weaving-a new article!

Exciting news!  I've just had an article come out in Digits & Threads magazine on the tradition of weaving tallitot (Jewish prayer shawls) in Winnipeg.  It was a tradition in my family in Virginia too...shown here is a photo of my dad, weaving my youngest brother's tallit for his bar mitzvah. Also-clear proof of my family's maker/DIY history: this black and white photo was likely developed in my dad's dark room, and the Winnie the Pooh play room curtains behind my father were sewn by my mom. In later years, (cough cough) I ...may...have cut up some of that Winnie the Pooh fabric to make myself a pair of shorts--Which I then wore out and about in junior high and high school. Yes, I have always had a quirky fashion sense, excluding my handwoven tallit, of course! 

waving from home

I've been teaching my kids since there's no school now.  Yesterday, twins learned to sew on a button for the first time.

The good news is that everyone here at our house is fine, we have food, shelter, and good company.  We're all trying hard to work together.  My professor husband is managing his class online, and working in between helping with twins.  I have done a bit of writing when I can stay up late enough, or fit it in.

The rest of the time, I've been homeschooling two eight year olds, cooking, trying to keep things even remotely clean (hard with twins, two bird dogs, an old house and a spring melt), and keep everyone afloat.  And Passover is coming, and we need to get ready for that, too.

For me, it's not that different than usual, because I usually work from home.  However, I now have a lot less time to do it, and very little time to do it alone.  (Right now, twins are out bike riding with their dad helping them maneuver their way through all the snow melt puddles...)

The bad news is that I appear to have lost one of my writing gigs.  Today I received my copy of the Winnipeg Jewish Post & News and to my surprise, my column wasn't in it.  I contacted the editor to ask what had happened.  Apparently, my column didn't run--it was an oversight, but oh, by the way...from now on, he would no longer be paying columnists.  So, if I wanted to write for free, he would still put my columns on the website. Things change fast during a pandemic.

I'll be direct.  I was paid $75 an issue to write for this publication, which is not very much, but I wanted to support the Winnipeg Jewish community, so I did anyway...but I didn't write for free.  (Freelancing is, after all, my job and not my hobby.)  The editor did hook me up with the editor of the Vancouver Jewish paper, and for a while, both papers would publish my column and I would get paid more.  But now, due to the current crisis, I'm unsure of if and when my column will run again.  No more publication = no money from that gig.

Again, we are lucky, we have food, shelter, heat and health. (for now.)  I am grateful for what I have...but just now, I'm really sad and surprised to lose this-- I'll no longer be writing a column every other week for the Winnipeg Jewish community.

If you're sad about this too, contact the Jewish Post & News.  Show them your support.  Maybe somebody could help sponsor the column and help keep the newspaper afloat during this hard time...cause writers deserve to sometimes earn money to eat, too. 

Hanukah, 2017

 On Tuesday night, Hanukah started around here.  We have been very busy--every afternoon after the twins get off the school bus, there is a mad rush.  We have to choose the candles, Mommy!  We have to help make latkes, Mommy! (that was a huge mess, but sort of fun, too)  We have to read books about the holiday, Mommy!  We have to play dreidl and discuss what our friends have gotten as presents, Mommy!  (and onward.)

This is a pretty exhausting whirlwind, since we have to fit in all the celebrations and parties around school and work.... which is still happening every day. The reactions have been funny, too.  Each night, the kids get gifts.  Most nights, the gifts are small.  Last night, we got one story book, some colored pencils, coloring books, and wool socks.  This is, in the scheme of things, not a big ticket present, and cost is totally irrelevant to enjoyment, we find.  I had two boys busy coloring non-stop, and they were thrilled by new warm socks.  The book went into a pile; they would "read it later, Mommy!" 

My guys are at an age where counting the candles and putting them into the menorah is a fun math project.  Singing the songs they learned at school is fun.  Eating one piece of chocolate gelt per night is great, too.

One of my guys has scarcely unwrapped his gift before he wonders what he will be receiving the next night.  The other twin is very worried--what if there are too many great presents?  It might make his first night gift, a parrot stuffed animal that he really wanted, seem not as great? " Mommy," he says, "hold off on all the presents.  That is not what this is about."

All these photos are from old Hanukah posts on this blog!  Click here to read a fun (random) collection of stories from Hanukahs in years past.  (When I did not have twins yet, and when we threw big parties for 14 students from the Professor's lab, for instance...)

