Change is inevitable…

Sigh.

Complacency has no place in life what so ever.  Just when you think things are going along swimmingly, things you never even think about get pulled right out from under you…

Nothing tragic or earth shattering here, so don’t worry…

Just a series of thoughts when something you relied on isn’t there for you anymore.

The McMorran Yarn Balance.  If you are a non fiber lurker on this blog, and have no idea what I’m talking about, just hang on.  See, there is this very simple cool tool, for all yarn enthusiasts, that helps tell you what size or yield yarn you have sitting in front of you. Whatever the length of the yarn that causes the little plastic thing to balance, just multiply by 100 and you get the yards per pound.  I think of every tool in my vast studio, this is the most critical, it is probably the first real tool I ever bought, I may even have bought it before my first loom.  And it is certainly cheap enough at $25.  Or was.  I found out this past weekend, while teaching at WEBS, when I went to procure an additional yarn balance for a friend that they were just discontinued, no longer made by the manufacturer, and the staff at WEBS had no idea what if anything will become available to replace this absolutely critical tool.

Monday morning, the first thing I did when I woke up, was head to my computer, go online to Halcyon, and order two from their website.  Apparently they still had stock.  I didn’t want to say anything about this minor catastrophe until I was sure I had a couple in my possession.  One is for a dear friend, and the other in case something happens to mine.  Even WEBS pulled the one they had in inventory for store/classroom use, this is such a critical piece of equipment.  Sigh.

And later on Monday afternoon, I found out that my favorite and most reliable retail sewing notions supplier, Atlanta Thread, had been bought out by a sewing notions supplier called WAWAK.com.  Actually I had known this from an email earlier in the month, but it wasn’t until Monday afternoon when the WAWAK catalogue came in, that I realized two really critical things I purchase from them, and suggest all the time to students, were no longer available.  I called the new company, and yes, after much searching and gnashing of teeth, they confirmed that they would not be carrying Uniquely You dress forms, and Sew Fit cutting mats.  I know I can get the Uniquely You dress form from allbrands.com, but I wasn’t sure about the cutting mat.  The Sew Fit cutting mats were relatively inexpensive (about $50-60) and the 40″ x 72″ perfectly fit my cutting table.  I replaced it about every three years.  I was thinking the other day I was due for one.

I did google the Sew Fit cutting mat, and there were sources online, but the best I could find was about $100.  I can live with that,  but the fact that my old stand by supplier is no more is sort of sad.  The new company that bought them seems like a glorified Joann’s.  Atlanta Thread had things no one else had… Like industrial rolls of twill tape which I use for the cords on my sectional warp beams…   Sigh…

And we finally made the decision to take down our swimming pool.  If you were following my blog last summer, you know everytime I returned home from a trip, I had to deal with green slime from hell, $90 worth of pool chemicals, and a lot of elbow grease to battle the inevitable, if pools don’t get used, they water doesn’t circulate and the filter can’t control nature completely.  The kids are grown, and we travel too much to keep a pool in tip top shape.  So we are draining the water and saying goodbye to an old friend.

And this morning, the coffee pot died.  Nothing tragic, a slight electrical smell yesterday when it was last used, and this morning, nothing…  Sigh…  I realize that in the total scheme of life, this is all rather silly.  But I’m not one who accepts change gracefully, I like the way things are, which is why I live in a 100 year old house, and use studio equipment I purchased in the 1970’s and I drove a car that was 14 years old, and I  don’t like having to get use to new landscapes, new appliances, new technologies, and new situations.  Which is really silly since I travel for a living.  My husband took the new Rav4 into the dealer on Thursday for installation of the tow package we bought with the car, it had come in and had to be installed, and they gave him a rental car for the day.  He had asked me to do it earlier in the week, before he came home from Saudi, but I sort of procrastinated, because, I’m embarrassed to admit, that I didn’t want to deal with an unfamiliar rental car.  I would rather have just sat in the show room for the day and knit.

Anyway, I’ll get over all this change, and move on, and I feel much better knowing I have a back up McMorran yarn balance just in case…  Marie, I’ve got yours here on my desk…