Category Archives: music

knit nite fun, and other scenes from summer

Posted on August 21, 2010 | 14 comments

Knit nite on Wednesday was a blast. Good company and productive knitting, and some show and tell.

Lorajean (KnittedWit) brought samples of her new hand-dyed yarn colors, as well as her baby. He was charming, and the colors were great. It was the first time LJ had seen all the colors laid out together; it was breath-taking! The colors are a little more saturated here than in real life; I took the picture with my phone.

Helen (Painted Skeins), our other hand-dyer, brought her baby, too. So cute, but no picture! She was stash-busting, and brought some seconds that she wanted to clear out. We were happy to oblige. Here’s what came home with me.

The purple is called pinot, and it’s a short skein. I’m sure I can find something to do with it, but not a pair of socks because there’s not enough yarn. And I still don’t knit socks with fingering weight yarn! The gray didn’t have a name on it, just a tag that said “knot.” I don’t mind a few knots if that’s all that stands between me and playing with this pretty fog-colored yarn.

Summer is sailing by. I hurried back from camping a couple weeks ago to prepare my house for a house concert. It was the third summer we’ve done this fund raiser event. Music, wine, dessert. How many people can I fit in my small living room and dining room?

Quite a few! You get really close to the music in a house this size.

There was time for some show and tell with the harp . I didn’t realize that a harp gets tuned for whatever key it’s going to be played in. There’s a lever on each string so the note can be raised a half step, at least with this kind of harp. Beautiful music, and a fun evening.

What else? Lots of water. We had a family “intro to sailing” lesson with a local business, Scovare Expeditions. Captain Ian was great, and explained the physics of it to us because enquirin’ minds wanted to know. It was a fun way to spend some family time, too.

The Teen decided to rock the pirate look for the family photo.

And I went kayaking with my friend Vickie, who took these pictures. I was camera-less.

I love my hat. I bought it in Hoi An, Vietnam last summer. It’s very effective as a sun shield. And oddly suited to me…

How’s your summer?

14 Comments

Posted in Knit, music

Virtue is its own reward

Posted on May 5, 2010 | 11 comments

That’s what they say. But it’s pretty sweet to get an additional reward.

Dez over at Knitting Asylum had a drawing for people who donated to Doctors Without Borders for Haiti. I won a prize! Pen and tape measure, and a beautiful stitch marker necklace made from Czech glass and shell. These are really pretty, and what a great way to keep track of them.

Thanks, Dez!

I was away for the weekend up at Menucha Retreat Center, working at our annual women’s retreat. This one was filled with music! We sang through the Holden Evening Prayer Service on Friday evening, which was lovely. Some of my Day Old Pastries were on hand to help with the music for the rest of the weekend. I love my Pastries.

I did get some knitting done. See my prototype shawl on my knee, and the new one in my hands? The new one is coming along swimmingly; I really like it. I’ll show it to you, soon. Check out the handknit socks, too.

My favorite thing at Menucha, besides the view…

…is the labyrinth. It’s a good place to be silent and meditative.

It’s always interesting to discover a new epiphany when I reach the center.

This beautiful garden is across from the dining hall.

There’s a hidden space up there, with a rock bench facing this.

I love spring, in all its glory.

How was *your* weekend?

11 Comments

Posted in Day Old Pastries, Knit, music, travel

Tagged Knit, Menucha, music, spring

Spring fever…

Posted on March 27, 2010 | 11 comments

This week I finished a couple projects, including the straps for the felted slip stitch tote. I felted it last night. It’s drying, so I’ll take pictures tomorrow. This project took more yarn in the heavier Brown Sheep Lanaloft than the original KnitPicks Wool of the Andes; I’ll edit the pattern notes to make reflect that.

I had a fun day at Pico Accuardi Dyeworks. I taught an entrelac class in the morning. We even purled back without turning our work! This saves so much time when you’re working stockinette over a small number of stitches.

I also took a drop spindle class with Deb Accuardi. We worked with wool roving and with top, and mixed in some other fiber, too. My goal was to spin a more consistent single, and I did. And then we plyed some of it, too.

Stevanie Pico taught dyeing. All in all, a fun day.

The days are getting longer and lighter, and the air is getting warmer. Weeds are springing up like crazy in the garden. The boys helped me weed the front flowerbeds, and we’re in the process of taking out all the Japanese anemone. It was only slightly invasive when we had a big birch tree to shade it, but when we had to remove the tree, the anemone got too happy in the full sun and took over the garden. Buh-bye.

