Buttons!

Promoting, designing a web site, uploading.... all these things take so much precious time away from the actual art process! It can get so frustrating! Grrr..... Excuse me, I just needed to vent a little.

I decided to take the step in and pay for an ad-free upgrade to my Web site, FiddleKnits.com. Overall I feel it was a good move. The presentation looks much more professional without the Google ads across the top. What I didn't realize when I went to do the upgrade, however, was that the site doesn't simply roll over. What I thought would happen was that the ads would magically disappear from the top, but everything else would be the same. No. Not that easy. I had to cancel the free account and redesign all 5 pages (plus the various links). Took a number of hours, but in the end everything went without too of a hitch. Take a look and let me know what you think!

On another note, dad has his pewter buttons up on Etsy! You can check out the shop by visiting: www.Roosterick.etsy.com or visit his main Web site at: www.Roosterick.com. I used a few of the "Plaid" style buttons for my 28Thirty cardigan (by Zephyr Style), but I still have to take photos of that...... I'm kinda lazy about the finished object photos, unless it's for my Etsy shop (The Knitted Fiddle Boutique). Quite happy with the results, both my knitting and the buttons. Always nice to make something and actually love the end product. Too bad that doesn't happen all the time....

Anyway, that's all for now. Remember to check out the new button shop! www.Roosterick.etsy.com

Catching Up

The past few weeks have been a real blur. On one hand it's great and on the other hand I'm tired as hell. Anyway, so here's what's been going on.....

Lots of the normal stuff, but in higher amounts. Good knitting, music, teaching, and time with Brandon. (Actually, time with Brandon was suffering for a while because of all the music related commitments I had, but things are falling pretty much back into the normal routine for now.) With warmer weather comes more gigs and with more gigs come more practicing. Or it should. Dad's business (a photolab) closed as of February 1st after 21 years open. This means that he's around the house 24/7. I figured, I think we all did, that this would mean increased band rehearsal time. However, at the moment we're practicing less. It's only been a month, so I think eventually that will settle down and we'll fall into a practice schedule that everyone is comfortable with. Right now Dad's big thing is making pewter buttons. They're pretty good. Not perfect and precise, but in my opinion that adds to the charm. I'll definitely be using some on my handknits. When he gets the buttons posted online I'll put links and photos here.

Even though rehearsal for the HGSB has fallen off a little my own practicing and musical life has been in full swing. Phil Minissale, a.k.a "the Long Island Blues Boy, is in the midst of recording his first CD and asked if I would play on a few tracks. That offered something different for me to experiment with. Phil plays finger style blues, so accompanying him is not like what I'm used to with the family. Anyone interested in hearing some of his tunes can visit his MySpace at: www.MySpace.com/PhilMinissaleMusic
Right now what's up there is just his demo recording. I think soon he'll be putting up some tracks from the CD. I know he's also taking pre-orders for signed and numbered copies of the album.

Besides my slight detour into blues I've stuck close to the old time thing and sat in a few times with Free Grass Union. Great people, great musicians. Brandon also has been jamming on a few tunes with Free Grass. He's coming a long way on that banjo. There have been some rough spots as he's feeling out the music and getting to understand it more, but overall he's doing awesome.

Knitting has also been treating me pretty well. I got Wicked on and off my needles in one week and am now finishing 28Thirty (both patterns by Zephyr Style). This one will also be done one week from cast on. With that said, I'm going back to finishing up the sleeve decreases.....