So, I'm knitting on my way from Zurich to Davos. Note, I'm ridiculously sleep deprived and jet lagged. After not knitting on my red eye flight because I didn't want to invade my neighbors' space (hate that!), the person next to me fell asleep and proceeded to occupy my personal space the entire night. Not just the usual elbow over the armrest, either. We're talking head on the shoulder. I deftly moved to slide it off, but somehow the head kept finding its way back time and again. Ew! All this goes to my state of mind: desperate, and desperately exhausted.

So I'm on this train that the conference organizers said takes 90 minutes, then I'm supposed to change for a mountain train for another 45. So I take out my knitting and try to make up for time worse than wasted on that flight. I spread out a bit to work more efficiently. About 55 minutes into the trip, I look up at a stop and it's my place to change! I scramble to grab my stuff, get off the train, then remember I left my suitcase. I run back, just in time, beg the guy in my lame half German to help me get the bag down off the impossibly high luggage rack, then proceed to exit the train, where a woman is saying something incomprehensible to me and pointing at the track. I look, and in horror see that my ball of yarn has fallen and rolled under the train. This is the ball that is connected to my nearly completed sweater project. The doors are closing. In a panic, I dig in my bag, rip out my nail clippers and cut the cord, just as the train is wheeling away.  I had this image in my head of it all unravelling, or flying from my hands as it goes with the train. Having saved the sweater and chalked the ball up to a loss, I began calculating whether my spare ball would be enough to finish. I watched as the thread did indeed catch in the wheels, and I saw the ball unravel and spin, but fortunately it broke off fairly quickly and I was able to jump down onto the track and retrieve it. Phew! By the time I recovered and looked for my next train, it was leaving from the platform across the way (it's true, what they say about Swiss trains). So I had to wait an hour ... but I couldn't feel too sorry for myself, staring at some alpine meadows and rocky crags. And having saved my project with some helpful travelers, some foggy jet lagged thinking and a pair of nail clippers.

I just watched livestreaming at pcusa.org, but it's for real: the Presbyterians just voted 54%-46% to send a consitutional amendment (still to be ratified by the local governing bodies around the country over the next year) that would remove the barriers to LGBT ordination! The scarves were everywhere on the floor - neat to see!

"In response to severe flooding in Cedar Rapids and Iowa City, the
federal AmeriCorps VISTA program is making 230 positions immediately
available to assist in flood recovery efforts.

The VISTA members will recruit and manage volunteers and provide
coordination and leadership to assist low-income individuals and
communities in recovering from the severe flooding that struck Linn and
Johnson Counties.

The 230 positions are with the VISTA Corridor
Flood Recovery Program, an initiative of the Community Corrections
Improvement Association. There are two opportunities available:

* 200 VISTA Summer Associates, full-time summer positions lasting
8-10 weeks that provide a living allowance plus a Segal AmeriCorps
Education Award of $1,000 to pay for college or pay back student
loans or an end of service stipend. Preference will be given to
applicants who are able to start by June 30. The commitment must
be completed by September 12.

* 30 full-time year-long VISTA positions that offer a living
allowance, health benefits, training, student loan forbearance,
and the choice of a $4,725 Segal AmeriCorps Education Award or a
$1,200 post-service stipend."

More information on job descriptions and how to apply.

 The other thing that's cool is that Iowa residents who are receiving unemployment benefits (especially those who lost their jobs due to flooding) can also sign up for one of these summer AmeriCorps positions and still receive their unemployment.

Imagine hundreds of people wearing hundreds of scarves watching this!

From the Presbyterian Outlook:

"After First Presbyterian Church, Palo Alto, California, received
the More Light Presbyterians' Inclusive Church Award, two of its
members, Derrick Kikuchi and Craig Wiesner, received the David Sindt
Leadership Award. As the longtime couple accepted their award at the
podium, Kikuchi stunned the gathering by asking Wiesner to join him to
make their marriage legal in the state of California.

"The couple was greeted by surprised exclamations, whoops of delight and
a standing ovation by the body gathered there.

"Michael Adee, national field organizer for More Light Presbyterians, said in an interview that Kikuchi and Wiesner were married in a church ceremony 18 years ago at First Presbyterian church in Palo Alto – in a service that he said the session of that congregation recorded as a “marriage,” not a same-sex union....

"The couple called forth Diana C. Gibson, the pastor who presided over
that service 18 years ago. “I’m not asking for us to be married before
God because this was already done in our church in 1990,” Wiesner told
Gibson. “Will you join us to make this a legal civil marriage?”
Gibson accepted, and the two witnesses from the church service 18 years
ago, served as witnesses again this time. Gibson is a former pastor of
First Presbyterian church in Palo Alto, and now the executive director
of the Santa Clara Council of Churches.

""The gathered body was silent as the couple repeated the vows they
composed in this largely self-directed ceremony, among them, “to
find... the courage to resist the many deaths by which love can die,
... to be willing to take the risk to accept the vulnerability to love
again and again and again.”

"After the couple repeated their vows to each other, the body was
invited to stand and commit to support Kikuchi and Wiesner, and couples
like them. Silverware clinked against dozens of glasses as attendees
encouraged the newlyweds to kiss. Gibson waited for the clinking to
stop before she declared with careful emphasis on the last word, "By
the authority newly given me by the state of California, I declare that
Craig and Derrick are married in the eyes of the state.”

Full story here.

Heather Reichgott (of South Hadley) who is in San Jose for the Presbyterian General Assembly wrote this blog entry about the meaning of the scarves.

Powerful stuff.

I'll continue to monitor events this week and report any scarf-related news to this space... thanks all, for all you did that's made such a big impact in San Jose!

Here are the fabulous scarves we were able to send to the Rainbow Scarves Knitting Project:

Read more about the project here. And watch for coverage of the event and the scarves' impact by KLer, femiknits.

Thank you to every person who contributed to this project and made it a huge success - we were able to send around 40 scarves to support the cause!

Of course you are!  So get out there tomorrow and support the cause by buying baked goods!

Click here to find a bake sale near you.