A Good Ouch...

Alright, in my defense, I have not crewed any shows or done anything remotely close to manual labor since mid-August. So my body is REALLY not happy that I spent yesterday working in the shop at South Coast Rep. My arms and legs are not happy because I spent the entire morning up on the loading rail in the Argyous unloading weight from linesets as they were struck. Each brick is twenty pounds (I think). There were linesets that we had to take off fifteen to seventeen bricks. They sent someone else up to help me with those, so there were two people dealing with the weight. Luckily, the fact that my legs hurt and not my back means that I was dealing with all that weight properly and lifting with my legs and not my back. The afternoon was spent doing notes and finishing loading in the show in the Segerstrom. I had to re-learn how to use a router.

The kind of cool thing was that I could see how far I'd come there and how much I'd learned while working there in the past. I actually was trusted to go up and work on the loading rail by myself and remembered all the safety stuff and did a good job up there. I don't mind working the rail that much, it's actually kind of fun, and there is a lot of downtime, because you have to wait for them to strike everything off the lineset before you can do anything to it, and you can only work on one set at a time. I also remembered how to safely use the chop saw and the table saw, and I'm much better with screw guns now than I was my first time there. I was assigned my own list of projects and it was just assumed that I could complete them instead of having to help one of the staff members all day like most of the overhires. Of course, since it had been a while, I did still have to ask some questions.

The really cool thing (at least for me) was that I had to go out on the grid by myself. Now, for those that don't know, a theater that has a counterweight fly system has a grid. It is wayyy up at the top, usually about ten feet from the ceiling of the fly space. They don't have solid floors, because that is where all the cabling is run that holds all of the linesets up, so the "floor" usually consists of a grid of steel beams that are about six inches wide, with about three or four inches of gap between beams. Now, having explained that, I should point out that in this theater, the grid is at least sixty feet from the stage floor. I am scared of heights. Make that terrified of falling from a great height. In this theater, although you can look through the gaps all the way down to the stage floor, there is literally no way you can fall through the grid. Really. You can trip and fall up there, but you're not going to go crashing down. No human fits through a four inch gap, and it's steel beams. It's not like they will rot and break under your weight. But when you're up there, all the mind sees is the open space under you and how high up you are. It's very scary. I got sent to strike a cable that was in the middle of the grid. Of course, I'm not going to tell them I'm scared to go up (although I do know a lot of people who refuse to go up on grids, and it's usually considered okay because of safety - they'd rather have someone be comfortable working up there than someone who could potentially freak out and accidentally hurt themselves or someone else). I'm just stubborn like that. And the grid is only maybe four feet above the loading rail I've been working on all morning. (Pointing out that the loading rail has a poured concrete floor and a steel railing.) So I get up there, grit my teeth, refuse to look down...and cross the grid by myself! I was actually good (and quite proud of myself) until I had finished striking the cable and then had to carry it back. For some reason, that was almost too much, and I had to be holding on to something with my free hand for the entire way back. But damnit, I did it!

Today, I want a hot tub, a good book, my knitting, and a nap, all at the same time. Some food would be good, too, if I didn't have to climb up and down stairs to get to any of it...

Ahh...had a nice steak dinner out with Steve. Spent today planning our move up the coast, plotting a Valentine's trip to Vegas that won't happen until end of summer at the earliest, knitting and playing on the computer. Does life get any better?

Had to put Danica down today. For some reason I just can't focus on it for more than a row or two (and I mean a short row or two, not a tier or two, unfortunately) at a time. This makes me concerned about my concentration strength for the Olympics. We will see. It's just for fun, anyway.

Picked up the raglan sweater instead, and got through the under-arm row before realizing that I didn't cast on the ease stitches properly under the first arm. So now am tinking back, but I'm almost to the first planned colour change! Yay! The sweater may end up being my FO for January, if I stop typing and get back to tinking.

No Jaywalker progress to report, although we are driving up to Steve's parents next weekend and I'll be taking them with me for that.

