o c to b e r
Columbia/Augusta/Aiken Augusta, Aiken & Columbia
free!
skirt!is
www.skirt.com
Make something out of nothing. Make little nothings count. Make paperdolls out of magazine pages. Make a collage out of catalogs. Make a costume out of castoffs. Make a feast out of leftovers. Make a table out of a trash find. Make a garden in gallon can. Make believe until you
Believe in Yourself. Make anything new again with a can of paint. Make your own postcards. Make a drawing of the same thing every day for a month. Make up your own personal manifesto. Make an event out of making your bed.
Make up something to look forward to every morning. Make a lampshade out of a map. Make
a
journey
by
yourself.
Make a living out of what you love. Make love when it’s in short supply. Make an art out of living. Cover copy by Nikki Hardin, art by Gayle Kabaker
“And in the act of making things, just by living their daily lives, they also make history.� Anne Bartlett
FALL 2 0 1 2 TIBI
“Stylish South Carolina ladies come here for runway favorites ranging from Tibi dresses to necklaces from boho-rocker line Dannijo, Melissa Blanchard and her staff are pros at helping shoppers build dream wardrobes.” — Southern Living, September 2012 Loeffler Randall
Parker
Envi
D a n n i j o J ewe l r y
Milly
Rag & Bone
White + Warren
Belle by Sigerson Morrison Tucker
Vince
Helmut Lang
Hunter Dixon
Notte by Marchesa
T h e o d o s i a J ewe l r y Tory Burch
Tibi
3.1 Phillip Lim
J Brand
Rebecca Taylor
2734 Devine Street, Columbia, South Carolina 803.252.4339 www.shopvanjean.com VISIT US ON FACEBOOK
FOLLOW US @SHOPVANJEAN
about skirt!
Publisher Nikki Hardin publisher@skirt.com
O C TO B E R
National Art Director Caitilin McPhillips caitilin.mcphillips@skirt.com National Editor Margaret Pilarski margaret.pilarski@skirt.com Market Manager (Augusta/Aiken/Columbia) Kate Cooper Metts kate.metts@skirt.com Contributing Editor Columbia Jenny Maxwell jennymaxwell@mindspring.com Editor Augusta/Aiken Gracie Shepherd gracie.shepherd@skirt.com Sales Executive Columbia/Aiken Libby Salvador libby.salvador@skirt.com Sales Executive Augusta/North Augusta Doressa Hawes doressa.hawes@ augustamagazine.com Graphic Designer
skirt! is all about women... their work, play, families, creativity, style, health and wealth, bodies and souls. skirt! is an attitude...spirited, independent, outspoken, serious, playful and irreverent, sometimes controversial, always passionate. sheMAIL skirt! 127-A 7th Street Augusta, GA 30901 Sales: 706.823.3373 Sales Toll-Free: 800.622.6358 FAX: 706.823.6083 www.skirt.com
Essays
The Art of Goodbye
Stacy Appel.................................................................................... 11
Cher Wheeler Meaghan Pafford
The Apple Pie Defense
Photography Molly Harrell Sara Caldwell
Amy Vansant ................................................................................ 24 Knitting to Safety
Perdita Buchan ............................................................................ 26
skirt.com skirt! is published monthly and distributed free throughout the greater Augusta/Aiken/ Columbia area. skirt! reserves the right to refuse to sell space for any advertisement the staff deems inappropriate for the publication. Unsolicited manuscripts must be accompanied by a selfaddressed, stamped envelope. Letters to the editor are welcome, but may be edited due to space limitations. Press releases must be received by the 1st of the month for the following month’s issue. All content of this magazine, including without limitation the design, advertisements, art, photos and editorial content, as well as the selection, coordination and arrangement thereof, is Copyright © 2010, Morris Publishing Group, LLC. All Rights Reserved. No portion of this magazine may be copied or reprinted without the express written permission of the publisher. SKIRT!® is a registered trademark of Morris Publishing Group, LLC.
The Make Issue
Women make more than 80% of all purchasing decisions.
Features
Women spend almost 2 of every 3 healthcare dollars.
