Wintergrass is wrapped for another year. It was a great festival, with a nice variety of music styles, and a diverse cast of performers. It’s tough to pick a favorite, so I won’t. This is the first time in two years we’ve been out doing much of anything other than with our close family and friend ”pods”. It was REALLY nice to be in a concert venue with live music. The festival is in Bellevue, which is in King County to the north of us, and they are still requiring masks and proof of vaccination for indoor spaces. They also sold only about the half the usual number of tickets (intentionally), so we felt pretty safe, especially since the Covid numbers have dropped pretty dramatically here.
I did get some knitting done. Here’s the sock in progress.
I started the long weekend with just the cuff of that second sock started, so got about half a sock knit. I also worked on a secret project that will be a gift, so I can’t show it to you. That sock yarn is from Three Irish Girls, it is their Adorn sock yarn, color name ”Tits Up!” (reference to a character in Mrs. Maisel).
I realized while uploading that photo that I completely missed posting a finished project.
Those are socks for John. The yarn is John Arbon Exmoor Sock yarn, colors Mackerel Sky and Mizzle. It’s the same ”pattern” I always use for socks.
I really am going to try to be a better blogger. Really.
Sweetpea is pretty damned happy to be at Wintergrass again. The 2020 festival was the very last public thing we did before the pandemic hit two years ago.
I’ve got the knitting planned, we have reservations for most of our meals taken care of. I’m pretty damned happy to be here, too.
And just like that, it is Sunday, and the last day of the festival. The theme this year was Bluegrass Beyond Borders, and we heard some wonderful bands from Brazil, Argentina, Ireland, Sweden, and Italy, among others. My vote for best of the festival goes to the band from Brazil, Trio Brasileiro. Look them up on your favorite music source, or try to hear them live. They do educational workshops in Port Townsend, so they do play regionally from time to time.
And I finished a sock. Here is the first of the pair.
And the second sock ready for the day’s festivities.
I might have accidentally managed to start the second sock at exactly the same place in the stripe sequence.
I do love knitting, including sewing seams. I’d rather sew pieces together than go through all the crazy contortions that some patterns have you do to avoid them.
This is the first of two baby sweaters. Our neighbors have new twin granddaughters, and I dug through the Cotton Ease box* and found two bright colors to make sweaters for them. The first one is done, other than the seams, and I’m putting a little hood on it.
In the category of knitting screw ups, can anyone spot the mistake here?
How about now?
Yup, I forgot to put in the buttonholes. I discovered this after I had the shoulders seamed and started putting in the first sleeve. I am NOT reknitting to fix it. I’ll sew the buttons on as decoration, and put snaps in.
That’s the second color.
We’re at Wintergrass again this weekend. So far it’s been a blast, although we are really happy that our room at the Hyatt is on a “quiet floor”. I love the banjos, but not so much at 2 AM.
*Why yes, I have a whole box of Cotton Ease, in the original bright colors. They don’t make this stuff anymore, so my grand stash plan is working!
We’re having some Great Big Fun here, let me tell you. As usual, it’s a pretty eclectic group of performers here. The music has ranged from old time Appalachian flat pick twangy banjo (yes, that is a music style), to Portland Swing, to Celtic, and everything in between. We saw a group last night that set William Blake’s poetry (yes, that William Blake that they made you read in college English class) to Appalachian roots/funk/soul/gospel/tribal music (Martha Redbone).
So far, it’s tough to pick a favorite, though Steel Wheels is a contender. We’ve heard two of their sets, both superb. Today should be terrific as well. Seldom Scene is doing only two sets this year, both tonight. Doyle Lawson performs a couple of sets today, he is a little twangy traditional bluegrass for me, but his band is polished and very entertaining.
And then there is Väsen. Not bluegrass, but one of my favorite performing groups here. They play Swedish folk music, but it’s more exciting than that makes it sound. I try to hit all of their sets when they are here.
As in previous years, it might be tough to choose my favorite performer of the weekend, but we’ll see. There’s lots of bluegrass left to hear.
