Bard Music Festival began this past weekend and I was up there every day, most of every day, from 10 AM to after 11 PM on Saturday, listening to panel discussions and lectures and attending 5 very interesting, musically intense, long concerts. I really don't know how people do this. I love it, but I was completely wiped out. By Sunday morning I was exhausted, Sunday night was another story altogether. My brain was fried, I had too many pieces of music and ideas floating around in my head, swirling and whirring like my brain had turned in to some giant blender. I did not have time or energy to write my reflections on all this stimulation so it all got muddled together.
I knitted; not enough granted, but I did knit in lectures and concerts, at least some of the time, I definitely knit at lunch and dinner breaks under a shady tree (it was VERY hot this weekend). I should have knitted more, the concerts I knitted through are more clear in my head than the ones I tried to just sit and listen. My poor brain can only absorb so much. Each piece is so intense, one listens, one tries to remember and absorb the music. One piece ends, another begins. The concert is 3 hours long, the mind is becoming confused. One hour to eat, drink, relax and clear the brain before the next concert and onslaught of music. OH MY.
I don't know how people keep it straight. Of course, some don't. I knitted and took notes at the Sunday morning talk. Four pages of notes. Finished the Phildar armbands.
They look a little scrunched up and worse for wear. What can I say? They spent the weekend in the bottom of my knitting bag under books, and programs and water bottles galore. They will recover.
AT the above lecture, the woman next to me started off knitting, which made me feel better since we were in the fourth row dead center in front of the speakers. But then she started doing crossword puzzles. I am convinced she didn't hear a word after the crosswords began, but perhaps she is just better able to multitask than I. I always feel guilty knitting in concerts and lectures, as if I would be a better person if I didn't knit and could just sit there and absorb everything like a sponge. Instead I have to turn the wandering part of my brain off and I do that by letting my fingers do some methodical work like knitting. I remember much more. Why do I feel guilty about it?
I had not gotten around to a guage swatch for a new project and did not want to start guages in the concerts so I brought a simple mindless project, a scarf from a novelty yarn. The beauty of this project was that I just had to start knitting and knit until I ran out of yarn. It will be a very quick project on size 15 needles.
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