With spring, I’m also feeling the urge to jettison my unfinished Heather Hoodie (bulky yarn) and cast on something breezy and new! But I’m afraid if I set it aside, I’ll never go back to it. Yikes. I think it’s all a result of spring break.

I headed up to Seattle last weekend to play guitar with a piano friend. Yes, that sounds nonsensical, but it’s true. We met in 2000 at September Sonata, a piano camp in Bennington VT. We were roomies then, and have been friends ever since. In fact, there’s a whole group of us west coast “Piano Babes” that get together at least annually. Some of us aren’t playing the piano a whole lot right now (moi, for one), but we still have a lot in common.

Last fall, I bought a new guitar, and Sheryl did, too. They’re both Takamines with the same body style (NEX); mine is cedar and mahogany with a satin finish, and hers is spruce and maple, with a gloss finish. We’ve been trying to get together to compare them, and finally did. Hers sounds warmer/mellower from the back (playing) and more forward/pushy/rock from the front, and mine is mellower from the listener’s point of view, and brighter from the player’s perspective. I happily played them both!

Some of the other piano babes came over on Saturday; we played/sang Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah. We also web-surfed to check out kd lang’s version (she opened the Olympics with it), Jeff Buckley’s (hailed by some as the best) version, Bon Jovi’s acoustic version (my favorite), and of course, Leonard Cohen’s version (Live in London). C played this last year in Carmel, so it seemed like good common ground.

We had a great time! Thanks to Sheryl for hosting. There was more spring break activity, but I’ll leave that for another post.

What is spring inspiring you to do?

11 Comments

Posted in Knit, music, spinning, travel

Tagged dye, guitar, Knit, piano, spinning, spring

Franken-tar, redux

Posted on February 12, 2010 | 15 comments

Spring is coming, and that makes us a little bouncier around here. Off the wall dreams seem like good ideas. And perhaps they are. What if we take those ideas one step further? You may remember the Teen’s Franken-tar.

I had a lesson the other day with Jim Loewenherz. He’s a local musician and luthier. We worked on some strum patterns for Irish reels and jigs. Near the end of the lesson I asked him about bass runs and fills for a song I’m working on with the Day Old Pastries, but all of that was pretty much over my head because I’d have to learn where the notes actually live on the guitar neck first. I’m a pretty rudimentary guitar player; I love my open cowboy chords, strummed or picked!

So we discussed ensemble play, and he talked about each instrument having its own sonic space, each doing something a little different. The Day Old Pastries have five guitars and a mandolin. The mandolin has its own sonic space by default. But the guitars can each have their own space by having one of them strum, one pick, one capo up for a different voicing. And then Jim asked if we have a 12-string. Nope. an extra guitar? Sure! So he suggested high string Nashville tuning, just for something different. Basically, you string a six string guitar with the extra six strings that you’d find on a 12-string guitar. The lowest four strings are an octave higher than normal, and the top two strings are the same as usual.

I just had to try this to see what it sounds like. I decided to try it on the Teen’s Taylor Big Baby, because he doesn’t play acoustic guitars much, and it’s a comfortable size for me. I poked around on the web and found that D’Addario sells string sets for high string tuning.

What a cool sound! (Listen to the video on the link.) I’m going to take it to practice tomorrow, and we can play around with it.

And now I’m about to go pick out some mis-crossed cables on my Heather Hoodie, ten rows back…ouch! That last “O” isn’t an O.

Here’s a sign of spring that I saw on my walk this morning.

Crocuses are blooming here! Is it winter or spring in your neighborhood?

15 Comments

Posted in Day Old Pastries, Knit, music

Tagged Day Old Pastries, guitar, high string tuning, nashville tuning

Single Skein Club 2010

Posted on February 11, 2010 | 8 comments

My family enrolled me in the 2010 Single Skein Club over at Twisted for Christmas. (Thanks, guys!) The club has a project every other month, six during the calendar year. It’s February, which means that it’s time for the first club offering. If you don’t have yours yet, and don’t want to know, look away now!

Have you averted your eyes? It’s almost too late!

Okay; it’s time.

This month’s offering is a sweet cowl and cuffs pattern by Star Athena. Star is the manager over at Twisted, and she’s also a brilliant designer with a primo sense of style, and a great teacher, too. I took her Sock Design class at Sock Summit last summer. Star’s Arctic Blast Mitts were the February kick off for the club last year. I made those…twice! Remember these?