Letter from the Publisher.......................................................... 6
Letter from the Editor................................................................ 6 Women control 2/3 of the nation’s disposable income.
Women influence 80% of all car sales.
Feel Good....................................................................................... 28
Meet.................................................................................................... 23
He’s So Original........................................................................... 21
Skirt of the Month..................................................................... 33
Planet Nikki..................................................................................... 34
4 october
2012 www.skirt.com
Illustration by BerinMade Illustrated Paper Goods. berinmade.com
O C TO B E R
www.skirt.com   october
2012  5
The UniTed SkirTS of AmericA
The United Skirts of America was founded on the blood, sweat and estrogen of our foremothers, who won us the freedom
Gayle Kabaker Gayle calls herself a creative spirit and is thrilled to be able
from The PUbliSher
The Make Issue I was cleaning out closets recently and found a big bag of assorted craft supplies from a trip to Michaels with a friend more than a year ago and left
to choose...to break
untouched since then. Frankly, I can no longer remember what possessed
The Rules, to wear
me to buy any of the stuff nor what possible projects I was planning. Most
combat boots or high
likely I was swept up by craft fever, in which I revert to a six-year-old when
heels, to run for office or run a marathon,
I’m confronted by rows of stickers, stamps and scissors. It’s a condition that makes me want to eat library paste and put glitter on my lunch box. That bag of ephemera is not my only stash. Consider the stack of magazines
to design and illustrate from
to form our own
and sheets of handmade Japanese paper I thought I would convert into
the Berkshires of Western
rock groups instead
sophisticated collages. Or the tubes of gouache and bottles of Mod Podge.
Massachusetts. From starting out in San Francisco as a
of being groupies, to
Or the rolls of washi tape and boxes of watercolor pencils. All of it waiting for the perfect idea or the right time to be ready, because God forbid I
fashion illustrator to recently
shatter Glass Ceilings
promoting concerts in the Pio-
and Glass Slippers, to
waiting for inspiration. Instead, I’m going to dump all that junk on the
shoot hoops instead
kitchen table and make something. Postcards I’ll mail all over the country,
and is happy to share them
of settling for hoop
collages I’ll stick on the refrigerator, notebook covers I’ll desecrate. Most of
with whoever asks! What gets
skirts. The ones who
neer Valley, she says she’s been lucky to explore many passions
Gayle most excited is coming
should turn out something less than museum quality. I’ve decided to stop
it will probably be amateurish and embarrassing, but one thing I know, and ignore over and over again, is that nothing gets made waiting for the muse
came before us made
to show up. All of those colorful supplies sitting on my shelves month after
of challenges—reworking a
it possible for our
month become pretentious unless they’re put to use. Whether your craft is
website, promoting a project,
daughters to dream
poetry, cooking, music, drawing or knitting—you can’t be afraid of making
up with solutions to all types
directing a film or just brainstorming ways to get more
bigger, to have the
business. Her work is used in
chance to grow up to
lots of different ways: market-
be President and turn
ing collateral, editorial, animation, web design and logo and
a mess or a mistake. You have to use your whole self up instead of saving it for a rainy day. Just like a six-year-old.
Nikki
publisher@skirt.com
the Oval Office into
brand development and more.
the Ovary Office. In
from The ediTor
gkabaker.com
the United Skirts of
It’s October, the month the State Fair comes to town. Others may think of a state fair as their annual
America, every day is
reason to gorge on funnel cake. I prefer to think of them as our yearly homage to those who make—
Independence Day! Visit us on sKirt.com
the creators of blue ribbon flower arrangements, fruit pies, arts and crafts and, my favorite category, giant vegetables. (Technically, I suppose nature makes those, and the ribbon-winners just help them along). I don’t know what it is about an 800-pound pumpkin that makes me so giddy. But that’s the beauty of state fairs, I guess: there’s something for everyone. In this issue, we pay a little homage, ourselves, to blue-ribbon women who create good things in our communities all year long.
