Knitting in the Dark

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)

End of Season

So in my job endings are normal.  Shows come along, you get attached for about a month and then it closes and you move on.  It’s  a trait of theatre that usually takes us awhile to get used to.  This Sunday Wayside will close it’s 47th season.  I have had the chance to make some great friends this season and there are a few that I will truly miss.

On the other hand, the end of a season means I get a vacation.  2 whole weeks to hang out with my family, who I only see about twice a year.  So Monday morning I am off to California to spend some time with my mom and dad and sister.  Instead of taking the big bag of supplies (which always gets me stopped at security) I’m going to try taking this along this time.

I picked this up at Never Enough Yarn yesterday.  It’s the Knit Kit.  I’ll look beyond the fact that it’s pink (she didn’t have the silver version) and just enjoy the cool gadget factor.  What you see there is a tape measure, a crochet hook for picking up dropped stitches, a yarn cutter, a row counter, stitch markers, point protectors and scissors.  It says it’s all TSA approved so we shall see.

I’ve spent most of my time working on a project I can’t talk about for Knit Picks, but I did get some spinning done this week as well (thanks to a new spinning group in the area).  I received 8 ounces from J. Knits as payment for some swatches they needed done.  They were asking to see some pictures of their roving spun up, so I thought, one bird, two stones, cool. 

So I spun up this.

  This is their roving in Philadelphia.  I decided to try my first 4 ply and this is what I came up with.

 

I still need to figure out how much yardage I ended up with, but it came out to be my first worsted weight. 

So Monday I’m off to LA with a side trip to San Francisco.  I have some heavy plans to knit and lay next to the pool (since they’ve been having some high temps) and eat some good food.  I hope everyone who is going has fun at Maryland Sheep and Wool!

Never Enough Yarn

While I think that’s really a way of life, it also happens to be my LYS.

My friend Pam recently bought the shop from my friend Pam…. (shake head in confusion) and I told her I’d take some shots of the shop for a new website.  I liked how a lot of them turned out so I thought I’d share here.

(This is a going to be a very picture heavy post so it may take a minute to load)

   (This is Pam)

(And her husband Sam, who hates getting his picture taken so I consider this kinneared photo quite good)

Some shots of my sit and knit group.

(Pam and my  new namaste laguna bag – which she wants to start carrying in the shop)

  (eating the crocheted sushi)

And the crack Yarn.

Easter Weekend

This is always a slower time of the year for me.  During the summer I’m usually in performance for a show while rehearsing a show at the same time, so I’m at the theatre all day, 6 days a week.  During Christmas we have 12 shows a week.  But during the spring we open one show and run it for a couple of months, with performance Thursdays through Sundays.  And on Easter Weekend I have Sunday off as well (also on Super Bowl Sunday….I love living in the south)  This leaves me a lot of time off.  And I’m not complaining.  I mean the workaholic in me has a little seizure but eventually it passes out and shuts up.  And I get a lot of knitting done. 

And spinning. 

And weaving.

And seeing all that together, evidently I’m in a purple mood. 

 

The sock is Ensnared by  Hunter Hammersen of Violently Domestic.

The spinning is Philadelphia by J. Knits.  I got 8 ounces of it as payment for knitting some gauge swatches for them.  I love the barter system.

And the weaving is a simple scarf I made on my small Ashford Knitter’s Loom using Cherry Tree Hill Potluck Bulky.  I’d show you a closer pictures but my selvedge sucks so we’ll agree that the far away, artsy shot is the way to show this one off.

Oh, and now that the newest Knit Picks catalogue has come out I can show this.

I didn’t design it, but I did knit it.  The Parkrose Pillow was my first test knit for them.  And I have to give this yarn a rousing thumbs up (as well as the design).  Because this was a test knit there was a lot of frogging and re-knitting.  The yarn looked just as good the 4th time I knit it as it did the 1st time I knit it.  And this isn’t your Cotton-Ease cotton either (not that I have a problem with that yarn.)  This is the softest cotton with which I’ve ever knit. Think Blue Sky Alpaca here.  It used 4 skeins of Simply Cotton Sport.

And now I’m off to finish reading Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. 

By the way, I did finish the February Lady’s Sweater, but of course I gave it to Pam before taking a finished picture.  I’ll be going for a photo shoot on Thursday.

Process Knitting

As a plus size girl I have to admit I don’t do much knitting for myself.  A sweater for myself costs twice as much and takes twice as much time.  In the last few years I’ve been doing a lot more test and sample knitting.  I get to try out patterns I like without having to take on 2 to 3 months of knitting.  In addition I either get paid or get a heavy discount towards enough yarn to actually make something for myself without having to starve to save the money. 

Now, some of these things I can’t show you.  I’ve done a couple of projects for Knit Picks that haven’t hit the catalogue yet, so they have to stay hidden.  However when my LYS Never Enough Yarn was bought by a friend of mine we worked out a deal.  Here is the first project.

This is Flow from Norah Gaughan’s volume two.  Very pretty, a fairly quick knit and some very slippery yarn.  Lessons learned from this one:

1 – The right needle will make all the difference.  Wood needles for slippery yarn are the way to go.

2 – Blocking is great.  Due to the nature of this yarn the finished project prior to blocking was uneven to say the least.  Post blocking it was smooth and even.  :)

3 – Picking up stitches with this yarn is hard.  Pay attention or you end up with gaps in the fabric.

The next project up is the February Lady Sweater.  It’s based off of Elizabeth Zimmerman’s February Baby Sweater and has been resized by Pamela Wynne.  I cast on about a week ago and started my first sleeve yesterday.

   Yep, I love knitting in small sizes.