I hope you're having lots of fun celebrating, whatever you celebrate! 

Getting your needle: The flu shot and basic cuts to health care

My article on flu shot availability ran on the CBC this weekend:
Cut in number of flu shot clinics a bad way to keep Manitobans healthy

Also, I heard that the Religious Studies Department at  the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill featured a post about my book!  (I graduated from this department in 2001 with a master's degree.)
UNC blog features From the Outside In

This is great news! Thanks, UNC, for mentioning my work.

The Vancouver Jewish Independent ran my piece on interfaith issues recently, too:
Need for Interfaith Learning

On the home front, we've just finished a long visit with grandparents--my twins were pretty sad about this...but as we turn towards colder weather in Manitoba, fewer people want to visit.  It's probably because they haven't tried out taking a walk or skating on the frozen rivers yet?  Go figure. :)

A Sale, Slow Fashion and Fun

Thanks for all the kind thoughts about Harry-- we appreciate it and miss him very much.
And now, some knitting talk:
A while back, I wrote about my stash and a sweater I'd just made.  Here's the thing--I made the sweater, and the kid was happy wearing it.  Very happy.  However, I just didn't love the yarn, it felt droopy to me, so I gifted it to my mom in case she could use it.  It went to Virginia.

Time passed and my kid loved the heck out of this sweater, and it stayed in good shape.  However, this year, when he put it on, the sleeves were way too short, and so was the length of the sweater.  (This kid's one long string bean in shape!)
I dug in the stash but could not find the leftovers...as they no longer lived in Canada.  My mom came to the rescue and mailed the yarn back from Virginia...so re-fashioning this sweater cost a lot in international postage.  (Thanks, Mom!)  Here is a quick snapshot of the sweater, with it's new additions.  Note the stripes on the sleeves and two additional orange and blue stripes on the bottom.  I also ditched the seed stitch at the bottom in favor of ribbing, as the seed stitch made it look even more droopy.  Kid is back to wearing and enjoying this enormously.  I still find Rowan Felted Tweed DK a bit limp, but it knits up nicely and has worn very well.

This year, I realized it was not possible for me to be coming up with much to say about slow fashion in October, as I did last year, as I really live it all year round whenever I can.  This sweater remake is a great example.

Also a good example?  My twins were doing horse races in the yard a few days ago after school.  I made their race horses--they are hobby horses.  I doubled old Smart Wool socks with big holes to make those horse heads, and used bits of felt from felted sweaters (from diaper soakers when we cloth diapered) to make their eyes and other features.  The only costs were many hours of my time and the broom sticks from the hardware store.

In honour of Canadian Thanksgiving, I am running a little Ravelry sale on my patterns.  Until October 16th (ends midnight, CT US & Canada), my knitting patterns will all be on sale with the coupon code: Thanks

Also, I've learned recently that my local bookstore, McNally Robinson, has copies of all three of my books available online here, and actual print copies of my latest book, From the Outside In are now available there, too.  So, if you like to do things the old fashioned way and buy your books in person in Winnipeg, now you can!

a super review!

The Jewish Independent in Vancouver just ran this review of my book, From the Outside In.  I am so pleased and honored by it.  People are so busy-- thanks for your interest in the book!
Here is a link to the review:

Trying to Foster Community

It's live! A new eBook!

It's available now!  New!  Finally!  Remember my 'special project' in July?

Here it is.  It's taken a while.  This collection is a year and a half of my newspaper columns.  It’s a first-person essay that runs twice a month, covering community building, holidays, family life, Jewish learning, and other issues. It focuses particularly on my local community, but my understanding is that it may be useful in a broader context.

This has been a very steep learning curve. :) However, a very kind woman (who does a lot for our community) came to me after services one week, pulled me aside, and told me she was clipping all my columns and saving them in a file folder. This was such a surprise---and it seemed like a very good reason to put a year and a half of these articles in the same place. It’s about Winnipeg, and about our city’s Jewish community, but from the feedback I’ve gotten so far, it’s probably a little bit about where you live, too.


The eBook is available in a variety of places for $3.99US.  (The price of a big cup of joe)

Kindle:
From the Outside In: Jewish News & Post Columns, 2015-2016

and through this universal link, you can connect with it on iBooks, Kobo, Nook, and Scribd, as well as a pile of other platforms.

