The works of Lamb

I had planned another catch-up post about finished objects over the past year plus, but this weekend I decided that I wanted to instead tell you about my friend Dave. He and is fiancee are musicians playing under the name of Brown Bird. For over 10 years, Dave has written and performed songs as Brown Bird, and through the years, he seemed never to get too discouraged about the difficulty of making a living as a musician. Whatever he's done to make ends meet, no matter where he's lived, he always has he energy to devote to working on new ideas--his prolificness is matched by few that I've known. How wonderful it was when he and MorganEve told us over a year ago that they were going to be able to quit their day jobs and be full-time musicians! They have a great support team between their tour manager, Dan, and their label manager, Tom. They've been touring pretty constantly all over the US when not recording, and I'm so proud of their achievements.

Last Sunday Jeremy and I got an email from Dave saying that he'd been at a hospital in Houston, TX, for severe anemia. They'd done several tests with no results pointing to anything specifically wrong, and Dave's had more than several blood transfusions--they are home now, but still waiting to hear the results of a bone marrow biopsy. As you can imagine, they've had to cancel the rest of their tour, and Dave's expenses for the extended hospital stay and all his tests have been formidable. Double whammy.

To offset all the losses they've suffered and will continue to deal with as Dave recovers, they've set up a fundraiser, an opportunity for friends, family, and fans to help make soften the financial blow of both canceling their tour and being stuck in a hospital for nearly a week, and far from home. Not surprisingly, our sweet friends have already reached their goal of $40,000 in three days! They will likely need more support, so if you love Brown Bird and would like to keep seeing them out on tour and following their passion, and don't have all of their albums already, follow the link above to help them get back on their feet; and if you don't have all of their albums already, you can collect them all (well, almost) here and here (and they have other things for sale too!).

That's it. More about knitting next time.

Catching up

OK, everyone I work with is managing to keep up with their blogs, and I've missed mine terribly--so I'm trying really hard to get back into it. Here's a broad-strokes guide to my life since my last post:

Last February (2012) I went to the Fashion Institute to take a Knitting Instructor course, which was really great. I learned a lot. A couple of days after I got back, I had a meeting with Pam Allen at Quince & Company, and instead of hiring me to do some sample knitting, she pulled out a list of things they could really use an extra hand for: customer service, wholesale, sales reports and royalty statements, etc. (I thank my lucky stars that I had a friend who encouraged me to get in touch!), and would I be interested in doing all that. Furthermore, the space is shared with Knitbot, and would I also be interested in managing Hannah's wholesale and trunk shows and other odds and ends. Well. A job was born. In fact, the job I've been searching for since I admitted to myself that I didn't want to be a professional musician. And with the company that I wanted to work for--I'd had my eye on Quince since they launched in 2010. I mean, come on. Who does that happen to? (Seriously, I love to hear stories like this--please share!)

Since I've been with this team of amazing knitwear designers and creative folk, I've gotten into tech editing, which is basically why I was born into this world (other than to marry Jeremy Robinson). I love it. It's only part of my job and I've got tons to learn and practice, but it is definitely my favorite part. Also, I do a lot of proofreading, which I love just as much as tech editing.

Last summer I took a tech editing course, and this winter I started a course on sizing patterns. I learned how to make charts and schematics on the job, which is the most fun part of tech editing--kind of like playing a video game. All these classes include a crash course in knitwear design, because of course, a tech editor needs to be familiar with how a sweater is supposed to get put together--so they've kind of been like a gateway drug, and now I'm feeling ready to put some of my ideas into action. Right now it's like I'm standing at the edge of the rocky outcropping, psyching myself up to jump into some cold Maine ocean water. I'm nervous, people.

And of course, I knitted. And knitted. And knitted. And so on and so forth. There is lots more to share in this department but maybe next time, I have photos!

And I played some cello and did some singing. Definitely not nearly as much as in previous years, but a little performing and a little recording here and there. And the second record from Plains is done, which we plan to release later this year. The link provided goes to our first recording, which was live at the radio station down at MIT.

I won't say too much about this right now because it's still sinking in, but I am going to be teaching knitting classes, starting late summer. More details to follow.

How do I still have time to eat, sleep, and hang with my husband? Well...I don't know. Sometimes it feels like I don't do any of those things.

I feel like a bad blogger for doing a long and wordy post with zero pictures, but...it will be short and sweet with photos next time, I promise. :)