Category: Music

No, it’s not over yet.*  Yesterday was all-bluegrass, all-day. And yes, part of it was in a church. One of the downtown Baptist churches loans their building every year as one of the venues for the festival. The sanctuary is a perfect place to play bluegrass; the sound is good, the surroundings are simple and lovely. The performers always like playing that stage, and it always shows.

Highlights? It was one of those great bluegrass days. Uncle Earl again was superb. The John Cowan band did a marvelous performance at the church in the afternoon, and the Wilders and Psychograss were wonderful. This morning is a gospel show at the main pavilion stage, followed by a great lineup of some of the best in bluegrass.

Knitting? Here you go. The Candy Stripe sock:

I discovered that I don’t mind doing heel stitch while bluegrass is going on. I suppose I could save all my sock heels until February every year.

And I managed to work in a couple of pattern repeats of this:

I sat up in the church balcony all afternoon, and at least part of the time there was enough light to work on this a bit.

I haven’t seen many knitters at the festival. A friend of ours was there yesterday with a scarf that she is working on, and I saw a woman down in the church seats yesterday with what looked like a sweater in her lap. Other than that, nothing. I think I’m an oddity. In between sets, I stand up and knit, to stretch out a bit. A woman came up to me Thursday night and said “It’s good to see you back with your knitting”. And Friday night I was standing and knitting during a break. After a while I noticed a young girl (maybe about 11?) standing next to me quietly, watching. When I talked to her, she got shy and left, but she clearly was either fascinated or horrified by what I was doing. I’ve gotten a number of “what the heck are you knitting?” comments, and a couple of “I didn’t bring my knitting because I can’t see in here” comments. Well, that doesn’t stop me. I just fix the mistakes later. A couple of times I’ve had to take the knitting out back where I can see it and give it a thrashing, but overall I’ve only had a couple of malfunctions.

I’m off for more coffee, then more bluegrass. There will be a final report later!

*Just be glad that I have no idea how to attach sound files to this, or you’d have to listen to bluegrass while reading about it.

Here’s what I accomplished last night. There would have been more, but I was knitting in the dark, and had to do a few rows over.

It is too bigger. Go look at the last post and check.

And in the spirit of full disclosure, this is NOT the Ladybug Rainforest yarn that I have been calling it. It is Opal, and it was in my stash. After I got to the first yellow stripe, I thought, hmmmm. Then that big stretch of red, and the repeating blue and yellow stripes. Hmmmm. So I got out the ball band, searched through my Access database*, and discovered that this is a different Opal color scheme. I called it Candy when I entered it into the database. I don’t know if that was something I made up, or the real color name. Opal just puts numbers on the ball band. This one is 518.

Pretty, but not ladybugs. So I’m now officially changing the name to the Opal Candy Stripe Socks.

Wintergrass was toe-tappingly good last night. My pick of the evening was the all-girl Uncle Earl. They even have a clogger-girl. How can you not like them? They’re playing again this afternoon, so I need to go get my butt in the shower.

It will be partial daylight for this afternoon’s shows, so I might get some noticeable progress done!

*Yes, I have an Access database of all my yarn. It includes the yarn, manufacturer, color, yardage, gauge, what I intended to use it for, fiber content, and a photo of each yarn. I also have my storage boxes numbered, with a number beside each entry so I can find it easily. It’s a beautifully obsessive-compulsive work of art.

Ok, Ok. Here’s a screenshot of my database.

And a little research reveals that the Opal #518 comes from the 2002 Collection. I apparently made up the name.

Or, Day 1 Wintergrass Knitting Report

Thursday night at Wintergrass is always sort of low-key. The “real” Wintergrass doesn’t start until Friday night, and the crowd is always a bit sparse, with only one performance venue instead of the four or five that they have the other days. The “real” bluegrass fans show up on Thursday, though, and park their butts in a chair and never leave.

I didn’t take the camera, for a number of reasons. First is that it’s dark in there, and my pictures never turn out. Second, I’d have to put the knitting down to take pictures. Last, a few years back I lost* my binoculars at Wintergrass when I went to the bathroom and left my bag by my chair. Since then I don’t take the camera so as to not lose it.

The highlight of last night was the group Bluegrass, Etc. They’ve been around forever, but for some reason I’d never heard or seen them before. Byron Berline was playing fiddle with them, and boy can he play. They all are top-notch seasoned musicians, but their guitarist, John Moore, is just spectacular.

Here’s the knitting progress. I did work on the two-color sock a bit, until we decided to move closer to the stage and I didn’t have enough light to see what I was doing. I’ve finished the gusset decreases (again!), and am speeding towards the toe.

After I put those aside, I worked on the new socks for the rest of the evening. I cast on for these a week or so back, in anticipation of needing a mindless round-and-round project for the festival. Here’s what I accomplished last night.

This is one of the Opal Rainforest colors, in Ladybug. I have a bunch of Opal in the stash, but have never actually used it before. It’s lovely yarn, I must say. It’s also lovely having a plain round-and-round project after all that two-color, cable, and lace stuff that I’ve got going.

I have had a couple of questions in the comments about my needles on the two-color sock. They are Lantern Moon ebony dp’s. They are a dream to knit with; smooth, perfect points, short enough to not be in the way. The needles in the Opal sock are bamboo needles from S. R. Kertzer, purchased here. I love these; I also have a bunch of the circulars and a few of the straights. They are lightweight, flexible, and have perfect points. They are also a lot more economical than the Lantern Moons, which are a bit spendy. If I snapped one of those, I’d probably cry; if I snapped one of the Kertzers, I would say a bad word, then go buy another set.

Someone is making me bacon and eggs and grits (cheese grits, Kris, but not the instant kind!) for breakfast, so I’m off till the next post!

*”Lost” is of course a euphemism for “some sorry-ass person who can’t possibly be a true bluegrass fan swiped them right out of my bag”.