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

Determination

I am determined. This is the end of the third month of the year. If you recall, my New Year's resolution was to have an FO each month. So far I have been wildly unsuccessful, although I have three projects in various stages of nearing completion. Hence, the determination. The knitting part of the Lady will be finished by Monday evening. Preferably earlier than that, so I can start blocking her Monday evening, but that remains to be seen. If I do a couple of squares a day/night (before and after work) and then hit it hard Monday, I should be fine. I'm definitely NOT going anywhere this weekend. The past two Mondays I have been out of town, snuggling with my boy down in Orange County. This weekend, I just don't have the energy to make the 9 hour round trip drive in less than 24 hours and spend the night on a couch or floor. It sucks that I won't get to see him, but I know he'll be too tired to make the drive up here for the weekend - he's getting back from USITT and going straight into tech for a show he's designing - in which case I wouldn't be able to spend time with him anyway because of double rehearsals on weekends, and I know I'll be too tired to make the drive down for a day. Transporters totally need to be invented, working, and available to the general public NOW! Or Floo powder or Portkeys or SOMETHING! I want him here, or I want the drive and scheduling to be more convenient. But anyway, enough whining. If I can't have him, I can at least snuggle in with my new paperback (a J.D. Robb collaboration called Bump in the Night) and my knitting.

Venting - Very long, not about knitting, and soley posted to release my own angst

Okay, I work at a professional theater conservatory. This means that, although we do professional shows and are a for-profit company, we are also a two-year school for aspiring actors and theater technicians attached to a local community college. One of the reasons I love my job is because of the teaching opportunities. On this particular show, I have a second year student assigned as one of my assistants. Fairly common, although I had worked with this student before and, although he is pleasant and bright, he is not the most reliable of people, which is a necessary trait in the position he was assigned. Concerns were voiced by myself and some others, and shushed down in the hopes that Student would take this opportunity to prove himself. Concerns were soon proven valid, he has been late, been "sick" on weekends after having been seen partying the night before, and, this weekend,just plain didn't show up for calls without leaving any messages. EVERY time I have reported this to the Powers That Be, an excuse comes up from somewhere that lets him off the hook. This last time, I all but got called a liar to my face, and was told that he HAD called and left a message on MY extension. (They "know" because HE said so, and I have nothing better to do with my time than make up stories to get my students in trouble, you know! Okay, they didn't say that exactly, but that was certainly a subtext I heard.) I ALWAYS check my messages, especially when people are MIA, and there wasn't one. Do they really think that as soon as he didn't show up, and we couldn't get in touch with him, that I wouldn't have checked my phone??? We checked every extension in the office, and there was no message. Not only that, but they are just NOW telling me that I can't call Student in for any office work OR rehearsals this week because of USITT. He's not in Kentucky this week. He is going to his classes. People have seen him. But he's an ASM who is not required to be at rehearsals for a show that opens in two and a half weeks?? And he gets out of it for a WEEK?? Why the HELL was he assigned to this particular show slot, then?? And, why didn't anyone else know about this? The Artistic Director (the head of the company, for the uninitiated) himself didn't even know that. (Yes, I stomped on some toes by going straight to the Artistic Director, as Student's direct supervisors/hierarchy are at USITT this week, so no one else was around, nor did either of them bother getting back in touch with me about the situation until AFTER I went to the Artistic Director.) This is all so frustrating! I mean, I don't want the kid kicked out of the conservatory or to make his life more difficult, but I don't want someone I can't rely on working on this show. Is that so much to ask? He's PROVEN that he is unreliable. I can't make it too much clearer. How am I supposed to work him back into the show now? We are blocking all of Act II this week and running for the first time this weekend. He's missing all of that because of this stupid "USITT release" policy. And then I'm somehow supposed to work him back into the running of the show a week before we go into tech?! Granted, he's basically going to be Furniture Mover, as that's all I could really trust him to do at this point, but it's also the principle of the thing. That kind of conflict would NEVER have been approved for an actor, student or intern, in the conservatory. That kind of conflict would only have been approved for a tech intern or student if they were actually GOING to USITT, because we like our kids and encourage them to go and network and get jobs. Most of the second years are going, along with one first year. But if you're NOT going, and you're not going BECAUSE you're assigned to a show that is currently in rehearsal, is it so totally unreasonable to expect that you should actually BE at those rehearsals?

