The silent saxophone

This week has largely been about preparing for the start of the spring semester at the campus where I work, but it has also been a time to work on establishing healthy habits and positive routines.

I’m doing my physical therapy and my occupational therapy, I’m moving around more, I’m taking breaks and not just spending my days hunched in front of a keyboard — except for the present moment, of course — and I have also taken more steps towards playing the saxophone again.

I made a deal with myself that I would not take my instrument out of its case until February, but I made an exception when a saxophone professor set me up with a music education student who could meet with me and get me properly restarted. I was thrilled to meet with Anton last week and find out that most of the adjustments I would need to make were minor ones.

The next day I dropped off my alto sax and every mouthpiece I had (there were at least three; I don’t know why) for cleaning and/or repair; I’m waiting now on an estimate. I also ordered a copy of the exercise book that Anton and the professor recommended. It wasn’t in stock at the music store, so now I’m waiting on that, too.

While I waited I decided to clear out some clutter and create a practice space in my bedroom. (The dog doesn’t mind the sound of an acoustic guitar, but for some reason the saxophone’s tone bothers his ears.) I did this, then sorted through the sheet-music books I have accumulated over the years, especially in the last few weeks. I found an old exercise book that could stand in for the one I’m going to use, and I set up a music stand.

Next, I took out the other saxophone I had, which was left over from the time one of my kiddos spent in middle school band. Was it one year or two? Was this the instrument that my father bought at a garage sale? I really don’t remember. I put it together (without the mouthpiece, of course, which is out for cleaning), strapped it on, set a timer for 30 minutes, and practiced the first four exercises in the book by doing the fingerings and trying to breathe at the indicated places. Even though I wasn’t blowing into anything.

I’m pleased to say that it didn’t bother the dog at all! I’ll do it again tomorrow night.

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Knitwise, while clearing out the clutter in my room I came across a few long-forgotten projects that I had set aside. One was the grey Habit-Forming Scarf designed by Elizabeth Morrison, and I’ll take that up when I have good light and when I figure out exactly how I was forming some of the stitches. (I think that’s the issue I had before.)

Another bag holds three colors of Bernat Softee Chunky: a dark blue called Natural Denim, a red red without a ball band, and a partial skein of a natural color that could be a stand-in for white. (Maybe it’s Ivory.) But now, having weighed the skeins, I think that only the one with the ball band may be that yarn. The red yarn looks even bulkier. I have no idea what I might have originally planned to do with these yarns; I may have thrown them in the some bag because they’re roughly the same weight and because red, off-white, and blue just seem to go together. To make what, I’m not sure yet.

What’s to become of me?

Another project I found was a half-completed set of Curled-Tip Jogger’s Mittens designed by Elizabeth Zimmermann in her original edition of Knitting Around. (There’s a new edition that has just been published, but I can only refer to the edition I have on hand — copyright 1989, 2001 printing.) Each mitten is made from two mittens that are joined at the cuff; you knit the first, then pick up the cuff stitches and knit a second mitten going the opposite direction. Then you tuck one inside the other.

Then you tuck it in….

Zimmermann’s commentary on this pattern is hilarious, and I highly recommend that you look it up.

Anyway, I showed the first double-mitten to Eldest, and he suggested that I go ahead and make the second one for future trips across the frigid midwinter campus. If I start soon, maybe I’ll have it ready for next winter. (Let’s hope that I won’t need it in the next couple of months.)

So there are a few knitting projects I could work on, already started for my convenience.

And this weekend I had enough of being cold in my house. Rather than turn up the thermostat, I dug through one of my bins of finished projects and pulled out a lovely woolen shawl (“Hearts Ease” designed by Lonna Cunningham and found in her amazing 2012 book Just Keep Knitting) and a pair of wristwarmers that someone made for me ages ago. The wristwarmers are mostly blue and are both shiny and fuzzy, and while I don’t remember who knitted them I’m pretty sure that it wasn’t me. But they have kept my hands warm today and I am grateful for them.

I knitted this shawl in 2013 and named it “Strings Attached,” for reasons.

