Ice Cream!

Okay, so there's only a couple bites of Ben & Jerry's Phish Food left, but woo, more new sock yarn! Amy's Spunky Eclectic July Club Yarn arrived today. Mine has a bit more brown in it (at least it looks like on the skein), and reminds me of neopolitan (spelling?) ice cream. I swear, I have got to start knitting socks faster so I can get to all this yummy yarn! I did get to do a couple more repeats on the Cloverleafs today during rehearsal. Nothing is more boring to sit through than a music rehearsal - there is ABSOLUTELY nothing for an SM to do but sit there and listen and look interested. Normally I do not knit during rehearsals, but I made an exception today after they spent over an hour and a half on one song. I don't mean to sound disparaging, it is a song with very difficult five-part harmonies, and each person has their own line, so if one person is off even the slightest, you can tell, and they were working really hard at it, but I really couldn't take it anymore. (I decided today, although I have not had any musical direction experience, that it would be easier to teach a large cast harmonies than a small cast. More people can mess up in a large ensemble than in a small one.) Only eight more repeats for that sock, and then the ribbing, and done! I also finished the second strip of the Chunky Diagonal Throw this evening. I am telling myself to start the third strip. I leave for the wedding two weeks from tomorrow, and still have two strips and the border to knit. I think I'll be okay, though. I do want to start this strip, but maybe after I eat an apple and wash my hands. And I really should fold the three loads of laundry I did the other day...

Meme!

Stolen from Amie, because I liked it:

What was the scariest thing (or one of them if you’ve had many adventures) you ever experienced?Watching my dad board the plane here in Santa Maria to go home after he helped me move out here three years ago. It really hit me at that point that I was very much alone here, and I was terrified. Other than that, I tend to scare myself more often than anything else scares me.

Do you plan to retire where you are right now or move somewhere else?Wow, retirement. It seems sooo far away right now that I can't even really think about it seriously. Right now, I can't see myself ever actually really retiring, just being more specific about what shows I work on and where. There's no place in particular that I want to live, just somewhere warm.

Three little gifts you’re always glad to get:
Flowers. I love flowers. Any kind of flowers.
Yarn
Anything along the lines of "I saw this and thought of you..."

4 careers you might have enjoyed:
Working in Mission Control for a space mission (the reason I actually went to Purdue)
Teaching
Working as a full time YMCA Aquatic staff member
Singer (I can't act for anything, but I used to have a decent set of pipes. They're out of tune due to lack of use now, though.)

A book you loved as a child but found disappointing as an adult:Hmm...I can't really say as I've gone back and read a lot of the books recently that I read when I was younger. I can't believe I read "The Babysitters Club" series so much, but I liked them when I was eleven, if that counts.

Somebody ought to do (invent, make, write) that!A way of making all the diseased blood drain out of a person while good blood is getting pumped in. That way we could help all the people who have blood diseases like AIDS and leukemia. (I had some invention in mind earlier, but now I can't think of it and so have to go the humanitarian route.)

Where or on what could you easily drop $100? - up to 5
Yarn
Books/Audio books
Clothes (I don't buy that many clothes, but I will pay for quality and style when I do)
Blackjack tables
Tickets to see shows. I'd willingly drop $100 to see a show if I had to.

Name an adult, not a parent, who really had an impact on you before you were 18 and what made such an impression.There have been SO many people who impacted my life, it's hard to pick just one. Ms. Jones, my drama teacher in high school, was the one who honed my interest in the performing arts and encouraged it and was okay with the fact that I would rather be backstage running things than onstage and introduced me to that world (even though it was still just a hobby to me at the time). Mrs. Monts (now Ms. Marshall) was my English teacher throughout high school and drilled an appreciation for literature and grammar and research that has been of incalculable value so far. I had a love/hate relationship with her in school, but man, I have never forgotten what we learned and read and wrote in her classes. You would do your work, and you would do it correctly in her class, or you wouldn't pass. It was just that simple.

That all said, Anna is now open and running well in Solvang. My ASM is doing just as well as I expected. Dames started rehearsals this afternoon (I have to get going in a few, as my dinner is almost up). The contrast between these two shows is insane. Both casts are great, and fun, and both directors are wonderful to work with, but the shows themselves! Anna is a very simple show technically, and a very intense and emotional and difficult show plotwise (we have betrayals and rape and murder and suicide and all sorts of fun things, and it's still a beautiful show somehow). Dames is a very shallow plot (more along the lines of "I just met you! I love you! We're going to get married and live happily ever after right after this big tap number!" That's pretty much the whole plot.) but is going to be a difficult show technically (I get to collapse a set onstage with a wrecking ball at the end of Act I and build a battleship for Act II, it'll be great!). I love theater, it's so varied. I need the fluff right now.

