Postcards

I've been bopping around New England, as always with knitting in tow.

This particular pair of socks has been a drag, in more ways than one.

This particular pair of socks has been a drag in more ways than one. Because I'm too lazy to use point protectors, and I've been carrying the sock everywhere in the hope of of finishing it quickly, it's always coming off the needles and I constantly have to frog and re-find my way. Oy. Why am I doing this to myself? Needless (indeed) to say, I can't wait till I'm done with these.

We stopped in Putney, Vermont at the Green Mountain Spinnery. While H listened to his audiobook in the parked car, I was having a great time touring this amazing mill, as director of Marketing Margaret Atkinson led me through the process from raw fleece to finished skeins.

I highly recommend the tour if you happen to be in the area, and if you aren't, it's worth a detour or a destination trip. Besides, at the end you can buy some of the Spinnery's beautiful yarn, or their patterns, including The Green Mountain Spinnery Knitting Book, and 99 Yarns and Counting.

Fast forward a few days, and it's my annual journey into the time-warp of baroque music at the Amherst Early Music workshop. This means my other life goes on hold while I spend my days on the beautiful Connecticut College campus in New London, in Harpsichord Masterclass (works of Italian composers, although bending the rules, I also played a Couperin two-harpsichord piece with another devotée of the French baroque) and Baroque Ensemble (Vivaldi trio sonata for bassoon, recorder, oboe, and harpsichord). But wait...there's more: I was invited by Neuroknitter to a weekly gathering of the Camel Knitters of Conn College. (The camel is the mascot of this college.  Don't ask.) Meeting in the Oasis Snack Bar (where else?) every Wednesday at noon, the group is comprised of creative spirits dedicated to elegant knitting, high quality materials, and droll conversation. Needles flew, discussion flowed, time flew. This was indeed a pleasant interlude.

hand-knitted, felted fair isle bag

lace shawl in progress, lace cardigan completed and modeled

Tempi

Summer time, and the livin' is busy. Rather than fraught, however, filled with an abundance of absorbing tasks.

Last week was my annual sojourn at Amherst Early Music, the baroque workshops held at Connecticut College. Herewith two photos--the lovely Willard Martin single manual harpsichord I played for rehearsals of a Boismortier sonata for continuo, viola da gamba, flute and bassoon...

and the Baroque Academy production of Scenes from Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme and Les Arts Florissants, music by Charpentier and Lully.

My knitting output, naturally, slowed that week. It has been further impeded by the accelerating pace of the garden:

But I must confess, though I've got many UFOs, inspired by the splendid examples of the Langworthy Library Knitting Association members, I'm rather fixated on socks at the moment and am planning a post entirely about socks in the very near future.

A summer resolution has been to override nascent guilt engendered by UFOs. Life is too short, my friends. We must let ourselves simply be.

Kramer and I look forward to ever more submissions to the Poetry of Knitting Contest, which closes on August 31st. Here he is thinking a green thought in a green shade.