Something to Do in Old Age (Besides Hang Out at Woolworth's)

Still, I am always keen to add something to my repertoire, which is why I took up knitting a few years ago. I thought it would be entertaining and, in the long run, something I could do in my old age besides ask people if I could go ahead of them in line at the Key Food. (My previous plan for retirement was to wander the aisles of Woolworth's, looking at the hair nets and the weird underwear and then sit at the lunch counter all afternoon, but that fell through when they all closed. You can understand why I am worried about Social Security. I thought Woolworth's was the epitome of stability.)

I thought I could teach myself to knit, so I bought an ancient pattern book at a thrift shop and some tacky pink yarn and started making a headband. I soon abandoned that project, once I got the hang of things, and started making a lovely afghan with decent yarn instead. The day I figured out how to make fringe with a crochet hook I felt like I had completed an Outward Bound trek. I never got beyond the scarf/afghan/large-knitted-miscellaneous-object stage, so I started thinking about taking some lessons.

That's when I found No XS in the East Village. It's a small, plain shop, but they carry some beautiful yarns and offer lessons at the beginner level for $35 an hour. The owner, Renee Michele (who calls herself a knitress, like an actress or a seamstress), started the shop about seven years ago, selling mostly clothes and sewing items.

"Gradually, people started asking me to give knitting lessons, so the shop kind of evolved out of that, from listening to my customers. I have acrylic and cashmere yarns, and I also spin my own," she told me. "We try to accommodate creative types, people who want to make their own patterns. We even have knitting parties, like sewing bees, every Sunday. We have some men who come into the shop, but we are trying to get a guy to come to a knitting party."

Why does she think something as old-fashioned as knitting is popular again?

"I think it is because so many people push buttons for a living that they want to work with their hands. It's so ancient that it is new again. Also, creating something that is unique, that is yours alone, has a big allure.

It's true; the current trendiness of knitting does bother me a little, but it is just too exhausting to try to stay ahead of the curve. For instance, I don't even have pierced ears, but if I were to attempt any so-called body modification, I think I would go straight to cutting off my head, which I would thereafter carry in a jaunty little hand-knitted bag.

No XS, 80 E. 7th Street (betw. 1st & 2nd Aves.), 674-6753.

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I am fond of small items that cost a dollar, and was especially so this Christmas, as I spent half my allotted shopping budget on stockings and lipstick cases?I mean a girl has to think of the necessities, doesn't she?

That's why I ordered a lot of books from Dover Publications. They are a unique company, in that the majority of the books they publish are from the public domain. Hayward Cirker, who died last March, founded the company in 1941 with his wife, Blanche. He always favored the eclectic and the quirky, with titles like The History of Underclothes and The Technique of Bobbin Lace. In fact, one of his early bestsellers was an obscure theoretical work by Albert Einstein, one that even Einstein didn't think was worth reprinting. Their extensive main catalog has books on everything from puppets and ventriloquism to home repairs and origami.

And the best thing? They're cheap. The prices are low, low, low. All their catalogs are free, and fun to flip through, but my favorite remains the Dover Dollar Book Catalog. There are five pages of sticker books alone, including holiday stickers, foreign language stickers, activity books, paper dolls and sticker storybooks. Many feature bugs and mammals and prehistoric creatures, both cute and realistic. Also, I feel that Dover rises to the occasion in solving that eternal dilemma of buying for children?is it better to get them something educational or something fun? It's hard to argue with a stained-glass coloring book, especially one about desert animals with a big scorpion on the cover. For the sensitive soul on your list, this catalog also has many books of poetry and fiction, all with quite tasteful covers, a very English-lit-type selection, with a few surprises thrown in, like Tarzan of the Apes and Ring Lardner's You Know Me, Al. For those who wish to encourage the inner Jewel in someone, you can also find blank and ruled notebooks.

Once again, though, for me, it all comes down to nostalgia. That's the real reason I shop the white pages of Dover. Ever since Shackman's Toy Store went out of business, I have had nowhere to go for Victorian reproductions of St. Patrick's Day cards, or floral seals that feature old-time shoes. Dover has everything you could ever want in the way of streamlined-train postcards and views of old New York and antique circus posters. And in the immortal words of Tom Waits, it's only a dollar, so step right up.

Dover Publications, 180 Varick St. (betw. King & Charlton Sts.), 9th fl., 255-6399; 31 E. 2nd St., Mineola, NY 11501, 800-223-3130.