Moving Day

Today was the day.  Susan, owner of the Oregon Knitting Company, had to be out of her old digs by midnight tonight.  Her "community"  assembled this afternoon, bringing with them wheelbarrows, carts, suitcases and in some cases, just arms, and we packed up all that yarn we packed into plastic bags last week and we marched enmasse down the main drag of McMinnville (better known as 3rd Street) the three blocks to the new...albeit temporary....space inside the McMinnville Mercantile building.  Susan has rented a VERY TINY space in the back of this building that houses a variety of businesses.  We unloaded our containers into the hall of the new space and we were done.  It was a grand party complete with balloons and a photographer from the News Register, the local paper.  What fun and what a treat, for me anyway, to be a part of such a great community of people.  All week long people have been hauling all the shelving, counters, etc, that are necessary to make this business work into the new space.  The shelves have been reconfigured to fit the new space and all the counters have been redesigned to roll on wheels, which means they can push everything out of the way so we can set up chairs for........KNIT NIGHT which premiers in the new space on September 5th!  

 Lining up in preparation for the parade

No traffic laws were broken during this event, we walked only with the "walk" signals.  Cars tooted their horns in appreciation!

Again, this is not a gender specific event!

There were a lot of us!  There was a LOT of yarn!

Kids were involved!

No wheelbarrow.....no problem, we can improvise!

We're here, and bystanders are VERY curious!

Well, almost all of us are here, there were traffic lights involved!

And last, but not least, our fearless leader, Susan!

Who's got the key, we need to put all this stuff into the new space!

Which is in this building!  Come on down!

Many Hands.......

McMinnville has a wonderful local yarn shop called The Oregon Knitting Company.  Its owner, Susan, learned last spring that her lease would not be renewed.  She only learned this by chasing down the owner herself, who kept "forgetting" to let her know he was not renewing her lease.  

Last winter I began attending the store's Knit Night which occurs each Tuesday evening from 6-8.  I quickly became fond of this group which spans generations as well as gender!  It pleases me no end to see grown men knitting away along with us ladies.  When our group learned of Susan's plight....having to find a new space in a short period of time....we let her know we were committed to helping in anyway we could.  Susan found another space, albeit much smaller than the present one, so it will be a temporary move until something a little bigger and more adaptable comes along.  

Last Friday morning we all converged on the store and began the process of packing up all the wool, needles, patterns, books and other needlework ephemera.  We are a force to be reckoned with and we had it all done in about 90 minutes!  Some of the ladies' hubbies generously volunteered to take down all her shelving and will reinstall what will fit into the new temporary space.  We had a grand time, working seamlessly as a group.  Susan was overjoyed!  She's a neat lady and it was a joy to help!  Stay tuned for the actual moving of the yarn....it's going to be a real kick!

All the yarn is packed in clear plastic garbage bags so it will be easy to see what's what when it's time to unpack.  We tried to keep brand and yarn weights packed together. 

Many hands make light work!

We couldn't have done without these wonderful men who did the disassembling of the shelving.

These lovely ladies were a big help, sorting all the shelf hooks into sizes!

All the needles and other needlework accouterments had to be packed as well.

Susan is beloved and one of her faithful friends brought posies to brighten up what was a difficult day!

Needlework is not an age specific activity and all hands were on deck to help this day!

We don't just work, we have fun too!

The pile is growing!!!

And there were treats at the end of our packing party, provided by another faithful yarn store friend!  Susan has a wonderful community of people committed to supporting her and each other!

4 x 4 Is Not A Piece Of Wood

Our church has a wonderful women's ministry called 4 x 4.  Women sign up if they are interested in participating and then the list is divided up into groups of 4 women who will meet once each month for four months!  Each woman in the group is assigned as the person to organize the get-together for one of the four months.  I signed up for the first one last Spring and we had a wonderful group of women which spanned generations....I loved that.  There were two of us oldies but goodies and two young women with small kids.  We bonded big time, and we are still meeting, even though a new group of 4 x 4's has started.  And sadly, I never got a photo of the first group.  But there's still time since we will still be meeting off and on.  But I'm learning.  
So this month I was on board as the organizer and I decided to have the ladies come for afternoon tea, a ritual I never tire of.  This was the first get-together of this group and some of us knew each other, but for some of us it was the first time we had met.  How fun!  I kept it simple, made a fruit salad, some lavender scones with clotted cream and lavender honey, and a first time ever ground cherry torte.  We just discovered ground cherries a couple of weeks ago and I am in love with them and I am dedicated to bringing them back into vogue...I guess they were in the 30's but became passe somewhere along the line.   Of course there was tea involved, a choice of Yorkshire Gold (WONDERFUL British tea), Lapsang Souchong, Apricot Green Tea and Mango Green Tea.  

We had a fabulous time getting to know each other, and sharing prayer requests.   What a great ministry!  Here's our group at my humble table!