Unfortunately, it's really turning into an issue that is showing the splits in the company. The Artistic Director, PSM, and Dir. for the Acting Conservatory agree with me that this is a serious situation and we need to look into some other assignment options for Student. The PM and the Dir. for the Tech Conservatory are trying to get it covered up and tell me that I'm making too big of a deal out of this. If this was a real world situation, I'd have fired the kid on the spot when he didn't show up and went incommunicado, especially since this is the THIRD time that I have had to file a concern against him. I've only been here a month now. I was woken up this morning by the PSM (who is at USITT this week along with the DTC and the PM) calling to tip me that the DTC was on the warpath that I had gone over his head. It's a pissing contest, and that irritates the hell out of me.

This has given me a headache already. I need to go knit.

hmm...

I actually had a post thought out and titled and everything in my head last night, but of course, now that I'm logged in, I can't remember any of it. Memory's the second thing to go, y'know. I can't remember what the first is...

The director is insane, but in a good way. She's very fun to work with and cracks us up at least once a night. Very high energy, and kind of flighty, too. I mean, she's done her homework, and she knows what she wants, but she does get distracted easily. Between her, the musical director, and the choreographer (both of whom are ALSO tightly wound/fast inner tempo/however you'd like to put it people), I feel like the only sane, calm, cool, and collected person in the room sometimes! It's a lot of fun, though, and the show is in good shape. We're going to try to stumble through Act One this weekend, so that should be fun.

Spent Monday down in Fullerton with Steve. He had a lighting call in the evening, so I got some more Jaywalking done along with several episodes of Law and Order. Gotta love TNT. Couple more inches on the leg, and then the ribbing, and the first sock of that damn pair will be done. Then I might actually get to report a sock to Amie's 2000-sock count! Finally.

I'm having last-minute terrors of the Lady Eleanor. She's still pretty small right now at 50-odd rows. I should have knit her on 11's instead of 10's. Should I frog and redo? I tell myself no, but she's barely past 60" right now, and I only have one skein left. I'm a tall girl and want it to wrap nicely. I could buy more yarn, but not until after I get a paycheck and my tax refund and...well...you get the idea. Buying yarn is not in the cards right now. Besides, I have tons of it already. Any suggestions what to do with a bunch of WotA? I have three skeins each of about 8 different colours now. Not enough to do anything big with any of the colours, but not sure of nice ways to combine them, other than felted bags and such.

Cleaned the apartment, did dishes, did laundry, finished a props list, and thought I'd get some knitting time in before the ten million meetings I have this afternoon, but this post took up most of it. Oh well. Will do some more tonight after rehearsal.

Top o' the Mornin'!

Okay, so it's afternoon already. Picky, picky.

Yes, I'm Irish (with a whole side of the family named Kelly, how could I not be? I'm also Scottish - McHaney, German - Ottmann, Swedish - Lindbolm, and French - Trummel. Trummel is not pronounced the French way anymore, though, it's been totally Midwestern Americanized. There's also some Native American thrown in there, too, I believe. I'm a pure-bred mutt, as my mom used to say.) Yes, I'm wearing green. No, I will not be imbibing any strangely coloured beers today, unfortunately, as I have rehearsal tonight, and all day tomorrow. Damn responsibilities! And I probably wouldn't, anyway, as I've not met m'self a beer I liked. If it had to be green, you could pass me a Midori sour or five, though.

But just to prevent me from rambling:


and



Happy?

progress

Heel's turned on the first Jaywalker. Finally. Did a short row heel again. I like short row heels. With YOs, instead of wraps. No wraps for heels, please. Lady is stretched out on my living room floor. Still one more skein to do. Raglan is curled up on the floor by the bed. Maybe Monday I'll buy a new e-book or two and work on that and the Lady again all day. It seems about the only time that I can, since I can't carry those two around with me like I can the socks.

Still coughing and sniffling from the cold. Ugh. I'm sure the director thinks I'm this unprofessional stage manager who can't sit for two minutes without making some sort of disgusting noise. Honestly, I can't BREATHE without making some kind of noise. And I'm so sick of Kleenex, you can't imagine.