Strip #2 of the Chunky Diagonal Throw is almost done. I might be able to get away with working on it this evening, but not sure yet.

Project Whore!

Yes, we've discussed this in the past, and yes, again I was unable to control the urge to start a new project in lieu of a current one. I did indeed start the Chunky Diagonal Throw (the Lion Brand pattern I linked to the other day) on Monday. And I'm not sorry in the slightest. I already have one full strip done and am starting the fourth stripe on the second one. That's almost the same amount of work in about half the time. So, I'm validated, see? Of course, I haven't gotten any work done on anything else, but who cares? Same three colors as the Log Cabin, along with a sunny yellow and white to balance it out. It's actually quite pretty and colourful, and I can't wait to get it done so I can admire it before I give it to Becki. I may have to make another one for myself afterwards. Pics will be up soon. I have another idea for a future Log Cabin that I already like better, but will have to get this one done first, and soon, as the wedding is August 12!

Thanks for the feedback on the sweater. Again, there would definitely be some modifications to it - I would probably not do the center strips quite so high in the boob diamonds (if I did them at all), I would change the sleeves slightly, and I might try to do it in the round, as well. Gotta finish Rogue first, and I don't have nearly enough cotton for that sweater, so will have to save up and get some. I think my next sweatery project will be that Pinwheel Sweater/Jacket over at Elann.

Anna's done in Santa Maria and the Solvang tech is going extremely well. I will have to go back down with them tomorrow and Saturday, and then pop down once or twice a week, if I can. I currently have no ASM for Dames, which starts rehearsals on Tuesday, so I'm kind of busy right now. I'm hoping the work will distract me sufficiently to not worry about other such petty things as relationships. I'm pretty sure the only males a girl can depend on are her daddy and her cat. Maybe a brother, but little brothers are strange things. Yarn helps, too =)

Doncha Just Hate It When That Happens?

When you're already emotionally invested in one project, as a gift no less, and you're nearing the deadline for it, and THEN you find that PERFECT pattern that you wish you had had two months ago when you were first trying to figure out what you wanted to make?

I've been working on the Log Cabin for my friend Becki, who is getting married Aug. 12, driving myself nuts trying to get squares done when it's a pain in the butt to pick up stitches in Homespun, and then, I open my email this morning to find this pattern. (I know Lion Brand can be picky. You may have to register or sign in to see the pattern.) It's gorgeous. I love it. It would be a simple, quick knit. I love the design of it. It would be a PERFECT wedding gift for Becki. But now I've already started the Log Cabin, which I don't like at all. Well, okay, that's not true. I do like it, but it's going much slower than I had anticipated and to me it still feels and looks a little wonky. Such torment! What to do?? This is what I have done so far of the Log Cabin:

Yup. Two full squares and one that is about 3/4 done on the needles. That's it. I had another square almost done, but I was playing around with a way of keeping the stitches live. I had this inane idea that if I could keep the edge stitches live, then I could graft the whole thing together (no, kitchener stitch does not bother or scare me). But it's much more trouble than it's worth, and then I didn't have the yarn to bind it off properly, so the whole square got frogged. I might have to make a trip to Michaels today and see if they have any Wool-Ease Chunky....

Oh, and I really really wanted to have these

done for Solvang this week. But now this stupid afghan is getting to me. I'm so close on the socks! I turned the heel of the second one yesterday after desperately needing a break from picking up stitches. The STR is very nice, btw, but I think the Bearfoot is still my favourite. I'm pondering doing either Pomatomus or April Fool's Day socks next. Both are cuff-down, which will not really be a first, but definitely not a comfortable technique for me. The April Fool's would be easy enough to convert to toe-up, but I should really bite the bullet and learn. I also want to try a real heel flap and gusset.

And, because I can:

He looks like the grumpiest cat, ever, eh? =)

A Traumatic Day

Teddie and I went through the rite of First Visit To The Vet this afternoon. He hates hates hates the cat carrier and car rides and cried and yowled and complained the WHOLE way. Luckily, it is only about twelve blocks away. Honestly, you have never heard such pathetic meowing in your life. Luckily, the waiting room was empty when we got there, so he calmed down a little, but only if I was sitting right next to him. He didn't like it when he didn't know where I was. He hated going into the carrier, but was too scared to come out to get examined. It's amazing how a ten pound cat can turn into thirty pounds of dead weight when they don't want to move. To give him credit, though, he never cried or tried to run or hiss or anything. He really didn't like getting his temp taken, but then, I can't really fault him for that. Everything seems to be okay, except he does have allergies, which is why he has been scratching so much at his eyes and making his poor eyelids bleed. Poor guy had to endure yet another shot, this one for steroids to control the allergic reactions, and now has to get ointment rubbed on his eyes three times a day and will have to start taking oral steroids once the shot wears off, in about ten days or so. At least it wasn't mites. Oh, and the vet told me that even if you get the flea and tick stuff labelled "for cats and kittens" at the pet store, unless it is Advantage or FrontLine, it can still be fatally toxic to kitties, so be careful. I really liked the vet, he was very grandfatherly and gave me some good advice. Anyway, Teddie is now back to hiding under the bed (after cussing me out like crazy during the car ride home), and I have enough cat hair on my shirt to spin an entire skein of sock yarn and won't be able to afford to eat for the rest of the month. We're both recovering.

