Textiles and Bicycles

When I met my boyfriend we were living in New York City, a city that is literally heaven in my eyes to such a degree that I was blind to the idea that others could possibly feel differently. How could you not be satisfied in the city that houses the pinnacle of what humanity has to offer in just about every realm. And not only that, but despite the stereotypes, I thought people were friendly and approachable unlike the city I had moved there from, DC (the at-least-once-voted “coldest” city, cold people not cold weather). But. Not only did he feel differently about New York, he felt that way about Richmond, Virginia.

Come on now, there is no comparing the two. That’s just ridiculous.

And I was right, there is no comparing the two–they are vastly different cities. But one could conceivably compare my current home, Washington DC, and Richmond…and in my falsely humble opinion, Richmond wins out easily for the simple fact that it has two incredibly important elements that DC and probably most cities don’t:

1. A wealth of some of the tastiest vegan/vegetarian food you’ll ever eat

2. A natural body of water in the middle of the city that is clean and pleasant enough to want to swim in. All summer long.

To be perfectly clear, DC sucks for vegetarians. There are a few places and even a website and printed guide for vegetarians in the city, but most of what you’ll get is horribly mediocre. This is especially true if you’re carless and at the mercy of the metrorail geography. There’s one upscale veggie place, Vegetate, which I think is pretty good, but it’s nothing–and I mean nothing–when compared with Ipanema in Richmond.

We actually zipcar to Richmond instead of taking the train or bus just so we don’t have to leave before Ipanema opens to make the last train or bus. This place is that good. It’s a small, dark little room that is legitimately charming (almost dive-y) with a fantastically creative menu chalked onto a board (the only menu there is) and pleasantly laid back waiters. The ambiance is perfect, but is a distant, almost invisible second to the food, which manages to surprise me with its flavor, interesting ingredient combos, and HUGE portions (I’ll be eating my leftovers for lunch today, thus allowing me to relive the excitement all over again). Last night I had a minty pea risotto topped with a portabello stuffed with snowpeas, zucchini, and some other tastiness I don’t remember. It’s at 917 W. Grace Street, in the Fan section of Richmond.

Now the thing is, Ipanema isn’t all there is. In fact, when we go to Richmond, the day is organized around eating, since there are so many tasty veggie offerings. Even the grocery store is better there–Elwood Thompson’s, where we got some soy nuggets that may have us going back to Richmond more than usual to get our fix. We bought half a pound of them, got back to the car, each ate one, and looked at each other with eyes so wide you would have thought something truly remarkable happened. For us it did. They were amazing. I immediately went back to buy another half-pound. I have this vision of us eating in Richmond, like two starved dogs that are used to eating dirt and cardboard…I think it may border on pathetic. New York does this to us as well though–meals are always planned out because we have to squeeze so much goodness in. Some places inevitably get left out, but we try. I realize that I’m making DC sound like a wasteland for vegetarians, but by comparison it kind of is. There are choices, but they are far from stellar.

So onto the second leg-up Richmond has. The River. The gorgeous, rocky James River. This is something that I haven’t quite found anywhere else in the US (though I qualify that by saying my intra-US travels have been limited). The James runs right through Richmond and is actually clean enough to swim in with a high degree of confidence (or so I’ve been told…). In the center is Belle Isle, connected on either side by pedestrian bridges over the river. It’s a lovely park, with bike and hiking trails, and provides direct access to to the river, where you can hop rocks across the river to explore different swimming spots. There are also places to rent rafts and kayaks I believe.

The view from our rock.

I even got some knitting in while the sun warmed me a little before getting in the water. The great thing about having a swimmable river is that the water is generally warm, especially when you’re used to ocean water. I spent a few months on the Amazon a few years ago and that was the same with exclusive regard to swimming in a luke-warm, bath-like body of water. Of course, the Amazon is so large it actually looks like the ocean since you can’t see the other side of the river. Trippy, to say the least.

I’d still take NYC over Richmond any day, but I’ll take a Sunday in Richmond over one in DC for certain.

This was my favorite thing to hear in Italy…the sing-songy and warm way in which it was said was so lovely to hear.
So I’m back from my trip to Delhi, Rome and Venice.
I was in Delhi for my cousin’s wedding, which as I predicted was absolutely exhausting. From a combination of the jetlag, the traveling from the bride’s city to my cousin’s home city twice, and all of the many long ceremonies, I must have gotten 10 hours of sleep the entire week. No joke.