Knitting at the ready. I’m off to chase the banjos. Or nyckelharpas. Whatever.
Things started up last night. Here are some really crappy phone photos.
That is Solas, an Irish band. Very high energy, with talented musicians. And a flute! You can't beat a flute at a bluegrass festival. They had an accordion man too.
Steel Wheels. They were a huge hit last night, just as they were last year. They are playing a couple more sets this weekend, so I'm sure I'll get to hear them again.
Wintergrass has been in Bellevue for the last few years, which was a bit odd at first. Bellevue isn't exactly known for its roots/folk/banjo vibe. It's more of a glass walled high rise/expensive restaurants and Nordstrom's place. The theme the first year they moved the festival up here was something like “Bellevue–it's a hard place to suffer”. We've come to appreciate it though. I have three words: Din Tai Fung. It's the famous dumpling restaurant, and it's right across the street from our hotel. We can almost see them making dumplings from our room. We're headed there later this morning as soon as they open.
And even more fun! Dorothy of Missouri Star blog and her husband Bill are here for their first WG weekend! Here are the two of us last night, knitting and spinning.
As usual, it was the man sitting next to John that asked me about the spindle. His mother was a spinner, spun and dyed her own wool, with natural dyes no less.
More updates later!
*And no, Sweetpea didn't get her own wristband. That's mine. My hands are so skinny that I can just slide the band off. They don't need to worry about me loaning my ticket to anybody though, I'm not sharing.
Here is my amusing thing of the day. I was sorting through a pile of magazines this morning and found the January and February issues of Flute Talk.
Look at those sweaters! I want both of them. I even have yarn to make the oatmeal colored one. There was no mention in the articles about these two fluters being knitters, but it wouldn't surprise me. My flute teacher is a knitter. As in a lot of the performing arts, there is a fair amount of waiting around down time, perfect for knitting a row or two. And the woman in the top photo mentions in the article that she travels upwards of 5 months a year. That's a lot of travel knitting time.
I posted a photo of my Evenstar on Facebook yesterday, and got a nice “I love the cream color” comment. The problem is that it’s not cream, it’s a pale aqua blue. Of course then someone had to ask “is it really blue or is it white”, which cracked me up. But I’m easily amused.
It is notoriously tough to take photos in the Pacific Northwest in the winter time and end up with anything close to the right color. Fortunately we’ve had some gloriously sunny early spring weather here, so I dragged my lace outside and got a few photos. There are some shadows from the trees, and our patio table is filthy, so I covered it with a white towel, since I am way too lazy to clean it now when it’s not going to be warm enough to eat out there for awhile.
I’m posting all of those, since I can. Of course it’s not blocked, so you really can’t see the lace pattern all that well, but that is pretty close to the right color. Click on those to make them bigger so you can see the beads!
Beads! Thousands of them! The edging to this sucker is taking forever, and it is very boring, let me tell you. It’s knit sideways onto the shawl, it’s a simple 20 row repeat, I have about 22 repeats left. Each repeat has 50 beads. Yes, I know how many rows and beads that is. It is going to be stunning once it is done, but this is just the really boring part. And I sort of have to pay attention for a couple of reasons. First, it is fine thread, and it’s a cashmere silk blend, so it has no memory and wants to jump off the needles if it gets a chance. And then I have to focus on putting on each bead. So it’s not really good TV or movie knitting. It’s not really whisky knitting either for the same reason.
If it looks like there is a stray white thread in there, there is. After I finished the body of the shawl, I put in a fine lifeline since I’ve never done a knitted on border before. I figured if I screwed it up, I’d have somewhere to go back to. I probably should put one in now after one of those repeats as well. When I get all the way around the circle, I will have to graft the beginning and ending of the edging together, so there will be a lifeline there as well.
And just because I can, here is Lewey. He wandered outside while I was taking photos.