Jenny DIY
6 october
2012 www.skirt.com
jennymaxwell@mindspring.com
www.skirt.com october
2012 7
8  october
2012 www.skirt.com
Wheely Bug wheelybug.com
Kid-Tastic
K.D.’s Treehouse
CommuniGraphics
2911 Devine St. Columbia 803.748.0198
1400 Georgia Ave. North Augusta 803.278.7217
Sweetbrier Fair
443 Highland Ave. Augusta 706.738.8386
www.skirt.com october
2012 9
Healing Your Heart , Mind, Body and Soul
Saturday, Novemb ber 3rd 9:00am – 12:00pm First Baptist Church of Augusta (Fel ellowship Hall)
3500 Walton Way, Augusta, GA 30909
FREE COMMUNITY Y EVENT
WOMEN’S SYMPOSIUM
(Hannah to take the stage at 10am)
Join us for your Saturday morning coffee date! O U R PA N E L I S T S W I L L I N C L U D E :
HEART – OB/GYN, Dr. Donna Adams-Pickett MIND – Financial Expert from Apexx Behavioral Solutions Group
BODY – Hannah Curlee, Runner-Up on Season 11, The Biggest Loser SOUL – WJBF NewsChannel 6 Anchor, Jennie Montgomery
Meet Hannah Curlee from The Biggest Loser as seen on NBC.
h2uwomen.com HEALTH TO YOU
U Delicious Cooking demos
U Prizes
U Information booths Get your health questions answered
U First 150 arrivals receive a FREE yoga mat
Hannah lost 120 pounds on The Biggest Loser
For more information call (706) 651-4343 or go to www.doctors-hospital.net
Purchase your Cornucopia attachment and help your state meet it’s 200,000 meals goal to provide to local food banks nationwide! Help your state count its blessings and help others get HAPPY!
Monday - Friday 10:00am - 5:30pm
Saturday 10:00am - 5:00pm
443 Highland Avenue • Augusta, GA 738-8386 • www.sweetbrierfair.com
Surrey Center
10 october
2012 www.skirt.com
www.skirt.com october
2012 11
Have a Stitchy, Witchy, Happy Halloween!
Living with Color!
345 HAYNE AVE. SW | AIKEN, SC | 803.644.0990 MON-FRI 11-5 , SAT 11-3 W W W. B A R B A R A S U E B R O D I E . C O M
A Silver Store and So Much More
409 Hayne Avenue (at Pendleton) Aiken, SC 803.642.9524 yorkcottage@att.net
Ba lay OF NO ag FE W e a RI nd NG Om br e!
20 0 th 9 Sa e Y lo ea n o r f
[
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GIFT CARDS AVAILABLE!
Our goal is to provide a superior experience for every client; with brilliant color services, distinguished cutting techniques, stunning styling results, and luxurious hair treatments.
1202 Town Park Lane | Suite 103 | Evans, GA 30809 706.922.HAIR (4247) STYLING | COLOR BAR | HAIR SPA
12 october
2012 www.skirt.com
Book your appointments online
tanglesofevans.com
www.skirt.com september
2012 13
14 october
2012 www.skirt.com
Gum Disease can be
Scary!
Don’t let it Spook YOU!
Choose from Designer Fabrics, Exclusive Furniture & Accessories ---- Surgical placement of implants ------- Comprehensive gum disease treatments ----
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Most insurance accepted. Our staff will gladly file your insurance. *CareCredit Available DR. JUDSON S. HICKEY PERIODONTIST 2315-B Central Avenue | Augusta, GA
706-739-0071
Monday-Thursday 9am-5pm
Augusta’s Showcase Dealer
Your life Your style Your home
320 Baston Road Augusta, GA 30907 | 706.868.5757 www.CurtainCallFabrics.com
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Career training for the real world. Our hands-on approach doesn’t just make learning easier. It also gives you the kind of experience that makes getting into your future career easier. offering programs in:
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Quart mums 4 for $10 8’’ mums 4 for $20 (5-6 Fall colors to choose from) Mini pumpkins • Indian Corn Fall Squash • Gourds
