Knitterguy

Today, it rained.

 
All day. When I drove home from work there were ginormous puddles on the road and plenty of water flowing out of the fields and into the culverts.

We are definitely heading into Autumn. Last week we had a couple of very hot humid days that felt more like July than end of September, but today was definitely an Autumn day: cool, windy, rainy. Time to get out the recipes for pot roast.

The trees are changing colour. Here's the view --you've all seen it before-- off the balcony of my pad. The first foto was taken on September 19th, and the second on September 26.

 

 

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A couple of weekends ago, some guys met near Seattle, Washington for the Men's Fall Knitting Retreat. Reports are that they had a glorious time. I sent some yarn, spun from this merino top, dyed by Karen Emry at Royale Hare.

 

I was in a bit of a rush to get it in the mail to Nigel who would take it to the retreat, but I snapped a picture, and it looks roughly like this. The colour is off; I used the same blue towel as the background in both fotos, and the foto above is more accurate of its colour.

 

I don't remember how much there is...I'm thinking about 1,100 yards. Spindlespun and wheel plied. Amazing what you can do when you need distraction so you don't lose your mind.

Turns out that Joe got it at the retreat. (Thanks to WonderMike for the image.)

And Joe kindly took a picture so you could see the diameter of the yarn.

It's nice, I think.

That's all for now.

Post #227

• I am recovered from the maladie reported in Post #226. I threw in the towel on trying to do anything productive while sitting up in bed, and slept for 10 hours.  That seems to have done the trick.
• My eczema has flared, but that will not respond to more sleep.
• My wool duvet has gone to the recycling, because, after 20 years of service, it fell apart. A replacement has been ordered. (Just in time, because it's getting chilly at night.)
• I am working this weekend.
• I am not going to NY Sheep and Wool this October as there is enough going on, and one never knows what will be added at the last minute. I am mulling over some some tentative plans to possibly get away that weekend should scheduling permit, but it will be a hastily arranged trip, not involving booking hotels and such.

Here is a nice performance of the ciaccona by Tarquinio Merula. Harpsichord is (likely) a modern copy of a (likely) 17thC Italian instrument. The sound --typical of the 17th C Italian instruments-- has a relatively flat overtone structure and short decay, so sounds very mellow.

This is a performance of a ciaccona, set by Maurizio Cazzati. Very mellow.

The Ciaccona, remember, is a dance based on a repeated bass line and chord progression, like your standard 8-bar blues song. Using that as a structural framework, the performers would improvise, or composers would compose. Or, perhaps, both.

I'm off to work. See you later.