By the way, Wintergrass was a total blast. We had a great time. There were lots of great bands, including some old favorites and new-to-me groups. My favorite of the weekend was Mark O’Connor, who is a terrific fiddler/violinist. He is originally from the Seattle area, though has never been to Wintergrass before. He is a fabulous musician, and plays in multiple genres, including jazz, swing, classical, bluegrass, and American folk. I have been following his music career for years, so it was fun to see him perform. And we got to meet him after the show, he is as nice as he is talented.
My other favorite, which was one of those new-to-me groups, was Steel Wheels, a band from Virginia. They are very high energy, and great musicians. They were a crowd favorite, so hopefully they will be back. Give them a listen, this was one of my favorites that they did.
And another one. This is not as good of a recording, but this was simply electrifying live.
If you want to see some photos, check out my husband’s blog, One Eclectic Guy!
The festivities started last night, though we had tickets last night to hear Steve Tyrell at Jazz Alley in Seattle. The bluegrass starts for us tonight. We'll be here all weekend. Sweetpea is ready!
Wintergrass! Of course we have weekend festival passes. The bluegrass fun starts tonight, though my husband double booked us with Seattle Symphony tickets for tonight, so we’ll do that tonight and switch to bluegrass tomorrow. Some of my favorites are back this year, including Väsen, a terrific group from Sweden. But every year there are always new-to-me groups that soon become favorites as well.
I haven’t showered yet today, my office is a mess, I haven’t figured out what I’m taking to Seattle with me, I have paperwork left to do from yesterday’s clinic*, but I do have my knitting packed. Why would you even ask that?
Speaking of knitting, of course I could not resist the siren song of the Color Affection.
Just in case I’m the second-to-the-last person on earth to have started one of these (over 11,000 listed on the Ravelry pattern page!), this is knit in 3 sections plus a solid edging. The first section will be grey, the second section will be stripes of the grey and white, and the third stripes of all three colors (the red is hiding up there). The edging will be red. I have enough of this started that it should be mindless plain garter stitch for the most part. And I have two pairs of plain plain socks in progress, and that plain plain plain Old Friend sweater for John that is still in progress. That should be plenty of plain knitting for the festival.
I also did get that crazy mitten restarted and knit back up to where I had to rip it all out. Here it is.
I doubt this will be festival knitting, but it might be morning coffee knitting for the weekend.
And on a melancholy note, today is the first anniversary of the date we lost our sweet Riley. We still miss her terribly, though letting Lewey be an only pup has been the best thing that’s happened to him. He’s turned into a real sweetheart. He cracks us up daily with his goofiness. I suspect Wintergrass will be a little more fun this year for us than it was last year. Great Big Fun, as one of John’s grandkids says.
Off to get packing for the weekend. I might post from the festival, if not, I’ll be back after the last banjo (or nyckelharpa, or whatever) is hung up for the weekend.
*I normally get my clinic work done while I’m actually in clinic. Yesterday after lunch we all got tossed out of the building after there was a chemical (phenol) spill across the hall from us in the family practice clinic. We all got evacuated and sent home for the rest of the day. Weird way to get a half a day off.
Here we go. I’ve been a slackard when it comes to blogging and knitting. I’m hereby posting photos of some of the things from the top of the heap in hopes of inspiring me to get knitting. There are a few more UFO’s in the pile, but I’m not dragging them out. These are the “in progress” projects.
That’s the Platinum Seraphim shawl. I just finished the first chart, which is mostly stockinette stitch. On to the fun part!
Oh, by the way. I had purchased an ancient version of this pattern, way back when the designer, Miriam Felton, had a different blog and website. There is a rewritten version of this that you can download automatically if you had bought it from her new website or from Ravelry. I had run into trouble with the stitch counts on one of the rows, and sent her a message on Ravelry. Literally within minutes she responded with a “fix”, which was all I really needed, but she sent me a link to the pattern and had the new version in my Ravelry library waiting. I love good service!
A River Runs Through It Socks, for John. That’s the first sock. John’s feet are about the same size as mine, but his foot is wider around the instep, so I’m doing a little widening around the gusset area so he can get them on his feet.
Evenstar! Beads! I have to tell you, the beads are making me pull out every swear word I know. They are very pretty though, so I’ll suffer through them.
