Well I have to say, I was a little shocked to look at the calendar today and see that it had been over a month since my last post. Exactly one week from my post on “in the snood”, something horrific happened. Devastating storms tore through the southeast, destroying much of a place I love and call home, Tuscaloosa.
Home alone and panicking about the nearing tornado, there was only one person I could think to call...Trish. My go-to comforter has gotten me through scary house sittings and interview jitters. Trish, as she always says, is just a text or call away - despite the 3,000 miles between us. So naturally, when the tree limbs started snapping, I called Trish.
She advised me to start by making the palace of all palaces...in my bathtub. I’m sick I don’t have a picture of this, but the whole no power thing meant no good pictures. I grabbed couch pillows and blankets and got to work. I built myself a lovely little haven stocked with my knitting and my computer. Trish then smartly advised me to somehow cover the bathroom window in the event of broken glass. (I started with this huge fleece blanket that my grandmother made me, but when the packing tape wouldn’t hold I settled on pillow cases and trash bags.) I arranged candles on the back of the toilet, lit them, and got cozy. Well, not exactly cozy...I suppose about as cozy as you could be in a bathtub during a deadly tornado. “I LOVE this plan, paint your nails,” Trish said. And for a minute I thought, hmm this might be really nice. Yeah, right. A torturous thirty minutes of absolute am I going to live or die fear later, I came out of the bathroom and opened my front door.
The storm had finally ended and outside, for a moment anyway, everything was quiet and calm. People began emerging from their homes, migrating to their porches to sit and wait. We turned on our car radio and listened for hours, just starting to realize the immense devastation that had just occurred. No power, no cell service, no internet, we banded together and gathered our resources. My neighbors in front of me - Casey, Jack, and Chris are from south Alabama, and having been through several hurricanes growing up knew just what to do. We cleaned out our fridges and cooked what we had on the grill, bought a couple cases of beer and tried to take our minds off things. Funny enough, beer and ice were the two commodities that gas stations and grocery stores couldn’t keep in stock post-storm.
By Thursday (the day after), the University had sent an email explaining that due to the circumstances exams were to be cancelled and if we were able to leave Tuscaloosa to do so immediately. I grabbed some clothes for the week and cleaned out the rest of the fridge. Since I had washed and therefore destroyed Bella’s carrier the week before, I scoured the streets for empty cardboard boxes. I found one, had Jack cut some large slits in it, and in went Bella. I loaded the meowing/howling cardboard box (Bella really doesn’t travel well) and hit the road.
I made it back to Nashville safely, finally. One week later and I was back on the road again. I drove down to Birmingham to catch a flight to Baltimore where I would reunite with Trish at Maryland Sheep and Wool. Maryland Sheep and Wool takes place every year in Frederick, MD and I believe is the biggest sheep and fiber festival today. If you have never been to a fiber festival, go! They are so much fun and quite a sight to see! There was barn after barn full of vendors from all over the US selling everything from wheels to whole fleeces to handmade baskets to Irish music. Not to mention the several barns that were full of sheep! I saw a ton of different breeds I had never seen (I’m sort of a sheep novice). Here are some of them:
These are called Jacob's sheep, I liked their spotted coats.
I believe this is a colored corridale. I texted the pictures to Trish and she said that its hard to tell with the coats on but this wool looks finer and that there are a lot of colored corris on the market, so thats probably what this guy is.
This one cracked me up because he has some dreads on top! This one Trish said is either a Lincoln or a Wensleydale...
These guys, you can't really tell by the picture, were huge! These are also probably colored corridales.
Now, this one could be either a Lincoln or a Wensleydale but after googling some pictures, I have decided that it is a Wensleydale. I may not be an expert on sheep breeds, but I sure do like them.
I spent about half of the weekend shopping and catching up with friends and the other half working, and I didn’t exactly go to work. See, I was there to visit with Trish who was actually working at the WooLee Winder booth with Nathan and Alexandra. And two booths down was what appeared to be the must-have product this year, Signature needles. Now, I had never heard of these needles before, but by the end of the day I was practically selling them. The Signature needles were so popular that all day there was a line about three booths long. People praised their smooth and quick capabilities and some even claimed they would never buy another needle brand.