When I dug through my Flickr photos to find the picture of the shawl, I saw that I knitted the jogger’s mitten in 2013, too. Well, everything old is new again, I suppose. The wool doesn’t seem to mind waiting on me. I hope that the saxophone doesn’t mind, either.

I’m trying something new: from now on I will share these posts both on Facebook and on Bluesky (@chocolatesheepish.bsky.social). I’ll see you out there!

All warmed up

The title of this week’s post is somewhat misleading. In advance of the arrival of this week’s polar vertex, I’m still doing everything that I possibly can in order to get warm and stay warm. This actually included casting on for a new project this weekend and finishing it the next day!

The knitting project arose as a response to one of the challenges that I had last week when I received a diagnosis of mild to moderate arthritis in my hands. Because of the pain that I feel when doing ordinary activities, I have been concentrating on doing those activities in ways that expose my hands to less strain.

I have also been wearing, as much as possible, a pair of copper-lined compression gloves I bought at the drugstore a few weeks ago. They’re fine, I’m sure, but they have Velcro straps that, ironically, really hurt my hands when I try to release them. So I decided to knit myself a pair of compression gloves, and after a quick Ravelry search I found a pattern, 1 Day Wristwarmers by Wendi Dunlap, that I wanted to try.

No, they’re not actually gloves. But I had some leftover wool from the Leroy Cowl that I made some time ago, already separated into two equal balls. Together they weighed 56 grams, and it seemed likely that I could modify this pattern to make something that would fit snugly and keep my wands warm and comfortable.

I didn’t actually wear the compression gloves while I was working on the wrist warmers. Just the thought of it brought to mind the “Drawing Hands” lithograph by M. C. Escher. But I couldn’t figure out how to both set up and take the shot, so I chuckled and let the opportunity for the visual joke pass me by.

On Saturday afternoon I cast on for the first wrist warmer and knitted to the point where I would create the thumb hole — 3 inches, in contrast to the 4.5 inches specified in the pattern. I didn’t want that long of a cuff, and I was pretty sure that I didn’t have that much yarn anyway.

I also modified the pattern by using needles that were two (US) sizes smaller than those called for in the pattern, because it wanted it to fit snugly on my hands. I was worried that this might make the wrist warmers too tight, and of course I wouldn’t know that for sure without completing one wrist warmer and trying it on. (Spoiler alert: they’re just right.)

The actual construction was very simple: knit in the round until the bottom of the thumb hole, knit back and forth for 10 rows, then knit in the round again to the top of the wrist warmer. No thumb gusset, no fingers or half-fingers to knit, and no mirror-imaging of the second piece. You make two pieces that are exactly the same. And you really could make a pair in a day.

They’re quick to knit, they’re warm, and they were a great way to use up almost all of this yarn, which was spun by by cyber-sister Lauren. And now I have a matching set of cowl and wrist warmers!

Because I couldn’t take a picture of myself wearing both of the wrist warmers at the same time, I had to do a bit of creative staging in the photo shoot.

It was really satisfying to be able to make such a useful item for myself. (Yes, it did hurt to knit it. But now that I have knit it, it will help my hands relax and stay warm.)

There is a lot more in progress right now in my life, but I’m glad to report on a finished object for a change. Stay warm, everyone!

P.S. – I found my saxophone!

The errant fortnight

It’s been entirely too long since I sat down to write something here. Last weekend I was house-sitting for friends and just didn’t plan ahead regarding the logistics of writing and publishing a blog post. I’ll try to tuck some extra content into this week’s post to make up for it.

Over the last two weeks I have been, somewhat simultaneously, investigating the slew of minor health annoyances that come with being Of a Certain Age, and gathering my resources in order to take up playing the saxophone again. These activities manage to cross over in the area of occupational therapy, which I will start on January 20 to address some arthritis in my hands. (It does not help that it has been very cold, which makes me cold and which causes some pain.) In addition to whatever the therapist has me do, I have also found some saxophone-related hand exercises and breathing exercises to do so I can get myself back in shape to practice and play.

