Christine Lavin sings! She writes! She knits!

Authors reading/signing events are usually done at bookstores, that is, unless you're contemporary folk singer-songwriter/knitter Christine Lavin.

Lavin, whose memoir Cold Pizza for Breakfast: A Mem-wha?? was published in June, appeared last night at knitting store Knitty City in Manhattan's Upper West Side. She regaled a crowd of 30 or so with reading and singing, and awarded prizes to attendees for oldest knitting project, smallest, biggest, and most unusual (this last category's honor went to the knitter of an intricate waves-and-leaves pattern for a green shawl).

She also welcomed esteemed guests Ervin Drake, the 91 year-young Songwriters Hall of Famer who sang his classics "It Was A Very Good Year" (with a new verse reflecting on "when I was 89") and "Good Morning Heartache" (both backed by guitarist Pete McCann and upright bassist Steve Doyle), and singer-songwriter (and former Lavin comrade in the contemporary folk girl group Four Bitchin' Babes) Julie Gold (also of "From A Distance Fame"), who read the excerpt that she wrote in the Cold Pizza chapter "The Birth Of The Four Bitchin' Babes" and also sang the lyrics that Lavin wrote to the tune of the "Final Jeopardy" TV theme song.

Lavin read her part recalling when Gold joined the Four Bitchin' Babes, as well as parts of the chapters "If I Didn't Have To Play Guitar Right Now I'd Be Knitting, Too" and "Ervin Drake" (in which she relates how he wrote "Good Morning Heartache" when wife Edith turned down his first wedding proposal, then said yes 34 years later).

Lavin had previously appeared at the Bella Filati knitting store in Southern Pines, N.C., and will visit The Yarn Shop in Geneva, N.Y., and another knitting store in California sometime in the fall.

"I knit, and I always like to visit local knit shops--so it's killing two birds," Lavin explains. "Plus I have the knitting chapter in the book, and it's fun to read this to people who are knitting as I'm reading!"

Not only do many of Lavin's fans knit, she adds, but some even bring lit-up knitting needles so they can knit in the dark during her concerts.

Lavin concluded the Knitty City appearance by getting everyone to sing along on her updated version of the traditional cumulative folk song "There's A Hole In The Bottom Of The Sea," where there's a pipe in the hole, oil in the pipe, a crack in the pipe, oil on the surface, a bird on the seal in the oil on the surface of the sea, etc., etc.--ending with there being a windmill up on the hill, where there's a power plant run by the windmill, soap in the water heated by the power plant, etc., etc., and people using the soap to clean the oil off the creatures.
Meanwhile, Tell Me Press is readying the audio book of Cold Pizza for Breakfast: A Mem-wha?? For September release, to feature, in addition to Lavin, the participation of Drake, Gold, a cappella group The Accidentals, and actor Jeff Daniels, who reads the introduction he wrote for the book. And Lavin, who has an essay praising the just-closed revival of South Pacific in the current Broadway After Dark Web site, has a holiday album compilation, Just One Angel, due in October from Yellow Tail Records, to include songs from the likes of Daniels, Gold, The Accidentals, Janis Ian, and Kate Taylor.

(The Examiner is cited on Page 362 of Cold Pizza For Breakfast: A Mem-wha??)

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[The National Highway Transportation Safety Association advises that law enforcement is cracking down on drunk driving over the Labor Day weekend. Plan ahead and have a designated sober driver, take a taxi, or utilize public transportation.]