![]() Then all you’ll have left is, “Remember when…” We all love the idea of the quaint Main Street, but if we all buy from on-line sites, because we got so used to not leaving home, and we don’t support that Main Street we love, guess what? Like all things neglected, it will go away. Don’t take anything for granted, because you may turn around and it will be gone. Support your local businesses and community events. Drive around and you’ll see small downtowns that didn’t make it and it is a sad sight…all those empty storefronts staring woefully at you. Who visits a town when all the stores are closed? No one. What is an afternoon without lunch at a brewhouse? Boring. What is Main street without a coffee house? Nada. ![]() Who would have known that they had the burden of the entire community spirit on their shoulders? And yet they do. The onus is on these neighborhood shops to provide a milieu for the community. Small coffee shops and bars and, yes, even yarn shops, offer the opportunity to socialize with neighbors that other retail shops don’t offer. Unfortunately the customer is out there in the parking lot saying, “Geez, I miss sitting inside and socializing with my neighbors.” The rules for what was once common practice in providing a service (operating hours, staffing, in-person interaction), no longer apply. Two: you can often make just as much money with take-away as with in-house seating. One: life is better when you are not working 24-7. Being closed during Covid taught small businesses a few lessons. Post-Covid (not that we feel quite “post” yet) small businesses seem to be saying, “Things are different.” They are opening fewer hours, offering fewer menu items, and providing fewer seats. Why am I writing this now? I notice more businesses being less able to keep the hours we expected them to keep in the past. Join us! Katie Sullivan from Bobolink Yarns with some of her upcycled yarn. She will be speaking at the shop on Friday, March 11th, at 5:00 when we’ll be able to knit with some of her yarns. In addition, she is interested in figuring out how to put to use wool that is not appropriate for spinning but can be used for other purposes: mulching, soaking up spills, heat-resistant fabrics, etc. She has upcycled mill ends from Darn Tough Socks that she has spun and dyed into beautiful and vibrant lace weight yarn. ![]() Katie is also interested in capturing wool which is going in the dump. Right now I carry American Shetland from Montana and Colorado, Navajo Ramouillet, Cormo from Wyoming, Merino from Virginia, and Jacob from Vermont, so I was happy with Katie Sullivan of Bobolink Yarns in Vermont contacted me to carry the Breed specific yarns she is producing from local, mainly meat farms who do not use their wool: Cheviot, Coopworth, Clun Forest, and Romney. Cultivating breed specific yarns has been a growing interest in the United States. There I met Blacker Yarns, who have their standby’s-Blue Faced Leicester, Gotland, Jacob, and Shetland-but also have limited edition rare breeds, like Hill Radnor and Oxford Down. ![]() My first encounter was in England at the Yarntopia event in London. Whilst hand spinners have always enjoyed spinning yarn from just one breed of sheep, larger spinneries have been developing Breed specific yarns. With those patterns-the neediest-and projects so tedious It’s the most stressful time of the year. And everyone telling you the time’s getting near.
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