Home again

We arrived back in Kingston on Saturday evening and I can truthfully say that we did experience what might have passed as uncomfortably hot weather - for about 5 minutes - when we stopped for a coffee somewhere in Maryland and I was way overdressed for the temperature.

All in all we had a great time and I do love exploring new places. The last day in Savannah I got to visit a lovely needlepoint store which carried a little bit of knitting. I was met by a fine gentleman who was wearing a beautiful entrelac sweater of Noro Kureyon. I really should have taken his picture.


There were 2 themes about our time in Savannah that I wanted to share. The first was the gigantic deal that St Patrick's Day is there. It would appear that they decorate for this Irish holiday the way that most places decorate for Christmas. Every store was decked out in green and there were St Patrick's day deals offered to tourists that began Feb. 20th and went right through until the big day on March 17th when the city is descended upon by revellers from all over the continent, of all races and nationalities, for the big parade. Apparently there was a time when 1/3 of the population of Savannah were refugees from the Irish potato famine. Of course, that would include Scarlett O'Hara's father and probably many others throughout the history of Georgia.


The other major theme that one runs into throughout Savannah is a literary one, in the form of John Berendt's book: "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil". For those of you who don't know this book/movie, I would highly recommend it. The author is actually a reporter who writes his stories in the most interesting style, that makes you believe that you are getting the best of a great murder mystery combined with the excellent detail of a colourful magazine article. One of the main characters in this book has got to be the city of Savannah herself. Most people that I know who had visited the city had done so because of the book. It's like reading about a wonderful grand Dame that you just have to meet. On the cover of the book is a photograph of "The Bird Girl", a statue which was originally in Bonaventure cemetery (the garden of the title) and is truly a piece of exquisite beauty. You can see a version of the sculpture in this picture along with copies of the book and CD's of the spoken version, and Dvds of the movie (starring Kevin Spacey).

Having been such a big fan of the book and the author (played by John Cusack in the movie) I had to pick up a copy of his next book: The City of Falling Angels which is about the fire which destroyed the opera house in Venice a few years ago. I can't wait to get into it.

But back to the real world. Bills to pay and yarn to sort will only be put off for so long.

A bit of what we came for.

This is a picture of Tybee Island about 25 minutes out of Savannah. We spent most of the day there, sitting on these lovely wooden swings that dot the 3 mile long, immaculate beach ($1 000 fine for littering and my guess is that it's well enforced.) Beautiful and sunny but I still spent the day with my jacket on and wrapped in a queen size fleece blanket while I read my book on the beach. There were a few hearty souls sunbathing - I have goosebumps just thinking about that much bare skin exposed to the sea winds, never mind the radiation from the sun.
This little community is obviously a summer place and wasn't quite sure what to do with us tourists who were foolish enough to come at a time when we couldn't swim in the ocean. A few restaurants were open but we still ended up eating lunch at the Subway shop (one of only 2 fast food franchises in the town- which is quite amazing).

The funniest thing happened which does a good job of giving you the flavour of the town. It was 3 o'clock and as we were heading out I wanted to pick up a cup of coffee for the ride. We stopped into a little ice cream shop and as I was reading the menu board, wondering if there was perhaps a local sweet that I could add to the coffee when the fellow behind the counter asked me what I'd like. I told him that I'd start with a large coffee and before I could say anything else, he said in a very apologetic voice with the sweetest southern drawl: "I guess we could make y'all some, but coffee's kind of a breakfast thing 'round here. Now I could name 20 places y'all could walk to if y'all wanted a beer. There might be coffee across the street at the gas station."

I don't think that Timmy's would do very well down here.

I have some pictures for a last post but it takes some fooling around to get them in place so "y'all" will have to wait until I get home to share them with you.

The Forest and the trees.

Still cold but everyone keeps saying: "Don't worry. It'll warm up before the weekend." Small comfort, but it is getting better - lots of sunshine and down to 2 jackets from yesterday's 3.

Besides we were on a wonderful bus tour through the historic area for most of the morning. On the tour we got to see the bench where Forest Gump sat throughout the telling of his story during the whole movie. (One of my favourite films!) The funny thing is that I wasn't able to recognize the place as it is supposed to be a bus stop presumably facing a street where a bus would travel, but it's actually a bench that faces in towards the centre of a beautiful park square (one of 21- squares that is, not benches, in the city).

We also heard that ALL of the trees in Savannah were destroyed during the Civil war, and that our tour guide's "Grandaddy" was the first commisioner of trees and was in charge of planning and executing the reforestation of the entire city. What a success story as the "lav oak" trees are everywhere and are an amazing symbol of rebirth. (It wasn't until I saw a plaque that described the trees that I realized that they were called "live" oaks.) Savannah is also supposed to be the most haunted city in America. There are several theories as to why this is, but I believe that it has something to do with the "Spanish moss" seen on these trees that truly makes every street look like it is being flown over by a flock of ghosts with hanging gauzy robes. Who could help but be prone to believing in ghosts, living in such an environment. Our tour guide did say that people here all like the Spanish moss as it creates more shade. I imagine that for a good part of the year shade is an important factor... not yesterday or today!

