April was a pretty horrendous month, work-wise. I was travelling a lot for rehearsals and concerts. I was teaching in NUI Maynooth – which, although convenient for me to get to by train, is still a fair distance away. Then I had my own lunchtime recital with my duo partners last Thursday and a concerto run through on Friday night. Last Christmas, I decided that it would be a *really good idea* to do a concerto competition in Italy this May. The problem about deciding to do things in the future is that eventually, the future turns into a flight on Thursday morning!
Anyway, this weekend was my first weekend in well over a month where I wasn’t working so we vamoosed to Galway. Despite my best intentions, I spent much of Saturday and Sunday asleep. Today has been better and practice is going well. This weekend has been the first chance I’ve had to concentrate solely on the piece I’m bringing so it’s a bit strange, having so much brain space! The way these competitions work, you play one movement for the first round, and then another for the next; then there are semi-finals and the finals. I don’t expect to get through the first round at all. I’m not being pessimistic: solo playing hasn’t been my concentration at all this year. The reason I’m doing the competition is to keep my solo technique up (which it has, oh boy, it’s hard work) and for the experience. I’ve never done anything like this before. I’m really curious to see how it all works. Also, because I don’t really care about the outcome, I’m not wasting so much energy worrying about it!
Needless to say, my knitting has been pretty brainless lately. I have been concentrating on my Featherweight cardigan. I’m using Malabrigo Lace in Hummingbird from This is Knit. It pooled really horribly when I started it so I ripped it out and reknit it, alternating skeins every two rows. I’ve already completed the body and a sleeve. Right now, it is all bunched up on a small circular for the bands on the front.
You can at least see here how alternating the skeins breaks up a lot of the pooling. Hopefully I will get this finished up soon and you’ll be able to see it in all its glory!
I got new shoes lately and with the weather slowly getting warmer, I had a hankering for some cotton socks. Cotton doesn’t really work very well for socks so I’m keeping them to anklets.
The yarn is Debbie Bliss’s Eco Cotton Baby, which is a sort of heavy 4ply, a lot like the Baby Cashmerino. I quite like it. It is a bit splitty but otherwise very soft and not hard on the hands. I’m wondering if I’ll get a pair out of one ball!
Hope everyone saw a bit of sun this weekend and got at least half of what I slept…!
I was just thinking about knitting that cardi this morning. It looks easy to lengthen (significantly!), am I right?
Hi,
just found out your blog while looking for directory of knitting shops in Dublin.
I would like add to your Knitting Stores in Ireland page a shop in Drogheda (the comments for that page are closed now).
The name of the shop is Breda’s Wools and is located on 1 Carpenter Court, Narrow West Street, Drogheda ; shop is open Mon to Sat and closed all day Wednesday.
Shop is very small, but you can find great selection of yarns and accesories there and the lady who runs it is very nice and veery helpful.
Thank you.
BTW great blog!