Updates

I've almost got my thief to master in Astaria, and explored a new area I'd never been to for some reason. (Don't worry if you have absolutely no idea what that means. It's a MUD I play off and on with a bunch of online friends. Mostly because I can knit and borg at the same time.)

I've spent today in my pj's, laying on my bed, surrounded by my laptop and my knitting. Steve spent today in his pj's in front of his desktop computer, playing CoV. It was heaven - where else would you find two theater AND internet gaming geeks? We're perfectly happy to ignore each other for hours playing our games, but at the end of the day, we know what's really important. It's fantastic.

I have the toes done on my new-and-hopefully-improved-definitely-bigger Jaywalkers. I considered doing them one at a time, since it does seem to go faster for a lot of people, but I know myself, and I will make one sock a different size than the other if I do. No matter how carefully I count or measure. Going to start the feet tomorrow, probably. Danica has been neglected and is letting me know it.

I might possibly have the yarn to do the Ribby Cardi. I could do it with my WotA stash, but it would have to be a minimum of three colours in order to get the yardage. Will have to play with this. I do not, nor will I have in the near future, the yarn for Tubey. I was really excited when I got the LionBrand catalog today and they have Lion Cashmere Blend now, but the excitement faded when I realized it was $9 a skein, and I can get the DB Cashmerino Aran the designer used for $7-8 a skein. Unfortunately, I would still need 11-14 skeins (depending on how many colours are used), so it is wayy out of my budget atm. Perhaps over the summer.

Tagged!

I got tagged by Wendy for this MEME! It's her fault! =)

Four jobs you have had in your life
1. Lifeguard
2. Swimming instructor
3. Production assistant
4. Stage manager

Four movies you could watch over and over
1. Pirates of the Caribbean
2. The Mummy/The Mummy Returns
3. Apollo 13
4. X2

Four places you have lived
1. Lane, Illinois
2. West Lafayette, Indiana
3. Santa Maria, California
4. Anaheim, California

Four TV shows you love to watch
1. Law and Order and any spinoff thereof
2. The Planet's Funniest Animals
3. Mail Call
4. Cubs baseball games

Four places you have been on vacation
1. Cancun, Mexico
2. Marseilles/Montpelier/Cannes, France
3. Las Vegas, Nevada, US
4. Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Four websites you visit daily
1. Knitters Review Forums
2. The Reasons I'm Crazy (my LJ friends' list)
3. The Dilbert blog
4. my blog so I can get to the links for everyone else's that I read

Four places you'd rather be right now
1. Nowhere...I'm home in my pj's with my guy, why would I want to be elsewhere?
2. Vegas
3. Anywhere outside of the LA area
4. Somewhere tropical

Four bloggers you are tagging
trying to find blogs I check regularly and who haven't been tagged already!
1. Jenna
2. GreyhoundChaos
3. Maxine
4. GraniteRose

Mrph...

Alright, the whole Jaywalkers not fitting over my heel very well thing is driving me nuts. Against my natural inclination not to (I'm THROUGH the HEEL FLAPS, for heaven's sake!), they're returning to the frog pond and going to be restarted on size 2 needles and probably toe-up as well. So there. That's my update for the week. Mrph! At least I don't have to do the ribbing again quite yet. I hate ribbing...I'm going to have to rewind the balls, too, because I can't really bear the thought of working with that much yarn pulling from the outside and the skeins flopping all over creation and back. Okay, that's enough of that. Now, to work!

Whine! And cheese...

Next time, I'm going with my gut and doing the Jaywalkers toe-up. I suppose that commits me to doing another pair (hell, I have the yarn - and it just dawned on me that the KnitPicks' Simple Stripes in Vineyard would be fun for this), but I'm just really afraid of the sizing. I can just barely get them over my heel, and I'm so far and I don't want to frog them. I mean, I'm working on the heel flaps and I'm suddenly getting cold feet, as it were. Of course, I'll finish these. If for some reason, after washing and whatnot, they still don't fit me properly, maybe I'll send them to my mom. She has slightly smaller feet than me, although it's the width of the cuff going over the heel that is the problem, so that might not help at all. We'll see. I just don't want to break the yarn and have a "my god, my foot is so fat!" moment.