This is one of the yarn stores here in town: Wild Fibre. (Both knitting stores are within a couple of blocks of each other. I'll be seeing the other one tomorrow.) Lovely store with lots of space and a sofa for visiting knitters to sit on.

I noticed that they had a sign asking for knitters to work on "student projects". I asked what this meant and the lady explained that Savannah is home to one of the best and largest schools of Art and Design in North America and many of the students in the fashion design area need pieces to be knitted for their design collections - what a great job, but it certainly would require an interesting set of knitting skills.

Great lunch at "Mrs Wilkes Boarding House", listed as one of the "1000 Things to see Before You Die". Only 999 to go!

I found some azalea trees

Truly, you cannot believe how cold it was this morning when we went out. It reminded me of walking around Old Montreal in the late fall. But as the day went on the sun came out and I didn't have to run from store to museum to gallery just to keep warm.

Before heading out, I was looking up some places to hit in the craft world of the area and imagine my surprise when I turned up this piece of rug hooking from Cheticamp N.S. where I was a little over a year ago to learn about their rug hooking.




It was being sold on an antiques site and had been retrieved from a home here in Savannah, probably much like this one. The architecture is really incredible in this city.

This, I believe is an azalea. They are blooming now but not profusely. Still it's nice to see some colour among the trees.


Didn't get much knitting done; a few inches so that I could start the armhole shaping. I'll try and get the front finished today or tomorrow.

Local treat of the day: Corn and crab chowder that definitely wasn't made with skim milk...yum. Also deep fried cheese cake (like Mexican deep fried ice cream only warmer.) Also found a chocolate shop that made tiny little truffle sheep the size of an almond for $4 ea. Boy, who would want to eat them for that price. Just keep them for posterity.

Knitting to Savannah

Yesterday, Saturday, Feb 28th at 4am, for the first time in 20 years, we (my husband, Scott and I) were on our way to a southern destination where the weather was supposed to be better than what we left in Kingston.

After a 15 hour day of driving, which included a terrific breakfast of homemade corned beef hash at a diner near Syracuse, and leaving my purse in a gas station bathroom in Virginia (and retrieving it because some kind person turned it in) we arrived in Wilson N.C. in time for supper at Bill's Barbecue Buffet - pictured here. This barbecue experience is worth sharing with you. I must say that it was the first time that I've ever been to a buffet of so many things that looked kind of familiar but that I really didn't recognize.

Among these, I discovered were collard greens, hush puppies (finger sized doughnut type treats), banana pudding (with ladyfingers, banana slces, custard and meringue), sweet potatoes baked in apple juice, honey and topped with marshmallows, and yellow coleslaw. It was all great, including/especially the barbecue pulled pork from an entire pig displayed on a heated tray. (I felt like such a total carnivore.)

This morning we woke up to a violent rain storm and 40degrees F, and predictions of snow for the region. This was not a good omen so we figured that we'd better keep on our way. We had been planning on driving until we were warm enough to sit outside and read. At this rate is felt like we would have to drive to Central America to achieve that goal.

Before we left North Carolina this morning I had an audience of several very confused breakfast eaters watching me through the restaurant window as I took a picture in the pouring rain of the knitting that I got done in the car yesterday: 2 balls of Diamond Luxury's new SILK TWEED which I love. At least the picture shows that there were some green azalea leaves on the bushes to prove that we weren't still in cold Ontario.

I'm not sure exactly how this sweater that I'm working on will turn out, but you may get a chance to see it in progress as the week goes on. So far there is 13" of stocking stitch with a band of about 5" of cabling in the centre to provide some shaping, followed by a few short rows to give some extra room in the front. I have a pattern that I'm kind of following, but I keep changing the detailing. It's fun!

We have arrived in Savannah; it's still freezing cold but at least there are no expectations of snow for this area and they are predicting warmer weather later in the week and lots of sun too. I think that we'll tough it out here rather than moving on, as we're both pretty fed up with the inside of the truck.

Hoping to look into the knitting community in this area of Georgia while I'm here. Will keep you posted.

Knitters and readers

NOTE ADDED FEB 23RD - If anyone would like to read "A Sweetness in the Belly" for the March 17th get together, that is the one that we will be talkking about. Read on...

Last night the Kingston Knitting Circle met at Chapters as we do each month .(Although apparently we will be looking for a new venue in the near future. Any ideas??? I'll keep you posted.)


