Join me for a minute. On Saturday, April 27, 2024, I spent a bit of time inside our old studio at Rand Avenue in Vancouver for the last time and I shot this video to remember the moment. I’m also writing more here simply because I had more to say, but I just couldn’t get all the words out on camera.
The Beginning
In January 2020, I signed the lease of the space at Rand, obviously not knowing what was going to happen to the world in 2020. That year, we spent months gutting and renovating the space that was previously an office and teaching space for Thermomix. We took out carpets, old sinks, replaced kitchen cabinets, installed new floors, and built walls for our dye space and filming areas.
We finally moved into the newly renovated space in November 2020.
The Middle
In 2021 and 2022, we created many, many new spinning, weaving, and fibre arts courses for the School of SweetGeorgia, bringing in amazing instructors from the Vancouver Lower Mainland and beyond, including Kim McKenna, Rachel Smith, Katrina Stewart, Diana Twiss, Debbie Held, Amanda Wood, Caitlin french, Sahm Jalbert and our own Charlotte Lee and myself. We hosted spinning sessions and study groups for our SweetGeorgia team and a few of our team members learned to spin yarn for the very first time.
The End… of this Chapter
As many of you will know, commercial developers purchased our building in January 2022 and told us that eventually the building would be demolished for redevelopment, but we didn’t know when. Then in June 2023, we finally got the news that we needed to move out by the end of December 2023.
For three years, we were blessed to have this space in which to work, create, and teach. I believe it. This space was a gift for us all and I hope we will remember the moments in this incredible space. My memories aren’t going anywhere.
Join me for a moment to remember the awesome things we did in this space.
I am so thankful for this team. Thankful that I could be in Chicago for h+h Americas with Teresa while Hubert took care of the actual handover of the studio keys with the property manager on April 30.
And I’m so thankful for everyone who came to visit us at the studio, shop in our front shop, and attend classes here in person. We are making these yarns, these courses, and all this fibre arts content for you … so that you might also experience the joy and friendship that comes from learning to knit, crochet, spin, weave, and dye… just as we have.
This might be the end of our chapter at the Studio at Rand Avenue, but this is not the end. We will continue to make yarns, make courses, create new colourways, and tell more stories through textiles in a new space and a new studio. I hope you’ll continue to follow us on our journey as we create a new home for SweetGeorgia.
If you’re not already, please sign up for our SweetGeorgia Newsletter to find out when we have events at our new Studio at Southbridge in Vancouver. Currently, we’re hosting “Knit at Noon” on the second Saturday of each month from 11 am to 1 pm at our riverside SweetGeorgia Studio.
Endings are bittersweet. You’re in your new space because that’s where you need to be.
Thank you so much Pamela! I appreciate the encouragement!