Small Things

We are having another day of record temperatures, although it would seem that El Niño rains are about to return. I met a friend and fellow knitter for coffee this morning, and we wandered over to Cast Away the knitting/sewing/craft store across the street. I picked up some embroidery floss to add the name of our new grand niece, Grace Victoria, on the quilt I made for her in December, and some stitch markers for a cardigan I have been making for months and am close to finishing.

In a town that could be characterized as 'bland' this store is an antidote.  I love the space, the carefully curated things within it and the lovely women who run it. Everything is tastefully yet quirkily arranged and carefully sourced.

 When I got home I realized that I had quite a collection of what we once would have called 'notions' from this shop. Notions are those things which are small, essential, often sharp or pointed and which have a tendency to get lost under the chair cushions or embedded in the rug and are often discovered by stepping on them.

Every town used to have at least one  store which sold notions, often called a 'dime store'. Alas, they all seem to have gone the way of the dinosaur despite the fact that even the most craft challenged among us occasionally needs to sew on a button or replace some stretched out elastic. It used to be that one could run to the shops for the necessary item…now it seems to be a half day trek to the big box stores in hopes of finding it, so when I find something that looks like a 'notion' I pick it up and stash it away.

Realizing that my collection contained a fair number of tiny things, I photographed a few of them.