Weaverly

An Evening at Marta's

A Night at the Opera

Waiting for the Musicians

Friday we heard a concert by one of our favorite groups, Keowee Chamber Music, at Eastlan Baptist Church. I took a few pictures while waiting for the musicians to appear.

The program was wonderful. Flutist Kate Steinbeck (artistic director for the group), cellist Philip von Maltzahn, and pianist Fabio Parrini played with passion and intelligence. This ensemble will be presenting several more concerts in North and South Carolina over the next few weeks. If you are in the area, go hear them! Concert listings can be found here.

Home Again

Home from Charleston and surrounding locales. We were fortunate to attend two chamber music performances at the Spoleto Festival. The programs are listed informally in the Memminger Auditorium lobby:

The music was heavenly and we heard the incomparable Charles Wadsworth's humorous and pithy comments before the concerts and also his piano interpretations. This is the 80-year old Wadsworth's last season at Spoleto. It's hard to imagine the festival without him.

We spent several mornings at the beach on Kiawah Island…

…and went exploring in the shrimping villages south of Charleston.

Doubleweave Out in the World

At last Tuesday's organ recital, this woman sat down in front of me and I had the opportunity to grab a surreptitious photograph of her jacket. It was hard to analyze it without attracting the attention of my fellow music lovers, but the cloth is definitely double plain weave. What maximum impact from such a simple structure! 

Zippermania

In pursuit of a plan for constructing a simple lined pouch with a zipper, I found this tutorial. It details an ingenious sequence of sewing steps, which I followed to make this first lumpy effort:

The fabric is from a sampler of pick-up weft brocades, and the zipper is recycled from an old pair of trousers. Here's the bottom:

…and a view inside (say a-a-ah):

I'm not entirely happy with the top corners, at the zipper ends, so I'm going to redraft the pattern with miters at the top, too. That's my project for this afternoon, while I listen to the opera. 

Now please indulge me while I show you this last picture, a detail of the lining; I may not like the wonky zipper insertion, but I love the photograph. Click to see it larger in all its toothy glory.

Farewell ICMS

The International Chamber Music Series is no more. This group of dedicated music lovers, who brought world-class chamber music to our town for the past twenty-seven years, has closed its doors. As Falls, current president, said in his valedictory remarks Sunday night at a pot-luck supper for the board members, the airplane just ran out of fuel and altitude (the state of the economy didn't help, either). 

The contributions for the meal were fairly representative of the quality of the musical offerings we have enjoyed over the years: substantial and nourishing, with a bit of whimsy thrown in. As I have almost total recall when it comes to food, let me tell you about the meal. There was corned beef, sliced ham, Italian meatballs, sweet & sour brisket, kasha-varnishkes, three fabulous salads, French bread, rye bread, and a mushroom quiche. And lots of wine.

Isn't it amazing how a potluck supper just comes together without any apparent planning? The food always goes together and there is always enough (or as a potluck expert once told me, they eat until the food runs out and then they stop). This particular supper reminds me of the many weavers' potlucks I have attended over the years. For some reason, weavers are partial to dessert. On one occasion, we wound up with one salad and eleven desserts. It was fabulous!

I don't have any food pictures to show you, so on that subject you'll have to be content with the pictures conjured in your head. Instead, here's a celebration picture of a different sort; this was taken on a walk in the country a few days ago. To me it seems quasi-musical. Enjoy.

Robert Burns's Warping Wheel

Yesterday evening I was listening to an old vinyl recording of Jean Redpath singing To the Weaver's gin ye go, her interpretation of the Robert Burns song. As I am New Jersey born and bred, I was not sure of the meaning of most of the Scottish dialect; luckily,I found this text of the Burns original version and a standard English translation on the World Burns Club website. A copyright notice precludes my quoting any of it here, but I urge you to look at the text, as this cautionary tale of the fair maid and the bonny weaver lad makes fascinating reading.

I'm wondering if Burns's warping wheel looked anything like mine…

…or if it was more like what we think of as an upright warping reel. Does anyone have a guess?

The Hartness Organ

Organ music—you either love it or you hate it. I'm of the former persuasion. Last week we heard visiting organist David Heller perform on the wonderful Hartness Organ (built by Fisk) in Daniel Memorial Chapel, Furman University. Beautiful music, and a beautiful sight. Click to enlarge. Watching Dr. Heller's agile footwork reminded me in some small way of my pre-dobby days. 

Saturday Afternoon At the Opera

One of my favorite Saturday afternoon activities is listening to the opera on the radio. This week's broadcast from the Met was Tchaikovsky's Queen of Spades, and I settled in with my knitting and had a wonderful afternoon. The winter sunlight streamed into the room and lit up the bookcases behind the transparent chair. Luckily my camera was nearby.