Knitted in the USA & Presidential elections

This Autumn I had a ball.  I spent 2.5 weeks travelling from Boston - Chicago, down to St Louis and out of DC.  On planning the trip decided I would be one of the few travellers to New York State not to visit New York City. New York, New York two very different places!

Trip wasn't quite what I planned as I got waylaid by Hurricane Sandy and instead of travelling by train to DC went further into the midwest.

The Old Capitol, Springfield Illinois

It was one of those trips in a lifetime that I, a Londoner, learnt a little bit more about the complexity of the USA.  The election campaign was fascinating.  So many different points of view, so many elections, so many commutations but do you need so many adverts?  The visit to Springfield, IL was unplanned but in many ways a highlight.  I didn't really touch upon Lincoln in my history degree course so the Lincoln Presidential museum was a revelation.  I had known about the sacrifices and casualties of the Civil War (a visit to Richmond, VA taught me that) but the museum brought these stories to life.  It also shows Lincoln as a person, a battler, a giant, a man who suffered.  He lost his son to typhoid while at the White House and his grief was enormous.  

While in Springfield I was still reeling from some of the comments from would be representatives regarding abortion and that there was no such thing as a dangerous pregnancy.  It was there that I had the most extraordinary conversation with the bus driver.  He had no concept of the theory of evolution and knew that everything was created by God or why would all be different?  What was even sadder was that after only 45 years of Civil Rights and 147 years after the abolition of slavery and the death of Lincoln he saw no point in voting.  Is this what American Democracy has come to? Instead of disenfranchisement there is disenchantment?

The first reading of the American Declaration of Independence

Two weeks ago, I finished my petrol blue kid classic sweater /  jumper and I have been wearing it ever since.  I knitted most of the front and back while on that trip and whenever I wear it I smile.  I also worked on a well travelled blanket!  Knitting it while an earthquake hit Boston and during the 2nd Presidential debate.