COVID Policy FYI

As things open up, the rules of the game seem to be getting pretty fuzzy. People don’t really seem to know what is allowed, what is not – it almost makes you crave the certainty of lockdown … almost. Retailers and other service businesses aren’t given very little guidance, so each of us has to make up our own rules. Throughout the pandemic people have beens asking me when will classes and Sit ‘& Knit will resume, and my answer has always been “When it’s safe for strangers to sit next to each other”. This of course begs the question, what is ‘safe’, because let’s face it, in life control is really more of a concept than a ‘thing’. Ultimately, my choices are predicated on the fact that COIVD transmission is airborne, meaning breathing the same air is a problem.

Classes & Sit & Knit

After much consideration, I’ve decided that we can’t even consider resuming classes or sit & knit until there are no legal repercussions if COVID it enters your life (kind of like the flu). This means there has to be ZERO self-isolation necessary. If you have to quarantine yourself for two weeks after you attend a class because someone in the group later tests positive for COVID, then vaccinated or not, the pandemic isn’t over. We’ve started getting bits of our lives back, and I don’t want to do anything to disrupt that. Last week I got to hug my nephew for the first time in 16 months, and when my nice comes home from a stint at summer camp I’m going to squeeze her so hard her eyes pop out. I know you have similar things in your lives that you are grateful for and don’t want to ever lose again, and I’m comfortable being conservative in this department and waiting.

Project Help

If you want to bring in your project for some help because you are stuck, we can accommodate that if it is something small and will take about 10 to 20 minutes (or you can leave your project with us). Our normal rates still apply ($4.95/10 minutes), and we can’t do pop-ins, you still have to contact us beforehand to make an appointment. We can not do anything that involves people sitting down in the room for any extended period of time.

Store Capacity

I’m keeping the store capacity capped at 3 adult clients. We have plenty of room to keep 3 grown-ups (with or without a kid or two) and 2 staff members out of each others’ space. Legally we can now have more people in the store, but it’s a terrible idea.

Social Distance

Working in retail, I get to meet lots of different people, and one thing I’d like to address is that we aren’t all on the same page regarding our comfort level with reopening. Some people are ready to go out and party with 200 strangers, others still feel a lot of anxiety around the virus, and there are tons of people in the spectrum in-between. I’d like to ask everyone to try to maintain a sensible amount of physical distance in the store, especially around other customers. It is human nature to want to connect with people and we instinctively move physically closer when we do that, but we really just don’t know who’s good with it and who isn’t.

The Fun Stuff To Do While You Knit

I always offer a spoon full of sugar, so here are some fun things …. with pictures!

Something to Make you Laugh: The Vinyl Cafe

The Vinyl Cafe is being re-broadcast by CBC radio … my mom hooked me up with this one, apparently my father and brother pulled some Odd Jobs style handiwork at the cottage and the only way she could adequately describe it to a friend was with one of Stuart MaLean’s stories. If you aren’t familiar with the Vinyl Cafe, it’s a hilarious radio show that ran on Canadian Radio for many years. The original show included music, a short story and a long story … it’s worth listening to a show in its entirety, but it’s the stories that are the GEMS.

• CBC Streaming/Podcasts
• Spotify/iTunes
• Youtube

Something to Make you Grateful (for plumbing): The Victorian Farm

If you’re having a hard time filling up your gratitude list, The Victorian Farm on Amazon Prime will give you lots of material. Watch as a historian and two archaeologists walk the walk, living as victorians on a victorian farm. If you get into the first season, you may be interested in The Victorian Farm Christmas Special. Unfortunately there is no knitting in this show, the three of them were run ragged with the work of running the farm and I don’t think they had much leisure time. If you’re into history and fashion, you might also like A Stitch in Time.

Something to Help You Grow: Self Talk

This great little article on Self Talk for Athletes got me thinking. So, I already know the benefits of positive thinking, but I decided to try it with my exercise too. While I don’t tell myself negative things, I don’t have much control over what’s streaming through my subconscious. I figured I’d try to be my own trainer and actively tell myself positive things. It took a little experimenting to see which phrases work for me. Things like “You’ve got this Haley!” and “You can do it Haley!” didn’t really motivate me. But when I gave myself validation like “I’m so proud of you Haley!”, and “I believe in you Haley!” it really kicked in and I had access to more power. I also found that having a purposeful, positive dialogue brought me into my body, made me more present (what the dharma crowd call “Embodied Awareness“), and of course kept my subconscious mind from wandering to negative places. By the way, positive self-talk isn’t just the domain of athletes, you can use it with anything in life, including your crafts. If you need help with your self pep-talks check in with Lisa Nichols, she’s brilliant!

Something Else to Help You Grow: Trusting the Gold

I bought Trusting the Gold for my boyfriend’s birthday, but I started skimming it before wrapping it up, and now I really want to read it! It’s a petite book, not a “fix-yourself self-help manual”, and is very readable. Is there anyone on this planet who couldn’t go for more goodness? Unfortunately the book is not yet available on Audible, so you’ll have to do this one old skool. If you want to listen, Tara Brach has LOTS of podcasts on various platforms … she’s so awesome, I can’t do a pandemic without her!