Right. Another crappy Green Jeans Corduroy photo. That yarn is just impossible to photograph attractively. It’s Araucania Nature Wool, and the color is not quite solid, but not really variegated. In real life it doesn’t look so horrifically splotchy. And it’s hard to tell, but I’ve finished the bottom part and am knitting the back.
If you have too many UFOs, the only sensible thing to do is start another, right? Right. That’s a Pretty Thing. I skipped right over all of February between our trip to Hawaii and when Riley got sick, but there was some Great Big Fun in there. Dorothy came to stay overnight to visit the fiber and yarn market at Madrona in February. We met Sally, the owner and inventor of the Knit Companion software. The three of us wandered by a booth with this incredibly soft yarn, then discovered that it was real MINK. We each swooned and picked out a skein, and a Pretty Thing KAL was planned. Here we are:
We should look happy. All three of us got a lot of loot at that market. Sally is a genius by the way. I can’t imagine knitting without Knit Companion at this point. You should go check it out.
The Pretty Thing pattern calls for doing this on a 16 inch circular, which I’m not very fond of, so I found a video to teach me to knit on two circulars and took off. This will have to be frogged and restarted, unfortunately, since it looks like crap. My joins at each end are loose and wobbly, way too ugly for even me to tolerate. Part of it is my inexperience, but part of it is that this yarn has absolutely no memory, so it’s not very forgiving of knitting inconsistencies. I’ve dug out a 16 inch circ and will bite the bullet and use that on the do-over.
By the way, those needles are Chiaogoos, which are hands down my new favorite lace needles. The tips are perfect, the needles themselves have just a touch of texture so stuff doesn’t just slide off, and the cables are flexible but not too flexible. They also don’t have any memory, so don’t coil up on you while you are trying to knit. And the join is absolutely smooth. I dithered over whether to buy the interchangeable set or just a bunch of the fixed sizes, and decided on the latter since I mostly use the smaller sizes of needles anyway.
Things were in quite a whirl around here after Wintergrass. I realized that I had never picked my favorite artist of the festival. It just has to be Seldom Scene. We saw two of their shows, and they were just terrific as usual.
My favorite song was their rendition of Darlin’ Corey. Here’s a relatively recent video of them performing this. Lou Reid’s voice alone is worth the ticket price to a show. If you ever get a chance to see them live, don’t think about it, just go.
Last but not least, Riley came home for good today. We decided to have her cremated, and the vet that did the home euthanasia brought her ashes back today. It was a bittersweet moment, but we’re glad we paid extra to do this.
Yes, it’s that time of year again. We’ve had tickets (and hotel reservations) for this years Wintergrass festival since about two days after last years event was over. We debated for a bit about whether to go or not, since neither of us is in much of a mood, and decided that this would be better than sitting home staring at an empty dog bowl and the empty spot on the end of the couch where Riley always hung out. So here we are.
The festival started last night, and I made it through about two acts before somebody played a sappy sad song and I was just done. Hopefully tonight will be better. My favorite last night was Sarah Jarosz, who is a superb musician.
So far today we’ve been to a workshop with David Grisman and Kenny Smith playing an impromptu “concert” set on vintage mandolins and guitars, most from the early 1900’s. It was just fabulous, they played a bunch of old sweet tunes, many from Grisman’s Tone Poems days.
I’ll report back with more as the weekend goes on. Of course there will be knitting and spinning, I brought one of my drop spindles, which is a good portable activity for those down times between musical acts.
Speaking of knitting, one of the projects I brought is that Seraphim shawl. I spliced in the second ball of yarn yesterday using a Russian join. This morning I noticed this, which really irritates me to no end.
So I guess I’ll get more practice doing Russian joins. I hope this is the only knot I find, or there may be some inventive swear words flying around. What really annoys me is that this is on the very outside of the ball, so I should have seen it when I bought it. Oh well.
Thank you all for the sweet condolences on my last post. I’m working my way through answering all of your comments, but each and every one of them makes me cry, so I have to take it in small doses or I might run out of hankies.
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