Weekend Quickie

So, very quickly, before I have to run and figure out who can cover a sick mic runner's track for two performances today and make sure that the rest of my cast and crew is healthier than they were yesterday (we sent one crew member home, another was sick, and two swings went on in modified tracks due to injured arms for their overstudies, oy! Not to mention that last night was apparently pant-ripping-night and kept the poor wardrobe people hopping. Geez!), I did indeed CO for Rogue last night. (No pics yet. Think of a CO row and one row of twisted stockinette in the round in a heathery medium blue. That's all there is so far.) I was so nervous about it, I don't know why. I re-swatched (not only did I swatch for a project, but I swatched TWICE for a project!) and am spot on for gauge. Still needed a glass of wine before I could actually do the CO. (BTW, I cannot cast-on loosely for ANYTHING. I might still rip it out and do a provisional CO, as it is very tight on the needles still.) Will keep you updated as I go, but I probably won't get to work on it again until dinner. Jaywalker is my current theater project, and he has been much better since he recieved his letter and we straightened things out.

Alright, off to a YP choreography cleanup, and figuring out how many crew members need to be covered today. And I have to get lunch at some point, too.

FO #2 for April and Post #2 for the day

Grr...Blogger ate my first post, so I have to remember all of the witty comments I made. Oh right, I didn't have any. Anyway, as promised:

Project Specs
Pattern: The Incredible Custom Fit Top-Down Raglan Sweater
Source: Fmarrs
Yarn: Caron Simply Soft, 100% acrylic, 1 skein each Off White, Light Sage, Dark Sage (there were leftovers of each colour)
Needles: 2 US 7 circular (1 used for the body, 2 used for sleeves)
Gauge: 6 stitches/7 rows per inch
Notes:
-This is a great first sweater pattern. It is clear, concise, and non-intimidating. It is also somewhat boringly simple. I added the colour changes and the faux-Fair Isle rows for the changes to make it somewhat more interesting.
-From the beginning this sweater kept telling me that it wanted to be short-sleeved. It just looks right to me, so I let it talk me into it.
-It is slightly too big due to the fact that when I swatched, I could have sworn I got 7 stitches per inch, and so I made all my calculations based on that number instead of 6. It wasn't until I hit the dark green stripe that I bothered to check my gauge and got the surprise. I checked various places throughout, and I seem to be pretty consistent with the 6 sts/in. I guess I just can't count. Oh well, all good wearing around the house comfy sweaters are oversized.
-I will probably rip out the hem and add a couple more inches of stockinette to the dark green band at some point. Not in the immediate future, though.

We all know what this means, right? Rogue is just around the corner! As soon as I have time to CO!!

A Letter to a Sock

Dear Jay,
You and I have been going 'round and 'round with each other for several weeks now. We had even worked out a peace treaty: you would not mess with my stitch count anymore, and I would live quietly with the holes by the heels that you kept insisting on. I held up my end of the bargain, and I thought I could trust you to do the same. But you've been increasing the stitches again! There were five extra stitches on one round yesterday! Not only is this an unacceptable violation of our peace treaty, but I have yet to figure out how and where this treason began. Honestly, your deviousness never ceases to amaze me. As punishment, you have been sentenced to being frogged back to the heel and will be used as an experiment for an afterthought heel. I know this may seem cruel and unusual, but as you and your heel have been battling with me every step of the way, I see no choice but to seperate the two of you and go with a "divide and conquer" mentality. Your mate is beautiful, quiet, clean, ready, and eager to be worn with you and treated with the respect all handknit socks deserve. Yet you are denying yourself, and your mate, that respect by being so recalcitrant and stubborn. You are actually fitting better than your mate, and I so want to be able to wear the pair of you, so I will not make empty threats such as "this is your last chance!" However, if you do give me any more grief, I will move on to a new sock project and shall hide you in some dark, isolated corner at the bottom of the WIP crate, to be released only when I remember your sorry presence and take pity. I have enough sock yarn and needles to make sure that this could be a very long time. Please think that over carefully the next time you decide to have a bit of fun.

