I hadn’t been to the Cornwall Yarn Shop before yesterday – I wasn’t even sure where it was – but after visiting and teaching two classes there I will DEFINITELY go back!
First of all, it’s a beautiful shop. Gail, the owner, has recently moved to a much larger space and is using it very well! She’s stocked with lots of amazingly dyed yarn as well as solid color staples. And she carries Inox needles. I was in heaven.
The classes were good – and they were exactly what I needed to push some dark doubts away that had been creeping in. When I go weeks and weeks without the real, face-to-face interaction that teaching gives me, I am sometimes in a position to let annoyances trouble me more than they should.
As much as I love the internet – love what it’s done for knitting in general and my career in particular – I love personal contact. It’s easy to stray from civility when you’re not looking someone in the face. Not that it’s not just as easy to become rude in person – especially in this heat – but you can’t just close the browser window or hit send when you’re face to face with another person. You have to deal with this human being in front of you, and this physicality tends to temper most adults’ reactions.
So it was with a light (but hot) heart that I drove home from Cornwall yesterday – new Inox needles in my bag and a smile on my face.
Speaking of the internet – Melissa mentioned something on her blog recently that I agree with wholeheartedly.
I think that it’s vital for anybrick & mortar yarn shop that wants to grow and keep abreast of current trends to at least have a cursory web presence. This may be as simple as a shop owner who posts on and reads forums and knit lists or has a very simple web page up with contact info and directions to the shop, or as detailed as a full online shop with how-tos and online chat rooms. So many knitters are quite comfortable with technical things – internets – and we use this wonderful web to share our passion and excitement.
I slapped a very quick and dirty web page up for the Cornwall Yarn Shop – Gail’s planning on having a better one as plans for the shop unfold.
Speaking of driving – the trip yesterday was my inaguration of the PT Cruiser on a teaching gig. Last night as I was watching Mad TV (and basking in the glow of being oh-so-hip with my groovy car) one of the skits revolved around a Lane Bryant employee (read, fat woman) who drove a PT Cruiser. Busted! Who knew I was a cliche.