A virus-related update from ECY
Must not call it corvid.. must not call it corvid.. must not call it corvid…
Ok, sorry to have to bore you all to death with this - I know we’re all sick of hearing about it, sick of having to worry about it already, and a lot of people are struggling with anxiety about it. I don’t really want to add to the noise but just wanted to let you know where we’re at and how it’s affecting us so far.
I am really, really lucky in this case because I work from home, and being an online business means we don’t usually have face-to-face contact with many people. At the moment I just have Debbie coming in, and that’s it. Her husband is high-risk due to another illness, so we are being SUPER careful because of that. I also just don’t want to get ill and don’t want to pass it on generally. My other half David works in a lab where hygiene is also already a big deal. He’s being really careful too. So that’s us here. If things get worse Debbie might decide she should stop coming to work (totally reasonable), and if that happens then I will cope - I always do! It would simply mean that production would slow down and shipping orders might slow down. It might not happen though, we’ll see.
In terms of post - well firstly any virus on a parcel for example would be inactive by the time it reached its destination, so post doesn’t need to be sterilised! Plus we’re constantly washing our hands anyway, and being really careful. I know that the Post Office staff (it’s a tiny one with only two people) are being suuuuuper careful too - no-one wants this thing to spread if we can help it! Royal Mail have issued official advice which you can read HERE. What it basically says is that they won’t ask you to sign on the device for signed-for post (which we don’t normally do). Ooh whilst I’m thinking about that - you can always pop a note on your order to tell us to write instructions on your parcel, e.g. “please leave by the front door”.
A couple more things spring to mind - firstly I’m not sure if postal deliveries will be affected by this.. as in.. if lots of mail staff got ill, or anything like that. I guess we would get an update from Royal Mail if that was the case - and I would let you know.
The other thing - and this is more definite - is that we are likely to find that yarn supply will be affected - both in terms of production (the mills need staff!) but also shipping and freight. Our main supplier called this morning (Wed the 17th) and said they have a decent amount of stock but they anticipate supplies being affected, and that if we wanted a large quantity of anything we should stock up now. I must admit that did make me want to panic a bit, but actually we’re in a good position as I’ve been dyeing a LOT recently and have a couple of updates already ready for April (brand new yarns as well - eek); plus have what we need for the rest of this month - an Askham 4ply and Aran update, and the grand Cat Knits book, merch, and yarn launch. In fact we have new stock here ready to dye for early May updates, so I’m really relieved about that now! Milburn 4ply and DK could be affected - this is slightly more scary actually as it’s our wholesale business, so that affects other shops too, rather than just us. I’m hoping that we won’t notice any delays in production of Milburn, but that’s a bit more difficult to judge. As always, I will update you whenever we get updates ourselves. I like to be open and upfront about these things! :)
I hope this helps but as always if you have any queries please get in touch at info@edencottageyarns.co.uk
Stay safe folks, keep knitting and crocheting, and remember to keep washing your hands with soap, and just be sensible. If anxiety about this is getting you down, turn your phone/the news off (especially long before bed time!!) and read or craft. It is absolutely ok to want to escape it for a while - you are allowed to do that, and feeling more calm will help your immune system anyway. If in doubt about information being shared on the internet (well, misinformation) you can fact-check HERE - it's totally worth doing. Also, HERE is the NHS official information about the virus. Please be careful about believing random crap on Facebook!
(Image credit: By Wojsyl - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=421214)