Counting Stitches Instead of Sheep

Anne's Irish Knits Opens on Davis in Time for St. Pat's

Back in Northern Ireland, Anne McKeown's three sisters are among the women who hand-knit clothing for Anne's Irish Knits, which moved from Main Street to 522 Davis St. in February.

Anne McKeown has a suggestion about what to wear to the St. Patrick's Day parade: A woolen sweater from Anne's Irish Knits, 522 Davis St., would do just fine, she thinks.

For the individual who drops by her shop, which just relocated to Davis Street from 522 Main St. in mid-February, the only problem will be narrowing the choice.

Ms. McKeown frowns at the stacks of sweaters lining the shelves. Too much inventory, she laments. "I can't resist. I love the stuff," she says in her lilting brogue.

Mounded five or six deep, the sweaters are earthy in texture and seductive of color - magenta, heather (think "The Color Purple"), Black Watch (a rich, dark green/navy blend) and vivid emerald, as well as the familiar undyed cream and peat. They seem to smell of rain and green grass.

Knitting is a family thing. Though Ms. McKeown put down her needles a couple years ago, her sisters Maria Newry and Angela Bangor knit. So does her twin sister, Lila.

Lila, back in Belfast, also designs the sweaters. Nowadays she uses a computer, feeding in pictures of patterns that range from traditional to trendy. Ms. McKeown reels off their names: Tara, diamond, cable, popcorn, blackberry, knot, trellis. The traditional are the most popular here, she says. Irish people, she says, "take them for granted."

Some 12 years after Ms. McKeown moved to the United States - first to Lake Shore Drive and then to Marengo, Ill., where she shared 56 acres with a husband, three children, 10 black angus cattle, six dogs and some ducks - she found herself divorced. She was working as a CNA, moving from one private nursing job to another to care for elderly patients.

One day she called her twin to enlist her help in a business scheme. They decided to turn their childhood pastime into a for-profit enterprise, and their knitting business was born. At first they sold out of their homes. Lila still does, though her customers live as far away as Boston and Canada.

The twins still work some craft and trade fairs, including one in Dublin in January. But at the shop Ms. McKeown opened in October 2005 in the Dempster Street space formerly occupied by another Irish importer, 95 percent of her customers were from Evanston.

Growing up in Belfast, knitting was a way of life for Ms. McKeown and her sisters. Like most of the Irish girls of their generation, they knitted from the age of 5, says Ms. McKeown. "We had no TV, only a little radio," she says. "So we sat and knitted. Your whole mind was on what you were knitting."

Nowadays Lila has had to scour the countryside to find the dedicated knitters - more than 30 of them - who work for her. She often travels 50 miles or farther to deliver patterns and skeins of wool to the women, most of them elderly.

Often she must negotiate lanes only wide enough for one car, says Ms. McKeown; encountering another car means someone has to move aside. But at the end of the road Lila can anticipate a steaming cup of tea, a scone and a welcome born of the fact that she may be the only visitor of the day.

A single sweater takes between 10 days and three weeks to complete, with the knitter averaging five hours a day, says Ms. McKeown. It is no surprise to hear that Lila has lost some of her knitters to arthritis.

The knitters are paid by the ounce of wool. Ms. McKeown sells their hand knits for $145-$299, but she sells hand-loomed (machine-knit), sweaters for much less, $95-$135. She carries other Irish goods as well: scarves, men's hats and caps, baby buntings and children's sweaters, kilts of all sizes (popular as wedding attire, she says), and hand-knit sweaters in linen and cotton or wool/linen blends.

Her grown children have encouraged her to retire, says Ms. McKeown. But surveying the gorgeous goods that surround her, she says, "I love this. I could stay here till 10:00 at night."

She does plan to extend her Saturday hours to introduce Evanstonians to her new store. On Saturday, March 10, she will be serving tea, biscuits and Irish soda bread to customers from 4 to 7 p.m.

She invites her guests to find something to ward off the chill that always seems to accompany St. Patrick's Day. If they are lucky, Ms. McKeown will charm them with a story or two while they look. Call the shop at 847-864-2103 for more information.

Greenhouse To Speak at League Dinner

By Mary Helt Gavin

Linda Greenhouse, Pulitzer Prize-winning Supreme Court correspondent for the New York Times, will speak in Evanston on April 13 at the Evanston League of Women Voters Education Fund dinner.