find out more at
Miller-Motte.edu or call
866-394-7019
150 Davis Road • Augusta, GA 30907 • 706-550-0227 (Look for the green and white tent!)
Mon-Sat 8 to 8 • Sun 10-6
2300 Whiskey Road • Aiken, SC
(location will be available for all Fall & Christmas items)
Changing Futures. Changing Lives.® 621 nw frontage road, augusta, ga 30907 MMT.AUG.02458.C.101 • MMTCASM1201 • ©DCE 2012 • Authorized by the Nonpublic Postsecondary Educational Act of 1990. For more information about our graduation rates, the median debt of students who completed this program, and other important information, please visit our website at: disclosure.miller-mottle.edu
16 september
2012 www.skirt.com
A NewTaste Experience that’s
Simply Devine
Alison W. Lockhart, DMD 5107 Trenholm Road Columbia, SC 29206 803-782-9030
Shivani A. Patel, DMD 121 Wildewood Park Drive Columbia, SC 29223 803-736-5300
Botox - Third Molar Extractions Teeth Whitening - Implants EST. ES T. 2 2012 012 01 2
General, Cosmetic and Implant Dentistry We are Now Welcoming New Patients in Both Locations
2901-C Devine Street | 803.771.7774 | www.thecrescentolive.com
Get your Autumn Glow with lanterns from Park Hill
Cynthia F. Catts, RD, LD Nutrition Therapy • Weight Reduction • Metabolism Measurement • Menopause Issues • Cholestrol Lowering • Blood Pressure Management • Diabetes Management/Prevention • Irritable Bowel Syndrome
GIFT REGISTRY Calaisio • Pickard • Skyros Designs • Julia Knight Le Cadeaux • Anna Weatherley • Match Pewter Michael Aram • Spode • Simon Pearce
141 Laurens Street, SW | Aiken, SC 803.648.7592
5160 Woodside Executive Ct. • Aiken, SC 803-642-9360 • cattfood@bellsouth.net www.skirt.com october
2012 17
Presenting TWO Tasteful Events
Why Buy Custom Shutters From A Big Box Store? Buy Factory Direct & Save
Cookbook Lecture Wednesday, October 17, 2012 at 11:00 a.m.
Save20%OFF* ThePurchaseofOur
TopOfTheLine CustomMadePlantationShutter
Soon!
Featuring
Shutters Delivered & Installed In 3 Weeks
Quality Custom Window Treatments Save Up To 30% OFF Your Energy Bills
FREE $POTVMUBUJPO t FREE .FBTVSF t FREE Standard Installation
$10 per tick et for ACA M embers
$12 Non-M
embers
Nathalie Dupree
with an advance presentation of her newest book!!!
Come see award-winning author and TV cooking show living legend, NATHALIE DUPREE! In addition to a lively discussion about cooking and her prior books, she will be debuting her newest cookbook just in time for the holidays, Mastering the Art of Southern Cooking, with the foreword by South Carolina’s own, Pat Conroy. Nathalie Dupree is the author of 12 cookbooks, including 2 James Beard Award winner, and has hosted more than 300 TV shows and specials.
Celebrating Our 40th Year Of Business!
Shutters, Blinds & Shades - Made In America
t
Here’s to The Good Life
Find More www.louvershop.com
Thursday, October 18, 2012 7:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m. Enjoy local cuisine tastes from 22 of Aiken’s finest restaurant and catering chefs *
Save Up To $100 Per Window Sale Ends 12/14/12!
Sample fine wines from around the world, select beers and specialty non-alcoholic beverages Purchase cases of your favorite wines at discount prices
t ticke CA M for A bers Mem n o 53 N er $50 p embers
$
— Silent Auction Bid on items of experiences and destinations
For Tickets Call 803-641-9094 or visit the Arts Center Today! | Savannah River Remediation
All event proceeds go to benefit the Aiken Center for the Arts general operations budget.
