The Church of Bluegrass Finale, and February Wrap-Up

Or,

It’s Still Raining, It Must Be March

The last day of Wintergrass was Sunday, and it was a good grand finale. After some fast-food Thai for brunch we staked out our territory for the last few concerts. My favorite of the afternoon was Laurie Lewis, though we didn’t get one good photo of her. The Blind Boys of Alabama wrapped up the weekend with some fine gospel music, though it most definitely was a stretch from bluegrass.

And the car packed to head home.

It really was difficult to pick a weekend favorite. There was a lot of good bluegrass, and a lot of very good eclectic music to hear. The Bellevue Hyatt gets my vote for best bluegrass festival venue ever. And no, I don’t have tickets yet for next year, though I certainly will do so soon.

Now for the February wrap-up. What were those goals again??

Finish that damn Big Pink Albatross.

Finish plying the blue stuff.

Finish spinning the lilac stuff.

Continue the blogging effort.

And how did I do?

Well, the Big Pink is done. I can’t show photos, since it will go out in the mail today, if it ever finishes drying. After all of my complaining, I really like how it turned out. Even John, who was quite skeptical about a shocking pink cotton-acrylic baby thing, in the end admitted it looks pretty cute. So next time there will be finished photos. Here is a teaser or two.

If you have to weave in a million ends, you might as well do it with a nice needle. Here’s another shot.

That’s a sterling silver needle from Celtic Swan. It is simply gorgeous, and my favorite sewing needle.

How about the rest of that list? I did finish plying the blue fiber. I didn’t finish spinning the lilac merino silk stuff, but I took the spindle with me to Wintergrass and made a huge dent in it in between shows. If you think the muggles stare at people knitting in public, you should see them when I haul out the spindle. I don’t have very much of it left to do, though I spindled so much over the weekend that my hand hurts a little.

How about the blogging? 8 posts in February, not as good as January, but still good by my standards. I also finished two books and half of a third. I finished the “Girl” series (you know the one, the hornet’s nest, etc), finishing the third in the series. I am glad I finished them, but they’re not my favorite books in the world. The second finished book was Gone With The Wind, which is well over 1000 pages, so that definitely counts as an accomplishment.

And what about goals for March?

I’m getting back to that True Blood Faery sweater. My goal is to get at least half of the cabled bodice done in March.

I am going to finish that lilac fiber, and ply it too. So there.

I now have two pairs of socks on the needles, so I need to finish one of them. The brown Sanguine Gryphon socks need to be done. I have one sock done and the cuff of the second done.

I have some fiber from Spunky Eclectic on the wheel that I’d like to finish, but that might be a bit ambitious since there’s a pound of it.

Read more, blog more, again.

There you go, you read it here first. I’m off for more coffee and to get some formal shots of Big Pink.

Oh, I almost forgot. I’ve gotten a couple of questions about the yarn for the Wintergrass socks I started. It’s Lisa Souza’s Sock! yarn, in Little Devil. It’s striping beautifully, though it’s in time out until I finish those brown socks.