Newsletter 612
Reopening (Sort Of!) News...
Hi, y’all! We’re happy to let you know that thanks to Mayor Cooper’s “phased reopening” plan, we’ll be re-open for visits beginning Monday, May 11. It’s a gentle re-open, though, with some new rules and regulations -- as well as a few safeguards for you and our staff. Thanks in advance for understanding and observing them. Please read all the way through this so there aren't any surprises in store for you when you visit us!
Our new hours will be M-Sat, 10am-1pm. We know that sounds like a short schedule, but with a temporarily reduced staff (but the same amount of behind-the-scenes work to be done!), it's the most we can manage at this time.
We’re playing it safe at the beginning of this phase and still not allowing actual in-store visits. We have a walk-up window designed and set up, though. It’ll basically work like an old-fashioned trip to a General Store -- you'll come to the plexiglass-protected counter at the front door, let us know what you're looking for, and we’ll go retrieve it for you; we’re happy to grab options and talk through them with you. Because yarn is so tactile, it involves multiple hands touching multiple skeins multiple times all day long, and this is the best way we can figure to cut down on the risk of virus transmission via merchandise. It simply isn’t practical or possible to sanitize thousands of skeins of yarn after each visit!
Wearing a mask whenever you leave your house is one of the mayor’s Phase 1 guidelines; we ask that you wear one when visiting us. If you don't have a mask for public forays, we've got great ones sewn by our own Vicki available for $15. Hand sanitizer is prominent at the walk-up window; please use it! It's 80% ethanol and made by local gin distiller Corsair! Meg likes gin so that was a no-brainer. But don't drink it!
When you arrive, you’ll see generously-spaced tape-lines marked on the sidewalk outside; please claim the next empty one and we’ll get to you as soon as it’s your turn. If there’s a line of people when you arrive, just wait in your car until a position opens. Please maintain social distancing at all times while waiting; we have a pretty spacious front porch and parking lot -- there's plenty of room! Thanks for your patience -- we'll get to you!
Social distancing guidelines prevent us from being able to offer hands-on knitting help until further notice. Alas, we haven’t figured out a way to pick up a stitch for you from six feet away or through a plexiglass sneeze guard, so we do urge you to refer to YouTube for things like that; it’s an amazing resource!
If you need any purchased yarn wound, we’ve set up an outdoor winding station (weather permitting!) for you to use for any immediate winding needs. Any additional yarn that needs to be wound can be left for later winding and picked up the next business day; we’ll call you when it’s ready. As a reminder, we do sell ball winders and swifts! It’s not hard, we promise — it just takes a little practice.
Restrooms will not be available until further notice.
If you feel ill, do not come to the store, not even to the walk-up window. You can always shop online or call your order in and send someone to pick it up (be sure and click the "local pickup" option when checking out online). We’ll have a table set up on the front porch; just let us know when your yarn mule is coming and your order will be placed on it for pickup anytime during open store hours; if it’s not picked up by close of business that day, we’ll bring it inside until the next scheduled business day.
See the glorious pot of zinnia seedlings in the photo above? Our fingers are crossed that they'll make it; Meg backed into them today, shortly after taking this photo (no she wasn't drinking any hand sanitizer). Wiping tears (laughing, crying, she's all mixed up these days), she repotted them. It’s been a difficult series of weeks for all of us. If we can get through this first phase of adjustment successfully — with no significant increase in infection rates — we’re hopeful that we can move on to an even more relaxed phase that could see the lessening of some of these restrictions…and actual in-store visits!
Our customers are fantastic, and we appreciate the patronage during our online-only time. We promised we’d see you on the other side of this, and while we’re not quite there yet, we do feel it’s less a cave and more a tunnel at this point, with a little pinprick of light in the distance. Thank you for your help in making that light brighter in the coming days and weeks.
The Clementine Cowl in Spincycle Dyed in the Wool
We've been a Spincycle stockist for awhile now - we can't even remember exactly how many years! Three seems to be about right! - and in all those years, we've never had as many colors IN STOCK as we currently do. For real: 26 different colors of Spincycle Dyed in the Wool are hanging on our wall!
The Clementine Cowl uses two skeins in contrasting colors and is a simple, drapey, slip-stitched color work cowl. The slipped-stitch polka dot pattern is a simple way to add texture to stockinette fabric. Knit in the round, the finishing couldn't be simpler! Just add one each of two contrasting colors to your cart and you'll be slip-stitching away! Oh and hey -- we looked this up on the internet: with 26 different colors, you can make 325 unique pairings! Go wild, y'all!
Click HERE to shop Spincycle Dyed in the Wool.
Click HERE to purchase the Clementine Cowl pattern from Ravelry.