Saying Goodbye

A yarn and fabric store in Montreal is closing after 12 years. Effiloché is closing it's doors on December 6, 2018.

There have been other local yarn stores that have closed. When I moved back to Edmonton a few years ago, Wool Revival was on "sometimes" hours and Ewe asked for it, and Knit, Purl had both been closed for many years.

Effiloché was not the first yarn store I visited in Montreal, that was A La Tricoteuse Laine which closed a year or two before I left Montreal.

But Effiloché was my most frequented yarn store, partly because it was the largest shop that was near to where I lived, and partly because I became friends with the owner through my brother who taught knitting there for many years.

There were trips visiting with early blog/knitting group friends. Trips with crafty friends to buy materials for communal baby quilt projects. Sewing Saturdays where I would go and learn about garment sewing from then sewing teacher Anne.

At one point, back when Foursquare was still a thing, I became the mayor of Effiloché. Ginette laughed, and gave me an out-of-date calendar.

I became a regular at the shop. And that's why I eventually started working there early in 2014 until I left Montreal in January of 2016.

Let me tell you, I loved working in a yarn store. We worked hard a lot of the time, especially in the wind-up to Christmas time when people really want their yarn! Winding yarn was the favourite circus attraction for every child and non-knitter who came through our doors.

People think you get to knit a lot in a yarn store, and there was some crafting that happened, though most of the time I was quite busy helping customers or cutting fat quarters.

I got obsessed with crochet amigurumi and made penguins for everyone.

I crocheted a mermaid, pony and bunny for the shop.

And there was that time we decorated the Plaza's public piano with giant crocheted doilies.

I over came my fears of speaking imperfect French and talking on phones.

As a music lover, I had great fun picking out music to play in the store. We'd have days of different moods based on whatever I or Tall Sarah felt like rocking out to. There were Otis Redding days, sad indie-folk days, Belle and Sebastian days, and only the best, up-beat retro Christmas music. I was always pleased when customers commented on the music, which was usually favourably.

I cut so many fat quarters, I couldn't even guess how many. People loved to dig through the bins and buy stacks of them.

Some of my favourite memories were of the kids that came in the store. Once, two girls came by after school to carefully choose their most favourite fat quarters to buy with their allowance money.

Another time a vacationing family came in so that their son could pick out some yarn for future projects. It was lovely to see the whole family supported his interest in knitting.

These are some of my favourites because, had I known about local yarn shops beyond mall chain stores, I would have been these kids carefully selecting the best colour of yarn or my favourite fabric for my next craft project. I mean I did frequent Fabricland and Lewiscrafts when I was a kid, but there's more magic to be found in a local yarn or fabric shop.

I'm sad that I'm not there to say goodbye in person, but maybe that's a good thing. Seeing the empty shelves popping up on Facebook is a sad reminder that things are always changing and I think it would make me too sad to see it in it's current state and not how I left it.

But time moves forward and I'm sure Ginette will move on to better things.

And Montreal has 2 other vibrant yarn stores that will hopefully be around for quite a while. Edmonton also has a few good ones to frequent.