The yarn this month is Malabrigo Twist, a worsted weight plied baby merino wool yarn, in the Indiecita coloway. I love it. Blues and greens; it’s perfect. It feels wonderful.

Look at the color…

And this month’s goodie? A project bag from Flower Pie Designs, also local to Portland. The bags are all different, so don’t be surprised to see someone else’s completely different Single Skein Club project bag! (Yes I know the characters are upside down. I can even read some of them. On the back of the bag, they’re right side up, because the bag is one piece of fabric, folded, not two pieced together.)

I love this bag; it will be perfect for corralling my project inside my big Sock Summit tote.

There are a few spaces left in the Single Skein Club. You can pick up your club kits locally, or Twisted will ship to you if you’re far away. Contact Twisted if you want in on the fun!

And here’s a sweet opportunity for those of you who are local to PDX. Sweet Sound of Jazz, a fund-raiser for the Band programs at Grant High School. Enjoy music and a dessert buffet, Friday evening, February 12, 7 p.m.

8 Comments

Posted in Knit, music

Tagged dessert, Knit, malabrigo, single skein club, sweet sound of jazz, yarn

A whirlwind…

Posted on January 25, 2010 | 15 comments

But there hasn’t been much knitting this last week!

Last Monday I participated in a service day for the Backpack Program. We packed 420 weekend lunch bags, which means 840 lunches. This program provides lunches for low-income children who are at risk for hunger. The program began in the fall of 2008, serving 10 children, and quickly grew to 30. It now serves 60 children, and the current goal is to serve 100 children for the entire school year. It’s a cooperative effort of four local United Methodist churches, and has grown to include community volunteers and school groups.

I love that people of all ages volunteer for this program.

The Day Old Pastries led some singing after the lunch packing. We’re a group of friends that like to play and sing together, 6 guitarists and a mandolin player. Occasionally a guitar gets swapped for an accordian! We were all acoustic that day (no amps, no mics), and it was folkie fun. I recorded it with my Zoom H2. (This little stereo digital recorder is fabulous; it’s easy to use and works well.)

Down by the Riverside

Swing Low, Sweet Chariot

Wade in the Water

I’ll Fly Away

Blowin’ in the Wind

The week blew past, and DH celebrated a significant birthday. Happy birthday, Sweetie!

We had family in from out of town, and ended the weekend with dim sum before they headed back to the airport. Who got the last piece of shiu mai?

Back to knitting this week! Here’s a little yarn for this post:

Hat tip to the Twist Collective Blog.

15 Comments

Posted in Day Old Pastries, music

Tagged Backpack Program, Day Old Pastries, MLK Workday

SEA-PDX Yarn Train

Posted on January 17, 2010 | 23 comments

The annual Seattle to Portland Yarn Train arrived in town on Saturday, bringing Seattle knitters down south for a yarn crawl. I couldn’t meet the train because I was rehearsing with the Day Old Pastries, so I met up with Kathy at Knit/Purl.

I met Kathy last summer at the Sock Summit Ravelry party, and we’ve been bloggy friends ever since. She was with her friend Chandria, and Denise, whom they met on the train. I offered to take the three of them across town to Twisted, my usual stomping grounds. But first, I needed to check in at the PDXKnitbloggers’ home base at the Starbucks kitty corner from Knit/Purl.

I found Cindy, Duffy, Judy, Susan…and a table covered with yarn.

Susan was just back from TNNA, and she had a samples of her entire new Blue Faced Leicester sock yarn. Judy was trying to choose two coordinating colors for a design project. It was difficult, because they were all gorgeous!

We did make it over to Twisted. As we pulled up, my phone picked up a text message. It was a tweet from Twisted: “Love Stinks! Spend your Valentine’s day hexing your crappy ex with our Voodoo Doll kits! (Then go on a date with someone way hotter)” That made me laugh out loud. We went in asking for the voodoo dolls, and here they are, modeling in front of the wall of sock yarn.

Kathy bought some Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran to make a Pippi hat. It will be her first color work. Fun!

I also ran into Debbi and her friend Susan, and Sharon (but I forgot to take her picture, sorry).

All that yarn shopping is exhausting! We had a very late lunch at Costello’s, down the street, and then headed to Yarnia. I’d never been to Yarnia before, so this was an adventure for me, too.