Ms. Greenhouse, author of "Becoming Justice Blackmun," a biography of the Justice who wrote the landmark Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision on abortion rights, will speak on "Continuity and Change on the Supreme Court."

In an interview with the League and the RoundTable, Ms. Greenhouse discussed the Supreme Court and how the Justices might come down on certain issues, depending on whether they consider the probable effects of a decison or focus more narrowly on the law. "The question is 'How pragmatic are they? How doctrinal are they?'" Ms. Greenhouse said.

She discussed the combined Seattle/Louisville cases about whether a school district may take race into account in balancing their schools, the future of Roe v. Wade and whether the Guantanamo detainees will have access to federal courts through habeas corpus petitions.

The decision on using race to balance schools, expected this term, could affect School District 65, which has a guideline of allowing no more than 60 percent of a school to be composed of students of any one race.

District 65 considers race in admitting students into the magnet schools, King Lab and Bessie Rhodes, and in permissive transfers.

Ms. Greenhouse said "hundreds of school districts across the nation" use race to balance their schools. A decision prohibiting the use of race would be "extremely unsettling to the public school system." She said the Court's decision may hinge on whether the Justices would be "pragmatic" or "doctrinal."

She said she did not believe the Court would overturn the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case. "That's hyperbolic rhetoric about overturning Brown," she said.

Nor does she believe the Court will overturn Roe v. Wade, but she said the decision "is under threat. ... Pragmatically, the Court doesn't have to overturn Roe to narrow its applicability."

The decision on the rights of the nearly 400 Guantanamo detainees may come this year, Ms. Greenhouse said. A decision by the federal appeals court for the District of Columbia essentially dismissed the detainees' challenge of the Military Commissions Act. Ms. Greenhouse said the detainees' lawyers acted quickly in hopes of getting the issue before the Court in the current session.

Answering a question about whether Chief Justice John Roberts can become a consensus-builder, as he has said he hopes to be, Ms. Greenhouse said, "No, not on the issues that we care the most about." She said she believes such issues are "too divisive" for the Chief Justice to forge a consensus on those decisions.

The League dinner, a benefit for the League's education fund, begins with a reception and cash bar at 5 p.m., followed by dinner at 6 p.m. and Ms. Greenhouse's comments 7 p.m. Individual tickets are $100; patron tickets are $150. Contact the League at EducationFund2007@lwve.org.

Dance Marathon Benefits Epilepsy Research and ECF

More than 600 dancers moved their feet to the beat last weekend during Northwestern University's 2007 Dance Marathon (DM), raising a record $711,000 for charity.Citizens United for Research in Epilepsy (CURE) will receive the bulk of the proceeds and the Evanston Community Foundation (ECF), about 10 percent.

The 300+ couples began dancing at 7 p.m. on Friday and, with only 10-minute breaks every three hours - continued until 1 a.m. Sunday morning.

The breaks allowed the dancers to change costumes for the different themes.More than 1,000 Northwestern students are directly involved in Dance Marathon, making it one of the largest student-run philanthropies in the country.

CURE, this year's primary beneficiary of Dance Marathon, advocates for more federal funding for epilepsy research, awards grants to researchers and sponsors scientific conferences to discuss research trends.In the United States there are 326,000 children under the age of 15 affected by epilepsy, and it affects 2.7 million Americans of all ages and 50 million worldwide.

As the secondary beneficiary, Evanston Community Foundation will receive 10 per percent of this year's proceeds, the same amount they received last year. ECF awards grants and conducts programs that build and unite community-wide resources in Evanston. ECF has benefited from Dance Marathon since 1998.

"Our 600 dancer spots and a sizable wait list filled up in record time, and we have seen wonderful support and enthusiasm at our all-dancer events," said senior Nadia Rawls, the 2007 Dance Marathon executive co-chair with senior Chip Newcom.
Krysta Kauble and Kunal Kadakia, the 2007 DM publicity co-chairs, were confident that the 2007 event was going to be "the best Dance Marathon ever."

Curves Supports Community with Food Drive

Curves of Evanston, 114 Dodge Ave., is participating in the Curves Food Drive to benefit local food banks. To celebrate the generosity of the community, Curves is waiving its normal service fee for first-visit enrollment for any new member who brings in a bag of non-perishable groceries and joins through March 10.

Others wishing to donate may drop off non-perishable food items at Curves during business hours Monday through Saturday throughout the month of March. Call 847-866-8821.