Knitting in the Dark

November

For some people November means writing a novel.  For others it means knitting a whole sweater.  For me it means getting our Christmas show open. 

Every year at this time we start rehearsals for Wayside Theatre’s annual Christmas show.  This year we are doing  Miracle on 34th St.  And it is a musical.  And my roommate is the composer.  And my other housemate is the author.  So when I say it takes over my life I’m not exaggerating.  So as I finish up my run of Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure I’m finishing up my first week of rehearsal Miracle. 

And with 36 cast members it’s a little different from our other shows which typically have between 7-9 cast members.  And of the 36  ten are kids under the age of 14. 

On the other hand it is shows like this that allow some of my favorite people in the world to come back and play with us.  So you won’t find any complaining here. 

With one exception.

The knitting time has been a bit hampered. 

And yet somehow the yarn buying has been going just swimmingly.  How does that work?

A night at the Alamo

Went to see This is It last night.  Honestly I was never a huge fan of MJ.  I liked his music, but it was always just there, it didn’t move me one way or another.  Like many people I just saw him as an icon, but what I loved about the picture was that you get to see him work.  I am fortunate enough to love my work.  I think it is worthwhile.  So in return I also love to watch other people work.  This man was not just an amazing dancer, but a genius music director as well.  You often see him talking to the band and rearranging his music to “simmer” and you listen to it after he is done and all you can think is “He was right.”  It was definitely worthwhile.

On the other hand, if you live near or around Winchester,VA  you  need to try the new Alamo Drafthouse Cinema.  For those of you who have no idea what I’m speaking of it is the new movie theatre just off 81 at Exit 310, just outside of Kernstown.  Imagine a normal movie theatre with stadium seating.  Take out every other row. Now put a bar in front of all the seats that runs the length of the entire row. Where you took out the rows there is an aisle for the waiters to walk and take orders.   You have a menu, some light hitting your legs to see, you write out your order on provided paper, put it where the waiters can see it.  They come and take your order and about 15-20 min later you are watching a movie and eating a full meal at the same time.  The waiters and service have been excellent the 3 times I have been there.  It’s always spotless clean and the food is always good. 

And I am lucky enough to know the owner.  My friend Nick and his wife found these movie theatres in Texas and loved them so much that they opened it here. It is only the third one of its kind.  And honestly, Winchester is such a small town that it is unusual to get anything in the country this early into its conception.

In knitting news.  I went to a fiber festival.  It’s my favorite festival.  Okay, it’s the only fiber festival I’ve every been to, but I love it.  The Shenandoah Valley Fiber Festival.  It is the 3rd year I’ve gone.  It always lands on a weekend I’m working (hah, I work every weekend.) so I only have about an hour and a half to run through and see everything I can.  Oh, and shop. I present my booty. (Minds out of the gutters kids)

Not too bad. 2 skeins  of sock yarn from Beyond Basic Knits, 4 ounces of Finn locks  and 8 ounces of Alpaca Silk (so soft and the most gorgeous silver grey)from Misty  Mountain and 8 ounces of superwash roving from Wild Hare fiber studio.

I also got this.

It’s a yarn bowl. I’ve always wanted one and there were a couple of potters there this year that were carrying them at reasonable prices. 

I do tend to buy mostly roving at these shows.  There are so many resources for yarn and I’ve been knitting long enough now to know what I want. But when it comes to roving I usually want to have it in my hands so I’ll know what it will feel like to draft.   But with so much roving coming in I knew I had to step up the spinning.  I started this 10 ounces of Lorna’s Laces wool top a few weeks ago. I bought it over the summer at The Loopy Ewe when they had a sale on it.  (It’s possible that 2o ounces of  2 other colorways also jumped into my cart…) So I spent a day finishing up 1/2 of it.  This is 5 ounces of Black Purl. (Honestly one of my favorite colorways at Lorna’s Laces.

I’m pretty happy with it.  I’m continuing to improve with consistent weight. There are still some thin spots, but I’m getting better. 

Today is an actual day off. Which is good because tomorrow I start rehearsals for our annual Christmas show. 

Accepting help

I have a friend.  I’ve never met her in real life and she doesn’t know my name.  But I care about her.  I’ve been listening to her podcast for a couple of years now and she’s brought more laughter into my life than she will ever know.  And she’s going through a really tough time right now.  Without going into details let’s just say that her soon to be ex is an asshat.  He’s cleared out their joint account, ran up the credit cards and didn’t use a condom.