And, the cheese:

That's my Steve...it's a bit of an old pic, taken when we were both still working at PCPA. Actually, now that I think about it, it was taken before we even started dating, on a night the Involved just like to refer to as Tuesday. It involved Monopoly, pizza, being sprawled over various beds and sofas, and much alcohol consumption. (Read: I've never been so drunk - or so sick the next day - in my life!) However, one of my friends - also a Tuesday participant - just sent it to me, and I thought it was cute.

addendum: I just entered the Noro into my yarn inventory. I now have over 100 skeins/balls/hanks of yarn (119, to be exact, not counting previous project leftovers. Don't tell Steve!), which is kind of fun, but should I be worried that my yardage count now ends in 666 (28666 yds)? I hope the Noro, and thereby the Lady, isn't cursed already!

Olympics

Now that the show is over....okay, I didn't really have a segue for that. I just wanted to say it. Ahhh....

A lot of people have been talking about the Knitting Olympics (see sidebar USA button for link) lately. I think it sounds like fun, but there are a lot of people who are making comments like "I don't want to drive myself crazy, I want to enjoy my knitting!" To me, that doesn't make any sense. I mean, yes, the challenge is to have your chosen project done in 16 days, and that's really fast (at least for me). But the world isn't going to fall apart, nor will I feel like I have failed if I don't get the Lady completely done in said time frame, particularly if I have to take time to spend with Steve or real life. Of course, I will try, because it's the challenge that makes it fun, and the fact that there are sooo many other knitters out there who will be giggling and posting and "what's your progressing?" for the whole time. I love it!

The Santa Anas are blowing and driving my allergies nuts, not to mention drying my skin, lips, and nose out. Ugh. But, it is 72 degrees and *sunny* in mid-January, so it's definitely not all bad. Gotta run to Goodwill and drop off some old clothes and shoes before Steve gets home. I at least have to make it *look* like I did something today. I did do a lot of Oliver! groundwork, though, so that's productive already!

Productivity!

I amazed myself with my fabulous productivity today. I did all the laundry and folded it and put it away properly. I cleaned the bathroom, including the toilet and mirrors and sweeping. I sent off the last of the paperwork LBO needs to send back to Pittsburg. (They're going to remount the opera there this summer. They can keep it.) I got seats reserved for Steve and I for a small show John Gabriel is doing next week and invited us to. (It's just going to be John and the dancers doing a bunch of the front of curtain/card tricks, so they don't need us backstage crew-types for it.) I looked over and agreed on a hiring plan for the PCPA interns this summer. I joined and decided on a project for the Knitting Olympics and got a button. I started the heel flaps on my Jaywalkers. I ran some errands and had dinner with Steve. (Ben & Jerry's "Everything But The..." just might replace "Phish Food" as my favourite ice cream flavour.) It was, I think, a Good Day.

Knitting Olympics

I really want to do the Knitting Olympics over on The Yarn Harlot's blog. I'm seriously leaning toward the Lady as my Olympic project, both because I don't have any work going on during February (unless I choose to take some shop calls at South Coast Rep) and I want to get it done at least before summer, because I want to use the wrap for when the shows go to the outdoor theater in Solvang. (Of course, I get stuck with the last show of the summer there - again - so I'll be outside in October - again! It may be California, but it gets COLD there at night, even in July!) Of course, that means that I can't CO for it until February 16...can I wait that long?? I'm thinking that, if I decide to do it, I'll cast on for Ene's Scarf when I finish Danica. And, I only have 16 days to finish it. Definitely a challenge!

