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Dear Kay,

There’s only one word I feel like typing today today.

Vote!

Today’s the day.

If you haven’t yet done the great deed of democracy, just hop in the old jalopy and go. Standing in line to vote is one of the greatest feelings in the world. Take a sock to knit. Greet a neighbor.

Once you’ve got your “I Voted” sticker, go celebrate with a cherry limeade at Sonic, or a kale cider green slurpy thing, or whatever little celebration feels good.

I voted a couple of weeks ago at Casa Azafrán, a community center down the road from MDK World Headquarters.

It’s currently home to nine non-profit partners who provide opportunities—ranging from health, financial, and legal services to cultural, culinary and educational enrichment—in Nashville’s most international and ethnically diverse district.

I’ve been to two epic bar mitzvah parties there. I’ve seen a paella cookoff that got a little heated. Casa Azafrán is a beehive. I love voting there.

Afterwards, I celebrated by snagging a banh mi across the street at InterAsian Market & Deli.

Meanwhile . . .

Gossammerrrrrrrrrrrrr. Joji Locatelli’s Gossamer is proving to be a highlight of my 2022 knitting efforts.

I’d make faster work of it if I stopped holding it up to the light and sighing.

So much sighing.

Here’s the double-stranded Gossamer in gray—the original weight specified in the pattern. Beautiful, more opaque than the single-stranded version. This Kidsilk Haze in Turquoise continues to delight.

Here’s my post about the tweaks I’m making to the pattern.

Love,

Ann

PS Watch Snippets for news of our next MDK Joji Knitalong hangout Zoom on Monday, November 14, 5:00 Eastern. Breakout rooms return! Mix and mingle, talk about your project, all that sort of thing.

21 Comments

  • I voted early because we were not sure we would be in town. I kind of missed standing in line because the line always reassures me that democracy is alive and well and I need that reassurance this year more than usual. Your voting location sounds wonderful – I have always voted in schools and churches and those are fine but not nearly as vibrant as a community center would be.

    • Good point. We are opting to stand in line to vote today but I couldn’t figure out why we wanted to do it that way. I think you just hit on the reason. It’s reassuring to stand there with others on the day—and I’ll be knitting a sock.

  • Sigh…

  • Love voting by mail. Love the notification from the U.S. P.O. telling me they received it. Love notification the Co. Registrar they received it. Finally knowing I did what every voting-age citizen should be doing- being heard by voting.

    • YES! I too love the way CO tells you your ballot is in the mail, then tells you it has been received back and then tells you it has been counted. There is something reassuring about having a system that works so well.

  • I voted by mail. Boring but oh so important. I forgot to celebrate voting so I believe I shall do that today!

  • We lived in Tennessee for 15 years and I loved the ease of early voting-I was working in a primary care clinic and I never knew if I’d be done by the time the polls closed. We now live in a state where the only early voting is by absentee ballot and the state makes it very difficult to vote that way. I’ll be leaving later this morning to go stand in line and vote in person.

    • I love in New Mexico and also enjoy early voting. So great!

  • I choose to vote downtown in our town square instead of our country precinct.
    Here, we’re probably 90% one party and 10% the other party but in line, you’d never know it. It’s a happy get together atmosphere with a healthy Friday night football feel.
    And if we never turned on the news no one would ever know we were supposed to hate eachother.

    • I love that! I lived for a while in a small town where there were two groups on opposite sides of the street at the entrance to town. One had protest signs against the war (which one is actually irrelevant), the other had signs supporting it. Every day at lunchtime, they would yell across the street to each other to decide where the combined group wanted to go for lunch that day. After lunch, they went back to protesting on opposite sides of the street.

  • There’s something magical about airyknits! When my first lacy cashmere scarf was on the needles, I giddily invited people to close their eyes and hold out their hands so I could put the whole WIP on their palms and make them experience the astonishing combination of Heat and Weightlessness. Yep, that’s right, I know how to show people a good time.

    • I voted. As always. Love that turquoise color!

  • I’m making mine in a beautiful cerise shade. I started according to the pattern and had made a small mistake along the way that I thought would never be noticed. After reading your post I pulled it back as far as the end of the rib and continued in single strand. The double strand rib gives just a little bit of weight but the single strand body is gorgeous. Thanks for the inspiration.

  • In Oregon we have voting drop boxes. We dropped ours in on Sunday.

  • Love that turquoise! I voted Sunday, I like the convenience and option of ballot drop boxes or the mail and I love the ballot tracking notification. Though I do kinda miss going to the polls, it felt more like an accomplishment!

  • I like the ease of filling out my ballet and dropping it in the box at the Boulder County Fairgrounds. A day later (maybe two) Ballotrax confirmed by email that my ballot had been received. Another few days and Ballotrax let me know my ballot had been counted. It’s super convenient and reassuring. My vote counted! But if I could go to somewhere like Casa Azafrán, I surely would.

  • Vote—and bring your kiddies with you! When she was small, my daughter would end up in line three times for each election: once with her grandfather, again with her grandmother, and then with me, collecting stickers each time. I shouldn’t have been surprised when she chose a career in politics.

    • When I lived in Az, we took my nibling to vote too. The poll workers were always nice enough to give them a sticker too! Later, when my parents were unable to vote in person (one parent with cancer, and the other was the primary caretaker) they would sit down at the kitchen table with my nibling and any of their friends who wanted to be there and go over the voting pamphlet in detail and discuss everything. Then they’d fill out their ballots (but still keeping the actual votes a secret) and my sister would drop them off. Yaknow, the kid has voted in EVERY election since they turned 18…

    • I took my daughters with me to vote when they were little and was delighted when my younger daughter took her 5-year-old with her to continue the tradition. I love voting early! There wasn’t much of a line this time, but often there are long lines at that early voting locations as well.

  • Lucky me — I waited in line next to a WWII Veteran! Sharp as a tack, wonderful conversation and travel advice — go!

  • I’m in a vote by mail state (or a vote by dropping it off in the big ballot box at city hall, or a smaller one at your local library) so as soon as we got our ballots, we did our research and filled them out neat and tidy and proper like and I took them to the drop off the very next day. To celebrate, I went back to work. Kidding… we held off on celebrating til the weekend when we drove out to the coast to see the ocean in all it’s cold, windy, high tidey , November glory. There may have been copious amounts of hot chocolate involved.

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