Chat Back for February 28

Answering questions from comments and email.

Lone Star Needler asked . . .

What would we do without that dose of will-I-run-out-of-yarn excitement?

The excitement has turned to major concern on my current project. It's not a good feeling.

I just sent this email to Harmony Yarn in Idaho:

Hello from Michigan.

About a month ago my son (tall guy with a cute three year old daughter) bought some Happy Feet sock yarn in your store and sent it to me to knit him some socks for his mid-March birthday.

The socks are partially done to the point I can tell there isn't going to be enough yarn to finish. To make matters worse, I accidentally "cleaned up" the tags you had so nicely tucked into the wound up skeins, and I don't have a color number or a lot number.

I've attached a picture of the color. It's an olive green blend.

Do you have another skein? Do you mail out? If not, could you email me the color number so I can find it somewhere else online?

If you can send me a skein, my fondest hope, I can either mail you a check or call with my credit card number. Let me know what works best for you.

Thanks for any help or advice you can offer.

Regards,
Marguerite

(I'll be blogging the details on these socks within the next few days.)

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Phoebe asked . . .

How are you doing with the trumpet lessons?

On a good day, I feel like I'll be ready to play with a band eventually.

On a bad day, I wonder if the long ago instrument advisor in grade school who suggested I play a reed instrument knew I wasn't cut out for brass.

Trumpet is very different from clarinet, my school days instrument fifty years ago. With a clarinet, the keys determine the note. If a nice sounding note comes out, it's the right note. With a trumpet, there are only three keys and the lips determine which note comes out. It requires an ear for tone and ability to sight read. I'm challenged but seem to be able to master it with practice.

After eight months of lessons, I'm hanging in there and not allowing myself to wonder if I'm too old for this. I have no idea how my progress matches other beginning brass players. I'm guessing it's somewhere in the middle of the average learning curve of those who are eventually able to play.

The past few weeks I've been playing duets with my teacher. It's fun. That is my goal, to have fun with music, so I guess I'm doing OK.