Yarnia is like Build-a-Bear for knitters. You choose thin fibers/colors you want to put together, and they are wound off together onto a cone to make the yarn of your dreams. Denise was in heaven! She got exactly what she wanted for a shawl project. With sparkle in it, of course. Here’s the winding machine in action. (There’s a cone of shiny stuff on the floor, feeding into the yarn on the cone, but I didn’t realize it when I was filming.)

There wasn’t time to visit any more yarn stores, so I chauffeured the happy knitters back to the train station. And I realized then that I didn’t buy any yarn at all! I’m just not much of a stasher. It was a fun day.

Monday is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day here in the States. Are you participating in any MLK Day activities? I’ll be at a workday for the Backpack Program; they provide weekend lunches for needy children at a local elementary school. (For some children, a federally-sponsored school lunch is their main meal of the day, and there is no school lunch on the weekend.) The Day Old Pastries will lead some singing at the event. If you’re local and looking for something to do, it’s from 1 to 3 p.m. at Woodlawn United Methodist Church, 1425 NE Dekum, Portland, 97211.

23 Comments

Posted in Blogging, Knit, music, travel

Tagged Knit, PDX, pippi hat, twistedpdx, yarn, yarn crawl, Yarnia

Almost…

Posted on December 21, 2009 | 13 comments

So close, and yet so far…

I can see that I’m not going to get 56 more stitches out of the remaining yarn. I bought another 50 gram skein, and I’ll figure out what to do with the 48 grams I’ll have left!

In the meantime, I made these.

They’re just those gingersnap cookies that show up this time of year. I used our mini ice cream scoop and filled them with peppermint ice cream. Then I drizzled them with chocolate truffle sauce (recipe here). They’re back in the freezer, firming up.

And the Day Old Pastries sang Mary, Mary in church yesterday. I love singing with my Pastry friends. We’re not perfect, but we have a lot of fun.

Busy, busy, busy! Knitting and shopping not done. But I’m off to a party…

13 Comments

Posted in Day Old Pastries, Knit, music, recipe

Tagged Knit

A veritable potpourri

Posted on November 5, 2009 | 10 comments

Let’s see, where am I? Oh, yes, the contest!

I ran the random number generator at random.org and the winners are: Susie (KnittingKnoobie) for the purple Berroco Vintage Wool, and Marie (permissiontounwind) for the blue Lanaloft. I’ll be sending out yarn soon.

Just a bit of knitting going on here. We started the Quincy hat knitalong at knit night last week; I love the way the i-cord just happens on the edges. This will be the moebius strip of the hat band around the head. Isn’t it pretty?

Here’s a better look at the edges. Don’t worry; the green is temporary. It’s a provisional cast on so the beginning can be grafted to the end.

And I’m still highly distracted by my new guitar. It has a lovely voice, and I’ve been playing a lot. I had the action adjusted (lowered) by our luthier, and it’s easier to play. Dreamy. Now I just need to learn to play better! I’m learning to pick arpeggios rather than just strum. Doing that while singing is an interesting exercise in coordination, but it’s getting better.

I’m also writing a couple songs with a friend (he composes the music; I write the lyrics), and that’s been a lot of fun. I’m so lucky to have all these creative outlets in my life, and I know it.

Knit and play on!

10 Comments

Posted in Knit, music

Tagged guitar, Knit, quincy hat, yarn

Franken-tar

Posted on October 31, 2009 | 12 comments

Just in time for Halloween!

The Teen saw concert footage of Muse, and was intrigued by lead singer/guitarist Matt Bellamy’s guitar. Bellamy designed Manson MB-1 guitar, which features an x-y midi controller. The instrument sells for £2,999, which means that the Teen won’t be getting one any time soon.

But that didn’t stop him from tinkering on his own. He built his own version, dubbed it the RB-1, and used it for a short piece at school.

Basically, it’s an iPod/iPhone app called the Bebot Robosynth. It sells for a mere $1.99. The Teen loaded it up, put the iPod on his guitar, the earphone onto the guitar pickup, and away you go.

Not a lot of finesse with it yet, but he sure had fun!

Here it is charging next to my Norman. I like the old/new juxtaposition.

A closer look at the setup:

Isn’t the little guy cute?

Meanwhile, my new guitar arrived yesterday. I looooove it. Such great tone. The stock strings are mediums(?) and they squeak against my thumb. I’m about to swap them out for Elixir nanoweb lights.

12 Comments

Posted in music

Tagged guitar