Where's the tree?

That tree was notorious. It first appeared at our Christmas party 2.5 years ago (which was also the celebration of the Lafayette Chamber of Commerce yarn cutting ceremony, you'll remember). The thing was all decked out in the festive finery of the season. After 12th night that year, it became a Mardi Gras tree. Then, the general idea was to make it a "holiday tree", a way to decorate the knitting area seasonally. So, in keeping with that notion, the Mardi Gras tree was transformed into an "Easter tree". After Easter, the "patriotic holiday tree" appeared, but thereafter, the blazing zeal for maintaining and transforming it for each particular major holiday or season slowly started to cool. The "arbor horribilis" got some notable attention by several persons who injected some arboreal botox into the sagging artificial eyesore: a fabulous autumn tree last fall, this past groovy and ecclectic Christmas tree, and then the final designer touch for Mardi Gras. It had become a traditional fixture of the knitting area, lauded in its glory, scorned in the post-season -- a rock star evergreen people loved to hate. There was also the issue of the table skirt. It's nice and all, but it was rather like a Bermuda Triangle sort of affair. If you sat near it, it tended to make things disappear: the other knitting needle, your pack of markers, your pattern, your scissors. All seemed to vanish, swallowed up by the billowing table cloth to be hidden somewhere below. Added to that, the persons sitting on the love seat in the corner had to lean forward to chat with people sitting in the circle on the other side of the tree. So, yesterday, we bid adieu to the tree. Gone pecan. The fabulous Mardi Gras decorations that marked its final hurrah have been carefully stored and the tree was removed forever. In its place, we now have a bookshelf with pattern and reference books for everyone to use. You'll notice that the knitting circle seems more open now, and that there's more space -- because there is. This is just the start of the general shop makeover that will take place for the next few weeks. YOUR local yarn shop is growing, thanks to all of YOU!