Ack!

Why am I trying to navigate all of these needles?!?!?!
Actually this is a photo from last week and I have since come to my senses and put the hand stitches on holders while working on the thumb. My design and construction have met with approval and enthusiasm for the new owner of these mitts, so over the weekend in between rehearsals and shows I was able to get both mitts to the point of needing fingers:

 This is where it gets crazy. I haven't made all that many gloves during my knitting career, and I always forget what a pain the fingers are. Plus, the one thumb I have done has those annoying holes on either side of where I picked up stitches. I am debating undoing that thumb and reading up on how to avoid that. Suggestions are so welcome...

I tried to take photos of the show I went to on Thursday at the Empire Room here in Portland, but I still need a battery for my crappy camera and the ones I took with my phone are unusable. In any case, it was the tour launch show for our room mate's band, Wesley Allen Hartley and the Traveling Trees. They are going down to Austin, TX, to that crazy shenanigans they call SXSW.  If you live in/near any of the cities they're going through, please go out and see them! They are wonderful.

On Friday we headed down to Warren, RI, to rehearse with our Brown Bird peeps and watched a stupid number of ridiculous cat videos on youtube...

On Saturday, we all drove up to Somerville, MA to rehearse with Audrey Ryan for her CD release show that night. Jeremy and I did triple duty playing a South China set, half of a Brown Bird set, and all of Audrey's set before embarking on our scariest van ride yet. (We can't get it into the shop until next week, so I guess it's cool that we're not going anywhere this week...) Audrey's new album entitled "Thick Skin" is a beautiful thing, and she will be bringing it up to Portland in the near future, and of that I will say no more. Some videos of this evening may be forthcoming, so stay tuned...

Sunday we drove into Biddeford (we had Dave and Morganeve take us, since our van is crazy shaky) and played a Brown Bird set at our friend Gabrielle's 40th birthday party at the Oak and the Ax. Folks brought such yummies to augment the already mouthwatering banquet Kristen set out for us--the usual amazing fare of the Oak and the Ax, including polenta parmesan and veggie sausage sliders on home made herbed biscuits...this was day two of a heavy meal right before playing...but it was SO WORTH IT!!!