Gotta go grab a shower and fix some lunch so I can sit through design and production meetings all afternoon before rehearsal. Again, HOW were they expecting me to not go into overtime?? They will probably breathe a sigh of relief when my staff contract kicks in and I go to a salary instead of hourly pay!

TGIM??

Yes, I know, it's crazy. Most of the world looks forward to Fridays and weekends. I look forward to Mondays. Why? Because the reason that most of the world looks forward to weekends is because they don't have to work and can go out and get entertainment. My job is in entertainment. Therefore, we poor saps work while the rest of the known world puts their collective feet up. We don't get time off until after you all have gone grumbling and moaning and "ugh it's Monday"-ing back off to work. Then we proceed to collapse for 24 hours until we get to start all over again. Oh, and because Actors' Equity (the acting union and one of the Powers That Be in the live entertainment world) mandates that actors (and stage managers, who somehow fall under the acting union's aegis, not IATSE, which would be the theater tech union) get one business day off per 7-day time frame so they can do errands like go to the bank, and deal with the rest of you all who work normal work weeks. And I just put in a 60 hour, 7-day work week, and I've had a fairly irritating cold since Thursday, so I'm whiny and very glad it's Monday. Not only is it my normal day off, but I actually CAN'T go into work and get paid for it today. Racked up too many hours already and payroll is going "Erk! Overtime! No more!" Now, I'm not sure how they figured I could do six days a week, with nine 4-hour rehearsal blocks, plus prep and paperwork (there's at least an hour worth of paperwork for each rehearsal), plus attend meetings and deal with my students, WITHOUT going into overtime, but as long as I get paid fairly for the work I do, I don't really care. (BTW, "Food, Glorious Food" is going to be fantastic. So is "Consider Yourself" - think of the choreography for the waiters' dance right before "Hello, Dolly" in the Barbara Streisand movie version. Phenomenal. This show is going to be amazing! Wish I had taken dancing and could be performing in this one!)

This is getting really long already. Anyway, my original thought to share was that, it being Monday, and my sweet, sweet Steve having bought me Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire on DVD yesterday when he was visiting ("I know you've had a long week and you aren't feeling good." Steak, mashed potatoes, creamed corn, and green beans ready and waiting for me on my dinner break. "I know you don't like green beans but you're sick and they're good for you, so eat them anyway." Seriously, if he didn't have me hooked on him already, I didn't stand a chance after melting into THAT puddle of "he's wonderful" goo! Too bad he can't stay up here yet. May 26th!), my big plans for the day are watching Harry Potter and working on the Lady. On skein nine of ten!

Well, whaddya know?!

Apparently, I've been purling incorrectly for, well, since I learned to purl, what, two years ago (I'm in my third year of knitting) now! It took learning to knit backwards for the Lady E and Danica and then doing the first heel of a Jaywalker to realize it. I kept wondering why all of a sudden when I purled my stitches got twisted, but when I knit backwards they were fine. I mean, obviously, I know how to purl, and knitting backwards was the problem, right? Umm...no. I pulled out some of my earlier projects to reassure myself. Nope, now that I know what I'm looking for, every other row is twisted in all of my stockinette! I checked three or four different projects, and they're all the same. Why I never realized it before, I have no idea. (It does explain, however, the really cool texture to the heels of my Sockotta socks! I might continue to do that for sock heels.) I do know what a twisted stitch looks like, and I really do know how a stitch *should* be seated on the needle. I guess it has been so long since I've had to do any purling, since most of my projects for the past year have been garter or stockinette in the round, that I just never realized it. It doesn't seem to affect ribbing at all, though, except perhaps to make it tighter on sock cuffs? Could be why I've been having a problem with them being too tight? I checked The Knitter's Handbook, my new Bible, and I Can't Believe I'm Knitting!, and I guess you're supposed to go over the needle and through, not under it and through. It makes sense, I just have to train my hands to do it correctly.

Oh, and I've done another inch or so on the raglan, a couple of squares on the Lady, and am almost done with a heel on the first Jaywalker. The two of them have been sent to seperate corners for laughing so hard at me, and will continue to be seperate entities until I have had my say and finished the damn things them. It does make them go faster, I will admit.