Sincerely,
kt

Oh, and I am also finishing the raglan today. Pics will be up later. There is some talk of frogging the body back and adding a couple more inches of the dark green in order to balance the stripes out more. (Actually, I'm pretty sure I will do that, but I want to get the sleeves done first so I can claim I have a completed sweater.)I will see what it looks like with jeans first. I did decide to go with short sleeves. It just looks and feels right. And I have hemmed and hawed and finally settled on Selection A "Daffodil" for this week's KYOAMPi Clue. I need to reset my stitch markers for the 36st repeat instead of a 24st one. I'm really really enjoying this shawl, and am starting to get nervous because it hasn't caused me too many problems so far. It's probably waiting until I get to the border or something and then will pounce. I wonder when Amy Boogie's first Sock Club yarn will ship. Can't wait!

Baseball season

You, as a reasonably intelligent person, or at least a literate one, have probably deduced from my side bar that I have an interest in the Chicago Cubs. I'd like to clarify that. I am a DIE HARD CUB FAN! I miss three things from the Midwest: my family, thunderstorms, and Cubs games. We always tried to make it to a ball game at least once a season. My mom's bosses are die hard Cardinals fans, which is allowed when you live in Central Illinois, almost exactly halfway between Chicago and St. Louis, and they would always have Cardinal tickets we could use. I've been to many a game at Busch Stadium. I've even been to a few at Dodger Stadium down in LA. Both are very nice fields, and I enjoyed watching the games there. But nothing, absolutely nothing, beats Wrigley Field. (Red Sox fans are the only ones who might be able to claim similarity, I will concede that possibility having never been to Boston. Someday, though, and Wrigley will still be better!) I can't even WATCH games on TV out here, because it's not a local team so none of the local syndicates pick them up unless they are playing somewhere west of the Rockies, and then it's a crapshoot unless they are playing the Dodgers or Giants. That, and I don't have a television hooked up anyway. (I've been seriously considering signing up for MLB.com, where you can watch any game online, but it is HELLA expensive!) However, the full glory of the XM radio my parents gave me as a Christmas gift has now been revealed. I can listen to every Cubs game that doesn't overlap with a show! It's brilliant! I love it! I loved the radio before, but this takes it to new heights! I am so excited! It's really really fun to knit to, although sometimes I have to put the knitting down because I get too excited. Instead of calling each other up and saying "Oh hey, did you catch that episode of ?", my mom and I call each other up for "Did you catch that GAME?? Did you see that PLAY?? Can you BELIEVE it?!?!" and then tell each other to be quiet so we can hear the announcers on our respective medias in the background. We're insane, yeah. But I gotta say it - I LOVE baseball season!! And my Cubbies are currently doing pretty darn good. GO CUBS!!!

USPS

Okay, the bad thing about USPS shipping is that their tracking and notification system really sucks. Despite multiple attempts and requests to have email notifications, I have never been able to track a package (either recieving or sending) past "The USPS has recieved notification that your package is being shipped." The good thing is that it makes for some pleasant surprises. Such as...

My new bag from Amy Boogie's Spunky Eclectic. Isn't it great?! The colours are little off due to the flash, but I LOVE it! Thanks, Amy!!!!

And, for the curious:

A lovely wad of blue/purple lace yarn! (Please, hold your applause until after the performance!) So this is the start of my KYOA Pi Shawl. I'm about halfway through the second clue. I did Choice B last week for the first lace band and Choice A this week for the second. I'm really enjoying this so far - I've never really been intimidated by lace itself, but more of the sheer size of pi shawls. Would I have the patience for one? What if I started it and hated it and never finished it?? What if I really &*$%$!! it up and it looked terrible?? But somehow, this whole week to week thing seems to put it in a more manageable perspective. I'm not real great about knitting to deadlines, but it's nice to be getting the chunks of it and feel like I'm not trying to eat the entire elephant in one big gulp. I'm sure the "week at a time" euphoria will wear off when we start getting into 50 and 90 rows a week!

