A street view of the pride parade thru the streets of Downtown Columbus, Ohio
Got to walk in the Columbus Pride Parade yesterday with my enby kiddo and ally spouse and my heart is SO DAMN FULL this weekend 🏳️🌈🥰 #columbusohio
An image of an American flag flying over a hill. The words say: How to Plan a Trip to the USA. 1. Don’t.
I’ve seen a few variations of this making the rounds. I like this one best.
I don’t know who the original artist is but thank you to them.
A pink sock cuff in progress rests on my leg/jeans
Actual #knitting content - started a sock at kiddo's soccer camp.
I have had to force my knitting for months now, so I'm happy to pick the needles back up, even if it's just for a little bit
I keep getting emails about reassessing pricing for retailers coming this summer. I know many of us hobbyists will survive off our stash, but will our supply sources i.e. LYS, fabric and quilting, etc?
I have this whole spiel about how I'm transitioning to online sales so I'm not actually fully going away from my business, which made the whole retirement comment even more out of nowhere.
Hahahahahahahahaha I totally should 🤣
Someone told me yesterday "congrats on your retirement" after asking what I'm going to do next and uhhhhhh I know I've got a lot of gray hair but I'm only 40
Maybe i should just start telling people I'm becoming a trophy wife, instead 🤣
Man I hope I don't go 2 years without picking up my needles :( (I did not, in fact, knit the day I posted this originally)
Pigeons are my FAVORITE. We were in DC on vacation years ago and I was more interested in the variety of the birds feather colors and the way they moved than the historic buildings in the area.
I noticed that, too. Must be nice to be a privileged white dude with the balls to tell people "do as I say, not as I do" 🙄
3 weeks left to being a brick and mortar retail store owner and... well, breathing and journaling my way thru a whole range of emotions and feelings. Part of me can't wait to be done with the constant stress, and part of me is incredibly sad my dream didn't work out.
Might actually knit for pleasure today for the first time in probably 2 months (instead of just picking up needles and yarn out of obligation)
Burning out on something you love sucks.
What the fuck is the point of a "checks and balances" system if the checks and balances aren't going to use their power?!
Sun filtering thru trees
A sedge prairie with trees and sky
Boardwalk surrounded by marsh marigolds
Little skink friend on the wood boardwalk
Cedar Bog in Urbana, Ohio is SO pretty. Saw lots of pretty wildflowers, plus a skink friend! (I know it's actually a fen and not a bog, please don't come for me in the comments)
Thissss
The more expensive everything gets, the less there is to go around (duh) and the less people are going to be spending. Yarn is a luxury when you're also spending increased prices on essentials like food and utilities and such. Us small niche industries are going to collapse entirely.
4/4
"But Candice, wouldn't that be more money for you, too?" I mean, I guess, but I've sold maybe 1 wheel in my shop because they're already such an expensive piece of equipment. Also, my overhead continues to increase so any extra profit I see gets swallowed up immediately just to keep lights on.
3/
Do you think manufacturers are going to figure out these new prices, and then come back to us and say "oh, he paused tariffs so just kidding, we'll keep the old pricing." No, of course not.
Manufacturers are going to increase pricing regardless. Tariffs not in effect yet? More money for them.
2/
I just put together a comparison on pricing from Ashford (spinning wheel manufacturer I sell/distribute in store). There was a roughly 3% increase from 2023-2024. Now, with the tariff threat? 10% increase nearly across the board.
1/
Last July, after Sticker🐎 sent out a pro-orange felon email to sell shirts, I unsubscribed immediately.
So WHY THE F*%$ did I just receive an email today from them?!
That happened to me Saturday night in the middle of a tjmaxx. Today I went to the gym to lift weights and burn those feelings off and feel much better.
Your margins as a small business are already tighter than big chains because of the nature of our buying power. These tariffs are going to CRIPPLE all of us, if not shutter our businesses entirely. I've been making plans to still sell yarn online but that might be a pipe dream now.
Candice is smiling and looking off to the right. She is wearing black framed glasses, and gold and black leaf earrings.
I'm going to miss this brick wall for my occasional professional selfies and knitwear backdrop. #feltcutemightdeletelater
Part of me is struggling with my privilege to be able to not run my business anymore in this hellscape we're being thrown into, but I'm so thankful I chose to focus on my own survival (both mentally and financially)
Sock knitting friends - look at this gorgeous pattern!
Ohhhhhhhh i might need to cast that on!
I really thought I would have more grief to process over deciding to close my retail shop. I suspect, however, it will hit me a lot harder in about 3 weeks when I put up all the signage and the random/non-regular customers start coming in like it's a damn calling hours at a funeral.
I mean... I might fist fight Janet over tomatoes lol. I've got a lot of pent up political rage and I'm just begging to be slightly inconvenienced enough to push me over the edge lol
SAME. It doesn't help that the one in my area is terribly disappointing, so when I do go I don't get the vibes I wanted from the big city ones.
3 days off between spring break and being sick this week and uh..... I'm definitely going to have to find ways to force myself to socialize this summer because it's entirely too easy to just introvert infinitely. Kind of afraid I'll turn entirely feral this summer.
