Limited Edison
lithograph of 250
Stock Exchange Trader
Spins A New Yarn
New York (JTA) — Holding a
half-crocheted aqua kippah in her
left hand, Ronnie Selbst picks up
one of the many phones on the
steel column behind her and says,
"Bid a half and three-eighths for
a thousand."
Wearing the same light-blue
jacket as some 20 traders in the
horseshoe section of a trading
floor of the American Stock Ex-
change in New York City, Ms.
Selbst stands out not only be-
cause she is one of two female
traders in that section, but be-
cause of her unusual pastime —
crocheting kippot for charity
while standing in a crowd wait-
ing to buy and sell trades.
Ms. Selbst, 42, has owned an
exchange seat for the past 10
years, trading equity options pri-
marily for Chase Manhattan
Corp. and W.R. Grace Co. On
busy days she makes about 150
trades, and on slow days, about
25.
To keep occupied during those
slow times, Ms. Selbst decided to
crochet. What started as a per-
sonal project has turned into a
charity to raise money for her
synagogue in Montclair, N.J.
Wanting to wear a yarmulke
like the other female members of
B'nai Keshet, a Reconstruction-
ist congregation, Ms. Selbst de-
cided to use her spare time at
work to make kippot for herself
and her daughter.
After that project, she began
making kippot for 19 bar mitz-
vah students in her son Andrew's
class.
A few months ago, co-worker
Jay Knopf asked Ms. Selbst to
make him a yarmulke with his
name on it. When Ms. Selbst fin-
ished the purple and light-blue
kippah, Mr. Knopf offered to pay
her for her time.
Refusing, Ms. Selbst instead
suggested that he make a con-
tribution to her synagogue. He
did.
This gave her the idea to put a
notice in the synagogue's newslet-
ter: Anyone who donates $100 or
more toward the synagogue's
Torah fund will receive a cro-
cheted yarmulke from Ms. Selb-
st. So far, $800 has been collected.
Ms. Selbst is now trying to
raise money for the B'nai
Keshet's building fund. The syn-
agogue, which has never had a
permanent house of worship,
plans to construct an additional
building and make renovations
at its current site on an old school
property.
To help raise money for this
project, Ms. Selbst plans to cus-
tom-crochet kippot for anyone,
including non-members, who do-
nate at least $100 to the syna-
gogue.
Traders bring a variety of
things to occupy their slow time
at work. Ms. Selbst used to spend
her time reading, but with all the
distractions, it was too hard for
her to concentrate.
Crocheting has been much eas-
ier. "When I scream ... you never
know if it's because of a trade or
if my thread is knotted," she says.
At Ms. Selbst's feet, on the
gray floor where white ticket
scraps lie, sits her bag filled with
yarn, along with a red, green,
blue and yellow backpack that
holds her other crocheting sup-
plies and necessities to carry out
her workday.
With her white spool of yarn
on the counter and crochet book
in hand, Ms. Selbst crochets
while standing from 9:30 a.m. to
4 p.m. staring at bright green,
tiny numbers on black computer
screens on the wall.
Crocheting kippot
for her synagogue.
Because fewer trades come in
during the summer, Ms. Selbst
can finish one yarmulke in about
two work days, or 10 hours. She
has already finished about 20, all
different colors, sizes and pat-
terns. The craft comes easily to
her. She learned how to crochet
from a friend when she was at-
tending a yeshiva elementary
school.
"I don't know how to crochet
anything else," says Ms. Selbst,
who learned the art because "it
was the thing to do in school; if
you had a boyfriend, you had to
make him a yarmulke."
Aside from accidentally trip-
ping over her yarn, her co-work-
ers don't seem to mind her
activity.
Crocheting at work is "fairly
unique," says options trader
Michael Longfellow of New York
City, who prefers to read books
or magazines.
Some people sleep; others eat,
says options trader Andrew Vac-
carro of Hoboken, N.J., who
"thought it was odd at first" but
is now used to Ms. Selbst's craft.
"Ronnie is rather aggressive in
the way she trades and the way
she crochets," Mr. Vaccarro says.
Mr. Knopf, vice president of
Spear, Leeds and Kellogg, teach-
es one of his co-workers Hebrew
when it is slow. He also organizes
a minyan at 1:45 p.m. Mondays
in a conference room at the ex-
YARN page 76
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