change

The closest LYS is moving. Far away. Well, not really that far away, but far enough away, that, with the change in their hours, I will not be able to just drop by like I do now. Now I live about ten minutes walk away. In a month and a half, they will be about an hour's bus ride away. And they'll only be open in the middle of the day, when I am usually busy. I will miss them very much. I do understand that this is much, much easier for the owner of the store, as it's closer to her home and her other job, but I will miss them.

This is where, after I learned to knit, I finally found a place in the knitting community. This is where I bought my first good yarn, and my first set of circular needles and DPNs and my first spindle (currently my only spindle, but it will always be my first spindle) and roving. And this is where I met other knitters and spinners who live in the area. And I just became part of this community! This feels like the rug's been pulled out from under me.

I suppose this will be sort of a good thing, in a way. To buy yarn, I will have to make a special trip via the bus to the other side of town, so I won't be making impulse yarn buys quite as much anymore. And that will be good for me. And since the knit night centred around the store is staying put, just meeting at a local coffee shop, I won't be losing them.

I feel almost guilty for looking at the other LYS's website, though I really shouldn't. They've got most of the yarns I really like, and a few I've been curious about. I feel rather elated about becoming more familiar with this store, even though a few days ago, in the first shock of finding out about the move, I was unhappy about having to move to another LYS. I know it's a good store. It's just not the one that I'm familiar with. I'm not always good with change (says the student who picked up and moved to another country when she went to university). And yet I always adjust. And am often the better for the change.

So I'll probably make the two-hour round trip trek out to the new location once in a while to buy roving, but probably not to buy yarn and needles. I'll learn to be a regular at a different LYS, I'll meet more new people, and learn from them as I have from the people I've met this summer. We already speak the same language.