Chapter 15: Staying Home

It's hard to fathom how very different the world is today than it was just 1 month ago when I wrote my last post.  Looking back at it, it can't even believe that one short week after I wrote it schools closed down, followed by daycares, and then what feels like the entire world came screeching to a halt.  

I know I don't need to tell you about all the ways that COVID-19 has changed everything about life.  I read all the articles, see the photographs, and try to process a million terrifying statistics each and every day, just as I'm sure many of you are doing.  But I also see the world opening up to fighting this thing together.  I see the beauty of communities hanging colourful pictures in their windows, sidewalk art with kind messages, smiles and waves in the street, from safe distances, as we all try to keep each other connected in some tiny way.  In the fibre world, you too might have noticed the increase in digital connection.  There seem to be Instagram Live videos to watch hourly, and digital craft circles popping up all over the web, helping us bolster each other up while we miss our usual crafty companions.  I see fellow yarn lovers and indie dyers stepping away from their fibre art and, like so many medical superheros, suiting up in PPE to fight the fight in a normally hidden alternative life as doctors, nurses, and specialists.  Still others have dropped their yarn in favour of painstakingly sewing masks out of everything from bedsheets to coveted fabric stashes.  

All of this is so heartwarming and provides so much hope and inspiration to me during this time when my regular anxiety has been upgraded to "The New and Improved Pandemic Panic."  It can also sometimes make me feel like I'm not doing enough.  I'm not a medical professional, I don't have PPE to donate, and the last time I used my sewing machine I kicked a children's sofa across the living room floor.  But I also know, truthfully, the best thing I can do to help fight this pandemic is stay home, and that's just what we're doing, even if it feels like a terribly anti-climactic way to save the world.

With that said, I want to reassure you that the shop remains open and ticking.  There are of course some changes to accomodate the changes in our personal lives.  With my two children home and my other half working (from home), I am tackling the homeschooling and otherwise minding the little ones in our house while they aren't in school.  This means, that I have not yet managed to get my dye pots bubbling the way I'd like, and often by the time they are in bed I am too bleary-eyed or anxious to fiddle with stitch marker making, either.  When I am able, I will do a shop update with some new things but I cannot promise a date for that just yet. 

However, there has still been some excitement!  This weekend we hosted Emily C. Gillies for a digital trunk show and decided to extend the trunk show until 11:59pm Monday April 13!  We have Emily's new line of untreated BFL yarns plus her existing superwash merino collection.  Emily's colour palette is beyond compare -  sophisticated and cohesive, they are the perfect hues to play with for colourwork.  Please do check it out, and if you need help selecting a colour, feel free to reach out, because quite honestly, that's my favourite part.  

We truly do appreciate your support during this time.  Each online interaction with our followers and subscribers through comments, likes, sales, or digital craft circles, helps boost our spirits right now when fibre festivals are being cancelled or rescheduled week by week.  We are trying to help others in our community affected by these cancellations through the hosting of digital trunk shows and virtual craft circles, and generally just trying to be good to people, because we all need a little good right now.  This whole experience is something there isn't a pattern for, we are all just freehand knitting life right now, however overwhelming that might be.  When we come out the other side of this, I look forward to seeing you all in person, and all of your quarantine crafts.  

Until then, stay home, keep calm, and knit on.