Oliver! started rehearsals this week, and is going well. We've just been learning ensemble music and dialect this week. Honestly, if a group of 8 to 15 year old energetic kids singing their hearts out and trying to learn a Cockney accent isn't enough to crack you up with cuteness, I can't really think of what would. Sickness is starting to go around, though, so I'm expecting their next few rehearsals to be a bit sparse. Hopefully, they'll all be okay. I hope the adults and students will be, too, of course, but they're just not as cute. They start choreography tomorrow - that should be fun!

And the apartment is DONE! Everything is unpacked and put away and clean and pretty! We desperately need a dresser or chest or something for the bedroom - all of our clothes are hanging up or on the one upper shelf or on the closet floor - and the only places to sit are the floor, the bed, the toilet, or the two desk chairs, so we can't really invite company yet, but it's getting there! And it's OURS! Steve will be up this weekend again, can't wait!

Random thoughts

Ahh...Monday, my day off. And what am I doing? Sitting in the office so I have access to the internet so I can get some banking things taken care of. Ugh! We also had to tape down the set in the rehearsal space this morning, too, so it wasn't a total day off anyway. Rehearsals start tomorrow - I can't wait!!

Steve came up this weekend, and we finished getting everything out of storage. Now I just have tons of boxes of trinkets and small things that don't really fit anywhere to unpack. Of course, the stash got unpacked and fondled and lovingly put away last night. (After the Harry Potter books, though.) I have (erk!) three medium sized boxes and a small plastic basket full of yarn now. The acrylics went into one, the natural fibers in the other, and the sock yarns went into the bottom of the "project bin". My thinking is that when (if) I want (get) to work on new socks, I'll have to paw through all my UFOs WIPs first. So far, the only casualty of the move seems to have been my ball winder. It looks like one of the plastic gears inside snapped in two. Guess I have to add a new ball winder to my list o' things to get after I get paid again! Maybe I'll get a swift to go with it this time!

It's a rainy, chilly day in Santa Maria, and I would really really love to kick back with a movie and knit all day. I could probably get my raglan sweater done, or the next skein of the Lady, who has been sorely neglected the past two weeks. Remember when I said the Jaywalkers were mocking me for not getting them finished in time? Apparently they laughed so hard that at least one of them dropped their stitches! I picked them up for the first time in ages the other day and have already noticed at least three dropped stitches on one of them. I'm really thinking at this point that I want to take one off and do them seperately. Apparently, I'm going to have to frog back anyway. I should probably at least attempt to get clothes unpacked first, though.

I ranted a week or so ago about this on the KR Forums that I really have been disappointed with the Noro Kureyon. That dislike continues, unfortunately. The colours are unbelieveable, I'll grant, but I don't care if I'm buying the yarn from an eBay dealer or straight off the spinner's wheel, big factory or not, when I pay for yarn, I expect it to be of good quality. I don't mind paying for quality, especially when it's for hand-painted colourways. I do mind when I pay and don't get it. Yarn should not be dirty, not have leaves, twigs, and spliters strewn through it, not be SO unevenly spun that it's impossible to keep a consistent guage. Mistakes happen, I know, but honestly! KnitPicks needs to come out with some varigated wools. I've really enjoyed working with the WotA so far. Much better than the Kureyon, it's just the colours! So frustrating! I'm very very interested now in getting some of that "dye your own" yarn and playing with that. Not in the near future, though.

Alright, running away from work! This whole no internet at home thing is killing me. That's DEFINITELY on the list for the next paycheck - argh!

I am alive!

Just very busy, and don't have internet at home anymore. Probably won't for a month or so. We can get into our new apartment tomorrow - until then I'm staying with a friend. I can't wait! I even got to take a half hour or so to work on the Lady last night, and my friend said, "Oh, knitting! I should really get back into that!" She was even more enthusiastic when I pointed out that this was my "Katie is NOT going to freeze in Solvang this year project".

On that note, I hate Noro Kureyon (the yarn, not the colours) right now, and I still have two skeins to go. I'm hoping that once we get everything moved in and the rehearsal schedule gets set, I'll have some more time!

Olympian!

Well, I didn't get a gold, but I did indeed participate, which still makes me an Olympian. I console myself with the fact that I am working on a great project, and I did actually get the amount of knitting in that I had planned on. Next time I will swatch better and get a better idea of sizing so I will know if the amount of knitting in the pattern is actually going to be enough or not. But it was supposed to be a learning and challenging experience and it was.