Also,
See, they're striping! How cool is that?! I'm going to start working the heels today, since I need to at least get a heel started before I take it to work on during the show tomorrow. Ugh. ONE MORE SHOW. Then I'm DONE with that godawful, godforsaken...Thing. I don't ever have to deal with that company again! And I'll have fun things like Oliver! and Dames at Sea to look forward to! And teaching/supervising! Steve's put in for an assistant design intern slot for the summer - I think his current school assignment (ASD for Timon of Athens) has resparked his love affair with designing, so that would be fun if he gets it. He has a pretty good shot - everyone up there who knows him loves him, and if they don't know him directly, they get smarmily wonderful reviews of him and his work- as long as they haven't closed hiring yet. This is assuming we aren't both in jail for making our roommates disappear - a jury of our peers would acquit us, seriously!

Gotta go start laundry. I was supposed to do it yesterday, but the Jaywalker dropped stitch got in my way and insisted I fix it first. Oops. Damn knitting. It talks way too loudly and too often sometimes.

Jaywalker update

I totally forgot to post an update for the Jaywalker KAL (sorry Cara!), but I do have some progress to report. I was working along on them this morning and suddenly realized my count was off. For some reason I didn't think much of it, increased a stitch, moped a bit over the weirdness in the columns, and went happily on. Then I tried one on. While they are still a little tight going over the heel, they fit, but I noticed a hole on the leg. About seven rows back, I had dropped a stitch right near one of the increases, and didn't know how to ladder it back up. So, the good one got put on a spare bit of sock yarn, and that one got frogged back several rows and fixed. Now they are both happily back on the same needles and waiting for me to begin turning the heels. The very fun news is that, not only are all the columns on all the socks straight and I have the proper number of stitches on the needles again, but that the yarn is starting to stripe itself! I had thought at first that the yellows and blues and purples and greens would be too jumbled about to really make the pattern work (and they *are* in the ribbing), but I liked the colours and the pattern so I kept on. My patience has been rewarded! I now have thick bands of yellow/purple/dark green/dark blue spots seperated by thinner bands of the lighter greens and blues! Very cool! I'll post a pic probably tomorrow, when there is better light.

Up to tier 13 (yes, I stopped on the number 13 last night!) of Danica. Will probably work on that tomorrow. Gotta get it done so I can start the Lady!

Saw Underworld:Evolution this evening with Steve. Not the storyline I expected them to follow, and gorier than the first, but still a pretty good movie, even with the surprisingly tasteful sex scene that somehow showed everything and nothing.

Noro!

Ooo...I got my Noro yesterday for the Lady Eleanor! It's soo pretty! I'd post a pic, but it's too dark in here to do the colours justice. I have to finish Danica before I start the Lady, though. I promised myself. Then I will start the Lady and finish the sweater, and then cast on something lacy, probably Ene's Scarf, and work on those two. (I've settled on having two "home" projects and a sock project that I carry around with me. That's only three projects, which isn't too bad.)

I also got a call from my mom yesterday. She found "the perfect" use for her Booga bag. She has recently been put on a diet by her doctor, and apparently the bag is the perfect size for her to carry her breakfast to work in! She loves it, and I guess has gotten several compliments on it.

So score two for the Noro yesterday!

Woo, shows!

The Ring finally opened, thank God, and have one more rehearsal and one more performance left to live through before we close. Now, I love any kind of live performance. I consider myself very lucky that I have been able to turn a hobby into a career and make enough that I can live off of it. That's why it breaks my heart that not only am I no longer enjoying the opera, I don't want to do any more work for it. I've taken to screening my phone calls, as I have gotten as many as twenty five messages on my days off. I hate checking my work email now because there will be at least five messages there EVERY time I check it, and I check email SEVERAL times a day when I am home. And it's all petty stuff, because this company hasn't figured out how to just go straight to the person they really need to get the information to. But I only have to deal with these people two more times max. Yay!

