an ent knits

as promised

As promised, I finished something over the weekend.  It just wasn't a fibery object.  And, as it turns out, the deadline got pushed back 'til tomorrow, so I may spiff it up a bit. 

Anyway, this is my FO of the weekend, a coffee-walnut torte adapted from this recipe on epicurious:

(It currently has a coffee glaze dribbled over the top; I think I'm going to do something buttercream-like when I get home.)  It's not incredibly pretty, but it smells wonderful, and the bit of cake that was stuck to the side of the springform pan was quite tasty.  (But it did inspire me to have tea (green with rose and lavender) this morning instead of coffee, just for a change.  It was interesting to walk to work carrying both the torte and my tea, so I smelled both tea and coffee the whole way.)

I didn't finish anything fibery this weekend, but I did do some knitting:

This block of sparkly cabled yarn will be incorporated into the green blanket.

This garter-stitch rectangle of kool-aid dyed wool was originally intended as a sideways hat for Dulaan (really, it was intended as concert knitting a couple of weeks ago) but may end up as a scarf for next year's Dulaan, since I'm not sure I have anything to go with it as a hat, and it should be easier to fudge for a scarf.

The Tess's yarn sock that I've been working on for a couple of months has been stalled for a while, as I'm both bored with 3x3 ribbing and afraid of running out of yarn while away from the rest of my knitting.  I should be able to finish it sometime soon, though.

I also knit a few rows on the Peacock Feather Shawl, but it doesn't look all that different from last time.  I spent more of my aware-time this weekend either baking (as seen above) or singing--a couple of friends of mine organized a big group of people to get together and sing madrigals and Bach chorales and Other Stuff, and it was incredibly fun.  I hadn't sung "real" alto parts in a couple of years, so my voice got pretty tired, but it was wonderful all the same.

two non-fibery pictures

Where I was last night:

That is, I was sitting behind the camera, watching the Rosebuds from the bar, because I am lazy, my knee was bothering me, and my earplugs were losing their effectiveness.  Still, it was a very good show.  The Rosebuds are awesome.  (The first band, the Greyhounds, were okay; the second band, the Bowerbirds, sounded like it was quite good for an opening band but still not extremely exciting.)  The venue, Johnny Brenda's, was a new one for me; except for the fact that it's kind of far away, it would be my new favorite--it was clean (including the restroom), lit well enough that one could see that it was clean, there was a good selection of beer, the decor was great, the temperature was adequately regulated....  Next time, I will explore the balcony.  Last night, though, well, part of the reason we sat at the bar so long was so I could drink my beer and my water and still have hands free for knitting.   I started something that I think will become a Dulaan something, but I probably won't take a picture of it until it's decided what it wants to be.

And this morning:

 

Mel likes looking out the window.  I have to agree with him that the best weather is that which is conducive to open windows...at least, when I don't also want to have a fan pointed at me in a pale echo of an air conditioner. 

tuesday randomness

This is just because I can't bring myself to post without including a picture.

I picked up a copy of Stephanie's new book last Friday, and I also spent a pleasant twenty minutes looking at other books I've been thinking of buying.  Victorian Lace Today has moved up on my list, as has No Sheep For You.  I'm wondering, though--would it be awful in some way for me to buy No Sheep For You and knit some of the designs in wool?  Is there a compelling reason not to do so?  (I really like Morrigan, Jenna Wilson's fine-ish gauge aran-style sweater.)

I also want to share two of my recent music discoveries:

1.  The Rosebuds:  my Crafty Lab-Neighbor handed me their album Birds Make Good Neighbors and told me to listen to it.  As she predicted, I really like it.  It's on the poppy side of my taste in indie rock (but definitely within the range of stuff that I like), possibly comparable to Death Cab for Cutie or recent Magnetic Fields.

2.  Let's Go Sailing: Phillyist.com posted about their then-upcoming show, included a link to an mp3, and advertised a shirt/totebag/cd/ticket giveaway.  I listened to the mp3, entered the giveaway, and won.  I was, alas, unable to attend the concert (last-minute work stuff plus exhaustion), but the cd, The Chaos in Order, is quite good.  It will soon find its way into my indie playlists.

