You may have seen this on our social media accounts. This one is slightly updated towards the end. :)

If you know me, you know I'm a HUGE Star Trek fan. So this image is perfect for this time.

I've been trying to keep the shop open regular hours. Part of the reason for that was that it's my only income and frankly, if I'm not open for an extended period of time, it would be really hard to pay the rent plus my mortgage, car note, and other bills.

But the situation has changed. As you've no doubt seen in the news, the recommendations for social distancing keep changing. Restaurants are closing. Powell's Books closed along with a lot of other places. I really can't stay open with a good conscience. Social distancing is vital for preventing the healthcare system from overload.

And then yesterday, after meeting with my accountant, I got an email from the building's property management firm with amazing news. Our landlord has waived the base rent for the month of April for all retail tenants. This is a hugely generous and ethical thing for them to do! And it means the financial barrier to a disruption in business has been lifted.

So, starting Wednesday, March 18th, until at least the first of April, we will be closed . We won't leave you completely in a lurch, though. Our personal shopper service will still be available. I'm working on some other ideas, too, so watch this space!

This COVID-19 virus is no joke. We can't stop it completely, but we can slow it down if we all make sacrifices. I'm confident we will make it through if we all work together. And I feel extremely blessed to have a landlord who understands that completely.

Thank you for your patience and understanding. Please take all precautions and stay healthy. Extra knitting/crocheting/spinning/felting time awaits! We've been prepping for staying in, right? No one can make fun of our stashes now!

I will probably take the first few days to wrap my head around all this and solidify some ideas I have to keep you engaged. Then I'll be posting things on social media to tempt you and taking orders (I hope) and so on. And I'll be making a cashmere hat for the landlord and one for the property manager, too. It's a small thing I can do to show them my gratitude!

If all goes well, we'll be open again on April 1st and bring you a pop-up shop from local dyer Teal Torch Knits on April 4th and 5th. She's got a lot of lovely yarn that was all ready to be shown at Vogue Knitting Live in Seattle until that show was cancelled, so we're going to host her here and help her find it new homes.