First Person
Postcards from Cather Country
I’m still floaty and a little breathless from a trip I took last week to my home state of Nebraska. I traveled with a friend I’ve known since second grade from Lincoln to Red Cloud, the childhood home of Willa Cather, who was born in Virginia in 1873 and moved to Nebraska at age 9. The landscape and people of the waning years of the homestead era imprinted on her strongly, inspiring indelible portrayals of settlers from the Eastern United States and Europe, in particular in her novels My Ántonia and O Pioneers! I’m sure I’m not alone in that when I think of my own unbreakable, kindhearted grandmothers, I think of Ántonia Shimerda, who preceded them by just one generation.
My friend Laurie, a Cather scholar, had curated a two-day Willa Cather immersion tour for us. While my big-city (Omaha) bias had me wondering how we would possibly fill two whole days in a town with a population of 962, I was only 8 or 9 myself when I learned not to argue with Laurie. If Laurie said two days, it’s two days.
And what a couple of days. We saw not only the gently restored childhood home in Red Cloud, but an assortment of town and country churches (with and without floors), five or possibly six rural cemeteries (I don’t want to exaggerate but I do think it was six), plus the homes of some of the people on whom Cather directly based her stories, most movingly the farmstead where Àntonia Shimerda (Anna Sadilek Pavelka in real life) founded her family, after all she went through to get there. The Pavelka fruit cellar moved me to tears, thinking of the little Cuzak children bouncing out of it into the light. We also saw old and new Nebraska educational TV documentaries at the National Willa Cather Center, and for an extra treat spent a happy hour in the archives looking at objects from Cather’s life in Nebraska, Pittsburgh, New York, New Hampshire, and New Brunswick. When I asked, do you have any of her clothes?—the archivist opened a drawer containing a beautiful embroidered green wool jacket seen in portraits of Cather. There is nothing like a piece of well-loved clothing to bring a person back to life.
A big highlight was staying in the Cather Second Home, the house where Cather’s family moved after she left home. I slept in the room she stayed in when she visited her folks, awaking each morning to the sun streaming in off the second-floor porch where she liked to sit and read. I ambled to the kitchen to make myself a coffee, wondering what she would make of their house being an Airbnb and having a wifi password.
Perhaps the biggest highlight: walking on the never-been-plowed Cather Prairie at sunset, trying to imagine how the Cathers felt when they first arrived by train from the East. Oh yeah, the train station is preserved. The sandstone bank building from A Lost Lady is there, magnificently restored. The opera house is there, still in use. The Cather historians are not messing around.
I came home with a bag full of books and a heart full of tenderness. Getting to have this experience with the North Omaha bestie with whom I read and re-read and re-re-read Wilder’s Little House series so many years ago was a pure prairie gift.
There Was Knitting
I don’t travel without knitting, and I know enough to bring a super easy project in case I can’t concentrate on something more ambitious. But this time the super easy project, a mistake rib scarf, was too easy; it bored me even when we were sitting in the dark watching educational TV. So I kept trying to knit on the yoke of my passion project, The Twigs.
The Twigs has two kinds of stranded motifs in it: the ones you can knit in the car and the ones you can hardly knit at all.
Just kidding! But that big twiggy section with the crossed fronds?—that’s an 80-stitch repeat, worked five times over 400 stitches. And I was at the start of those 19 rounds when I left New York.
If it’s 80 stitches, I have to question how you can call it a repeat—just saying, Junko Okamoto! Call me old fashioned, but I feel like a repeat should…repeat.
I’m just having a laugh—this sweater has my heart precisely because of that 80-stitch pattern; it’s sublime.
In conclusion: I didn’t get that far on The Twigs while Laurie and I rambled around Red Cloud. On the delayed flight home, I got into the groove enough to get through all 19 rounds of twigginess, and now I’m back on the twig-free blacktop of those lovely 4- and 8-stitch repeats. Two rounds from separating sleeves and body! More in love with The Twigs than ever! Go me!
