Pink Martini

I went to see Pink Martini last night with a friend.  They put on a great show.  It was enjoyable on so many different levels .... I love the eclectic music, I enjoy getting out, I haven't been to Orchestra Hall in decades ...

I used to go to Orchestra Hall pretty regularly, when I was in high school and actively playing flute, piccolo and oboe.  I got to see James Galway and Jean Pierre Rampal, among others.  That aspect of my life fell by the wayside at some point.  If I remember right, the last time I was at Orchestra Hall was to see the newly rediscovered score to the movie Battleship Potemkin played by the Minnesota Orchestra while the movie showed.  This was in the mid 1980s, before Perestroika.  It was a big event.

In other news, Yarnover was last weekend.  A good time was had and Rose the Gypsy helped me get all of my yarn cataloged into stash on Ravelry.  She also encouraged me to start my mink stole which would involve using the yarn I bought last year at Yarnover.

Cataloging stash is a reality check like no other.  I did not buy yarn at Yarnover this year.

Above is the Yarn Door at Needlework Unlimited, a favorite store I will try to resist visiting as I work on reducing that stash.

New Year's Knitting

Here's the first of my 12 from Stash in 2013- a hat for Boy.  I had an extra hank of black washable worsted for just this thing (Boy does not get anything made with fancy yarn any more).

This will be done soon...it's a fishnet pattern in a very colorful yarn.  The idea was to have something that would go with everything.  I'm very interested to see how it blocks out.  (Hopefully it will be blocking on Boy's bed next weekend after he returns to Chicago Tuesday).

This is a stealth project - to be done for someone who stalks the blog and belongs to Ravelry, so no details.  The yarn was purchased at Borealis before it closed.  It has to be done by the end of April.  I find that I have so little knitting time these days, I'm not going to take any chances, which is why I'm allowing myself nearly four months for a project that is not really that big of a deal.

I also have a pair of socks OTN (no surprise), so that gives me four of the twelve to be done from existing stash/WIPs.  Doable?  I hope so.

For Yarnover I signed up for the dinner the night before and "Knitting Happily Ever After - Ergonomics for Knitters" with Carson Demers.  

I'm all for Happily Ever After!

More YO and Knitting

I have a few more shots of stuff from Yarnover. I would also like to make it clear that I did not purchase anything at Yarnover this year, given that I am trying to declutter, downsize and simplify as I prepare to move. What this means is, I am not virtuous in any way; it is a practical matter.

There is a shop called Lila and Claudine's, which I have never been to, but would like to visit. Apparently, the shop is named after the owners' grandmothers. One knit and the other ... sewed? Anyway, they have lovely yarns, silk scarves and bags (many of the shots I took were from the Lila and Claudine booth at Yarnover). These felted effigies of the grandmothers were on display:

I do have this to show - cardigan in progress, although I have not worked on it for a week, mostly because picking up stitches for the band is going to be awful: