22 August 2007

The annual charity sweater.

I'm gazing at the ticker at the top of the page and realizing that in just a little over two weeks, I will be in Winfield! Himself and I attend the Walnut Valley Festival every year. A one hundred-dollar concert ticket gets you, what? Three hours of entertainment? Four-dollar corn dogs? A shrieking case of tinnitus?

Screw that. How about a one hundred-dollar ticket that gets you nine solid days of music? Plus tons of food? And three barns of craft items? AND instant membership in a 25,000-member family of acoustic musicians?

Gee, lemme think about that one...

The festival itself is great, but the best part is the jamming. You can wander from camp to camp and hear and play everything from "homemade" music to the oldest classical stuff. Himself carries either the banjo or the guitar, I carry knitting. You're stunned, aren't you?

Our return from Winfield coincides with the annual fundraiser for Audio-Reader, a local organization that reads various publications on-air for the blind and visually impaired. I went up there to do a column on their sensory garden and wound up deciding to contribute to the fundraiser. Called "For Your Ears Only", it's a huge sale of all kinds of sound equipment. Stereos, recording stuff, radios, CD's, LP's; tons of stuff. Even the old reel-to-reel jobs now and then. Since I am as greedy about my music as I am about my books and yarn, I had to come up with something else for a donation.

"How about a sweater? I knit."

I am also somewhat bent in the idea department.

I designed a sweater that not only had lots of texture thanks to seed stitch bands, it also had Braille letters across the front, done in purl stitches. Once completed, the sweater said (right across the chest), "No, you may not read my sweater!"

Like I said, a little bent. I got the entire thing made during our sojourn in Winfield, and it's become an annual event, just like the festival. Last year's sweater was a lovely green item, with Feather and Fan lace for the sleeves and bottom border and shrimp stitch around the neckline. Little cables and cap sleeves. It read, "I volunteer. Guess where?" This year, I want to make a man's sweater. Maybe in a nice blue. I'm debating what Braille phrase should grace the front.

My current favorite is, "I'm not wearing any underwear." We'll see.

3 comments:

Mags said...

Hey~
My God, Silfert, I am totally amazed when I read little snippets of your life. One word to describe you..."multi-talented". And a volunteer to boot!! More folks should be (bent) like yourself.
Knitting and (designing) a Braille sweater..what could be next????
I've just picked my jaw up off the table. WOW

Dianne said...

I love the "not wearing any underwear" thing. What a hoot! How do you come up with this stuff???

Anonymous said...

LOVE the "not wearing any underwear" line. LOL! What a thing to have to say to someone who asks "What does your sweater say in Braille?"