This last weekend Mr. Turtle and I drove the long five hours to Davidson College, our alma mater. It was his class reunion (last year was mine, but since the weekend was the same one as TNNA… I chose to forgo it). Davidson College is a small liberal arts college just outside of Charlotte, North Carolina. You might have heard of Davidson College in a few different contexts: our free laundry services, when we went to the Elite 8 in 2008, because we’re Stephen Curry’s Alma Mater, or (if your’e in the stitching world) the fact that we’re the alma mater of Ann Shane of ’85 – also known as one half of Mason-Dixon Knitting.
Mr. Turtle and I have been back to Davidson a few times since we moved away five years ago – the most notable instance being at Mr. Turtle’s brother’s graduation. So the changes to the campus weren’t quite such a shock to us as they were to others. Still, it’s interesting to see how the campus has grown and changed.
There are few places that have been as formative to my life as Davidson. There’s Camp, of course, and my family. But Davidson is where I learned a lot of life skills in a very short amount of time: how to write well, create an ordered argument, set-up an excel sheet like a pro, weld and hammer. It’s where I met Mr. Turtle. It’s also where I met my first LYS: The Needlecraft Center.
The Needlecraft Center, Davidson NC
So while Mr. Turtle spent his time socializing with old friends, I took a quick hour to stop by the store, say hello to the staff, and just revisit a place that got me through many college crisis. And then, on Sunday before we left, I took some time to spend with the owner, Elaine McArn, who has run the store for 43 years – since 1971.
It was lovely to visit with Elaine. When I was in college I was a little intimidated by her: she was so very knowledgeable and experienced. She was the one who caught that I was knitting twisted stitches, who gave a word to the knitting style I preferred. She was the one who educated me on why it was worth it to save your pennies and use good yarn. She started me on my first terrible socks. I didn’t always welcome her advice: after all, I was young and didn’t always appreciate being told what I was doing was wrong, or not the best way to go about things. But I respected her – especially when I realized she was almost always right.
The year after I graduated my perception of her changed. I was working for the college, living in a house, and beginning to figure out the “adult thing.” I began to really respect the fact that Elaine had a long-time respected business, especially in the crafting world. I got to know her better through knitting nights at the store, and by hanging out more as she talked about the difficulties of owning a store: dealing with “missing merchandise,” how to market yarns and tools, and making tough choices about where her business was going to go. We bonded over gardening: growing peas and tomatoes, zucchini and squash.
Young Hatchlings in Elaine’s Fern
We’ve kept in touch on and off since then. Elaine was one of the first people I contacted when I knew I was going to TNNA. We met over breakfast the morning before the show floor opened, and she gave me advice about how to conduct myself. It made me relax when I was SO nervous!
So on Sunday it was more than nice to visit with Elaine, to talk about families and business, gardening and textiles. To talk about having to make tough decisions when you run a business: are you going to buy a new printer, or do workarounds so you can have the cash in reserve? Which yarns do you carry, what things are fads and which are not? We bonded over the young birds hatching in one of her ferns, and the way rosemary smells just after it rains. As we were talking I had a moment where my younger self looked through my eyes – not quite believing we were discussing tatting and crochet in heirloom textiles.
Have you had people in your life whose relationship has changed and grown? I’d love to hear about some of them!
