When the Time is Right…we will open our shop. A lot of shops in our area have already opened. But we are still closed to the public. Why? There are several reasons. The most important one is that I have an immune compromised system. Remember about 10 years ago when I was sick for about 4 months and had to have my spleen removed. While I’ve been fairly healthy since then, I’m not sure that I’m quite ready to test this Covid-19 virus out to see how I would do. Also, I know a lot of our customers are considered “high risk” individuals as well because they are over 65 (me too) and/or have had cancer or other illnesses that put them at high risk. Another reason we are still remaining closed is that we haven’t been able to purchase much new yarn lately. Most of you that have been in the shop since we moved to our new location have already seen all of the yarns we have in stock. And we are trying to get them all on the website so you can see the colors we have. Doing mail orders or curbside service has done well for us since we had to close the shop. So until we see how things go with the new safety procedures put in place, we are going to continue to remain closed, but still be able to service your knitting & crocheting needs. I so appreciate you all for understanding and for still continuing to support us. There will be days when sales are so low that I wonder how we will make it through all this. But then someone will purchase a gift certificate off our website. Or someone will call in an order for a yarn to make a baby blanket (they say we’ll have a bunch more babies coming in about 8 months!). Or someone will purchase a kit we have put together to make a new project. It’s in those times that I am truly encouraged. God is taking care of us by providing for all our needs.
If you’ve been out in public at all you may have noticed that a lot of people are not wearing masks. I wonder sometimes why they aren’t doing everything they can to help protect me and others from this virus that they may not even know yet that they have. Every time I go out I wear a mask to protect others. Do I like wearing a mask? Not really, but I have a beautiful cloth mask that one of our customers made for me. I wash it every couple of days so that it stays fresh and ready for my next visit out to the shop or to the post office to mail packages. That’s about the only places I’ve been since we shut down. When we do reopen I can assure you that wearing a mask will be one of our safety precautions.
We will reopen again…probably sometime in the summer, but with a lot of safety procedures in place…and we’re still hoping to be able to have our East TN Yarn Crawl in the fall. But until then, we remain sheltered away from the virus and continuing to come up with ideas to inspire you as many of you are still remaining sheltered away as well. Be safe if you venture out. While our area right now is in a lot better shape than many places in our country, no one is totally safe yet and we should not let our guard down.