Is this gorgeous or what? The silk makes it look almost translucent, as if it were made of water. No wonder this yarn spawned a whole series of watery yarn names.
I didn't bother to photograph the package, since there are great shots of it (plus a swatch) on Ute's page. I just headed off to play with the yarn.
I didn't work on it yesterday, because I had bigger fish to fry (Tina, your ocean theme is making me crazy!)
The Pea had her first ever riding lesson!
I had forgotten how frightened she used to be of horses. This time she groomed, she rode, she even had her foot stepped on, and she loved it all. Next week her instructor will let her have a bridle. The only downer for me was that I discovered that one of the scents I can no longer smell, along with lilacs and lavender, is horse breath. Horse breath is one of the great perfumes of the world.
Then Paul and I went to the Utah premier of "Des Canyons aux Etoiles/From the Canyons to the Stars" by Olivier Messiaen. It's kind of a joke that this amazing piece of music, inspired by the Utah landscape and written in 1974, was performed in Utah for the first time yesterday. Afterwards while we were waiting for the Trax train I heard a man say, "I can see why it hasn't been performed in Utah before." His wife said, "If they perform it again, I don't think I'll go." That was kind of how Paul felt about it. When I asked if there was anything he liked about the concert, he said, "I really liked the last note. Do you think he did that last note on purpose?" (It is a pretty dissonant piece, but each section ends on a major triad.)
I loved it. I think the best thing I have gotten out of my music education so far is discovering Messiaen. People in the Salt Lake area can still catch it tonight at Abravanel at 8:00 p.m. (lecture at 7:15).
It was my first time riding Trax, too! This is kind of another joke. I have ridden trains, subways, and busses in New York, London, Boston, Toronto and Vienna, plus the San Francisco trolley and New Orleans streetcar (that one every day to school for two years), but had never been on Trax before last night.
I took my Knitting in the Dark sock on this outing, and worked on it at the restaurant while waiting for Paul, during the concert lecture, at intermission, during a couple of movements near the end of the concert, and of course on the train.
I could add another public transit first to my list when I go to San Diego next week; there are apparently two great yarn shops within a short Coaster ride from my hotel. I am really torn about this. Think of all the knitting time I could have while Paul is in his meeting. We can go to the Maritime Museum, the opera, and the Mormon Battalion Museum (Paul's great-grandfather was in the Battalion) together, so I will have done something while in San Diego, and then knit the rest of the time. Plus it will save me money to stay out of yarn shops.
But on the other hand, I strongly believe that it is my duty as a traveller (rather than a mere tourist) to break new ground and discover hitherto unknown (by me) yarn shops when I travel. I have knocked myself out bigtime to get to places like Village Yarns in Toronto, and Greenwich Yarn and Artfibers Gallery in San Francisco. These were wonderful experiences, never mind that I still haven't knitted most of what I bought there.
Will I always regret not having been to The Black Sheep and Common Threads, when they are just a short train ride away from my hotel?
Yeah, probably.