Kay, it seems your yarn choice was phenomenally on point. The colors are beautiful together and the “twigginess” is just so pretty. Your visit sounds interesting, and having your knitting during flight delay is the perfect calm for that moment.
You are right ” Go, you!!”
Lovely work. I knit one of her designs and broke the large repeat into smaller chunks to give myself interim landmarks. I marked lines on the chart- say every 20 stitches and then used distinctive stitch markers to denote the full 80 stitch repeat and bulb marks at the 20 stitch intervals between those markers. It helped keep me on track
Love this story of your time in Nebraska. Thanks for sharing.
Oh thank you Kay. I just checked to make sure I still have my copy of My Ántonia. I need to reread it. Thank you for the links.
And your sweater – WOW. One of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen.
Thank you, Kay. Loved your Nebraska and Cather stories. And that Twigs sweater!! You are always inspiring, but this is extra amazing. You Go, Girl!
All the hearts for this.
Thank you so much, Ann, for sharing your trip. Willa Cather reminds me of my Grandmother and inspires me to read some of her work. Things we all need to be reminded about I think.
Realizing that I have never read her work, I went right to Libby to borrow 3 of Cather’s books to read while knitting fingerless mitts.
That green jacket is inspiring in its style and quality.
Your article put me where you were and now I will stay a while while reading about her life. Thank you.
Thank you for sharing your Nebraska experience. I grew up in Kansas and love the prairie. You and Willa Cather had me looking out over the prairie this morning.
Continue the Willa Cather saga and visit her grave in Jaffrey,NH.
Make it a knitting trip and go to Harrisville. A few miles down the road.
Lovely. Thank you for sharing about your heartwarming visit.
Never been to the Midwest but sounds like a wonderful getaway! Kay the colors are exquisite and the pattern is super ambitious – what a start! Please continue to show us your progress!
Thank you, Kay! I loved this.
Oh so delightful. I would love to do this
Wow, the Twigs is coming along nicely.
Aah, the prairie..
And my sis and I did the same thing with the Little House books-& show (Monday nights were reserved)
I’m on a cruise working on a dishcloth. Not the most ambitious project but one I can manage with all the distractions! I may keep it as a really weird souvenir of the trip. Wish I had the patience for that beautiful sweater.
Yeah,Go you!
Phenomenal!
When you hear the word “capsule” you probably think “wardrobe”…? When I hear it, it links with “time” and here it is – what a great story. This village with all its elements is like a trip in time, not that distant, but still… and archetype of sorts – so many other places full of pioneers and let’s face it, immigrants and our ancestors searched for a better life in open prairies of North America and some areas of South America and Australia. Thank you for this short trip into the 4th dimension!
Your photographs are really beautiful! They lend an almost mystical quality to your trip. And I can’t wait to see your finished Twigs and how you wear it. I’ve often thought of knitting it but just haven’t—I think it’s the size thing that’s held me back. But I’m sure you’ll style yours beautifully.
Now I’m going to have to get some Willa Cather books. Xo
I absolutely loved this… Willa and I share the same December 7th birthday! Also “followed her to Santa Fe” in Death Came to the Archbishop.
You took us on your precious journey. Thank you!
Gorgeous photos, love you in your Waffle! And there really are no words for the Twigs project. What a terrific theme for a field trip. Thanks so much for sharing this and all your other journeys Kay.
I had the joy of performing in CATHER COUNTY, a wonderful musical by Ed Dixon. Was this work mentioned on the tour?
Thank you for sharing your trip, Kay…the photos and background information are wonderful, and as always, your knitting feats are impressive!
So interesting! I never realized she died in my lifetime (just barely). But now I want to go to Omaha. By train! Thank you for the photo gallery. Your Twigs is a thing of beauty. Wirth all the work! Can’t wait to see you modeling it. By contrast my mistake stitch scarf was satisfyingly squishy but sheer punishment to knit. Such an irritating stitch. And took forever. Good luck on yours, Kay!
I have never read anything by Willa Cather, so the time is now! I think I would have emjoyed that tour. That sweater is awe inspiring. I can’t wait to see you wear it. The colors you chose are perfect.