It feels pretty damned frivolous to write about my latest little knitting project considering what's been going on. I can't stop thinking about the Gulf Coast and all those people who have lost everything. And the people who are still stuck in New Orleans without food or water. Watching the people around them slowly go crazy.
I love that town. As a matter of fact, thirteen years ago this very weekend I was there, in my big thrift store wedding dress running the streets with the drag queens during Southern Decadance. When I lived in Birmingham I would try to get there every six months or so just to refuel my creativity. Not for the stupid frat boy parties on Bourbon but for the food, the people, and the atmosphere.
The little stories of the great human encounters I've had there keep running through my head. And I wonder how some of those people are doing. That jazz musician who gave me the expensive cigarettes, the homeless man I met early one morning at Jackson Square who invited me for thanksgiving dinner at the shelter, the "vacant house" man, the generous RC Cola guy on Prytannia.
It's strange to read about Highway 90 too. I always selfishly thought that highway belonged to me and my friend Kim. The roadside carnival that sprung up in the night in Biloxi after driving east over the bridges and bayous seemed like it was just for us.
In 1999 I took my new husband to New Orleans for our honeymoon. He loved it too. We always said if we made enough money that someday we'd buy a house in the Garden District.
My friend Will (who was also at Southern Decadance in 92 and in our wedding in 99) lives there. And I've been trying to call his parents house in Natchez but haven't been able to get through. I'm sure he evacuated. Pretty sure anyway.
I can't believe the lack of help that's been getting there. And the calloused comments about why they weren't better prepared or leave when they were told to. This is a three-hundred year old city with actual functioning public transport and not everyone there can afford a car. It's really hard to describe the levels of poverty in this part of the country. Government money does not go here - there are no clean rich white voters to keep happy.
The looting is, well, honestly? I don't care about the looting aside from the guns. We're all up in arms about people stealing stupid crappy stuff from stores while there are corpses right out in the open, people and babies starving, insulin-dependant diabetics without access to medicine, and no clean water to drink. Who gives a shit about commercialism at a time like this? I have no doubt they were overcharging anyway.
This is the most class-conscious disaster I've ever seen. I think a lot of things will change after this. I hope.
So. Back to knitting. I knit a ziggyzaggy scarf from some handpainted handspun yarn I bought on ebay.
It was a simple pattern:
cast on an even number of stitches
k every stitch for 2 rows
(Zigging) k2, *yo, k2tog* repeat to the last two stitches, knit 2.
purl odd rows
repeat for about 30 rows or so
(Zagging) k2, *sl1 k1 psso yo* repeat to the last two stitches, knit2
purl odd rows
repeat.
Just alternate these stitches until you have enough yarn to knit every stitch for the last two rows and bind off.
It's pretty long and nice and soft. Because it is handspun from handpainted roving and knit without a specific pattern it is very unique.
The good news is if you'd like to buy it I'm going to be donating it along with several other finished works to the craft revolution etsy store where five thousand dollars has already been raised and donated to the Red Cross.
I also plan to donate the handspun kool aid dyed neck tube, the felted pink tiki purse and belt set, and the handspun kool aid dyed sunset yarn. These have gotten the most response on craftster so I think these are the most likely to sell. I will be covering the shipping expense for them.
I've also bought some fun handcrafted items at the store. There are some great things there.
Our Saturday knitting group will be bringing some knitted items to donate to the shop as well. And Cody and I plan to cover the shipping on these items too. It's not a big deal but it's something we can do.
We're also going through our closets and getting clothes, videotapes, books, and canned foods. Now we just need to find an organization that's accepting these kinds of things.
It's something anyway. Better than me sitting around staring into nothing wondering what happened to the vacant house man.
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