It was stress

On Saturday I went to the Knitters fair with Rachel H. (Those of you who know us will be very impressed to know that we drove STRAIGHT there and STRAIGHT back. We didn’t get lost at all. Incredible, especially in that neck of the woods where we have previously had a very great deal of trouble.) Many of you will also know that I have been on a big yarn diet for some months now, to pay for the new stove. Realistically, I should still be on that diet, but apparently the Knitters Fair, lots of fun knitters, 50 vendors in one place and the rigours of working to finish a book are far more than I can bear and there was a serious falling down (or three) in the yarn department. Sigh.

Now, what you don’t know is that about a week ago I lost my debit card. I reported it gone, but hadn’t yet turned up at the bank to pick up a new one. Round about Thursday I ran out of cash and started waving around my seldom used credit card. I used it for a couple of bizarre international purchases as well as some Canadian stuff in rapid succession, then tucked it back into my wallet.

Then I got to the Knitters Fair (where I was not going to buy anything I swear) and had the aforementioned falling downs in the yarn department. Not having cash, I used the credit card.

Afterwards (and it really didn’t take long to get to afterwards – Rachel H. and I are nothing if not efficient) we went out for lunch where I once again produced the almighty credit card….which was DECLINED. I whipped out another one, but while I was signing I had a horrible feeling. A terrible feeling.

The vendors at the fair were just doing manual transactions. There was no way to know if the card was working at that point, it should have been working…it had been working…. I was pretty damned sure that I wasn’t over limit since I don’t carry a balance on those things, but if it wasn’t working now (which it very clearly wasn’t) then when had it stopped, and when would it start again and what was I going to do in the meantime?

We scurried home (STRAIGHT home) and I called the company. Turns out that if someone who hardly ever uses their card uses it several times in what seems to be several cities or countries all in the run of a day, it triggers their fraud buttons and the card starts being declined until they can confirm if you are really using it, or if it’s been boosted by some horror who’s trying to party on hard via your credit. It takes 1-2 working days to fix it.

I tried to explain to the guy that they had to fix it now. That those yarn people were going to go back to their shops and they were going to run the card and then it was going to be that The Yarn Harlot had stolen yarn all over the fair. I tried to explain that I am, while pretty damned fixated on yarn, not yet so far gone that I would steal the stuff….

I tried to explain about the yarn and the fair and the kits that I got and the price of mohair and that he really had to fix it…but it turns out that Greg at the card company has little or no actual power, and that poor Greg may have been a little flustered by how upset I was about yarn and the whole Yarn Harlot thing might not have gone over very big either.

It will be fixed tomorrow. I have sent emails to all the people I stole yarn from, and for reasons I can’t explain they are very understanding about the fact that I am sitting in a house full of their yarn that I didn’t pay for.

I have promised not to knit it ’til I own it, sometime tomorrow. (This is ample punishment, I assure you.)

I feel better just for admitting it. That’s me. Yarn thief.

I suppose it was inevitable.