05/27/2015
So. Yes. The answer is yes.
After posting the final Knit Night ladder shot today, one or two (or 50) of you had a question for me.
Am I closing the shop?
I am.
It's surreal to close a shop I never really intended to open. How strange to have reached five years running a business that didn't know what it was until it became it. I wrote this for the booklet we gave out at the anniversary party in April and somehow never got around to posting it here:
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Five years ago, I held my breath, put all my eggs into a basket made of string, and hoped to knit my way through the painful risk I knew it would take to blossom. "Just three months," I whispered to myself, "and then you can go back to being a bud."
I blinked, time wrinkled and, like magic, I found myself face to face with a milestone I never once thought I'd meet & a gratitude so big I thought my heart might explode.
While I have done my very best to live up to the company name by integrating art, heart, & string in every single stitch these last five years, I could not have made artstring what she is without an extraordinary amount of love, in all its forms, from these exceptional people:
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If you're reading this, know that you are one of those exceptional people. I may not have had room for all your names on the hard copy ;) but know that you're all on my internal list.
So. Why?
Because it's time. Because a week after artstring turned five, much to my surprise, I had a sudden & absolute knowing that our Hollywood journey, mine & artstring's, was complete. I accomplished everything I set out to accomplish here and then some. And then some more.
So. What's next?
That part's for me. And in time I'm sure I'll share more. Opening artstring & being a part of this Hollywood community is the best thing I've ever done. But my intention is that it won't always be. :)
I will miss you all terribly. That's the only heaviness that remains in this decision. But I know many of us will come together in new ways & in new places. To my hookers, my hope is that you remain as tight-knit & supportive as you are now and continue to encourage & challenge one another to be the best damn knitters in all of Hollywood & beyond. To my Hollywood family, you are my heart. You know who you are & you know how much I love you. But I bet I love you even a little bit more than that. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
~ emilie @ artstring