And I have a completely cleaned and packed apartment, and most of it is safely stored in a city 250 miles away, so I can't really say I was able to dedicate all my time to it. The packed, stored, and moved apartment is a far greater accomplishment, in my opinion. At least, the whole having a roof over your head thing is nicer than having a partially finished yarn fabric piece, no matter how pretty it is. On that note, however, the Lady is gonna get finished soon before I go nuts!

Also, I cannot wait to get working on Oliver! It's going to be absolutely crazy - 40 cast members, including 13 Young Performers (kids, aka YP's) and a dog! But it should be a lot of fun, too! Starting Tuesday!

Silver or Bronze?

LOL...I'm sooo not going to get this done. I COULD, maybe, get all the knitting done by Sunday, but probably wouldn't have time to block and fringe it. I am going to go with just knitting until I run out of yarn. I'm wanting to actually use this thing, not just say that I made it. And I know the crochet edging is going to take me some time to figure out, as I've never crocheted in my life. Should be interesting! In all fairness, though, I am going to get the knitting the pattern calls for completed in time. I just feel that that particular amount of knitting isn't going to be enough, and unfortunately, didn't realize it before hand. Will have to train smarter for the next Olympics!

btw, I take comfort in the fact that other, far more experienced knitters, are having similar crunch-time issues. I'm petty like that, but it's all in good fun. We're all knitters, and that's what counts!

I am going to be happy to finally have a FO for this year, and I can get back to my Jaywalkers and maybe finally get those #@%@#^^&%#$ socks that project finished. Note: I do actually enjoy the pattern, and the socks, and the yarn, I just WANT THEM DONE! They are sitting there, packed up in their box like a good little project, MOCKING me because I haven't finished them YET! This must stop!

Oh, and I'm totally saving up for one of Amy Boogie's bags. I really love the collegiate one. I can so see myself toting around my prompt book, my spiral notebook, and my knitting project in one convenient bag! Gotta wait until probably April or May, though, until we get settled in financially. Maybe I'll get one as a birthday present to myself...

Dilemma

Okay, I'm slightly worried now - I just finished tier 28 and still have just over four skeins left. Do I go to the pattern limit of 37 tiers (35 pattern tiers plus the two base triangle rows) or do I go until I run out of yarn? I budgeted my time for the 37 rows. I could do a skein a day, but Steve might get a tad upset with me, although he knows of this dilemma. I'm a little worried that the 37 might not be big enough, but then, she is VERY stretchy right now, and I think could grow a lot during blocking. And I'm just boggled that Marji (see the Olympic Knitting Lady E KAL) has already finished 12 skeins and 52 rows!!! I feel so behind now! Hers is absolutely beautiful, though, go check it out!

Enabling

Steve cracks me up. I didn't get much knitting done yesterday because we spent most of the day packing and cleaning and then playing games together. (We're on a game kick, too, I think it helps with the moving stress for both of us.) I had that one tier about half done, and Steve starts getting ready for bed. I start to put the knitting down, not saying ANYTHING, and he goes "You have to finish that row, still! You slacker, pick it back up! I'll just turn away from the light so you can keep knitting." So he's the only reason that the one tier got finished at all. And then this morning, this was the conversation:
Me:"How much more do we have to get done? I want to knit a lot today."
Him: "Yeah, you have to catch up, you're totally behind."
Me: "Well, it's your fault, you were distracting me yesterday!"
Him: "Me? I made you finish that row! You could have kept going, you know."
Me: "Yeah, but I finished that skein and didn't want to start a new one at midnight."
Him: "Wimp. Are you going to have enough to finish or do you have to buy more?"
Me: "I'm good. Go to class so I can knit."
Him: "Okay, you'd better be caught up by the time I get home!"

Day 5

Three things today:

1.) I am behind in my Olympic pace as of today. I got one tier done, instead of the ideal three, due to packing. Will probably catch up tomorrow, as most of the packing is now done. Don't get me started on how much I hate moving and packing. Particularly when we don't have an apartment to move TO yet and money is...well, it isn't, unfortunately. STRESS!

2.) I can't remember what #2 was supposed to be. I'm sure it was of great importance and would have changed people's lives, however. It was probably some smart-aleck comment anyway. Give me a break, it's 12:30 at night!