Rogue keeps whispering in my ear. She wants to get started. I have one more round of ribbing on the body of the raglan, and then the sleeves. I might be able to get that finished on Monday, if I behave myself. Jaywalker #2 and I have reached an agreement. He (these socks are definitely male, don't ask me why) can keep the damn holes where the heels join the rest of the body if he doesn't funk up the stitch count for the leg again and lets me knit peacefully. I'm not telling him that I'm hoping the holes will shrink some when he gets washed. We'll just keep that little thought to ourselves...

A pretty darn good day

The good news is that it is 11:15p.m. and I have already been home for 45 minutes! Gotta love Thursday early shows, even if they do have strange energies because they are at weird hours of the evening. And, my understudy rehearsal for Sunday might not happen, due to our poor Oliver understudy being sick AND auditioning for a role in New York. AND, next Thursday's incredibly odd (definitely not regularly scheduled) matinee is cancelled (which means that understudy rehearsal will probably go there instead, but it's a rehearsal I can schedule whenever, not a performance, and then DONE). AND my Boogie bag shipped today (that's what I'm calling it for now, as opposed to a Booga bag, which is what I made for my mama). AND the second clue for the KYOA Mystery Pi Shawl comes out on Thursday nights for me, because of the time zone difference. So I'm curled up at home, on Thursday night, with a pre-mixed mudslide, an internet connection (rare after about 10pm, the guy I'm borrowing it from must be staying up late tonight), AND a potential THREE hours of knitting time before I have to sleep at what I consider a decent hour. I even got some work done (okay, a row and a half) done on the Sock That Shall Not Be Named. (Hey, maybe I'll read Harry Potter again tonight. Oh, I think I figured out why they're cursed. The socks, I mean, not Harry Potter. He has all sorts of non-sock-related problems of his own. I think all the bad vibes and frustration during tech somehow wound their way in amongst the fibers. Maybe if I work on it in a soothing environment for a few days it will work itself out?)

@$@%^&

Stupid Jaywalkers. I'm so over these socks. The only reason I continue working on them is so I will have a pair that I can throw at someone. I don't even ever have to wear the damn things, I just want them done so they don't beat me, if that makes any sense. One is done, washed, and resting quietly on the desk. The other is on the needles and is fighting me every damn step of the way. Give me some ^&*#$@ slack here! The heel is done, after having been frogged twice. I go to restart the pattern, and I'm soo off my stitch count. Now I have to tink back, repick up the final row of the heel, and try to start the damn thing all over again. Honestly, if I hadn't already finished the one, I'd frog the entire pair and start with something new. I'm going to use my Bearfoot for my hippo socks, and those are AWFULLY tempting right now! It's really not the Jaywalker pattern itself, I just really think that I have some cursed yarn, as this one has been arguing with me every chance it gets. How to get rid of it??

Oh, and my box o' goodies came from Knitting Warehouse today. Yay! So now I have the needles and yarn for Rogue, the needles for Pomatomus, the winder and swift to get the yarn for Ene wound...Must...finish...Jaywalkers and Raglan before starting Pomatomus and Rogue...and I frogged and redid the first clue for the KYOA Pi. It looks much better, if I do say so myself.

Resistance is futile...

I think my willpower went the way of Oliver! rehearsals. Seriously, I have none right now. As you know, I recently indulged at Knitting Warehouse.com. I bought a custom bag from Amy. Both of those were indulgences that I had been semi-planning for, so they are okay. (I've been drooling over Amy's bags for months now. Months, I say!) I innocently went to check her blog today, and she is starting a Sock of the Month club. I need sock yarn like I need a hole in my head. It takes me forever to make socks. I have enough yarn for EIGHT pairs of socks already. But for some reason, the lure of homespun and hand-dyed sock yarn in a surprise array of colours (she's doing Project Spectrum, so green is this month's...I love green...and blue is next month's...I love blue, too....) is just too tempting. I had to. Now I just have to learn to make socks faster. It would help if I would stop posting here and finish the heel that I totally messed up last night.