The official "launch" date is December 16th, but in some cases, it is available now.  If you pre-order it, the file should magically appear on your e-reader tomorrow.

The paperbook will be available on Amazon soon, but it's not quite ready for the big time.  In the meanwhile, I was too excited to keep this news to myself. :)

If you're a knitter and you visit my blog for knitting info and designs, Please use the coupon code:
Launch
and get 20% off my Ravelry patterns until midnight (CT) on December 29th.  Help me celebrate!

thoughts for organizational continuity

I'm a bit behind on linking to my articles!  Here's a link to my newest Jewish Post & News article:

Everyone has a responsibility: Re-visioning the Synagogue

I had a really great chance to hear Rabbi Sid Schwarz speak this past weekend.  Although he was lecturing or teaching 8 different times over the weekend (8!  This man has stamina!) I was only able to catch one Shabbat service and a late night lecture.  I found it amazing that I could even stay up to hear something that started at 9pm, but I guess caffeine and interest really work. :)

The most interesting thing he spoke about was something that I felt went way beyond the Jewish community.  He talked about 4 big trends in "younger generation" Jews--but I think this speaks to Gen X, Y and Millennial folk in general.   He said we were interested in creating covenantal communities...in a religious context, but I think it applies more broadly to organizations who are aging and not engaging with our age groups. 
I'm cutting out the Hebrew vocabulary here just so it makes this more accessible, but here's the gist of his points:

1) Wisdom--we want actual texts, content, and real learning from our institutions.  No 'learning lite" programming.  (Yup)

2) Social Justice--we want to help make change.  We think about where our food comes from, how to reach out to the less fortunate, and how to make a difference.  Not talking, but doing.

3) Community--we want to build connections between people.  That is, we want to have warm, in person relationships where we can help and support our friends, relatives, and strangers.  This speaks to some of the articles I've written on creating "helping hand" committees, helping new moms, newcomers to the community, etc.

4) Holiness--we need to feel a deeper sense of spirituality or meaning.  While this is speaking from the religious context, I think it is true in a broader sense.  We need to sense an authenticity and honesty that speaks to us on a deep gut level.  The world is full of ads and frauds and phoneys, as Holden Caulfield would say.  It's great when things feel real and meaningful.

My understanding is that he has more to say in his book, which I have already ordered:
Jewish Megatrends: Charting the Course of the American Jewish Future

but I guess upon reflection, I found his points right on and valid in a bigger context.  If clubs, organizations, religious congregations, etc. want people who are 45 and under to belong and take ownership, these are very useful guiding principles for planning and involving us.

It's so rare these days that I get to attend a lecture or other learning event that I figured reprising it here might be useful.  In any case, I am just as inspired by these ideas now as I was by this Rabbi's congregation, back in 1995, when I taught religious school there.

Tidying up...

Some news:
First, it's occurred to me that I have been writing this blog, in one form or another, for nearly 10 years!  Whoa.  Anyway, a lot of the details on this site are out of date.  I am slowly trying to fix that.  I've just cleaned up part of the list of blogs...all of those folks are still friends/interesting people/good reads...but many of their sites have not been updated in a while.  I decided to check and see what was still live and had been updated in the last 6 months, and go with that.  I'll try to make updates a little more often now. :)

It's a slow process!

I'm also trying to keep links to my newest articles up to date, so here is my latest:
Transforming Tu B'Shvat

Other good news...if you're interested in learning to spin, there are still a few spots left in my Learn to Spin Class on February 22nd.  Cloverleaf Fibre has registration information.

There's been some wonderful interest in my new Yarn Spinner Story + Pattern, The Hole Inside Mitts!  I've been very excited to see it and am beginning work on the second story + pattern.  (Hint:  On Ravelry, you can gift a friend with a pattern.  Maybe a Story+Pattern would be a great Valentine for a friend?  ....Just sayin')

Finally, I am hopefully getting over the bad stomach bug that first the professor had, and now I have.  I remain optimistic that it is-slowly- going away.  I also hope the twins don't get it.  That would be a real drag.  So, let's stay hopeful...have a sweet week!

what I've been up to...

