Welcome to the “Twihobbylight Zone”

Dear Hobby Lobby, thank you for the early reminder that I’m already late for Christmas.

I casually strolled into Hobby Lobby yesterday to scope out yarn for our upcoming In Knit For Love Community Group service project - and - got blasted with a festive gust of holiday cheer - in July!

If you’re planning a trip to Hobby Lobby, you might as well turn off your cell phones and smart watches and prepare yourselves. You’re about to enter the “Twihobbylight Zone”, or, more specifically, the time zone known in Hobby Lobby Land as “Holiday Standard Time”.

Navigating this retail wonderland requires a certain degree of emotional fortitude. With their uncanny ability to constantly exist several months simultaneously into the future, Hobby Lobby doesn’t just sell home decor and crafts - noooo - I’m convinced they also specialize in warp speed and temporal distortion. Seeing the displays of pumpkins, fall leaves, turkeys, Christmas decor, and wreaths all at the same time - in July - sent me into a mini three-quarter-life crisis. Where is the year going people?!?

I got a little anxious and depressed for a minute.

Then I found the yarn!

Ah, yarn - velvety enchantment. Embedded in the rhythmic movement of needles and hooks and the formation of stitches and patterns there’s an inherent mindfulness pulling us away from all the hustle and bustle, suspending time, and pulling us into the present moment.

There’s respite in the rhythm of the knit, purl, and double crochet. Minutes and hours, measured in the ticking of time, become measured in the formation of intricate fabrics - hewing personal, beautiful and meaningful segments from swift, impersonal time.

Thank you, yarn.

But, hey, we shouldn’t be too quick to judge because baked into our own community group psyche is that indomitable making spirit - that alluring time machine of faith that always has a gauge set toward the future and what good is coming next.

While still dusting off beach sand, we, too, are already starting to think about Fall, Christmas, and Valentine’s Day service projects. Buckle up, peeps! There’s much good to be made and Holiday Standard Time waits for no one.

For all the love and people you put In Knit - and Crochet too!

See you in The Cozy

~jan