Bubbly. Enthusiastic. Migrant. Crocheter.
The recent hot days, 30 C+, have been banished, for the time being, by a huge storm. The broken trees and other debris are still in evidence in the city. The drop in temperature has also seen most people return to warmer clothes. In the pub, where I meet Sarah, jackets and long pants have replaced no-sleeve tops and shorts. Sarah appears wearing a smart white shirt with a full length grey cardigan, she is on her way home from work and has agreed to meet in the central spot, King O’Malleys. She acknowledges me and brushes aside the idea of me buying her a drink, in her soft Texan accent. Her words are clear and easy to understand, even if she does speak very fast. Each sentence she offers is made with a smile or laugh and when she is highly amused, a giggle.
I first met Sarah when she turned up to Crafternoons at Smiths Alternative in August. She, her husband and their dog, had just moved from Perth to Canberra. She was in need of new people and set out to meet them. Crafternoons looked like a good way to start. Armed with a fresh out of the packet crochet hook, some cheap yarn and a basic pattern book, she sat down and introduced herself, telling the rest of us that she learnt how to use the hook the day before on YouTube.
Sarah explains to me, above the piped music of the pub, that she is a visual learner and understanding patterns from books was not easy. She will revisit the original book she bought once she has really mastered all the stitches she needs.
A few months on and she has mastered the granny square and is making a grey blanket that she describes as ‘never-ending’. She is also working on a hat for her dog as her husband asked her to make it. The first hat she made was so small that it was even too small for the dog. The favourite thing she describes is still in the planning stages; a blanket for her sister who is getting married in August, but she is sure this will be the best thing she has made so far.
Sarah had to give up attending Crafternoons as she got a full time job. I told her about the meet ups for the Facebook group and she switched her face to face hit to a Sunday at the Tradies. When I ask her what she gets from this group, she replied, with great enthusiasm, that this group of women is so encouraging, positive, non-judgemental, welcoming and creative. She explains that many older people she works with and comes across, are hard on younger people and the way they do things; judging being on their phones, the way they spend their time, attitude to work. The group at the Tradies has many ages, at 25 Sarah is one of the younger attendees, but she speaks, glowingly, about the way she engages with all the other women there.
Sarah first visited Australia at 15 on a Rotary trip for four weeks, three of those weeks spent in Perth, the first in Kalgoorlie! The Big Pit did not put her off. By the time she returned home she knew she wanted to live in Australia. Her degree in Viticulture offered her a 6 month opportunity to spend time in Adelaide learning her craft. Visiting relatives in Perth over new year she used a dating app to get a date. The man she spent that evening with is now her husband. She tells me how it was the first time he had used an app for dates and he has a 100% success rate! On that evening she did not believe his declarations to visit her in Adelaide, until he turned up. On her 21st birthday, her first legal day of drinking in Texas and in the middle of world wide lockdown, he sent her a bottle of Verve Cliquot. The empty bottle has made it to this country and been with them at each of their moves. A treasured possession along with her wedding dress and rings. The wedding also took place in Covid times with the groom having to make repeated applications for permission to leave Australia and to enter the US so they could get married. The wedding had been delayed until both Sarah and her husband had finished their degrees in their respective countries.
Sarah conveys herself as a down to earth, no nonsense kinda person. This is illustrated when she tells me about finishing her degree; “College and I did not get along” she says. Her mother had signed her up for a program that meant she did not have to pay for her college if she attended in Texas. Leaving college debt free was the impetus needed to get through it.
A job at Penfolds, when the couple got to Perth, allowed Sarah to indulge her ability and desire to talk about wine. ‘Winery people are always funny, down to earth’, she says,’but not always the people who just drink wine’. ‘Wine improves its flavour drunk in good company’, she tells me, and I agree; my ordinary house wine is improved by the company I am keeping.
As we depart King O’Malleys I am glad of the extra layer I brought with me. We part company each going different ways and onto other events: me a talk on food and science, she a book club meeting.
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