Remember that time at band camp?

Well, I don't know about you, but no band camp I ever attended taught us this stuff.

Last night, I had the pleasure of atteding a fundraising event with a frined. It was her nephew's school (Southridge High in Beaverton, Oregon) and they were raising money to support their music and dance ensembles. Despite the fact that it was pouring hail outside (in April, for cripes sake!), the theme was Hawaiian Luau. Great food, lots of fun silent and live auction items (I got some Starbucks coffee with a cool mug, and a year's worth of manicures for a bargain price).

Entertainment was provided by The Green Garter Band, hailing from the University of Oregon. Now I don't know about you, but I love a good horn section. After all, I played trumpet in high school (yes, they had trumpets way back then and hey, it just so happens that I was first chair, much to the chagrine of the boys who comprised the rest of the trumpet section at the time), so the sound of a good horn section always sets my toes tapping.

Towards the end of the evening, they invited the high school band members to get their instruments and join in. It was awesome! The kids had been with GGB all day in a clinic and had learned the songs and dance moves and they had a great time performing. Actually, I don't know who had more fun -- them playing with GGB, or us in the audience watching and listening to them.

Anyway, here's a video and there are several more over here on YouTube. If you ever get a chance to see GGB play, go! And the next time a kid says they're in band, don't laugh. Band kids rock!




Oh, there has been some knitting going on, but not nearly as much as I'd like. The Mr. Greenjeans sweater is almost done -- one sleeve and the button/neck band to go! The Tree Bark socks are finshed and the pattern is currently available for sale at All About Yarn and will soon be on Ravelry -- if I ever get time to set it up!

Part of the distraction has been work and part has been this:



Yes, my wheel arrived! Here you see it chatting with the Ashford Traveler that Chrispy leant me. I love my Lendrum! It's a double treadle and the operation is so smooth and easy! I love the control the DT gives me and it feels very natural to sit with both feet treadling away.

So, there has been a little spinning happening, and I can see that my skills are starting to improve. Here's proof! This is a bobbin on the Ashford Traveler that I did many months ago as a first attempt at spining.



As you can see, it's not great. Thick/think with lots of over-twisted sections.

Now, here is what I've spun on the Lendrum so far.



Still some areas of over-twist, but altogether a much more consistent result. Whee!

I meant to post this a lot sooner today, but I'm trying to be disciplined and get some work done. The schedule for the day that I had loosely implanted in my brain got shot all to h-e-double-hockey-sticks when I got up yesterday, went to check email and blogs and discovered that the monitor on my computer had died during the night. Since I worked at the shop all day yesterday and then went to the fundraiser, I didn't get a chance to get a new monitor until this morning. I now have a 20.6-inch Samsung (don't ask my why they didn't spring for that extra 0.4 inches!) and it's really nice -- except that my current video card doesn't fully support the resolution it likes best and my speakers were a part of the old moniter and don't work with this one. But it works, that's the important part, and I usually use headphones for transcribing anyway. :)

I didn't really anticipate spending money on a monitor right now, but ya gotta do what ya gotta do and since I use it to earn a living, it is a business expense. (It's all in how you spin it, right?)

Speaking of spinning, I'd rather have been doing that today! :)