Power of Ravelry and Big Sur Fire

I'm a big fan of Hayley Westenra of Christchurch, New Zealand. Last year when I first "found" her I posted a clip of her signing with Andrea Bocelli on my blog. (Sarah, I didn't quite understand the Amy Winehouse connection, but now at least I know who she is.) About a month ago I found this clip of Hayley Westenra singing on stage when she was 9 years old. Notice in the back ground the store name is xxxxon Knits and there is a ball of yarn and a pair of knitting needles on the logo, also there are sweaters hanging in the window. As any sane knitter would know, this has to be a yarn shop, some 15 years ago, on the other side of the globe. I just need to figure out a way to prove it. As any sane knitter living in today's world that has a presence on the wonderful knitters' social networking heaven Ravelry, I posted the question to a group of New Zealand knitters. A month later, much chatter happened, and someone turned up with the truth: The store was Fashion Knits in Hornby Mall, Christchurch, New Zealand. The mall has been remodeled since and the shop was moved. However this knitter worked at this store and knows others that worked there. Isn't it amazing what you can find between an old music clip on YouTube and the collective wisdom of knitters on Ravelry? If you want to see the complete string of posts, just go to my profile, bitsnpieces, and click on my posts, or go directly to Kiwi Crafting group. A little more on Ravelry, they have updated the Friends Activities section, and it's now showing friends stashed, favored, commented or posting linked items as well as queued items. I usually tag projects or patterns that I'm interested in as my favorites since I want to keep my queue relatively small and manageable. So I'm enjoying this latest change. On a sad note, a serious fire is burning in Big Sur, the most beautiful coastal region in California. Many familiar places, Henry Miller library, Nepenthe, Big Sur Lodge, Post Ranch Inn, etc. have all been evacuated. There was interview with the owner of Nepenthe on TV last night, he and some of his staff had signed waiver and refused to evacuate. They will rebuild if the building burns down, they said. The most up to date information is on Sur Fire News blog. Sounds like Nepenthe is safe so far. My mom is 30 miles away from the fire in Carmel. The air is bad and the seniors could be trapped on the hill if the surrounding woods catch on fire. I don't think there is much chance of that happening, but please send your well wishes our way.