Synasthesia
Last Thursday I spent the day at a knitting workshop led by Brandon Mably, including lunch and an evening with Kaffe Fassett. These two men have a wonderful (or, in their words: glorious, exciting, delicious) sense of colour and of the benefits of simplicity. I am a big fan of simplicity (or as mathematicians like to say, elegance) and an appreciation of the aesthetics of everyday things. It was interesting hearing what Brandon had to say about choosing and integrating colours into his works, because it was (almost) word for word what I’ve heard many musicians say in general about constructing melodies and in particular, constructing jazz solos. I found the synaesthetic (sensory cross-over) aspect intriguing.
It was also interesting to be able to spend 6 hours just knitting. Nothing else. Very zen. I’m not a big knitter (unlike some) but I enjoy both the tactility of the process and the end result. It was a little weird being the only straight guy in a house filled mostly with women past a certain age but not that big a deal, and I did win a nice door prize that included some nice hand-turned rosewood needles and I did get to model one of Brandon’s sweaters on stage with Kaffe in the evening.