Oh, and yeah, the lack of willpower extends to other areas of my life, right now, as well. Brownies stand no chance. Particularly turtle brownies with walnuts and caramel. Steve asked if I could stay one more day and leave tomorrow. Of course, I can't say no to that, even if my box of Knitting Warehouse goodies is patiently waiting for me at home. This whole semi-vacation thing is getting to me, I think, I'm definitely losing it...

EZ as Pi

I'm doing the Knit Your Own Adventure Pi from that Yahoo group instead of Ene's Scarf. I'm using KnitPicks Shadow in Jewels - I've been planning on using it for a pi shawl, but it always seemed so intimidating. Getting the clues once a week makes it seem more manageable somehow. I've already done the first week's clue with Choice B. I can't wait to get next week's! If I have enough clues finished by the time my parents come out to visit, I will send the shawl back with them to give to my great-grandmother. She's so excited and supportive about my knitting, and it's worth it to give something extraordinary to her. I'm so nervous about screwing it up - I've already considered frogging it and redoing what I've done, just to be sure that it's perfect. It really looks fine, but I keep telling myself that now would be the time to frog it if I wanted to fix anything...

Finishing up the heel of the second Jaywalker tonight, I hope. I'm visiting Steve down in Fullerton for a couple days, and only have the Pi and the Jaywalker with me. I will try to use the rest of the week to finish up Jaywalker and the ribbing of the Raglan. I'm planning on getting home tomorrow, and my yarn for Rogue, plus my ball winder and all those goodies should be waiting for me, as well. Now if only Steve could come home with me...

Oh, and did I mention that on top of all my other goodies, I'm also getting a custom bag from Spunky Eclectic. I can't wait! Amy has been soo great to work with, helping me figure out exactly what I wanted and needed, and the mock up bag looks great! I highly recommend her!

Knit Your Own Adventure

So I was checking out the EZasPi Yahoo group the other day. They are starting something called the Knit Your Own Adventure Pi Shawl. Clues are posted once a week, and there are four options per clue. They started today. I haven't gotten a chance to really look over any of the four options, but I've really been wanting to use that KnitPicks Shadow in Jewels for a Pi, so I'm looking at this as my opportunity. I do have one or two balls of that wound already, so I may start working on that instead of Ene this week. (FOUR days off for Easter! WOOOOOO!!) We shall see. Oh, and finally got to the ribbing on the bottom of the raglan. Yay!

Is it just me...

Or is the latest issue of Knitty a bit disappointing? I've been so looking forward to their spring issue, and normally I find one or two things that I really like in each "publishing", but this one didn't really have anything I liked. The Hedera socks are kinda cute, and so is the Reid toddler cardigan, but I don't have any toddlers to knit for. I dunno, maybe it's just me. This is not to say that there isn't anything worth knitting in there, just that nothing that strikes my fancy in particular, which is somewhat bumming.

But my order will get here on Monday. Too bad I'll be out of town snuggling with my boy (who is coming up Friday and spending the weekend so he can see Opening, yay!). If he doesn't have to be at his show's strike on Sunday, maybe I can convince him to wait and we'll go back down to LA on Monday afternoon after my package arrives....nah, he's worth more than the package any day!

Oh, and the first Jaywalker was finished Monday. It's just slightly too big, but I haven't washed it yet. The second one was the one that had laughed so hard that it dropped stitches, if you'll recall, and was a right pain in the arse to get back on the needles and to a point I could actually work on it. One of those that when you pick it back up, you go "What the HELL was I thinking/drinking last time I touched this???" I think I've finally beaten it down and gotten it under control, though. Next socks will be cuff down, just for a change of pace, and a possibly a gusset heel, to see which one I like better.

Yay, shopping!

Yeah, so that list I posted the other day...well, I still don't *HAVE* them, but they're on their way! I know, most of this stuff I could have gone over to Michaels and bought, but it's my day off, my throat hurts, and I don't want to change out of my pj's. So there. (Not that being in my pjs would have stopped me from going to the store, it was mostly the sore throat and general laziness.)