My cousin and his lovely wife:

They seemed quite happy even though they were no doubt 100 times more exhausted than I was–and seeing that was exactly why I went. Totally worth it.

The real fun was when I met my man in Italy and traveled around Rome and Venice.
Rome may be my new favorite city. The architectural beauty was something I always heard about and after 5 years of high school Latin, the ancient city was something else that I knew was a draw.

But there were other things I found fantastic:

1. The urban form
I’m an urban planner and the fact that everyone drove smart cars or walked was so amazing to see. This was what I thought was great about Venice too–nothing motorized off the water. It was a complete pedestrian city.
I love that this was an actual street with it’s own name in Venice:

I have to say that I wasn’t completely enamored with Venice. I thought it was unbelievably beautiful, but it seemed like Disneyland…something that continues to run to feed tourists and has fallen victim to the more and more common urban transformation into a shopping mall. My perception softened a little on Friday: trash day, where small motor boats move through the canals picking up trash from actual households. It was nice to see a normal function of a real city in action and to see it in the truly unique Venetian fashion.

2. Attention to Detail
While Italy seems to be filled with gorgeous details like micro-mosaics (which are incredible), gilded ceilings, and massive sculptures, there were other little details I thought were so cool:

This isn’t the best picture, but in Rome (and possibly elsewhere in Italy) they actually take the time and resources to paint the building facade onto the scaffolding when a building is having work done…

My favorite detail was this:

The little girl on the sign has a bow in her hair. And look how happy they are!!  Yay, we crossing the street to go to school! Weeee!
I love Rome.

I’ll have more to come on this trip. Such as, in Venice, I happened upon a yarn store and bought some gorgeous cotton/silk/viscose Italian yarn for my dress version of Nora Gaughan’s Anais. I haven’t made enough progress to share yet though.

Check out my flickr page for more photos of my trip.

Am I allowed to do this?

If I am, I’m ready for it.

With 6 skeins of Twinkle Soft Chunky in Sapphire–this color is gorgeous (so far I’ve used the french grey and urchin, but this color is so brilliant and rich), size 17 needles, and the winter 2007 Vogue Knitting. The expected outcome is #23, the Twinkle Dress.

I gathered all these supplies to have ready for a 20 hour flight to Delhi in a couple of weeks. I’ve already knit the sleeves, so I figured I could actually finish this thing on the plane given the incredible speed at which Twinkle knits can be completed.

But now…now I wonder. If I can’t take my nail clippers or tweezers–or face lotion for that matter on the plane, can I take knitting needles? I guess I could poke someone’s eye out or something…but I’m not sure how I could use them to fashion a last-minute bomb for high-jacking purposes. I guess I’m not so up on my bomb-making skills though.

Has anyone traveled lately and been able to knit on the plane?

UPDATE:
I found this on the TSA website after some searching:

Transporting Knitting Needles and Needlepoint

Knitting needles are permitted in your carry-on baggage or checked baggage. However, there is a possibility that the needles can be perceived as a possible weapon by one of our Security Officers. Our Security Officers have the authority to determine if an item could be used as a weapon and may not allow said item to pass through security. We recommend the following when bring knitting needles on an airplane:

• Circular knitting needles are recommended to be less than 31 inches in total length
• We recommend that the needles be made of bamboo or plastic (Not Metal)
• Scissors must have blunt points
• In case a Security Officer does not allow your knitting tools through security it is recommended that you carry a self addressed envelope so that you can mail your tools back to yourself as opposed to surrendering them at the security check point.
• As a precautionary measure we recommend that you carry a crochet hook with yarn to save the work you have already done in case your knitting tools are surrendered at the checkpoint

Most of the items needed to pursue a Needlepoint project are permitted in your carry-on baggage or checked baggage with the exception of circular thread cutters or any cutter with a blade contained inside. These items cannot be taken through a security checkpoint. They must go in your checked baggage.

But I would like to know if anyone’s had any trouble traveling with needles…
Unfortunately my 17s are Addis and therefore metal, and there’s just nothing that can be done about that.