Something interesting happened last week. A couple of members of our yarn club, The InterStellar Yarn Alliance, emailed to ask if it was time to renew their subscriptions. And the truth is that it was time… in fact, the time to open the club for renewals and new subscriptions was supposed to have happened back in March but, just one week before I was planning to open the doors, the U.S. started to go into shutdown. Suddenly, tons of people were losing their jobs, worried about loved ones, or getting ill, it just didn’t feel right to start cheering about a yarn club.
I honestly wasn’t sure what to do. I thought perhaps it would be better to just let this season’s opening slide and wait until the next season, when I hoped things would be better for everyone. But then those emails came in, from members who said they had so enjoyed being part of the club that they didn’t want their subscriptions to end. Reading that made my heart soar — and shook me out of my indecision.
It should have been obvious to me all along that when times are difficult, we all find comfort in our knitting and crochet: in the rhythm of the stitches, in the feel of the yarn, in the way the colours lift the spirits. And it’s always better when we do it together, whether in person at knit night or safely distanced in the shared experience of a club. So, instead of being a time to shy away from opening the Yarn Alliance, I realised that now is exactly the time to share it.
And so, I opened the Yarn Alliance this week and I’m excited to be able to share this upcoming season with our new members. It’s given me such a positive feeling about the future, a sense that someday it will be safe to end these shutdowns and venture out into the world again, and I’m excited to embark on a new season and dye new colours. Will you join me?