Trish and I, rather reluctantly, became tag-team traffic control. In order to keep the WooLee Winder booth and the one next door from being blocked, Trish and I had to direct and patrol the Signature customers. By the end, we had quite a nice system going. I would stand by the booth and hand out pricing guides and direct interested customers to Trish, who would wave with her pink fan and then direct them to the back of the line. (We had to keep a huge gap in the line to keep the other booths open, which led to a lot of chaos and confusion.) When the customers were finished paying, I would wave to Trish to send the next in line. Once the line finally lulled, the gals at Signature were so impressed by my take-charge volunteerism that they sent me home with a nice set of Signature Stiletto dpns. (For my non-knitter friends, dpns stands for double point needles, which are used for things like socks and gloves.) If one set of fancy needles wasn’t enough, a trip to see Sheila and Michael Ernst would do the trick. Sheila and Michael are old friends of Trish who I met last year at Black Sheep Gathering. They make the most beautiful and amazing glass knitting needles. I left their booth with two sets of circulars...one for me and one for my sister’s birthday.
I ended the weekend in DC with a short visit with my Aunt Paul and Uncle Veronica (that’s what I called them when I was a kid, confused by the fact that my family ordered every other aunt and uncle with the woman first: Aunt Amy and Uncle Robert, Aunt Terry and Uncle Don, Aunt Judy and Uncle Mike, etc). They took me on a nice little scenic view of the Potomac River and then into the city for delicious dim sum at a trendy restaurant, Ping Pong. After massive amounts of dim sum and strawberry-vanilla bubble tea, we went to Union station. We walked around the shops a while and then P & V sent me back to Baltimore via train to catch my flight home. I had never ridden on a train before, so it was kind of exciting to me!
I got back to Birmingham at about 9:00 pm and got on 59 headed to Tuscaloosa. This was going to be my first time back since I fled after the storm. Sam met me down there since I was a little worried about my apartment and just had no idea what to expect. The next day we got in the car and decided to drive around to see some of the devastated areas. I think that was one of the hardest things I have ever done in my life. Even though I had heard about the city’s condition and even seen pictures, it wasn’t really real until I saw it firsthand. Driving down 15th Street I saw the first stripped and warped tree, I remember commenting “Well, I guess this is the beginning.” At this point, I still had no idea what I was in for. On the other side of this tree were the remains of neighborhoods and businesses, as far as the eye could see on both sides of the street. We pulled off 15th and headed deep into the destruction. Instantly, my eyes filled with tears. I don’t even think there are words to describe what I felt and saw there. Tuscaloosa has a way of capturing its residents, its infectious spirit penetrates deep and never truly leaves you. Seeing Tuscaloosa this way was just unbearable. My thoughts and prayers go out to all those affected by the recent storms in the Southeast, as well as those in Joplin and the newest affected area - Massachusetts. 
Sam and I spent the rest of the week packing and closing down my apartment for the summer. We fixed lightbulbs, changed the air filter, hung pictures, you know everything that I should have done while I was actually there for school. But hey, a few less things to do when I get back in August. We finally left on Thursday and drove back to Nashville.
While all of this was happening, I knitted up the cowl next in line, “fit to be tied”. The cowl is knit double with two different yarns, I used Bergere de France Origin’s Merinos and Rowan’s Kidsilk Haze in different shades of purple (my favorite!). This gives the cowl a beautiful sort of iridescence and the Kidsilk adds a really nice halo. I used four skeins of the worsted and 2 skeins of the lace-weight. Click on the following links to order this yarn from the Loops website, an excellent excuse to see the recent site additions! And while you're on the website, sign up for the Loops Scoop. It is an email newsletter that Loops sends every two weeks. It has info on upcoming classes and store events, plus shares with you the store's new loot and great free patterns! Click here to buy Merinos! Click here to buy Kidsilk! If you are unsure which colors to choose, call the store - the loops troops always love to help with your projects!
The cowl turned out exactly as I hoped, but it certainly tested my already short attention span. I made it through the 25 inches of the beaded rib pattern alright, but I found the 46 inch, in-the-round, stockinette tie absolutely daunting. Frankly, half way through the tie I wanted to give up. I thought, how many more inches of this can I take? But let me tell you, it was totally worth it! The tie really makes this cowl, hence the name, and really wasn’t as bad as I convinced myself.
What threw me for a loop was seaming the cowl. The instructions read, “Join one end of the cowl to the other, being careful not to twist the tube”. The cowl is knit 25 inches long so that the ribbing can be worn horizontally and so the cowl must be seamed. At first the seaming baffled me and a couple of other much more experienced knitters, but eventually it dawned on me! By folding the cowl in half so that the open ends are lined up, the cowl can be sewed up with a simple whip stitch through all four layers. The tie is a perfect added touch to hide my not-so attractive sewing job.
Now, early tomorrow morning I am heading to the Bahamas to spend a week with Sam’s family. I am taking with me the yarn for “wrapsody in blue” and “mohair is better”. There is usually lots of knitting time down there, so I hope to have good progress to share once I get back! Stay posted :)
Mariel.
