An Evening with Gordon Lightfoot

October 25, 2005 By Carole

Saturday night? We went here:

Can you read the name? Here’s his picture.

Now can you recognize him? Yeah, I know. The pictures are crap. I didn’t dare bring the regular camera with me so all I had was the Palm. But at least you know I thought of the blog and attempted to get a half-way decent picture or two.

We had a fantastic time! We took the subway and I knit on the ride into the city. We had dinner at Rustic Kitchen and it was fabulous. Great martini, great calimari, great ravioli. Mmm. Mmm. Mmm. The waitress had never heard of Gordon Lightfoot, but told us that her parents were big Bruce Springsteen fans and, while that would normally make me feel older than dirt, the martini had kicked in so I was okay with it. We had allowed plenty of time for relaxing and chatting and then we set off (in the rain because it’s the weekend so of course it’s raining) for the concert.

Here’s my official review of the show, I’m sure it’s as good as anything you could read in The Boston Globe:
He looks older and his voice is a bit thinner but he’s still Gordie. He got standing ovations for Canadian Railroad Trilogy and The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. Even though he didn’t sing my favorite (Summertime Dream) he did sing Dale’s (Song for a Winter’s Night) and it’s better for the man to be happy, if ya know what I mean. The Orpheum is aging and decrepit but the beer is reasonably priced (for a concert venue, anyway) and the bathrooms are clean. Probably the most telling thing I can say is that I would go see Gordon Lightfoot again in a heartbeat.

What can I say? I like Canadians.

As My World Spins

October 24, 2005 By Carole

So, I had my first real spinning lesson. Can I just show you?
This is before:

This is after:

By George, I think she’s got it!

My lesson was with Cathy Martz at Dream Acres Studios in Westport. Sharon and I learned hand carding and drum carding and I have to tell you – I just loved loved loved the drum carder! Cathy had some roving all ready for us but the fleece in my bag was so yummy and fragrant with lanolin that I couldn’t resist carding that and using it. I was spinning on a Louet and with just a few hints from Cathy about the semi-worsted method of spinning I was able to get much finer yarn than I had been getting on the Ashford at home. I realized that, in addition to the new technique I had learned, I also needed to adjust the tension on the traddy. So, Saturday morning I did some research, with the help of Alden Amos, and figured out what to do and, well, you can see the improvement above.

Cathy also happens to be a dealer for Ashland Bay so of course some stuff followed me home. In the basket is the fleece and roving and some glitz that Cathy included as part of our lesson. Next to the basket is a big ole ball of alpaca and some beautiful merino.

Yummm.
We go back this Friday to learn more spinning techniques along with plying and dying and I can’t wait!

I leave you with this, a photo of our first fire of the season. What better way to end a lovely day of spinning than by curling up next to the fire and knitting?

Thoughts for a Thursday

October 20, 2005 By Carole

Describing the great time I had with other bloggers in my last post is a tough act to follow. Let’s face it, sometimes it hard to come up with an exciting blog entry – particularly when you just posted a really special one. But, there’s some business I’ve been meaning to attend to so, with apologies to Cate for shamelessly ripping her off, I present a rambling, random post of my thoughts on Thursday.

I may be addicted to spinning. Honestly, though, how’s a girl to judge her own addiction when she’s surrounded by people who are way more addicted? Spinning every day might be a clue. Spinning for a few minutes before work might be another clue. I just don’t know how to gauge it. But here’s my latest yarn on the bobbin.

Looks better, I think. This is coopworth roving and it’s easier for me to spin than the BFL. It’s much softer and drafts easier but I’m also noticing that my yarn is pulling apart more with this stuff. Should I be treadling more? Drafting slower? Drafting faster? Any advice from my fellow spinners?

I called the Double Tree Inn in Portland, Maine, to make reservations for Sharon and I to attend SPA. They’re sold out but advised me to make reservations at The Hampton Inn, which is the overflow site and they are offering the same group rate on their rooms. I’m hoping there will be LOTS of overflow attendees at the Hampton and therefore we’ll be hanging out and spinning and knitting all over the place. If you haven’t called to make reservations yet I’d say, hop to it!

Have I mentioned how great Heather is? First of all, she sent me one of her very first bracelets as a gift. Since then she has continued to make more and more beautiful bracelets and last week I purchased a stunning lapis blue one that she named “Casual Friday.” She packed it up and sent it along with this:

Merino roving for me to play with! Isn’t she awesome? And generous? I’m not good enough to even touch this stuff yet but I’m going to have fun with it later. Love the colors and it’s so soft! I must admit, I was really touched when I opened this package. I might have even shed a tear or two.

