Of Endings and Beginnings

It's been a long time since I sat down to write. It seems life happens faster than my fingers can connect with the keyboard.

I want to thank everyone who found out and came to give me a hug when we lost our daughter-in-law and baby granddaughter this past summer (the fire in Kemptville in June). Almost everyone knew Amber, that sweet, chirpy young lady who talked up a storm with every customer and client, knew everyone's name and remembered where all the patterns were.

The pain of this loss has certainly changed me. I find I'm less patient with most situations and this has translated into a move for the business. When the grumbling started about how tightly packed we were, stepping on each others' toes, falling over stock and just general crowded we were feeling, I decided to look around. I found the perfect location, negotiated the lease and started cracking my whip at the contractors to get it all done in time (my time, too short for anyone's liking). I pushed and bitched and pushed some more, wanting it done yesterday.

Of course, there would be glitches - one of the contractors (not hired by me) decided that a 50-year-old urinal in a bathroom had to be preserved because "when you leave, it will be more expensive to put a new one in". So, he built a box around it and siliconed it to the wall.. This was ridiculous, so I ripped it off the wall and had my guys disconnect the old urinal. The other guy then reluctantly proceeded to plaster the wall and refinish that area. The problem was that he then left the drainage pipe sticking out (for when someone would need it, ten years down the road), and it looked like a penis hanging from the wall. I hit the roof on that one and it took him another three days to shove that back into the wall and plaster over it. This is how the whole job has gone.

Not much wonder that I've been a little stressed and trying to stay sane during the process. One day, when I was extremely mad at some contractor and contemplating murder-most-foul, I took a moment to compose my larcenous thoughts and resorted to looking at cute pet pictures on Kijiji. This was my next down-fall. I happened across an ad for a ten-day old "special-needs" Chinese gosling. Without even thinking, I made immediate arrangements to adopt the poor little baby who's legs are deformed and needs constant attention from his family in order to survive (somehow related to real-life needs of a business). This is the story of how Knit-Knackers ended up with a gimpy goose named Krackers. Maybe it's just the story of how I have gone "Krackers".

Either way, we're celebrating ten years in business this week.. We've gotten bigger and hopefully better. We share our joys, our sorrows, our adventures in life and somehow survive the tragedies so we can add another row to the fabric of life.

In that vein, I ask that everyone join in adding a few stitches or rows to a project I'm calling the "Fabric of Life". I will have odd and ends for you to choose from or you can bring in your own left-overs. I know it's just my unreasonable, emotional need for continuity, my own search for a reason to look forward, my sorrow threatening to drown me out, but I figure if we put it all together, it might make us all stronger.

I thank everyone who has supported us, been there through every snowstorm, bus strike and construction woes. If it wasn't for you guys, this wouldn't have been possible.