122 Laurens Street, SW, Aiken, SC 29803 • 803-641-9094 18  october
2012  www.skirt.com
www.skirt.com october
2012 19
2012 Plantation and Historic Site Tour
Colleton County Historical and Preservation Society Sunday, October 21, 2012 Walterboro, Jacksonboro, Green Pond and Wiggins, SC Sites include: Pon Pon Chapel of Ease Cheeha Combahee Planta�on Wiggins Depot Fields Point Landing Paul & Dalton Planta�on Cockfield Planta�on and a view of rice trunks Saturday evening planta�on tour recep�on in Walterboro, special hotel rates available, visit www.cchaps.com for details. Sunday morning 10:30 am, Pon Pon Chapel of Ease in Jacksonboro, SC Outdoor Episcopal Church Service, bring chairs Planta�on Tour 12:00—4:00, lunch included at Harrelson Planta�on Tickets $55.00, maps will be mailed with �ckets for the event For �ckets or more informa�on visit www.cchaps.com, email info@cchaps.com or call 843 549-9633
20 october
2012 www.skirt.com
118 Laurens Street SW | Aiken, SC
www.skirt.com october
2012 21
craft . bar . happy . hour Get crafty at the CMA - Craft Bar is moving to Sunday afternoon! Teens and adults are invited to bring a project and enjoy great fall harvest snacks and the best of crafter camaraderie in the CMA’s unconventional craft haven. Don’t have a project to work on? Pick up a $12 kit that day. $12 / $8 members.
Sunday, October 21 2:00 - 4:30 pm
Columbia Museum of Art 1515 Main Street in the heart of downtown Columbia, SC
803.799.2810 or columbiamuseum.org
22 september
2012 www.skirt.com
www.skirt.com october
2012 23
24 october
2012 www.skirt.com
The Apple Pie Defense
The Junior League of Augusta, Georgia presents
Kick Off the Christmas Season at the CSRA’s Largest Premier Shopping Event. Over 40 Boutiques & Specialty Gift Vendors.
NOVEMBER 16,17,18
at The Legends Club on Washington Road 'SJEBZ /PPO UP QN t 4BUVSEBZ BN UP QN 4VOEBZ /PPO UP QN
$7 FOR ALL 3 DAYS! JOIN US FOR THESE SPECIAL EVENTS!
LADIES NIGHT OUT NOVEMBER 16 t 7PM-10PM
*/ "%7"/$& t "5 5)& %003
This fun event is for all the ladies in the CSRA! Includes live music, hors d’oeuvres provided by the area’s top restaurants and caterers, beverages, and exclusive shopping at the Holiday Market.
t t t t t t t
Not long after, Great-Grandmom died, the real recipe locked beneath her steel gray curls. Great-Grandmom: 1, Mom-Mom: 0. Game over. I could taste their disdain for each other as I sampled my first attempt at the faux recipe. The filling had no magic; the crust, leaden. The crust I could cure. My Nanny, my mother’s mother, had a perfect crust. Nanny had no animosity towards her own daughter, so that recipe I could trust. Second attempt: crust, perfect; filling, terrible; no better than cafeteria pie. Over the next week I made 16 pies, each time tweaking the ingredients to no avail. Rome apples, green apples, Gala apples. I had gotten very close with a combination of Gala and green apples, but still, the pie lacked something. Something that made it Great-Grandmom’s apple pie. Grief had turned me into an obsessive-compulsive pie-baking lunatic. I found myself sitting in defeat, flour coating my kitchen like Christmas morning snow, sipping on a Bourbon. I dribbled the last of it into my glass. Not only had I not recreated the pie, but now I was out of Bourbon. I could hear Grief’s buddies Maudlin and Self-Pity knocking on the door. My eyes tilted towards the glass-paneled cupboard, home to my liquor collection. I opened a bottle of gin and sniffed. Nope. I couldn’t move from Bourbon to the bitter juniper berry scent of gin. I opened a bottle of rum. No, no. Too sweet. Wrong, wrong, wrong. My eyes fell on a cheap bottle of Canadian whiskey. It wasn’t something I drank, but I had this romantic idea that someday an elderly neighbor would stop by and tell me stories about the Great War, and I would be the perfect hostess, trotting out the Seagram’s