How amazing are the US election results? How mint is it that we have a sane, intelligent, thoughtful man leading the US Nation? Like Lara I don’t think that Obama can change everything or that his leadership will be faultless. He is taking on a country in the middle of a recession and a war; there are high expectations for his Presidency. The withdrawal of troops from Iraq; the recovery of the US economy… Big Stuff like that.

But as a massive Alice Walker fan with a keen interest in the black civil rights movement, I was really moved by seeing queues of people who haven’t voted for years standing in lines for hours because they finally believed that there was a real point to the democratic process. I was also amazed by how – when the stakes are as high as they’ve been during the US elections – the media suddenly struggle for language to deal with the reality of racism and start blatantly acknowledging that it exists. Gone from the election debate were the familiar media euphemisms for racism; instead we had the awkwardness of reportage aiming to be simultaneously to the point yet inoffensive, and this combination of elements resulted in a lot of real honesty about racism in America – which I haven’t really seen before in as public a forum as The US Elections. It was sobering and difficult to watch at times; the stuttering commentary. But ultimately, it can only be positive that so many of the racial inequalities in America got exposed by this election and that during Obama’s life, the situation for African Americans has gone from no-right-to-vote to being the country’s leader. Expect Alice Walker in my blog this week sometime; she was my educator on American Politics and the Black Civil Rights Movement and her writings have been a deep inspiration for me since I was a teenager.

All the amazingness of the US Election results surely deserve some kind of celebration; at the end of this post, I have put the most firework-like sound (sort of) of champagne uncorking and pouring. Will you drink a toast with me? And enjoy the sonic similarities between the explosion of the cork and some other explosions, knitted and real, that took place today?

Knitted fireworks yesterday, at Sticks’n’String

While knitting the fireworks yesterday at Sticks’n’String, we talked of the election, knitting the desire for Obama’s success into our explosions. Today, arranging the lovely knitted explosions made by Sara, Emmylou, Ruth & myself at Prick Your Finger, we wondered if we could somehow improvise a Guy Fawkes that could represent the Bush Era, and ring in the changes with all the knitted fireworks. But in the end, we decided that all the glittering could somehow communicate our glee on its own without the overstatement of a dying GWBush Era doll burning in these knitted flames.

How amazing are Rosemary’s machine-knitted flames?

There’s no fire without smoke, as testified to by Rachael and Rosemary’s beautiful knitted smoke:

Real firework smoke is beautiful too…

Here are explosions by Mark (with real fireworks of celebration) and Sara (with yarn.)

…And here is a section from the original knitted firework and a real explosion by Mark, showing that similitude can truly be achieved with yarn:

And finally, we have a giant (and picturesque) pop.

Prick Your Finger have a new shop window and America has a new president. They are not even remotely the same – and definitely not on the same scale – but both the window and the election results, are cause for joy.

You’ll forgive me, I hope, for delaying the ginger squash cake post until tomorrow…