The last few days have been a whirlwind.  The professor has a very busy term, teaching two upper level classes, so he needed to do work on the weekend.  Didi (my mom) came from the US to visit and play with twins.  One of the twins has a whopper of a cold, which means it is likely only a matter of time until the second one gets it, or the grown-ups get it.  Oh, and nobody ever sleeps through the night, have I said that before?! :)

Meanwhile, my essay, Building Jewish Identity -- for preschoolers, came out.  Suddenly, I had people I did not know (at preschool pick up, of course! where else do I go?) telling me that they were reading my work.  This was a surprise.  To be honest...a lot of the time, I write something, and I never hear a thing afterwards!  Sometimes there are negative comments, but this was totally different.  It was positive. 

Then, Maclean's magazine published a truly game-changing piece about racism in Winnipeg.  The author of that article quoted me, based on this essay I wrote for the CBC back in November.  More than anything, I am so glad that people "heard" what was being said in that important article--and I see lots of discussion about racism in the media here, in emails people send, --and who knows, maybe out on the street.  (I haven't been out much, what with the twin preschoolers, the cold virus, the lack of sleep, etc.)

The most interesting thing about all this is that I haven't been especially worried or afraid.  Back when we lived in Kentucky, if I wrote a piece with anything political, controversial, or religious in it...I often heard about it. I received hate mail, or weird phone calls.  It was really disconcerting and scary sometimes.  It did not stop me from writing or wanting to make positive change, but it did make me wonder if it was safe, if it was worth it, and whether I should keep writing. Who knows, maybe I am just too busy to worry here, but luckily, lately, the positive feedback has outweighed anything else.

Recently, I've felt like it is worth it to keep doing this writing thing.  At the same time, I've been working on a new knitting design.  This has been fortunate, because when somebody wakes me up every 2-3 hours, I find it much harder to formulate any kind of argument or point...hence the delay in posting here...but knit?  heck yeah.  I can still knit.

Even if I didn't design, this always has benefits.  People in Winnipeg will always need woollies. :)  
 

You got to make your own...

I've just had a blog post come out in The Daily Forward:
Jewish Experience? You got to make your own

I'm excited about this!  It's an honor to published there... My mother learned to read with her grandfather by looking at the Daily Forward car ads.  It's nice to continue the family connection.

PS: Thanks so much to our friend John for taking the great family photo on his visit a few weeks ago!

Building Community

Our story starts with the famous (but not entirely effective) Super Grover 2.0 from Sesame Street. My boys love this character, who is sort of clueless, but we, the parents, love the tag line after the announcer says:  "Super Grover 2.0!....He shows up!"

This, in effect, is the answer to a lot of things in life, not just building community.  Showing up.  We have joined a new congregation.  A friend of ours is the rabbi, and it is a small, vibrant, intellectual place.  We believe in its mission in our community and think its future is bright.

So, in late 2012, when the rabbi asked if one of us would serve on the board, we wrestled with how we could manage that.  Board meetings happen on week nights, when it is all hands on deck here to do the night time routines, bathe two toddlers and get them to bed.  How would we manage?  We finally decided I would volunteer, and we would pay a babysitter to help the professor every time.  Unfortunately even this solution has not been ideal, and I sometimes come home to find the professor worn out with wrestling twins to bed on his own long after the sitter has gone home. (We still struggle with sleep here)

Some of my friends these days find time to do runs and walks to raise money for cancer, and others do long bike rides and ask for sponsorships.  Right now, the New Shul is my only extracurricular activity, and we are paying for childcare so I can volunteer. There is not even any exercise involved!  However, it is a cause we believe in supporting for our future, and for the boys'.

People who are living far away sometimes ask me what they can do for us, to make this twin thing easier.  This article does a good job of explaining the stress of twin childbearing and parenting-it is hard to say what would make it easier, other than growing another pair of arms....but in thinking about it, the professor and I realized something.  Right now, we are just trying to show up like Super Grover, whenever a twin, a student, etc. needs our help. Sure, we appreciate lots of moral support from afar, and that helps!  thanks! In Winnipeg though, This congregation is one of our local supports.  So, if  you did want to help out, say, to celebrate the boys' upcoming birthday or our anniversary or spring time, perhaps consider this: Think about donating here.

We are grateful for any amount you choose to give.  Thank you for honoring us by considering this.  We are grateful.  We won't be running a marathon or biking for 2 weeks to prove our support, but we have just gone through yet another week caring for sick twins while we have all been down with a stomach virus.  Does that count? :). Joanne

Taking a risk

I've been thinking about this post for a while but no matter what I did, the photos don't seem to represent the ideas well. I'm trying hard, bear with me!