And just to add to the light at the end of the tunnel, Chrissy gave me a call today. PCPA has changed their summer schedule a little. They're doing A Little Night Music instead of The Pajama Game and Much Ado About Nothing instead of The Merry Wives of Windsor now, which gives some bigger names to their summer season. (I LOVE Much Ado..., I think it's hysterical.) Chrissy is going to do Beauty and the Beast of course, since she did it for the holiday show, and she'll also do Night Music. I'm going to supervise the interns on Anna in the Tropics (I'll call the Marian run and the intern will call the Solvang run) and do Dames at Sea, which should be a lot of fun, considering it's the same director and choreographer I worked with on My Way. An intern will do Much Ado..., otherwise I'd totally swoop that up! And, of course, Oliver! starts rehearsals March 7. Apparently the director is a bit "intense", but I figure she can't be any worse than what I just went through. I cannot wait! Now I just have to get a place to live up there and get settled before March 7!

And, just say it, The Knitter's Handbook is amazing! I love it! Thanks Mom!

Conquering the Danica

So this is Danica after nine tiers. The Mist is partial to showing through the Hush on the pickup rows, and I'm not sure how to fix that. It is getting better as I work on it, though, and it goes pretty fast.

Danica

So, I cast on for the scarf last night, frogged it, came back to it this morning, and, after several rocky starts and a long mental discussion with both the designer (who is now back to being brilliant), and the yarn (now back to it's wonderful soft wooliness), figured out how to do the pattern. I got the base triangles and two tiers done, noticing that the squares were kind of poofing a lot, but figured it would stretch itself out as I worked. Then I realized. My brilliant idea of using just the wraps from the short rows as the picked up stitches was flawed. It DOES indeed make them incredibly easy to pick up. It also forces ten stitches to stretch along the length of yarn normally reserved for just one stitch. There's no way the base rows of the squares can stretch to their proper width this way. Sigh. Back to the frogpond. At least it's a fairly quick process, now that I have the hang of it! Pics will be up when I have something worth photographing! The good part is that I've gotten a lot of practice with the knitted cast on, which I was shaky on before.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some knitting to do...

So, this evening was nice. I had to go pick it up at the UPS store, but I now have this:

My wonderful box o' Christmas Goodies! And inside was lots of Wool of the Andes!


I'm going to use Hush and Mist for my Danica scarf. I'm casting on after I finish this post. If that wasn't fun enough, it also included this...

...which will keep me busy with lace (Alpaca Cloud, Shimmers and Shadow) and even some shirts (Shine - planning on using it for Tempting II and the Honeymoon Cami)! And, as if that wasn't going to keep me busy until next Christmas, I also got THIS...

...in addition to the three sets of sock yarns I have already! Seriously, this box literally quadrupled my stash! And, to make sure I have patterns for all of it, I got these (some were gifts, some I bought when I realized how much yarn I was getting)...

...yes, that would be A Gathering of Lace, Scarf Style with Ene's Scarf and Lady Eleanor already marked, The Knitter's Handbook, and The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns!

Update, lots of pics!

My beautiful Noro...it's coming in the mail...muha! I'm going to have a nice, warm, pretty wrap for those cold, cold nights in Solvang!

Christmas yarns should be here tomorrow or Friday. Mom sent me an email saying it was scheduled to be delivered Friday the 12th. The problem being that Thursday is the 12th. So I don't know if it's coming tomorrow while I'm at rehearsal (and what a nice thing THAT would be to come home to - tomorrow is going to be a LONGLONGLONG day) or Friday on my day off.

Still have to get the pattern for the pi shawl. I might try to go to the library this weekend and see if they have Knitter's Almanac and make a copy. That's why libraries have books, right? So you can get informative resources you would not otherwise be able to have access to?


I want to know HOW people are knitting their Jaywalkers so fast?! I've started mine, I don't know, a week or so ago and am only this far! Geez! Granted, I've only been working on them as an "out and about" project - mostly when I'm on breaks or early to rehearsals, so that is probably most of it. The yarn is KnitPicks Dancing in Jig. Maybe the colours are a little TOO varigated to work best with this pattern, you kind of lose the zigzag with the pooling, but I really love them and don't want to rip and redo again.


My at-home, day-off project lately has been this oddly shaped pile of knitted fabric, otherwise known as the start of the top-down raglan sweater. I have (I think) 15 more rows left of the yoke, then can slip the sleeves and start playing with the first colour change into the light green.