Which saxophone do I plan to play? I still have my alto from high school, and I claimed my father’s tenor after he passed. He would be absolutely thrilled that I’m planning to relearn to play both of them. I have spent most of the last week watching YouTube videos, collecting CDs of sax masters, and buying (and borrowing) sheet music of different works for the saxophone. I also sorted through my existing sheet music and sold some items that I didn’t need.

I have cut off my Big Plan at the pass in several ways so it doesn’t just turn into another rabbit hole. I’m going to spend a lot of time preparing before I even try to play again. This is partly so I don’t just use the interest as a way to distract myself from the other things that I need to do (would I ever do that?). It’s also to give myself time to find someone who can help me develop my embouchure properly and fix the bad habits I learned when I was eleven years old and self-taught. I can be better now!

I have also decided not to take a music class, buy a new saxophone, get a music degree, learn music theory, write my own music, record an album, or audition for the London Philharmonic. I just want to play for my own enjoyment. I want to play as well as I can for my own enjoyment, but I don’t want to overdo it. (I have plenty of other things I want to overdo.)

Part of the fun of the research has been listening more carefully to the artists on the Jazz and Smooth Jazz cable channels, picking out CDs I can listen to in the car, and trying to remember which jazz artists my dad had albums from in our family record collection. My brother’s helping me with that particular project informal investigation.

There won’t be any sax playing until at least February, but there will be plenty of sax listening. To Dave Brubeck (featuring Paul Desmond), Coleman Hawkins, Dave Koz, Diana Krall, Charlie Parker, Boots Randolph, Sonny Rollins, Ben Webster…. I’m willing to hear your recommendations as long as they are not for Kenny G (he plays a soprano sax, which I don’t have).

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This very morning I welcomed a new typewriter to my collection: meet The Lady Remington, manufactured in 1967 — a very good year.

I’m calling her The Lady Remington partially because it reminds me of the electric razors and I think it’s amusing. But she’s a formidable machine and if she wants to go by a different name I will heed her wishes.

Since the seller had originally purchased her for decorative purposes only, she wasn’t sure if The Lady even worked. Before I could see if she was functioning properly, I had to untangle the little mess shown below. (Actually, I started it and Eldest took over and insisted upon finishing without my interference. For which I am grateful.)

I’m pleased to say that she works perfectly with the exception of a few keys that jammed slightly during the typing test. She’ll receive a thorough cleaning and a fresh ribbon for her original spools, and The Lady will be back in use again.

In addition to purchasing saxophone music and searching for vintage typewriters to rescue, I have been making good progress on acquiring the works of the subject of my big writing project. The books of his that I don’t have yet are uncommon enough that it may be a while before I find affordable copies of my own. I’m glad that I may be able to find them in university libraries so that I can read and study them. (For research on this writer’s unpublished works, I’ll probably need to travel to visit an archive in another state. But we’ll get there when we get there, and that part doesn’t need to happen right away.)

I have also spent a little time organizing the articles, reviews, and other works that I have acquired electronically and saved to at least three different computers. I can apply this process to the other work for which I’m doing research, but I want to focus on my nonfiction project right now and take up the fiction work a little later.

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Knitwise, I finished my long pink and grey scarf, wove in the ends, and started wearing it immediately. (Did I mention that it has been COLD and that I have been COLD?) The final length is 80 inches, and it’s cozy and warm.

Then I picked up the more-than-fifty-percent-finished mitten project, knitted a few rows, and realized that I needed to look at the instructions in an earlier part of the pattern than the one page that Past Beth had photocopied and tucked into the project bag. The pattern was in a binder I had loaned to a craft group on campus, so I made arrangements to temporarily borrow it back. And then Present Beth left it in her office instead of bringing it home and, well, maybe when I go to work I will just make a photocopy of it and send the binder back to the other crafters. When I’m making progress on the mittens (knitting the thumb gusset and the hand for Mitten Two, and thumbs for both mittens) I can start thinking about a new item to make. Because it is COLD and I am COLD.