Oh, and check out this pattern at Elann and tell me what you think. I think that with a few modifications (mostly so's I could wear it in public without getting arrested), it would be a really cool sweater. Guy friends tend to agree, although a couple thought it was "slutty". Girl friends tend to be split 50/50.

Gotta go do a show. Four more left in Santa Maria, and then I get to baby sit Solvang for a week. Joy of all joys =P

I had a very strange dream last night. I seemed to be back in high school, first day of senior year, only it wasn't anywhere close to the same building layout. The people were still the same. My HS assigned the lockers in alphabetical order, and we had a tiny class, so I had the same group of people around my locker since junior high. Those people showed back up in the dream. However, for some reason, I didn't get a class schedule like everyone else, and when I went to the office to get one, they said that they had a package for me. It was one skein of a rough, rainbow coloured yarn (you know, primary, Crayola rainbow colors) and another skein of the same colorway, but batting. (Sorry, I don't know what the proper word for a hunk of batting is, so I used skein.) My first thought was "This is great, but I don't know how to spin! What am I going to do?!" When I looked back down at it, it had turned itself into a spun skein of yarn, but now I wonder if my subconscious is telling me something...I've also been wondering more about crocheting, but I already have enough projects, knitting and non-knitting, to last me until Kingdom come. We'll see.

I do have the first of the Cloverleaf socks done, and a respectable portion of the second. Done a couple more rows on Rogue (that seems to be the story of my life lately), and almost finished another Log Cabin square last night while watching Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire again.

Terrified poor Teddie yesterday after running the vaccuum, the garbage disposal, and the dishwasher all in one day. He finally crawled out of hiding around 10p.m. He's definitely much more sociable now, and he will come out and jump up in my lap and such in the evenings, but during the day, he pretty much stays in his cabinet. No sprawling out and sleeping in the sunshine for this kitty, I guess. Maybe he's a vampire kitty, sort of like a feline Bunnicula. I haven't noticed any white food leftover, though.

Steve finally gave me an answer. We're not going to try again right now. We might at some point in the future if we want to, but not now. Definitely not the answer I wanted to hear, but somehow, I feel better at least knowing. He's still my best friend, though, and I think part of the comfort is knowing that. Doesn't always make it easier, but it does help. I will still be hurt and jealous if and when he goes out with any other girl, though, but oh well. I've been hurt and jealous before. And, hell, both he and I know that there is no one like me!

Mmm...so totally got stood up by Steve on the Fourth, who then seemed baffled and ticked when I chewed him out for it. Again, what is it with males?? I ended up going up to Pismo Beach with a bunch of other techs (Steve included, was a weird day) and hanging out on the beach for a while, drinking and watching the fireworks off the pier and the amatuers along the beach. The fireworks were nice. I told Steve that the next move was his - I was not going to contact him or do anything, as I'm obviously so much of a distraction to him that it's confusing him more (his words). Haven't seen or talked to him since. His loss.

Teddie and I have worked out a decent compromise. He sleeps during the day in his little kitty bed that I have put in the cabinet under the sink. It gives him a safe and comfy hidey hole, and I know where he is. When I am home in the evenings or late afternoons, we chat and he'll eventually come out to the sound of my voice and cuddle with me. He's agreed to wear his collar and looks very handsome. He'd probably come out more during the day, but it's hard to talk to an empty room after a while. He gets fed dry food in the morning and a small can of wet food when I go to bed. It seems to work for us.

I have done several more rows of the Rogue hood, and am about half done with the leg of the first Cloverleaf sock. I did the first square of the Log Cabin afghan, as well. My sock yarns keep talking to me, though, particularly the Berry Pickin' from Spunky Eclectic. It somehow magically wound itself into a ball the other night, and is now teasing me. I may have to go back to doing a pair of those at the same time, as I think my size 1's would be best for that yarn. I might get really really bold and try a pair of cuff-down socks and even a real heel and flap. I love my short row heels, but one should always branch out and learn new techniques. Besides, as much as I hate picking up stitches, I ALWAYS seem to be ending up with a project that requires it anyway. I think I will finish the first Cloverleaf and CO for the second, and then CO the Berry Pickin for some April Fool's socks.