3.) My friend Alexis (non-knitter) has a far more interesting result for knitters who don't finish in time. According to her, the knitting police will come to your door, act all nice so you'll let them in, and then proceed to "knit you to your chair and take away all of your needles and yarn so you can Never Knit Again!" While I am completely happy with the current set of rules (particularly given my showing thus far), hers would indeed make things more dramatic.

Olympics

I've been slacking a little bit, but for good reasons. We have been apartment hunting and getting things packed and sorted and whatnot. But, I did get a good amount of knitting done on Saturday, so I am still on pace to get her finished if I don't slack too much more. Here's what I have as of noon Tuesday:


Off to knit some more! Check out some more Olympic Ladies at the Lady Eleanor Olympic KAL blog! They're gorgeous!

Warming Up and Cooling Down

The Warm-up:
Sixteen and a half hours until Olympic cast on! I really cannot wait to start working on the Lady! She's been flaunting her yarn at me for almost a month now! I'm going to do her on size 10 needles, since I only have ten skeins total. I'm planning on nine and a half (ish) skeins of body with the last half skein for fringe. The real challenge is that we have to go up to Hanford and Santa Maria again this weekend, and are planning on leaving around 2:00 tomorrow! I've already warned Steve that I will be knitting in the car again. The best part is that his parents have cable, and while the Olympics ARE on NBC, it comes in much better on their television than on ours. I really hope they don't want to go out for dinner Friday night...I didn't get to see Sydney, Salt Lake City OR Athens Opening Ceremonies, and I am bound and determined to watch this one! It's like the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade for me - it's something Mom and I always did together and just because we live 1500 miles apart now doesn't mean diddly. If I ever have kids (god forbid - I have this fear of having a little girl - what if she turns out like me?) I hope that they grow to enjoy watching certain events with me, too.

The Cool-Down:
I'm going to have to drop out of the Jaywalker KAL. It sucks, and I really don't want to, but there is no way I am going to be able to finish this pair by Feb. 14. I'm about an inch away from the heels still, on toe ups, and the Olympics start tomorrow. I want to focus on that. The Socks That Rock prize is tempting - Lordy, but those colours are gorgeous! - but, honestly, I need more sock yarn like I need a hole in my head. I still haven't gotten around to that yummy Bearfoot I got back in Octoberish. And I can't really pay attention to it for long periods of time. It's just complicated enough that I still have to look at it on the even rows, so I can't really read or watch anything while working on them, but it's boring enough that I can't just sit and work on it with no distractions. So, while I am still bringing them with me this weekend, because they fit so well in my purse and they are a perfect waiting-around project, with great regret I am dropping out of this particular KAL. I do like the pattern, and the cool little things it's doing with my yarn. As much as I fear SSS, I think I might do one at a time next time. At least I'd get one sock done...

Oh, and the raglan is still coming along nicely. I decided that I lied and have indeed added the third colour (the dark green) to the bottom. I tried it on last night, and except for the length (of course), it fits fine. Still going to do the short sleeves, though. And must make sure to not wear my teal coloured bra underneath it...

I love cards like these!

Katie,
Thank you so much for the scarf you gave me for Christmas. I love it! I wear it all the time and it goes perfectly with my brown coat. I have something in the works for you, but it's taking a while to [get] my supplies and thoughts together. I know you will love it as soon as I can get it together! Let me know when you're going to be in town next. I miss you!

Love,
Amanda

Amanda seems to really love my knitting or at least does a very good job of sounding enthusiastic in her thank you notes. She was the recipient of the Winter Night afghan for her wedding, and the Rainy Day scarf for Christmas. I need to be as good about writing thank you cards as she is, particularly now that I know how good it makes me feel to get one!

Trying to pack up the apartment and get some knitting done at the same time. I'm afraid I might have to drop out of the Jaywalker KAL. I'd have to get them done by Friday in order to have any chance at all to get the Lady done during the Olympics. Maybe. We'll see. (Of course, we're going to be out of town apartment hunting and moving every weekend this month, so my chances of getting through the Olympics are slim at best. Oh well, still gonna try!) My goal for today is to get my desk and knitting/cross-stitch supplies sorted through and packed. Of course, I have to leave current projects out, but I have a lot of junk yarn that I'm pondering what to do with. I'm pretty close to done already, even though my Noro kinda got uncermoniously stuffed into my knitted yarn bag instead of laying comfortably in the box with the rest of my good yarns. I hope it doesn't take too much offense, I need to be on good terms with it if I'm going to be an Olympian! Speaking of which, I do need to take time to swatch today to make sure that I have the right needles out before they get packed up.