007: March

March was my Month Of Many Concerts.  I attended five shows in four weeks: those represented above, plus Anonymous 4 on the 1st (the ticket stub for which has disappeared).  A lot of my month has been about running around like a madwoman but doing more fun stuff than in the running-around-like-a-madwoman of January and February.  Four of the shows (everything except the organ recital, which was by far my least favorite of that series)  were great, and I am content.

And here's a picture from the Decemberists show (the only one at which I took out my camera):

eye candy friday

Mel, staring intently at the catnip mouse that Sarah gave him.  I love his expression in this picture.

---------------

March is turning into a month of concerts for me, beginning last night with Anonymous 4.  I was thrilled to hear (on Monday, I think) that not only were they performing in Philly, but they were singing on campus (convenient!).  So I went, and they were excellent (as expected).  They sang some songs from American Angels, and some that I think are from their newest album, Gloryland--a mix of shape-note tunes and other American folk music.  I am now eagerly anticipating the shape-note sing on Sunday.  (Even more eagerly than I had been, that is.) 

The other fun thing about last night was that, after the concert, I headed off to a new and different craft night, hosted by one of my labmates.  Although there were about three of us knitting, there were also people drawing, painting, and doing other non-yarn things.  It was odd, being in that kind of minority at a craft night.  Fun, though, and I'm really close to having super-exciting knitting news.  With any luck, it (perhaps along with the swatch I mentioned last week) will be photo-ready for Monday.

more fall colors

...but in yarn this time.

I'm in the middle of the heel on my sock, and I wanted something on bamboo for quieter concert knitting...so I present the beginnings of a hat.

This was the first concert in the Organ Recital Series. It was quite good. I was not really fond of the Liszt piece, but the Bach was good, the Mozart was excellent. There was a piece by someone named Mader called "Afternoon of a Toad", which was great. There was also something by a man with a Spanish-sounding name (also 20th-Century) that I liked almost as much as the Mozart. And then there was the encore of a really, really short piece by Haydn that was fun. So it was worth missing the gorgeous and sunny afternoon.

I also finished some spinning last night, and finally set the twist on the smidgen of alpaca-wool I'd spun a couple of weeks ago.

The orangey stuff is more of the wool-mohair from Three Waters Farm (MD & summer '05), spindle-spun and wheel-plied; the brown stuff is alpaca-wool from Delly's Delights Farm (MDSW '06), spun and plied on the wheel.

things I've been doing

I've been busy lately, and a bunch of it is even stuff that's relevant to this blog.

While I was doing laundry last Sunday, washing things that were near the moths, I finished spinning my first three-ply yarn:

This is my ounce of Boogie merino in salvia, about 60 yards. (That's getting to be an awfully common skein size for me...) Anyway, I'm really happy with the way it looks, especially in the bits where the three plies are all different shades.

I've also been working on my sock (the toe-up one I cast on at the Harry & the Potters show), both at the Satellite (coffee shop) craft night on Wednesday and at the Sufjan Stevens concert last night. (In addition to bits and pieces of standing on lines and sitting in trolleys.)

It's grown a lot--the black line is approximately how far along it was at noon on Wednesday.

So that's about 3h of knitting on Wednesday, plus about 3h of knitting last night...stockinette socks are fast, even on small needles.

But one of the reasons I like stockinette like that is so I can look at other things while I knit. Like the Sufjan Stevens concert, which was (as I expected) fun to watch as well as to hear.

I took this during "Jacksonville"; I think the projected images were supposed to have something to do with either Jacksonville or just small towns...(?) But the sorta movie-ish bits for all of the songs were fun, as was the concert over all. Yay, live music.

still here

Yes, I'm still here. Not much new, fiber-wise, though. I spent last Thursday evening plying and spinning more alien yarn.