Oh, I do have today off and have been really good about cleaning up the place and doing laundry and all that nonsense. I do have to stop by the office, though, and pick up my book for Dames so I can get some prep work done early for it. I don't really trust my ASM to do it correctly, and...I will be in VEGAS for the weekend before we start rehearsals! So, two weeks from today, I will be on the road with John (the magician I SM for when he has gigs) heading to Vegas, where he is taking care of my room and some compensation from Thursday until Sunday! We have a very very small show on Friday at the Stardust, but it should be very easy and I'll have the rest of the weekend in Vegas with a group of people I consider friends! I cannot wait!

Think I'm gonna head down to Solvang and see Beauty and the Beast tonight, as it will be one of the last times I'll be able to catch it. If you know anyone who is coming to the Central Coast, tell them about Anna in the Tropics here at PCPA. The audiences have LOVED it - every single house we've had so far has been on its feet during curtain call - but since it isn't a big name musical, we're having poor ticket sales here at the Marian. Solvang is supposedly selling better, but then, down there, most of our audience are the tourists, whereas up here, they are mostly locals. Anyway, gotta go finish laundry and get some warm clothes out for tonight!

Just a random plug and moral question...

I found Wildhorse Farm Designs quite by accident yesterday. Lisa has some great (non-lacy! Okay, there was one lacy pattern I liked and bought) sock patterns (a little pricey, but what the hell), and really truly great customer service. One of the patterns I bought didn't download properly, so I emailed her. Within half an hour, I had a very apologetic response with the correct file attached! Blew me away! She seems very nice, and I'm glad I spent the money there.

Now for the moral/ethical question of the day. Looking at her patterns was very inspiring to me, both because they are fun patterns, but also because as soon as I saw the pics, I could start "deconstructing" them and figuring out the pattern on my own. I'm kind of proud of that, as it tells me that I am starting to be able to "read" not only my own knitting, but that I have learned enough about techniques and whatnot to start to read other people's as well. Now, my question is, is it okay to do this? I mean, if I figure out the Isoceles sock pattern and make the socks, but didn't buy the pattern, have I done something unethical? If anyone asked, I would, of course, tell where I had found the picture that inspired me to make them. Would I then give the designer credit for the inspiration? Or the pattern itself? Or should I just spend money on a pattern I don't need to make the socks? Discuss.

Opening!

So Anna opened last night to very positive reviews. We weren't really sure how the show would go over in this particular community, but all of the feedback we've heard so far has been very positive. I must confess, I didn't really like the show myself when I first read it and we started working on it, but it has really grown on me. There are some really beautiful and powerful moments, and I think that if the audience is willing to come, they will really identify with the story. That, and I had a really great dress for the party afterwards and made Steve and a few other guys drool. So that was fun, too =) (No, I'm really not above petty vanity sometimes!)

Teddie has been far more social lately. I generally know where he is now, and he even came out and laid up on the bed with me last night and stayed even when I wasn't petting him. We've tried to block under the stove, though, so he can't get to that hidey hole anymore. He's definitely a night owl, which works out well for me. The only conflicts we've had recently has been the fact that he wants me to wake up at six or seven in the morning to give him attention. I don't think he realizes that I don't get to sleep all day like he does. Oh well. This coming week will be better, since I will be in performance schedule and be home more.

Still working on the Cloverleaf sock. Did a few more rows of the Rogue hood. For some reason, this hood is just DRAGGING and I can barely bring myself to work on it. It's not difficult knitting, in fact, most of it is stockinette. Maybe I'll sit down with it tomorrow and just bang it out. I really want to get to the sleeves, for some reason. I was trying to wait for Cara to start her Log Cabin KAL, but since I have a deadline on this, I started mine a bit early. Maybe she'll still let me play. I haven't quite finished my first square yet, but I probably could today if I work on it during the show. Binding off loosely is a very important skill for this particular pattern, I've learned. Otherwise, I can't pick up the stitches again in the dark booth! I'm using three colours of Homespun that I had in my stash - Cobalt (blue/purple), Florida Keys (green), and Covered Bridge (red). Not a combination that I would naturally pick out, but I kind of like it. Far more colourful that pretty much everything else I'm knitting right now. I keep switching back and forth between the Cloverleaf and the afghan square for show knitting.

One matinee today, then understudy rehearsal tonight (which should go fairly quickly) and then TWO days off! We are getting Tuesday off because of the Fourth (the Equity folk decided that they would rather have the Fourth as their day off, so many of them are actually in rehearsal or performance tomorrow, which is strange), but because I'm in a performance schedule right now, and Anna doesn't have a show or rehearsal tomorrow, I get Monday off as well! Yay!