Writing
Where Everybody Knows Your Name
You wanna go where everybody knows your name… (you’re singing the Cheers theme in your head, right?)
And when you live in a small town, that’s anywhere once you’ve lived there for a while. But there are always favorite spots, haunts, and hangouts. For me that’s not a bar. The places where everybody knows my name are Lowell Mountain Wools, my local yarn shop, 20 miles away, and the cafe down the street from my house, The Parson’s Corner.
Yesterday Dom and I had breakfast at Parson’s Corner. We sat at the counter, which is where you sit if you want everyone to get to know your name, you want to catch up on all the news and gossip from the village, and you need to know who to call to jack up the part of your house that has the crooked floors and collapsing crawl space.
My favorite menu item at Parson’s Corner is the breakfast sandwich: bacon, egg, and cheese on a Portuguese muffin. Accompanied, of course, by a bottomless cup of coffee. Or, if it’s afternoon, I order grilled cheese with tomato on rye bread or a cup of home-made chili with a diet coke for lunch. The specials are written on a chalk board behind the counter, but I rarely order them, being, as I am, a creature of habit.
Sometimes city folks come here–a quick stop on a road trip or a brave excursion to a local eatery during a weekend in the country. They don’t really know what to expect, with their only dining out experiences being fast food, chain restaurants, or fancy bistros. Parson’s Corner is none of these. It’s a good old-fashioned country diner from another decade, another century. You don’t come to Parson’s Corner for candles on your table, cloth napkins, wait staff in black tie (or even uniforms), or eight-bucks-a-cup cappuccino. You come for good food, good company, and a glimpse of what is sometimes called “Old Vermont.” (The alternative being “New Vermont,” the side of the state butted up against New York, where chain restaurants, big box stores, shopping malls, and traffic jams ruin the scenery. I call that side of the state “fake Vermont.”)
If you want a 5-star restaurant, caviar, champagne, cloth napkins, and candles, stay in New York or Boston. But if you want a home-cooked meal, a fresh-brewed cup of Vermont Coffee Company coffee, and some time to kick back and hang out where everybody knows your name, come to Parson’s Corner. And sit at the counter.
Experience level – advanced beginner
After I finished my Arctic Lace Knitting Book, I finally allowed myself to explore the world of lace knitting and discovered that is is much more varied and elaborate than I could have imagined. Around the world and over time, knitters in different countries and regions have developed unique styles of lace knitting that range from easy-intermediate (like the knitting of the Oomingmak knitters) to advanced-insanely- difficult (like some of the Victorian patterns designed by English knitters). Other lace styles are used in Estonia, Russia, South America, Lithuania, Germany and Austria, and New Zealand. I’m sure there are even more, but these are the styles I’ve explored so far. – Donna Druchunas –
Experience: All skill levels, basic knitting skills required.
Have you ever wondered why some people can read charts easily and others find them incomprehensible? The truth is, charts are written in a code that can be deciphered by knitters who learn the symbols on the page and in their knitting. Charts do not use arbitrary symbols, but each symbol includes the instructions on how to make the indicated stitch! In this class, you will learn the secrets of interpreting chart symbols for texture and cable stitches.
