Monday afternoon we had our first rehearsal with Peter Squires for his show in Biddeford on Friday the 11th, then went over a couple of our own songs for Poetry Out Loud on Thursday. Tuesday night was craft night at our house. I started some floor cushions using my t-shirt yarn, but I had to return the book to the library the next day and didn't have time to photocopy the page. So those will have to wait, but they are super cute!!!
Also on Tuesday I met with some folks from Women, Work, and Community. During the summer of 2009 I took a class on entrepreneurship through this organization, which has centers all over the state. At the end of the course, I had a business plan for the release of Washingtons and our subsequent 5-month United States tour. WWC provides training for women and men in small business and entrepreneurship, community leadership, financial management, and career building, FOR FREE. The resources available through this organization are many, and the staff is so helpful and excited to assist Mainers in achieving their goals.
Wednesday was more rehearsing after work.
Thursday was the Poetry Out Loud Competition at City Theater in Biddeford. If you know nothing about this, it's all about high school students reciting great poems. The winners from individual schools in Southern Maine came to City Theater to compete at the Regional level. The judges chose five of those students to go to the state competition in Lewiston. The winner in Lewiston gets a cash prize and an all expenses paid trip to Washington, DC to compete at the National Level. The winner of the Nationals gets $20,000, and their school gets $500 toward the purchase of poetry books. The Maine competition is made possible by the Arts in Education Program through the Maine Arts Commission.
We were lucky to be invited to participate in this, as we got to witness some of the performances, which were pretty astounding, and to work with members of the drum line from the newly formed Coastal Tech Percussion and have them play on our song, Sun Sets on Washington Avenue. The Biddeford Marching Band was recently cut from the Biddeford High School's budget, so now at least some of the kids have a way to play music and perform. Coastal Tech Percussion's members are from York and Cumberland Counties, including Old Orchard Beach, South Portland, and Biddeford. They were so much fun to play with, they were sensitive to the dynamics of the song and played so intuitively. After all was said and done, we booked it back to Portland for another rehearsal with Peter.
Friday was our night to back up Peter Squires at the Oak and the Ax in Biddeford. Also playing that night were Tiger Saw (our room mate Dylan provided a rare solo acoustic performance) and If and It.
Dylan put up some of his work at the Oak and the Ax (remember the Paper-cuttings?). I wanted to take photos, but I was too busy eating one of Kristen's amazing veggie sausage sliders. I actually remember sitting there, trying to decide if I should take a picture of the band, or take a picture of the slider. In the end, I thought it would be too distracting, since I would also have to dig around to find my phone in order to take the pictures. I need to plan better for shows...Anyway, picture a buttery home made herbed biscuit with a tiny bit of feta cheese and sundried tomato hugging a veggie sausage patty. Delicious.
As Jeremy and I prepared waffles and home fries Saturday morning for some close pals, I was taking a close and hard look at my swatches for the Master Hand Knit program. The increases in the last row of ribbing on Swatches 1 and 2 that I thought were so "unobtrusive" are actually very apparent. My seed stitch is holey, my decreases uneven: totally apparent the right side, perfect-looking on the left. Well, I'm just going to have to bite the bullet and do them over again. After an extremely satisfying day of making the shop look glorious and not at all like we're about to ship out to California for a trade show, I received the latest issues of both Interweave Knits and Cast On in the mail, which prompted me to organize my stash to try and find something with which I could cast any of the gorgeous and covetable things I found in there. No such luck, though. I can't believe that it really takes almost 1,000 yards of worsted weight wool to make an entrelac cap-sleeved sweater for a 38" bust. Seriously?
Well, since I'm stuck on a couple of projects that I just can't bring myself to continue (a case of "startitis", according to Stephanie Pearl-McPhee), I decided after organizing my stash to dive into the large number of plastic bags that I've been planning to make into plastic yarn and knit up into grocery bags. My mom gets the paper every morning, so whenever I visit CT I get a plethora of these pretty colored ones:
This morning I finally put buttons on the Baby Garter Stitch Kimono I've been working on for Stitches West:
Beatrix Potter buttons, which I could not get a close-up shot of since my camera is old and far-sighted.
Little I-cord ties!!!
The pattern, as it is written, has the sleeve stitches picked up around the armhole and knit flat, then the shoulder and sleeve seams are sewn at the same time, which means the sleeve seam is at the top of the sleeve. This is unusual, and I wanted to see how it would look, so I surfed around Ravelry and the Blogosphere for stories and photos of others that had used this pattern. Most folks that were writing about it had modified the pattern by sewing the shoulder seams first using a 3-needle bind-off, then picking up the stitches for the sleeves, knitting them in the round. Now, for some reason that I haven't been able to pinpoint, knitting garter stitch in the round is something I can't stand doing, and I try to avoid it at all costs. Another reason for following the pattern as written is that for trade shows, we usually we bring copies of the patterns that go with the garments we have on display for people to refer to when trying to decide how much yarn to buy for a specific pattern. Some people get overwhelmed and upset if you say, "Yes, you can find the pattern online, but this garment is modified, so you would have to [explain modification here] to have it come out this way". Though I suppose, if it's a free pattern that they get online, finding the modification information is no more than a Google or Ravelry search away, so whatever. My brain gets screwy when it comes to making decisions, especially knitting decisions. I thought it would be quicker to knit the sleeves flat and sew the seams, though there would have been less sewing if I had done the modified version...I think I did very well on my garter mattress stitch. It could use a little steam to flatten the collar and relax the sleeve seams, so perhaps I'll do that before the show.
So, that's my week. Next week will be consumed by Stitches West, and I hope this time to take some good shots.
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