexico in the Sea of Cortez. The port captain, who controlled who could or couldn’t work on the boats (or even buy wholesale shrimp) was also called Capi, therefore making he and I namesakes. In Spanish when another person shares your name, you call one another “tocayo” - a habit we don’t have in English, but which forms a bond with that individual. Being tocayos allowed me to work on the shrimp boats … the only American AND the only woman to do so in the entire area.

Loopy: I’ve never met another Capi, so you’re we think you’re pretty unique! Although we like Aldorpha, too. You’re one of our Loopy Legends and have been a long time Loopy customer. Do you remember how you found out about The Loopy Ewe?
PICT0309Capi: Oh, I was undoubtedly Googling for sock yarn, as I did almost every night trying to build up my stash of sock yarn so I could knit socks to go with my Cayman Crocs. I had other shoes, but when some friends in Phoenix turned me on to Crocs, “Katy bar the door!” I had to have every color that they made. I now own 42 pair of them, they have their own shoe racks in the corner of the bedroom. Well, now if you have all of these lovely colors of Crocs, then you’ve got to make socks to go with them, right?

Loopy: You definitely need socks for Crocs! (And we like your display of them - kinda like having a rainbow in your bedroom.) Did you like your Loopy Legends colorway?
Capi: Do I like my Legends colorway, Capi’s Arizona Rainbow? NO, I LOVE my colorway. I truly could not have picked better colors. It’s sorta like the commercial for the brand name spaghetti sauce using people with Herb, parsley and such names….well, a little bit of….nope nope, just couldn’t add or subtract a single color…the colorway is just perfect as it is! Kudos to Sheri and the Zen String zone.

PICT0234Loopy: Well it wasn’t necessarily easy to pick colors for you because we know you already have a great yarn stash. How long have you been knitting and who taught you to knit?
Capi: I first began knitting when I was a kid, probably around 9, by my Grandma. I just knit scarves and rather non-descript doll blankets though as I could never seem to follow a pattern. Years later, while at my Aunt Mary’s house, she watched me struggling with my knitting and said in a very disgusted tone, “My Mother taught you to knit, didn’t she? I said, “Yes.” and then she explained that Grandma knit backwards, which was why I could never follow a pattern. She and later a college friend, helped me get back on track and I have been knitting ever since, with some breaks for other hobbies.

PICT0212Loopy: You learned to knit backwards? That’s funny! Do you know how many skeins are in your stash? And how long would it take you to knit that up?
Capi: Yes, I know exactly how many skeins are in my SOCK stash…well, not the skeins, but the colorways…..to date there are 2153, with 6 more enroute. That is to say, there are that many colorways for 2153 pair of socks…but I could probably squeeze out another 1000 pair of socks with the leftover yarns, many of which would match one another. Or I could make tons of mini-socks. I actually give away some of my sock yarn to a friend so that she can make these darling octopus toys for cats…sprayed or stuffed w/a bit of catnip…hooo boy! How long to knit that yarn up…hmm, see I am trying to insure my longevity and figure I’m gonna have to live to be at least 115 or so.

PICT0307Loopy: We’d like to think you’ll live that long, too. What a fun stash you have! You’ve traveled a lot. What has been your favorite trip so far?
Capi: My favorite trip? I would have to say probably my favorite trip would be any one that is still in the planning stages in the future. I think the anticipation is often just as exciting as the actual trip. However that is a rather intangible answer, so I will have to narrow it down to 3 that I have actually gone on already…Hudson’s Bay at Churchill Canada to kayak with the beluga whales (those white smiley ones) who come up and visit with you and even bump your boat, but not maliciously. To Peru in the Andes and the Amazon Valley, where a full sized tapir would come into the chow hall and beg food at dinner time. And of course, China. Many aspects of China were great…I have been there 4 times. A highlight was going over at Christmas 2 years ago and going up to what was Manchuria to see the Ice Festival. It begins in Jan and lasts until April….never gets above zero.They have 4 story buildings made of ice w/neon lighting…a clock tower that actually works. Fantastic ice and snow carvings. It is like another world.

Loopy: Wow. I’ll bet it’s COLD in those ice buildings! Have you met any famous knitters along the way? :-)
Capi: No, but I hope to at the 2 yarn retreats that I will be going to in April! Oh, well I met Vanna White at ACCI trade show one year…does that count?

Loopy: We’ll count Vanna, since she does knit. Now, we also happen to know that you collect more than yarn. Care to share any of your other fun collections with us?
Capi: I used to be a rubber stamper and have probably 10,000 or so stamps…that are just crying, “what about us, aren’t we your friends anymore?” And since I began going to China a few years back, I now also collect Yixing (ee-shing) teapots, which are made from a special purple clay called Zisha. The teapots are never glazed & the clay absorbs the flavor and odor of the tea brewed in it so over time the seasoned pot becomes quite special. The pots are only made in one town in China, Yixing, NW of Shanghai. Some of the artisans are famous and command big bucks (or yuan) for their creations. (Speaking of China, this is Capi’s beautiful Bengal cat XiXin (she-sheen).

PICT0254Loopy: The teapots sound interesting. I’ll bet that is a pretty collection! We’re looking forward to having you here at the Spring Fling. Have you been to other knitting retreats - what is your favorite thing about knitting retreats?
Capi: Ah, I have never been to a knitting gathering before so this will be a brand new experience. However, by the time I get to see and meet you in person, Loopy, I’ll be coming directly from another knitting retreat being held in the San Juan Islands above Seattle. Can I bring you a salmon?….uh, no I don’t suppose youse ewe’s eats salmons. But to answer the question…I would think the comraderie and exchange of ideas would be paramount to me.

Loopy: Um, no, to the salmon. That’s correct. But thanks for the offer! Well, since we’re always on the lookout for good books - do you have a favorite?
Capi: You know, a few weeks ago, I might have named any number of mystery authors since that is my normal genre, but I recently finished Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen which was fantastic. Written by a woman, but told in the first person about a man in a nursing home and done in flashbacks about his time with a circus….truly wonderful insight into people. I have another book in the wings, so to speak, now loaded on my Kindle, but I haven’t begun it yet. As a fan of all of the Janet Evanovich books, one of my knitting buddies told me that Agnes and the Hitman by Jennifer Crusie was of that ilk….I’ll let you know if you should add it to your “counting sheep don’t sleep, latenightreadinglist.”

Loopy: I count socks when I can’t fall asleep. Counting sheep just makes me want to get up and play and doesn’t make me any sleepier. Socks - now socks make me sleepy. Anything else you’d like to add?
Capi: Are you kidding? I think I have taken up far too much of your valuable knitting time as it is….back to my sock knitting. I’ll never get those 3 pair a week socks done at this rate. Loopy, thank you so much for your time and indulgence. It has been a real pleasure and I sure look forward to meeting you, the Loopsters, and the Loopy Groupies at the upcoming Spring Fling.
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Sheri whowantstohaveasmanyknittedpairsofsocksasCapidoessomeday