We, Americans, are in different places of reopening all over the 50 states. I live in Oklahoma, we are in the 2nd phase of reopening our state. I believe we are the 3rd freest states in the country behind South Dakota and Wyoming. With this being said, my family and I went on our first big outing in the big city (Tulsa) since the Pandemic has changed all of our lives in small and big ways.
We went to a few of our favorite places and skipped some of our other favorite places. I won’t go into all the details. However, The Silver Needle, a needlework shop in Tulsa, has opened it’s door to stitchers as long as you wear a face mask while shopping and you leave your extra people in the car. That was not a problem for me. I was happy to leave my husband with our kids in the car…we do that anyways when I shop at a store like The Silver Needle. The face mask, no biggie. I am glad that our state has allowed it’s business owners to open and to allow them to choose how they want to proceed with their business.
The women who work at the Silver Needle are some of the kindest and most helpful people. They are not pretentious or snobby. I love that. I have been into so many yarn stores where I instantly felt a bit of imposter syndrome because I wasn’t shopping for a sweater’s quantity of yarn, I was shopping with a budget and or because I just wanted a simple skein of Cascade 220… I was instantly not worth their time for conversation. But Needlework shops are different, the entire stitching community I think as a whole is different in a lot of ways.
I was having a conversation about taking my family out for the day and how we were supporting businesses who have been able to reopen and the possible shame that could come with sharing that on the internet. The woman I was speaking with looked at me straight in the eye and said ” You are free to do what we are doing in the state of Oklahoma. Stand up tall.” I loved that. I absolutely loved that. I told her the short story of me and my husband moving from Southern California to Colorado to Oklahoma. I told her we as a family made hard decisions and we have stood by our decisions and we choose to walk the walk and not just talk the talk. It was wonderful to have a conversation about what freedom is to us and that even if our idea isn’t someone else’s version of freedom that is why we are so fortunate to live in a country with 50 states to choose from.
I am happy to have found a business that I can be proud to support in my community here in Oklahoma and in the stitching community as well. I am proud to call The Silver Needle my Local Needlework Shop.