And it became apparent that the people who were there last night were not only avid knitters, some driving 1/2 hour from out of town to join us, but that we were also avid readers. My favourite books are Canadian literature by women, (although I am NOT a fan of Margaret Atwood) and so was delighted to stumble recently across Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. A couple of the others who were there last night had also read it and one of the knitters put it so well: "She paints beautiful pictures in her story." I say that the quote on the front of my copy by a writer for the Chicago Tribune should be considered a warning to be taken seriously: "So compelling, so detailed and vivid that I couldn't bear to be torn away from it for a single minute." The dust bunnies in my house are running wild since I began reading it. (Actually they're usually able to run wild around my place, no matter what I'm reading but it's even worse now.)



One of the other ladies suggested that it would be a fun to choose a book and try and read it before the next meeting, ad hocly making our meeting a knitting & reading get-together (next one is on St Patrick's day, by the way, at Chapters from 7-9). The book that she loved and was reading is called "Sweetness in the Belly". NPR's review describes it like this: "Sweetness in the Belly, the new novel by Camilla Gibb, is the story of what happens to a young Irish girl abandoned in Morocco when her parents are murdered." It does sound wonderfully intriguing.


Then as we were nattering away, a very nice young man came into the Community Room where we were sitting and put down 2 copies of "Ten Thousand Lovers" by Edeet Ravel on the table, saying that he had heard us talking, and that due to his insomnia he gets to read 4-5 novels each week ( I wish...) and that this one was one of the best he had read in a long time. The author was born in an Israeli kibbutz and was now living in Guelph ON. I love these serendipitous referrals, and as my degree in Jewish History offers me little advantage at this point in my carreer but an interest in certain times and places in history, I was sold. A few minutes later he returned with 4 hard cover copies that he had found on the sale table that were only $7.99 - It was meant to be!


The other thing that he mentioned is that he had been in touch with the author via her web site and was able to meet her in Westport not too long ago. Alana (our wonderful new worker at the store) and I had been talking about just this phenomenon earlier in the day in reference to her own exchange with Mags Kandis of Mission Falls: how the internet allows us to feel closer to people that we find interesting and would like to exchange ideas with much more easily than if we had to make an appointment to visit them. And the "celebrity" can choose to reply or not, and considering that a reply can take but a few moments, it's lovely opportunity for them to build exchanges with people whom they would never get a chance to be in contact with otherwise. I really am becoming such a fan of the wonderfully human aspects of the internet. After all it allows me to chat with you both here and in the newsletter, it puts me in touch with family and friends from away, it reconnects me with people that I haven't seen since High School yet with whom I'm interested in touching base, it allows me to find every knitting store in the universe (and anything else for that matter). We do live in marvelous times!

Recognizing Natural Fibres and tiny knits.

Look at this logo carefully, isn't it the most creative expression of our natural fleece world. (I particularly like the bunny up in Greenland).

2009 has been designated by the United Nations to be the International Year of Natural Fibres.

And this is the official logo of the effort and celebration. Now this designation is no small potatoes, not like national Kiss your Teddy day, or Regional Rompers' Regatta. This is a big deal that the United Nations has recognized the importance of the interconnectedness of our environment and the importance of the role that natural fibres play in our world.

Check out the website at http://www.keepthefleece.org/ . What a creative bunch these people are on the steering committee. They have set up a design competition with categories such as "Camelot" using fibre from camel, llama, alpaca, etc. Another category is "Inch by Inch" for designers using pure silk. Isn't that fun?

They are also aiming to create the world's longest scarf (which will later be divided into sensible lengths and donated charity.) The altruistic aim of the scarf exercise is to find knitter/sponsors who will contribute $1/row to participate in its growth. The funds will then go to Heifer International which supports the raising of flocks in developing countries.

I love this idea, and it's such a lovely gentle way of contributing to the world in this time when we feel that many small things can come together to create more permanent solutions to our larger problems. I'm sure you'll be hearing more about this from us in the future.

Now for another cool knitting story. Coraline, the new young adult fantasy horror 3D movie filmed in "stop motion" didn't really make a lot of sense to me as I wasn't quite sure what "stop motion" was. Isn't that what they used to do in the olden days and what my nephew does on You Tube with Lego? In fact it is exactly that. And one of the features of this beautifully dark movie is that the star (and several other characters) who are only a few inches tall wear hand knit sweaters that are created by Althea Chrome in size XXXS. Go to her site www.bugknits.com to see a video of her methods. You will never complain about knitting 4 ply socks again.

Coraline's sweater here is about 1 1/2 inches long.

I was thinking that this may be the way to go for people who are easily bored...knit a garment that is about an inch long until I realized that Althea gives a 12 hour workshop to knit a cardigan!!! That's a big commitment of time to knit 1".