I found Knitting-Warehouse.com this afternoon and decided to check their prices on ball winders and swifts. Considerably cheaper than what I was finding elsewhere online and even on eBay, so I popped those into the old shopping cart. Hell, it's a knitting warehouse, right, I have a show opening in a week that I can give myself a congratulatory gift for (yay, I didn't kill anyone!), and I need some dpns...size 2 Silvalumes, lovely. Oh, and they have Silverado circs in the two sizes I've been looking for and are always sold out. (Yes, I like metal needles, particularly smaller sizes. I've broken too many bamboo and wooden ones!) And now that I have the 100% wool Lady, I'll need something to wash her with, so the Eucalan wound its way in. Ah, and a row counter I can use on my circular knitting. Oh, and they have the yarn that I wanted to make Rogue out of on sale! (I might be considered cheap by some, but I really enjoy Lion Brand's Wool-Ease. It drapes very similarly to 100% wool, doesn't feel itchy, is worsted weight, comes in a bajillion colours, and most importantly, is machine washable. And their Blue Heather has fixed itself into my head as the Rogue yarn since I saw it in the store the other day.) Ahhh....about the only thing I didn't find and buy was a blocking board. Mostly because I looked at a couple, and their prices, and will ask Steve to make me one when he gets access to a shop again. Hell, I could make it here at home, even, all I'd need is some padding, a couple pieces of luan or something I could use as backing, a clean large piece of fabric, a marking pen, a yardstick, and some glue and staples.

So my goals for today were to clean the apartment, set an appointment to get my windshield fixed, finish the cuff on the first Jaywalker, try on the raglan sweater for length, and swatch for Rogue with some scrap Wool-Ease. The apartment is half clean, my windshield is getting fixed on Wednesday morning, I've taken the sweater off the needles and onto scrap yarn, and I've decided size 7 needles are too small for gauge. (Aren't you proud of me, I'm REALLY swatching this time!) So cuff, continuing to swatch, and try on the sweater. Yeah, and folding and putting away laundry and washing three dishes and wiping down counters. Oh, and KnitPicks no longer has any Violet Shine in the dyelot that I need, so I don't have the yarn for Tempting like I thought I did. It's been a good day nevertheless!

Oh, and I did bid (insanely low) on a ball winder and a swift over on eBay before I found the ones I ordered. If I for some reason win these bids, I will have an extra ball winder and swift I'd be willing to swap for something. Or someone could just outbid me...

Right, and the whole plan for CO Ene today...well, ahh, it kinda hit me last night/this morning (it might 2 in the morning, but it's before I went to bed, so it's still last night) that I need at least the winder BEFORE I can start working on Ene, as her yarn is still twisted in hanks. Oops...

Shopping List

Alright, I really need:
1. a ball winder and swift (my ball winder, sadly, was the only casualty of the move and a swift would just be useful to have)

2. a 32" US6 circular needle (preferably Inox, as I love their tips for lace, Addis are a bit dull)

3. one more skein of KnitPick's Shine in Violet (so I have enough for Tempting II)

4. a blocking board that has measurements and lines and stuff on it (I wanted to post a pic of the Lady stretched out, but realized that I can't even draw a straight line, much less pin something into one. It was drunken looking, to say the least)

5. a set of US2 dpns (as much as I love ML, and my size 2 Inox, hippo socks - as they shall now be known thanks to Colleen - look like they might be easier on dpns)

The LYS here in Santa Maria kinda sucks, but I could definitely get the needles there. They're out of ball winders and swifts, and I have no idea where to find a blocking board besides online. This may be a Monday project. Now back to our regularly scheduled technical problems.

Decisions...

Cool, so I finally have a FO for the year. I was thinking this morning (it was painful, so I tried to stop but it kept nagging me) that the current lineup I have kinda works for me. I have a scarf/wrap project, a shirt/sweater project, and socks. Now that the Lady is done, my next scarf is going to be Ene's Scarf - I'm going to try to CO Monday. (I'll need something to recover from tech this weekend!)