Last Friday was the Colin Meloy/Laura Veirs concert* (with John Wesley Harding as a special guest for the rock versions of a few old ballads, including Barbara Allen)--many thanks to whichever performer requested that there be no smoking. I was pleasantly surprised, when I started up the stairs to the balcony, to hear Alisa call my name. So, instead of just having my knitting for company, I got to talk to Alisa, her twin Rebecca, and their SOs. The knitting was good, though; I made some real progress on the second felted bowl.

Saturday was grocery shopping and some cleaning, until I lost focus and started spinning more alien yarn. I wound up staying up way too late finishing plying the last skein, because I knew I was going to see Jill on Sunday. And then I got hungry, and had some carrots and hummus for a late-night snack. Oops. I'm not sure which, but one of those made me ill, necessitating cancellation of the PhillyKnitters gathering I was cleaning for. Still, I got Jill to come over for a little while, so I could give her this:

(Okay, I gave her that plus an extra skein that was still drying when I took the picture. All told, probably just under 200 yards of fingering-to-sport.) It was really good for me to spin for someone who doesn't knit with laceweight yarn. Extra motivation to make the singles as thick as possible, always good.

Anj has told me that it's easier to spin heavier yarn on a wheel than on a drop spindle. Do any of the rest of you have opinions on that? I'm certainly hoping she's right. Much as I like knitting with fingering-weight yarn, I really do want to be able to spin worsted-weight eventually... Until I get a wheel, though, I ought to get something else onto my now-empty spindle.

more not-knitting

I've spent the last several days not knitting. I hope to make up for that tomorrow (at Anj's), but I do have a few other things to tell you about.

First of all, I spent nearly all of Saturday singing shape-notes at the annual Keystone State convention. We arrived at 10:30am and left a little after 4pm. There were a couple of short breaks, and a potluck lunch for which I brought brownies, but the rest of the day was singing. My voice is still recovering... And then I spent five hours at the mall on Sunday. No, I couldn't believe it either, and the only way I lasted more than about twenty minutes was because I had a guide who reassured me when I was about ready to run and hide in a quiet corner (not that such things really exist in a giant mall). When I got home from that, I made another batch of brownies and a potful of soba noodle stirfry. I didn't do anything interesting the last couple of nights, but I made a third batch of basically the same brownies tonight, along with a similar soba dish. Recipes and discussion are in the extended entry.

I've been thinking

I've spent the last couple of days with a shape-note setting of Dylan Thomas's poem "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" running through my head. We used to sing it sometimes in the shape-note group in Oberlin, usually pitched high enough for me to sing the bass part. I really liked the way the chorus of "rage, rage, rage, rage, rage, rage, rage..." would resonate in my chest. I had meant to photocopy that tune and bring it to shape-notes tonight, but I've been busy and distracted and didn't even bring my books. (I did, however, pick up a copy of a brand new song by my friend Eric, since someone else brought copies of it for us to sing.)

I was reminded more than usual this evening that shape-note singing is a more clearly religious activity for a lot of the other singers. I suppose it should be obvious, since so many of the words are shared with hymns or psalms, and there isn't a whole lot of secular music that talks about Jesus so much, but I really don't think of it that way. If I did, I probably wouldn't go, since my religious background is pretty secular Judaism and my belief system is basically secular humanist. But I enjoy the music, both for its aesthetics and for the way it's a group of people singing together, making something richer than any one of them can create on their own, purely for the pleasure of doing so. (I really like the roundsings at Swarthmore, and social contra and English dances, but they're harder to get to and less conveniently timed, so I don't go as often as I'd like.)

I think it was while we were singing "China" (a setting of the first three verses from this), which is about why not to mourn the dead (because they're with God) that I started thinking about one of my favorite passages from Ursula Goodenough's The Sacred Depths of Nature:

Does death have any meaning?

Well, yes, it does. Sex without death gets you single-celled algae and fungi; sex with a mortal soma gets you the rest of the eukaryotic creatures. Death is the price paid to have trees and clams and birds and grasshoppers, and death is the price paid to have human consciousness, to be aware of all that shimmering awareness and all that love.

My somatic life is the wondrous gift wrought by my forthcoming death.

I find that more comforting than I find organized religion, but I still miss the group hugs at the end of the Oberlin sings.