Seven. I opened the whiskey and inhaled. Nope. I started tightening the cap, but...that smell. Somewhere in my sad, foggy brain, a bulb began to glow. The whiskey smelled like Great-Grandmom’s pie. I leapt to my feet and prepared the crust for another pie and added a cup of whiskey to the filling. As it baked I cleaned. I cleaned the flour off the walls and floor. I put the dishes in the dishwasher. I moved into other rooms, picking up weeks of clothes, scattered books and photos. As the pie cooled, I resisted the urge to burn my tongue and pushed myself to clean more. Finally, I took a long hot shower and removed the flour from my face and the pie dough from my fingernails. Towel drying my hair, the smell of warm apple pie led me back into the kitchen, the scent different than the pungent combination of apple and defeat that had hung in the air for the last week. I closed my eyes and pictured the red tablecloth at Christmas, my mother’s good china coffee cups sitting in front of each family member, an apple pie plate placed in front of me. I cut into the dessert and tasted. I had recreated the pie. An intoxicating aroma hugged my kitchen like the embrace of a big German grandmother. The calendar on the wall reminded me that the ladies’ book club that I used to enjoy was scheduled for the next evening. Grief and I had been hiding. It was time to go out. The next morning I stocked up at the grocery store and started baking more pies. I made one for each of the six ladies of book club. Moans of joy filled the air as they took their first forkfuls, and my heart swelled with happiness. Mission accomplished. Driving home after book club, triumphant and lost in my thoughts, I didn’t at first notice the red and blue lights flashing behind me. I’d been speeding. My stomach lurched. I pulled over. As the officer leaned into my window I saw him pause and sniff the air. “Have you been drinking tonight?� he asked. I smiled, knowing I hadn’t had a drop to drink that night. The quest to dull my pain had been accomplished by pie, no alcohol required. “No.� “Your car smells like whiskey,� said the officer, raising an eyebrow. I sniffed. My car did smell like whiskey. “Pies,� I said. “I took everyone in my book club apple pies made with whiskey for Christmas. I’m sure the car smells like a distillery.� The officer nodded and looked away, the corner of his mouth curling to form a barely perceptible grin. “My grandmother had booze in her pies too,� he said. Without further argument, he handed me back my license, and sent me off with a warning. The apple pie defense had set me free.
PHOTOS WITH SANTA NOVEMBER 17 & 18
4"563%": ". 1. t 46/%": /00/ 1. Bring your little ones for a photo with Santa in his workshop beautifully decorated by Cudos. $15 includes a visit with Santa, photo session, picture CD, activities and a special treat.
Purchase your tickets now at jlaugusta.org, CZ DBMMJOH or at the Junior League OfďŹ ce )JHIMBOE "WFOVF JO 4VSSFZ $FOUFS Every ticket purchased supports the Junior League of Augusta, Georgia’s mission to improve the lives of women and children. Feel great about the gifts you share this holiday season knowing that a portion of that gift is making a difference in the life of someone in Augusta. 4VQQPSU :PVS $PNNVOJUZ 4IPQ BU UIF )PMJEBZ .BSLFU SPONSORED BY
Amy Vansant has been published in Surfer, Chesapeake Bay Magazine, McSweeney’s and other publications/sites. Read more at her humor blog at kidfreeliving.com or on Twitter @kidfreeliving. www.skirt.com   october
2012  25
26 october
2012 www.skirt.com
Knitting to Safety
SAVe The DATe
Perdita Buchan has published two novels and her short fiction and articles have appeared in The New Yorker, Ladies’ Home Journal, Family Circle, Harvard Magazine, House Beautiful, New Jersey Monthly and The New York Times. She lives in Ocean Grove, New Jersey.