Noro...

I actually won the Noro! Colourway 139, 10 skeins of it, for $61 (plus another $10 for shipping). That's just over $6/skein. I can handle that. My Eleanor might be a bit short, because I'm not ordering more, but that's okay. Haven't heard yet from the seller, but I made the payment this morning, so hopefully it will be shipped soon! AND my big box o' KnitPicks yarn should be here on Friday! I can't wait! I am going to break my two-at-a-time rule and start the Danica scarf ASAP, I think. I really want to start learning the entrelac! And I need something to learn to knit backwards on - you can't really knit backwards when you're in the round.

Oh, and I had an idea to possibly make my raglan a little more interesting. I'm thinking about adding a small mosaic band between the colours instead of doing them as wide stripes. Like, go from the cream, then do, I don't know, eight rows (four rows of each colour) of the mosaic with the cream and light green and then go into the light green solidly. The mosaic was definitely tighter in the afghan, though, so I might have to go up in needle size for that part. I will try it. That's the point of this sweater, right? To try things! I'm almost done with the yoke/shoulders, btw!
Jaywalkers are coming along, but I haven't been working on them at home, only when I'm out and have some downtime, so they're not quite getting the attention they deserve. Oh well, they will get done!

Still winning the bid on the Noro...have to keep it until 8:30 tomorrow morning! Cross your fingers for me! I won't be THAT disappointed if I don't get it - I mean, honestly, it's going to be a while before I can get to the Lady anyway - but it would be really nice to get that particular yarn in bulk so cheap! There will be other auctions, I know. And I want to do the Danica scarf, which seems like it's a smaller version and solid colours as opposed to varigated, first to practice with. I also want to work on knitting backwards, as that is supposed to be a helpful and handy skill when doing entrelac. So if I don't get it, it means there is still time. And if I do get it, there is still time =)

So many patterns, so little time...

Scarf Style and A Gathering of Lace were waiting for me when I got home from a very long day of stage and orchestra rehearsals! BEAUTIFUL patterns! So far, I want to do Ene's Scarf, Lady Eleanor (I've also gotten suckered into that one by all the gorgeous Ladies being shown off on the KR Forums. If I win the eBay auction for enough Noro Kureyon in the colourway I want, then it's fate and I have to make it soon. If I don't, gonna have to wait and save up. Something like that deserves a good yarn and lots of colours!), Rippling Rainbow, Magic Circle, Feather & Fan, and the Magickal Earth Shawl (although I'm not a fan of the unicorn). Any of the patterns, really.

Now I have to wait until Mom ships my yarn! Supposed to be here soon, I hope! Gotta work on the sweater and the Jaywalkers first.

You appear to be a Knitting Adventurer.
You are through those knitting growing pains and
feeling more adventurous. You can follow a
standard pattern if it's not too complicated
and know where to go to get help. Maybe you've
started to experiment with different fibers and
you might be eyeing a book with a cool
technique you've never tried. Perhaps you
prefer to stick to other people's patterns but
you are trying to challenge yourself more.
Regardless of your preference, you are
continually trying to grow as a knitter, and as
well you should since your non-knitting friends
are probably dropping some serious hints, these
days.
http://marniemaclean.com


What Kind of Knitter Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Year of the Socks!

I have enough sock yarn to make nine and a half pairs of socks this year for the Two Thousand and Socks! KAL RoseByAny (Amie) started over on the KR Forums. The lone sock being the rest of the Regia sock yarn that I got to make a mate for my Very First Sock Ever, who is still a poor loner. It's also counting the Jig currently being turned into Jaywalkers. 19 socks in a year? Maybe! Socks are turning into my "stuffing in my purse or backpack and taking everywhere" projects, so it is possible, I suppose.

I've also cut back to my original "only two WIPs at a time" rule. Otherwise I will start a billion things and never finish any of them! Currently, it's the raglan and the Jaywalkers.