Speaking of being touched when opening packages, look what came from my Secret Pal!

Yummy yarn in shades of eggplant and forest green! Notecards! Stitch markers! A knitting and design journal! Thanks, Secret Pal! I love absolutely everything!

I finished the Eyelet Cardi a couple of weeks ago and I wear it constantly! I even wore it the day I bought my wheel. It’s warm and cozy and the color is bright and I just love it. Here’s me, in my office, which is generally freezing but I don’t even notice when I’m wearing my Peace Fleece sweater.

Finally, I’ll share with you a delicious recipe for roast pork in the crock pot. I made this on Monday night and we all loved it. It’s very simple:
core and slice 6 apples and put in the bottom of the crock pot
put a pork roast on top
mix up some apple cider with a little brown sugar and ginger
pour this over the pork set
Set your crock pot on low for about 10 hours and go knit.
Come back to a delicious, tender, pork roast.

Tomorrow Sharon and I have our first spinning lesson here. That should provide some blog fodder. Woot!

Who Needs Rhinebeck?

October 19, 2005 By Carole

There were no sheep, llamas or alpacas at Willow Books in Acton last night. There wasn’t any festival food or fiber booths or fleece tents. But there were bloggers galore and when Kathy declared that it was our Rhinebeck and that we had to make the most of it, she was right. So we did.

My friend Sharon (who is, sadly, blogless, but I’m thinking not for long) and I drove out together and met up with Kathy and Julie for dinner. We then headed to the bookstore and started seeing tons of bloggers, some we had met before, and some we were meeting for the first time. We also saw the one thing that Rhinebeck didn’t have that I’m willing to bet everyone missed the most. Our dear Steph.

This is Stephanie with Laurie. I was so excited to meet Laurie in person for the first time. Laurie, you rock!

The readings from Knit Lit the 3rd ranged from touching to hysterical and the line for the book signing was long. Steph braved her way through it (it just might have had something to do with the promise of beer with bloggers afterwards) and even made a snarky comment or two to the cranky man who kept telling us: move along, there’s no time for conversation and only generic signatures are available. Here’s a picture of Mr. Cranky Pants.

I think he’s counting up the money he’s making by selling all those copies of Stephanie’s books. Which you would think would have made him nicer to all those bloggers there to buy the books, but I digress.

And while Stephanie was signing, a large group of bloggers gathered to wait for her to finish so we could go get beer. There was Wendy, Kellee, Stitchy, Sandy, Laurie, Kathy, Julie, Chris, Ruth, Kristen, and, and, oh, if I left you out, I’m sorry and please leave me a comment so I can find you again.

And ya know what? This is the part that I think was just like Rhinebeck. Because it was all about friends and knitting and talking and laughing. We told our stories and shared our knitting triumphs and disasters. We ate (there was cake!) and drank and connected in ways that I’ve seen bloggers connect before. It should no longer surprise me and yet it still does. For example:

Linda Roghaar lived in the area of Maine where my mother’s family comes from.

Sandy and I were knitting socks from the very same colorway of Trekking.

Sharon and Stitchy have a shared interest in beekeeping.

Kathy and Kristen and I all went to women’s colleges.

I could go on with this but you guys all know exactly what I’m talking about. Meeting other bloggers might not be why any of us started blogging but, for me at least, it’s turned out to be coolest benefit of the whole blogging thing. We called Cassie and we talked about calling Margene but, alas, no one had her number. If you weren’t there, you can rest assured that you were missed.

It may not have been Rhinebeck but it was good enough for me.

My Non-Rhinebeck Weekend

October 17, 2005 By Carole

In no particular order, the things I learned this weekend at the wedding in Portland, Maine.

My daughter suddenly dances like a grown up. And looks like a grown up. Thank goodness she still acts like a kid! But here she is, dancing with the groom, and just looking, well, grown up.

Portland is not an easy city to navigate. There are one way streets and maps that give you bad advice.

There are hotels that provide excellent function services (flaming bananas foster!) but lousy valet service.

On the plus side, there are great restaurants (once you can find them) and nice yarn shops, too. Sometimes they even have sock yarn on sale.

Portland also has a very nice Civil War statue.

It doesn’t matter that you forget to take a picture of the bride and groom, so long as you have a great one of yourself and your husband.

A trip to L.L. Bean and dinner at Bob’s Clam Hut are great ways to end a weekend.