I have been listening to Christine Lavin's music ever since I can remember, but she has been avoiding me. Every time she would finally come to MN, I would be on vacation. When I was in college, she would visit MN during the term and only come to CO if I was home on break. Tonight, I finally pinned her down. Cass, Mark, and I were all very excited to find she was coming to town on a night we were all free and reserved tickets weeks ago. Then this afternoon it got better; during her interview on NPR, Christine announced that if any knitters were coming to the show they should show up early and hang out with her! Apparently Cass was screaming in her car when she heard. I was driving back from Boeing with Bjorn when I got her message, so I had to restrain myself.

I have never been to the Triple Door before, but I really liked the venue. It was kind of swanky, but with good ticket prices. We had dinner before at a Mexican/Italian restaurant (good enough) but got dessert there. It was very decadent. Then they announced that if anyone was there with knitting, they would be shown to Christine's dressing room. Cass and I leapt to our feet and were off. Then we learned a very valuable lesson; sometimes you may not want to know what your idols are knitting. It was novelty yarn. Hairy, sparkly, novelty yarn. $92 for 300 yards. Everyone in the room was using some variation of novelty yarn for a garter stitch scarf, or gave a novelty scarf to Christine. They were all very excited. Cass and I were gagging. There was some discussion of how amazing it was that Cass could knit without looking, but it wasn't in the usual "I can't wait until I'm that good" way. No one seemed to have any desire to knit anything else, learn any new skills or get any better ever. It really seemed to be a group who only knit because it's in vogue right now rather than any actual enjoyment of it, and Christine was right in the middle of it! But I thought she was so cool... I have lots of confused feelings about it that I need to work through.

The concert was very, very fun. She's great in performance.

*Disclaimer: Garter stitch novelty scarves can be fun. They are just not the only thing in the world to knit. And you know how too much sugar makes you sick...?

posted by Anonymous @ 11:42 PM