Thursday, November 1 6-8 pm
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GIFT C
1202 Town Park L
706.922.HAIR (4 Book your appointments online
STYLING | COLOR BAR | HAIR SPA
1202 Town Park Lane • Suite 103 Relax and have fun with your friends and see the latest just in time for the holidays. • Treatment and Blow Dry • Fashion • Jewelry • Skin Analysis In PARTneRShIP wITh: SOhO • Tangles of evans • evans Dermatology windsor Fine Jewelers
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patterns themselves were a gibberish of numbers and directions: “slip 1,” “psso,” “decrease one at the end of every 4th row,” “reverse all shapings.” Clearly, those little geographies also had their own language. My mother never needed more than an explanation of the stitch—using that, she could create patterns. Although over time I became a competent knitter, I could never match her ability. If she sometimes used printed patterns, I never saw her study one. When I knit, I wear the patterns to pieces because I must constantly refer to them, mark my place, count rows and stitches. Our knitting habits reflected, to some extent, our attitudes to life. I did things by the book, my mother by instinct. When she thought it was time for me to return from an extended European sojourn, she sent me a quotation about expatriates from Nathaniel Hawthorne. “I knew you’d pay attention if it was from a book,” she said smugly when I returned. At that point, she was knitting Aran sweaters in a rough, cream-colored wool ordered from England. And I discovered that many of those stitches in Mary Thomas were symbolic: cables are fishing ropes, diamonds the mesh of nets, trellis means fields, basket stitch, the fisherman’s basket. The Aran islanders knitted the context of their lives into their work, and in a simpler way, I did too. I probably wouldn’t knit a kelly green and peacock blue baby sweater now, but in the Seventies I did just that, for a friend Cambridge, MassaOurin goal is to provide a superior experience for every client; with brilliant chusetts. To think of it brings back hours in the library stacks, the raw cold color services, distinguished cutting techniques, stunning of winter mornings, managing a fellowship and astyling three-year-old whomhair treatments. results, andfor luxurious I knitted socks in stripes of pink, red and orange, with heels and toes of the left-over peacock blue. A coral-colored baby sweater knitted for my cousin’s first adopted daughter recalls a weekend in a New York loft, clocks ignored, as we tried to help a baby adjust from Beijing to New York time. I knitted on the bus back to Boston as snow fell. I still have the remains of a cardigan chewed up by a family puppy. I could never mend it, but holding it brings back Scottish summers: tea in the glen, my daughter romping with her cousins, hillsides mauve with heather and the clear air filled with the anxious calls of sheep. In the last years of her life, my mother stopped knitting. She sat in the old wing chair, busy hands stilled. Macular degeneration had taken much of her eyesight and she resisted my efforts to set her up with thick wool and big needles, thinking she could knit by feel as she always had. All the things she had once loved had fallen away. She couldn’t read, didn’t want to listen to books on tape or classical music, she who had had regular subscriptions to the symphony and the opera. Even her great joy in plants and flowers had dimmed. “Beautiful,” she would murmur when I brought roses from my garden, but they didn’t seem to cheer her. Actually, she seldom said anything. We all found ourselves asking a lot of questions to try to provoke a response. She would answer “I don’t know” until the questioner gave up. “Too many questions,” she told me with a sigh. So I started a knitting project to get myself through the slow and silent hours, a blue Quaker stitch cardigan for her baby great grandson. Each day, she watched me pull the tangle of wool and needles out of my bag. “It’s coming along,” she would say. And smile. She watched me as I, a child, had once watched her. My fingers were not so nimble, nor the work so effortless. Sometimes the mistakes I made seemed a symptom of my struggle to understand who she had become and why we were here in this tiny assisted-living apartment. My mother’s mental state was now as much a foreign country to me as the swatches in Mary Thomas’s Knitting Book had once been. Yet knitting was the border where we could still meet, the place where we recognized each other. A piece of knitting progresses surely, even when life’s progress is halting or halted. My mother must have begun knitting seriously when her life in England was upended by the Second World War, as I had knitted feverishly in that long gone, topsy-turvy July. Knitting is reliable—the right number of stitches in the right combination produces a predictable pattern when the events around you have none. I knitted those last months spent with my mother into the little blue sweater, as surely as the Aran islanders knitted the fields, the nets, the hopedfor baskets of fish into their work. If it survives to another generation, I like to think it will carry her with it.