But it got me thinking.  I’ve been keeping up with her on Plurk and there are many many people who are asking her to put up a paypal account to help her get out of a bad situation.  And she’s embarrassed and though I hope she will eventually put up the account, I understand how she feels.

Why is asking for help so god damn hard?  Why is it such a horrible thing for a person to say “I can’t do this alone.” Why does it take a village to raise a child, but we feel like we’re all alone as adults?  Where is the cutoff? Do you wake up on your 18th birthday and realize that help is now a bad thing, a thing of which to be embarrassed?

I’m not picking on her, on the contrary I’m thinking about myself.  I had a hard week.  Made harder by my pride (of which I often think I have too much).  In the last few years I could probably count the times I’ve cried on one hand and I know there has really only been two reasons, death and the realization that I could not do something which brought on frustration. 

So I think today I will be kinder with myself, and wait patiently for my friend to put up that paypal account so I can help her in one of the only ways I can. 

Julia and Elizabeth

Last night I went with some friends to see the new movie Julie and Julia.  There are no action sequences, no one has a steamy affair (though there is a very funny shot with Julia Child in a bathtub with her husband).  But it also wasn’t what I like to call “brain candy” either.  It was a very good movie.  And it got me thinking. 

I love to knit.  I’m not the only.  If I had to name a Julia Child of Knitting it would without doubt be Elizabeth Zimmerman.  I know that by reading other blogs and from podcasts.  But here’s the thing.  I’ve knit 1/2 of a baby surprise jacket.  Other than that I’ve never read her books, never finished a project designed by her and never seen her videos.  I don’t really know what makes her so amazing. 

So no, I do not plan on knitting all of Elizabeth Zimmerman’s patterns in the next year.  (My god, can you even imagine?)  But I have put all of her books that I don’t have into my Knit Picks shopping cart and they are on their way to me now. 

But not just her.  I want to be a better knitter.  There is an amazing amount of information out there.  And I am going to start with this while I’m waiting for my other books to arrive.

Yesterday a very good friend came to see our Sunday matinee of The Gin Game.  I went out to give him a big hug and he handed this to me and said “Could you hold this for me?”  and then smiled.  The universal sign for “I’ve brought you a present”.  This book.  Is.  Amazing.  There is a real reason why it goes for over $100 on Amazon and over $200 on ebay.  It is a text book of knitting.  And my friend handed it to me.  He left before I got a chance to ask where he found it (because I’m sure he didn’t pay $200 for it). 

So no, I’m not going to knit all of EZ’s patterns, but I am going to start reading this and start learning all the things I don’t know I need to know yet. 

Oh, and I finished a scarf for the shop.

The Chevron Scarf from Last Minute Knitted Gifts.  It took about 3 weeks and was started as a project to be knit on the plane to and from Hawaii.  I love the colors on this.  It reminds me of the water in Hawaii.

Reunion pt. 1

It’s a pretty normal thing in theatre to get close to a group of people and then never see them again.  I was very fortunate last year to have a great group of interns that became more than just co-workers.  Last May they all scattered to different states to take new jobs and we got a new group of interns.  But they great thing about good friends is they will come back and visit.

Yesterday 4 out of the 6 interns from last year came back to see our current production at Wayside Theatre of Man of La Mancha.   Denim, Dacia, Leah and Matt. 

It was a great day of good food, good show and even better company.

And did I mention they all drove over 6 hours to do it? 

Needless to say, no knitting was done yesterday (or for the last 2 days really as we prepared to have them descend on us.  

Today is all about recouping from all the excitement, running some errands to prepare for my upcoming trip to Hawaii (Squee!!!)  and getting ready to start rehearsals tomorrow for The Gin Game.

Better to give

So, if you are a lover of books it may interest you that Knit Picks is having their 40% book sale right now.  I was all kinds of excited and eagerly filled up my basket with the books I’ve been flipping through at borders for a a few months now.