The raglan sweater is almost done as well, I have a couple more inches on the body, and then have the sleeves, which won't take me too long. I'm pondering what I want my next sweater/shirt to be. Do I go for something summery (and that I have the yarn for already) like Tempting II, Honeymoon Cami, or the Waikiki T-Strap top that I've hoarded the yarn for for over a year now? Or do I realize that I no longer live in SoCal, that the Central Coast does not get THAT warm during the summers (the trade off for never getting too cold in the winters. It's normally 55-75 degrees ALL year, which is not a warm summer if you're used to SoCal or the Midwest), and that even if it did get warm, I'm going to be spending the summer inside rehearsal rooms and the theater with the airconditioning anyway, and make a Rogue or Ribby Cardi?

And what on earth is my next sock project going to be? I really want to play with my Bearfoot next, but want a pattern that will show off the colours and not get lost. Maybe Broadripples? Opinions will be treated with enthusiasm.

Drumroll, please....

Presenting...



Yes, the Lady Eleanor finally makes her debut on my website! Her knitting was finished at 12:04a.m. Tuesday, April 4. She spent the night stretched to all hell and back blocking on my living room floor, and her fringe was added this afternoon. Hey, it's only 32 days after the deadline...better late than never, yes?

Posting delayed due to unstable internet connection and lack of pictures on the computer at work.

Project Specs:
Name: Lady Eleanor
Pattern Source: Scarf Style by Pam Allen, design by Kathleen Power Johnson.
Yarn: Noro Kureyon, colour #134, bought from Ebay, 10 skeins (used most of it, but not all)
Needles: Boye #10 circs
Size: approx. 20" wide x 80" long (not including fringe)
Started: February 10, 2006 Completed: April 4, 2006

Notes:
-In all honesty, I could have had this done in time for the Olympics had I not been trying to move 300 miles in the meantime. It is a very easy knit, and the pattern is very clear and helpful. I've had it about 90% done for over a month before I could finally finish it.
-If I ever made this again, which is a possibility but not in the near future, I'd go with bigger needles for a more open look, and a larger scarf/stole. I would NOT use the Noro ever again if I could help it!
-My fringe is only 15" long as opposed to the 20" in the pattern, and has only six rows of knotwork. I did not trim the ends even as I rather liked the uneven-ness of it.

I'm feeling a bit anticlimatic - the heavens didn't open and pour sunshine down on her or anything! I mean, c'mon! But she was a fun knit, and I'm very glad to have her done and be able to use her during tech this weekend!

Book Meme

Borrowed this meme from Cara. Looking down the list, I realize that I can't really think of any books that I WOULDN'T read. Some of them I just have never heard about, and they wouldn't necessary grab my attention at a bookstore or library - give me murder mysteries and/or fantasy any day - but it's not like I wouldn't read them. I just haven't gotten around to them yet. Oh, and Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil should totally be on that list. (Not underlined because someone borrowed my copy and never returned it. Grrr...)

Meme instructions: Look at the list of books below. Bold the ones you've read, italicize the ones you might read, cross out the ones you won't, underline the ones on your book shelf, and place parentheses around the ones you've never even heard of.

The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown It's not on the bookshelf because Steve has it atm.
The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy - Douglas Adams
The Great Gatsby - F.Scott Fitzgerald
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
(His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman)
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - J. K. Rowling
(Life of Pi - Yann Martel)
Animal Farm: A Fairy Story - George Orwell
Catch-22 - Joseph Heller
The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien
(The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon)
Lord of the Flies - William Golding
Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
1984 - George Orwell
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - J. K. Rowling
(One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
(The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini)
(The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold)
Slaughterhouse 5 - Kurt Vonnegut
(The Secret History - Donna Tartt)
Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - C. S. Lewis
Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides
(Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell)
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
(Atonement - Ian McEwan)
(The Shadow Of The Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon)
The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway
(The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood)
(The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath)
Dune - Frank Herbert