Several folks mentioned that my last post was a good one. For those nice comments, I thank you! My dad particularly wanted to point out though that the first photo of Sally the dog looks like a black swan. I only saw a black dog in my snowy backyard, but heck, we always need other people to point out new ways of seeing things, whether it is the value of relationships or our photographs!

That leads me to this post. The professor and I are remarkably dependable "first" children. We are very duty bound. If family or friends ask us to do something (teach, help, whatever), we do what we say we are going to, with few exceptions. That said, both of us also seem willing to do more risk taking than many people I know. We take big trips overseas, move to other countries, experiment in weird ways in our work lives, and we try to reach out to new people--friends that are perhaps unlikely choices.

One reason I feel confident in experimenting in fiber arts is because I know the dependable parts of things...what is the worst thing that could happen? (Not much, actually, because it is just wool! Far worse things have happened to us during big moves or our travels!) Last summer, in the midst of teaching, entertaining, and running around like a chicken with my head cut off, I started a project. I used polar weight wool rug yarn I got for free on a challenging day. Using enormous needles, I doubled the yarn and knit it into a long flat rectangle. I planned to make it into a cushion, but when I got "done" (tired of it), it didn't look cushion-like.

Using an enormous tapestry needle, I stitched up one short side of the rectangle and pulled the stitches tight like a draw string. I stitched up the "open" end of the rectangle, and I made something that looked like a very floppy and deep bowl or hat. It still didn't look like anything.

I threw it aside and ruminated on the situation. One day, the professor was doing laundry...and I asked him to throw this "thingee" into the washing machine with a hot water wash. I imagined a hard felted bowl shaped thing would emerge. What came out surprised us both.

The washing fulled the wool (but hadn't quite felted it) and the bottom of the tube folded up on itself. It emerged all on its own as a rather sturdy looking hat. The shape reminds me of a Russian style hat, or the sheepskin trooper hat I bought for the professor. (He hardly wears it and says it is "too warm" to wear it most of the time. Note, it is -4F or-20C outdoors at the moment.)

The new "hat" is a bit too large for my head, but I think it might fit our resident student, who is coming back for a week or two this January to experience winter in Manitoba. She might just need a warm hat.

If that doesn't work out, it's not a bad felted bowl, either. Full of balls of yarn or a knitting project, I imagine there will always be another use for another yarn containment basket!

While I was getting ready to post about this experiment (a good metaphor for the much bigger risks we all should consider taking in 2011...), the phone rang. A local friend called, asking for coaching in replacing a zipper. It wasn't just any zipper though, it was a tallit (prayer shawl) bag used by his father. So, it was an old textile and a sentimentally meaningful one--this was something his father used for prayer, and now he uses, on a daily basis.

I could not believe the serendipity. I guess maybe I became known for taking risks in 2010.

That said, I coached our friend on the phone rather than in person, because the professor has a bad cold. I don't want our friend to get sick--and there is such a thing as too much risk taking for people like us (dutiful eldest children who worry about others)!

May you take risks in whatever makes you happy--safe risks only, please--in 2011, to discover new and wonderful things! Happy New Year!

taking the tour

Many times, I think knitting someone else's design is like taking a tour. You're exploring how someone else thinks and works, seeing what their strengths, interests, and weaknesses are, and, if you're me, analyzing how that works compared to my designs.

Part of my "move to Canada" knitting was doing just this--I decided to knit a Lady of the Lake kit by Fleece Artist, a Canadian handdyer and designer. I finished the sweater last week. The photo has a stripe of sunlight across the bottom--that's not a change in the colors of the sweater!

It fits nicely and I think the design is flattering. The way it was designed was innovative--only down side was that the pattern could have used some tech editing. I'm a stickler for the details sometimes!

This past weekend I had some knitting time while taking a bus tour of historic Jewish Winnipeg. My professor was the one signed up for the trip but he ended up on a work trip instead, so I decided to take his place. He asked me to recount the details...so I'm going to try to take everybody on a vicarious trip of some of the highlights!

Many immigrant groups moved to Winnipeg from about 1880 onwards...this was in part to escape discrimination, and in part economic. Winnipeg wanted to recruit people, and it was an affordable place to settle. The Canadian Immigration folks encouraged the move west. So, Eastern Europeans moved to the prairies. Ukrainians, Polish and German Catholic immigrants...and also, Polish, German and Russian Jews.