But then something weird happened.  They’ve been having some problems with their shopping carts lately. (Perhaps due to the large traffic caused by the sale?)  Things in my cart kept doubling and then if I tried to delete one the original would delete as well.  Well, after 5 minutes of that frustration I decided to say “Screw it, obviously this isn’t meant to be” and I went to sleep very frustrated.  (Now, I have to say, the actual event wasn’t really THAT bad.  I just had one of those days yesterday where after a while you actively avoid the human race because if you don’t you may run a pencil through someone’s eye)

This morning I woke up and was in the mood for a little retail therapy so I thought about trying again.  But first I went to read my Google Reader.  And I remembered seeing something.  Knitters Against MS.  This isn’t a cause that I’ve been personally touched by.  No one I know has MS (knocking on something wood now).  But I started thinking of how sad I would be if I wasn’t able to knit anymore.  So I took the money I was going to give to Knit Picks and gave it to Knitters Against MS instead. For the last two years they have been the number one fundraisers at this event and it just goes to prove what a caring group we can be.  (Did I mention there’s also a butt load of yarn and prizes that will raffled off?  $10 a chance.)    I know there’s an economical crisis going on, but if you have an extra $10 in your pocket you might think about donating to this great cause.  And take a look at that prize list if you need more incentive.

WIP, FO and a slapdown from the Knitting Goddess

So, attack plants aside (and by the way, we did find another plant that was starting to rise out of its pot – so it’s back to Home Depot we go), I have actually gotten some knitting done since my last post.

Some fast, some more long term projects, but as always resulting in many many WIPs  that I must force myself to someday finish. 

The Easy Wave Scarf from Knitting New Scarves.  Very interesting construction.  And once you understand what you are doing a very mindless knit.  

This is the beginning of the Foxtail Cardigan from Rowan: The Tapestry Collection.   This one is a sample Knit for Never Enough Yarn.  I know I will love this one when it is done.  The yarn is very loosely spun so it can be fairly splitty.  So it took a while before it became a “mindless” knitting project.  But I’m in love with these colors. 

And I do have a couple of finished projects.

I worked up a scribble scarf for Never Enough Yarn.  I used one skein of Manos Classica and one skein of Kidsilk Haze.

Such a simple technique and I’m still totally charmed by the final project.

And for a less successful project.  About 8 months ago I finished an entrelac stole.  Now I love this technique.  The final project never fails to amaze, especially if you use the right yarn. So yesterday I finally got around to blocking this baby.

Pretty right?  I used Noro Silk Garden too, so it feels wonderful. 

Oh wait, what’s going on down there to the left?

Dammit. 

Code 4…Escape plant

So, a few days ago I woke up, went to the kitchen and noticed something strange.

Now, to the naked eye, this looks like maybe someone knocked into my little plant and didn’t put him back in properly.

At all. 

However upon further inspection this is what we found.

In a move reminiscent of Little Shop of Horrors, my plant had decided it no longer wanted to be captive to its little pot and if I wasn’t going to move it, then by God, it would move itself.  Unwilling to fight such powers part of this morning was spent doing this.

Let us hope that this will appease the plant.  For now at least.

Consumed

A couple of weeks ago we welcomed a new group of interns and then jumped head first into rehearsals for Man of La Mancha.  I have to admit it’s one of my favorite shows.  If I remember correctly it was the 2nd show that I ever saw onstage.  I think I was 7.  I do remember being a little girl and dancing around the back room singing Aldonza’s songs (you know, the whore who gets raped during the show….that had to be a disturbing moment for my mom).  We have an amazing lead trio in Tom Simpson (Don Quixote), R. Scott Williams (Sanch) and Nancy O’Bryan (Aldonza).  I love big musicals.

I have gotten a bit of knitting done, but what I haven’t done is go to the store and get a new battery for my camera, which died last night.  So you’ll have to imagine the scribble scarf I’m knitting for my LYS, Never Enough Yarn.  It’s pretty.  I’m using Kid Silk Haze and Manos. 

I also scored some yarn on Dizzy Sheep this weekend.  They had a Memorial Day Spin Off.  Which means that as one deal sold out they would put up another deal.  Kept me glued to my computer reloading whenever I wasn’t at rehearsal.  I picked up some Malabrigo and a couple of other goodies.  So, the stash diet begins now right?  Maybe tomorrow.  Definitely in the next couple of weeks.

Post Vacation Roundup

For the last 6 years I have had 4 weeks off a year.  And it always revolves around the theatre’s season.  2 weeks after the Christmas show closes and 2 weeks at the end of April going into May before we start our summer season.  But this year I negotiated for two extra weeks in July.  But for those details you will have to wait.  Here’s where I have been for the last few weeks.

 

and all that time off led to these

(Lenore Socks)