FiNd ouT more oN our Facebook www.skirt.com october
2012 27
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28 october
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PLAN TO JOIN US AT THE
National Dealers • Seminars • Repair Experts Preview Party
Thursday, October 18, 2012 Show and Sale
Friday-Sunday, October 19-21, 2012
Rhame Arena
517 Bull Street in historic Camden, South Carolina
for information 803.432.6513 www.steeplechasemuseum.org camdenantiquesfair.com
RE��OOT! DONALD J. PLINER SESTO MEUCCI VAN ELI
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contemporary jewelry l • southern h art and jumble of artful gifts
137 laurens st sw • downtown Aiken M-F 10-5:30, Sat 10-5 • closed Sunday alexis bittar
803.649.9663
RefreshAiken@gmail.com
Andrew Hamilton Crawford
www.skirt.com october
2012 29
Morris Museum of Art
The Morris Goes to
the Dawgs!
Tailgate Party + Book Signing with Vince Dooley + Hairy Dawg OCTOBER 17, 5:00–7:30 P.M. Calling dawg fans of all ages: come tailgate with UGA’s Vince Dooley and Hairy Dawg at the Morris! Vince Dooley AND Hairy Dawg will be here to take pictures and Dooley will sign his newest book, History and Reminiscences of the University of Georgia, as well as his earlier books. Books will be available in the Morris Museum Store. Admission is FREE.
1 Tenth St. I Augusta, GA 30901 I 706-724-7501 I www.themorris.org
23rd
2012
Month of OCTOBER Sidewalk Sale up to
75% OFF Lamps & Pillows
Offer Full Interior Design Service 2021 Walton Way, Augusta, GA 706.736.6400 M-F, 9-5 www.persnicketyinteriors.net
OCTOBER 12-14, 2012
Friday and Saturday 11am - 10pm Sunday 11am - 8pm FREE Admission • FREE Kid’s Rides Live Music • Hellenic Dance Greek Cuisine & Pastries • Greek Market Church Tours • Children’s Play Area And Much More! Corner of Tenth & Greene Streets
Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church 953 Telfair Street • Augusta
706-724-1087
HolyTrinityAugusta.org www.skirt.com october
2012 31
Ladies Apparel Located in Historic Summerville 1502 Monte Sano Ave. Augusta, GA 706.738.4888 Mon–Fri 10–5:30 Sat 11-4
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706.922.5106
Newly expanded parking lot in the back. Back door will be open for easy access.
When you need a place to live, choose a place where you can really live. A place that cultivates friendship and inspires an adventurous spirit, where caring isn’t only what’s done for you, but something we all do for each other.
Senior Living | Memory Care Call to schedule your visit today!
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515 The Pass | Martinez, GA 30907 | elmcroft.com 32 october
2012 www.skirt.com
Illustration by Monkey Mind Design, Unique Paper Expressions. monkeymindesign.etsy.com
Skirt of the Month Revente 737 Saluda Avenue Columbia 803.256.3076 shoprevente.com
www.skirt.com   october
2012  33
planetnikki [ a visual journal ]
As I write this, it’s getting dark earlier, but we’re still in some
It’s too hot for sweaters and
kind of unsettled season.
boots, but shorts and cotton skirts seem all wrong.
This not-summer/not-winter confuses me and makes me irritable.
It’s too much like the pause between endings and beginnings when
every day you wake up in some state of in-between.
Where you have to let go of one
thing in order to hop on another, like that stutter when you get to the end of a walking sidewalk and you’re not quite airborne and not quite earthbound.
Those times of
change
when you know forward is the right direction, but the
past won’t quite let you go.
I’ve been looking forward to the movie adaptation of Kerouac’s On the Road for so long that I’m bound to be disappointed, but I’ll still see it. It’s one of my favorite books because it speaks directly to some unrealized wild child in me.
When I feel overwhelmed by life or work or Mondays, I wish I had a pair of Doc Martens to give me some outward kickassery confidence.
This Martha Stewart sticker is one of the crafty, kitschy items from my Michaels binge. Like a magpie, I can’t resist bright shiny things even when they are totally useless.
Can’t stop playing “Somewhere” from Magic Hour, Scissor Sisters’ most recent album. The rest of the CD doesn’t grab me as much, but “Somewhere” will be on my walkingaround-NYC playlist.
Nikki Hardin is the founder and publisher of skirt! magazine. She blogs at fridaville.com.
94 augustw2012 charleston.skirt.com 34 october 2012 www.skirt.com
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