While the groups were encouraged to move here, there was no infrastructure in place to receive them. The Jewish community built a lot of organizations to help immigrants. They created a free health clinic called Mount Carmel Clinic to help poor people get medical care. In the 1930's, they built an old age home called the Sharon Home. This place had extension upon extension put on it, and now has finally moved to a new facility in the south of the city. Back in the old days, when a married couple couldn't keep up in their house anymore, they might sell it and "move to the Sharon Home." Today, the Sharon home is part of the Canadian health care system. A woman taking the tour with me told me about her 93 year old grandfather who announced he was ready to "move to the Sharon Home." His family had to tell him that according to health care rules today, he's not sick enough! (he's moved to some other retirement facility in town.)

There were several schools in town. This shows the hall attached to the old Peretz School. This was a left wing, Yiddish based education, the school was started in 1914. The building housed up to 400 kids. That little parking lot (without the utility equipment in it) was the playground for the whole school. The kids played baseball there on that tiny blacktop, and apparently the lady in the house next door suffered a lot of broken windows!

Every Friday night, there were concerts, competitions, poetry readings, and lectures in that hall, and several hundred people would squeeze in. These were families without TV, so they organized their own entertainment!

The Peretz kids didn't get along with the Talmud Torah kids, whose curriculum was more traditional and religious. (I didn't get a photo of the Talmud Torah buildings--none of these buildings is being used by the schools anymore these days.) This is a timeline of Winnipeg's Jewish day schools.

Most of the immigrant communities had their own lending systems. There was one bank in the North End of Winnipeg that had a Jewish assistant manager--and it was the busiest bank! Long before the days of ethnic and interest group banking, that one bank had figured out it was useful to have someone employed there from the neighborhood immigrant commmunities! The Jewish community also had a branch of the Hebrew Benevolent Society. Here's an explanation of what they did that I found here. The short version? They gave out micro loans and helped keep the poor and needy afloat.

Winnipeg’s Jewish community, although with a later start than Toronto and Montreal, developed an exceptionally broad aid network. A Hebrew Benevolent Society was established in 1886 to take over the work of earlier groups that had helped to absorb nearly 340 pogrom refugees in the city. The new organization carried out charitable programs for the next fifteen years, assisting needy local families, aiding the Jewish farm settlements, helping transient immigrants to US cities, arranging job placement for newcomers, and contributing to the Winnipeg General Hospital. In 1906 the Hebrew Sick Benefit Society was founded, with its several hundred members deriving not only the usual cemetery plots, sick benefits, and loans, but also cultural advantages such as drama and lectures. B’nai Brith, the Jewish fraternal and charitable organization, had arrived in Toronto in 1875 and Montreal in 1881, while Winnipeg Lodge No. 650 was formed in 1909 and by 1913 had over three hundred members. The lodge’s early activities included action against antisemitism, an employment bureau, and a fresh-air camp. In 1912 the lodge aided the formation of one of two Jewish orphanages that were merged a few years later, functioning as the Jewish Orphanage of Winnipeg until 1948.

Click on the photo and when you see it large, you can see the "HBS" initials in the railings. The orphanage mentioned here operated not only for orphans, but also for Jewish kids whose parents lived in rural communities. The children would live at the orphanage in town so they could get an education.

Right near there is Gunn's bakery, one of the few businesses still left from that time period. Gunn's has been operating since 1937. It bakes very good bread and creates specialities for a lot of the ethnic immigrant groups in the area. They make over 20 varieties of bread!

Throughout the north end of Winnipeg, there used to be many small synagogues. There are still a few there, but most of the congregations are now in the south end of town. This is doorway to the Ashkenazi Synagogue, the oldest existing synagogue building in Winnipeg. The congregation has been meeting in that location since 1922. There were synagogues for every political and interest group, from the Sholom Aleichem shul (communists) to the Butcher's Shul (Yes, that was for the Kosher butchers.) Here's a long list of just the synagogue cemeteries.

There are even odes and editorials to this community.

I love social history and try to find "tours" in many things I do. So, I took a tour through someone else's knitting design...and I took a more literal tour of the old neighborhoods in Winnipeg. Hope you enjoyed the excursion...
(and I hope I did a good enough job so that my professor doesn't feel he missed anything!)