Heindselman’s
Friday December 14th 2007, 2:43 pm
Filed under: Knit

John reading the Christmas story in LukeWednesday we checked our son John into the Mormon Church’s Mission Training Center in Provo, Utah, the point of our trip. In three weeks, he will be off from there to the Jackson, Mississippi mission, including parts of Louisiana–ya’ll take good care of him for me if you see him riding by on his bike for me, willya; thanks. He’s such a good kid, and his mother is going to miss him fiercely.

Then later that afternoon we went to Heindselman’s, a Provo store that has spinning, weaving, and knitting and crocheting supplies. I was delighted to see Alpaca With A Twist’s baby alpaca roving, my favorite.

Heindselman’s in Provo, Utah

Heindselman’s, it turns out, is the oldest continuously-operating yarn store in the United States; it began in 1904Ted at Heindselman’s, with Elizabeth. The current owner (this is Ted, with Elizabeth in the background) created a biomedical invention that I’ll let him talk about, if he’d like to, that did very well, and then, since he could now go do anything he wanted, he chose to take on the old family business.

We got to meet Father Christmas http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,695235971,00.html when he happened to come into the store.

There were dolls just to the left of Ted in the picture that he explained are Heindselmans: it is not only the family name, but also the word for the characters in the old fairy tale about the poor shoemaker who could not possibly finish the fine shoes in time that had been ordered to be done by Christmas. They are the little elves that came out at night and worked on them for him, unbeknownst to him.

You know, I can’t think of a more apropos concept for those of the yarny persuasions this time of year. There’s a certain knitter in Toronto with a Schedule who could really use some of those dolls right now, but I didn’t think to ask if any of them were for sale. Sorry, Stephanie!


9 Comments so far
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So cool! I’d love to hear more about what his medical invention is!

Comment by Amanda 12.14.07 @ 3:15 pm

So worth it, but so hard to give up your son for two years right before Christmas. I will pray for him and all the others and wave when I see them.

Comment by LisaK 12.14.07 @ 3:24 pm

Aw, makes me wish we lived in MS or LA just to wave. He’ll be fine. 🙂

Comment by Toni 12.14.07 @ 4:24 pm

Oh! I remember that story! I loved that story!! Sorry ’bout the exclamation marks – I got excited. Now I have to go find the story. Might be a challenge, as I remember virtusally nothing about it, but the holidays are coming. I’ve got time! 😉

Comment by Lene 12.14.07 @ 6:34 pm

p.s. forgot in the excitement… Good luck, John!

Comment by Lene 12.14.07 @ 6:40 pm

I’ll Wave from here! Good Luck to the whole Family!
Great story about the yarn store…some things endure…Gratefully!

Comment by Sheila E 12.15.07 @ 6:42 am

I love that the store has been around since 1904 :-}
I love that Ted waned to keep it going!
May blessings rain down on John on his new journey :-}

Comment by Diana Troldahl 12.15.07 @ 7:37 am

We will keep him in our thoughts and prayers.
The time will fly by.

Comment by Sonya 12.15.07 @ 10:00 am

You are letting go of your son in the most generous way a mom knows how.

Heinzelmann! That’s the German word I remember. Often used in the diminutive form “Heinzelmaennchen” (longer word, I know, but more endearing); “little elf”.

Comment by Karin 12.17.07 @ 11:56 am



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