Dilemma!

I don't *think* said friend reads this blog, but he might, so I'll be vague. In short, I'm crunched for time for a gift I thought I had over a year more to make. I have a possible solution, but am still not sure if I will be able to get those done in time. Particularly with all of my already-scheduled projects. We'll see. I do have a backup in case this scheme doesn't work, though. Oh, I was thinking of using a chunkier yarn (I was thinking Lion Brand Wool-Ease Chunky or Thick-n-Quick in Natural/Fisherman - I don't know about any allergies and can't ask w/o giving it away, and, well, I know my friend, and it needs to be machine washable) on, say, size 10 needles, but am not confident that it will work well with cables. Any yarn/needle combination suggestions? If I do it in worsted or smaller, just the pieces I want to do for the wedding will take forever, even though they would show off the pattern the best.

TDRag is sprinting along all of a sudden. Only a couple more inches of body left! I'm only going to do two colours, and a rolled hem. I'm also probably only going to do short or three-quarter sleeves. For some reason, that's what it is saying that it wants, not the full length. Who am I to argue with a project? It probably knows what it's doing better than I do. Jaywalkers also got a bit of length added to them this weekend. I haven't tried them on for measuring yet, but I think they are almost ready for some heels. I am probably going to do a short row heel for them, instead of the heel flap and gusset, though. Danica is over three feet long now, but has been a bit neglected lately. Lady E is still going to be my Olympic project. (Yes, I know I have a wedding gift I should be doing. I don't care. I have plotted and planned for a month now to do this shawl in February, and damnit, I'm going to!)

Spent the weekend up north at Steve's old college (he's helping them build a set and I helped a little in the costume shop) and apartment hunting. We looked at one place, and found a couple others that interested us even more. We're trying to get info and appointments with them set up for next weekend, when we do the same thing. *sigh* I hate moving, but at least it's Out Of Los Angeles!

100 Things About Me

100 Things About Me

1. My birthday is May 11.
2. I have a knack for remembering people's birthdays.
3. I'm in the military - A1C, CA-ANG, 148th SOPS.
4. I hold a B.A. from Purdue University’s School of Liberal Arts. It’s in Technical Theater with an emphasis in Stage Management and a minor in Communications. . I originally went to Purdue to obtain a B.S. in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering before transferring to the SLA.
5. I'm working on a Masters of Aeronautical Science from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University with a focus in Space Operations Management.
6. I work for an illusionist in my copious amounts of spare time.
7. I know what a MUD is and have played one since late 2001, although the player base is dwindling now.
8. In certain online circles, I’m also known as Losari or Khalyn.
9. I’m usually a loner in-game.
10. I grew up in a Christian home, and hold firmly to those beliefs, even though I don’t go to church much anymore.
11. I’m semi-superstitious and fairly open-minded about the paranormal.
12. I think it is arrogant of humans to think that they could be the only intelligence in the universe.
13. I believe that the mind or spirit or soul is bigger than the body, and that “there are more things in heaven and earth…than are dreamt of in our philosophies.”
14. I also believe that the mind is a powerful thing and sometimes imagination can make you see or feel things that aren’t there, and your eyes really can deceive you. Google “optical illusions” if you don’t believe me.
15. I also refuse to seek out or attempt to communicate with anything I don’t understand.
16. My dad got me interested in space and astronautics and star gazing.
17. I have been to Space Camp with my dad as a parent/child thing, and to Advanced Space Academy, both in Huntsville, AL.
18. I would go back and do the Adult Space Academy in a heartbeat, if I had the time and money.
19. I got the internship that brought me out to California the week of my senior finals. I had one week to take my finals and move from Illinois/Indiana to California. I’ve been here ever since (five years this May!).
20. I love both cats and dogs.
21. I love stage magic and illusions, even though I can’t do the sleight of hand stuff. I'm very proud of the fact that I am the only one trusted with the entirety of John's show.
22. My mom taught me to do needlepoint when I was about seven and cross-stitch when I was about ten.
23. My great-grandmother taught me enough about sewing to get the basics and make some doll clothes when I was about nine.
24. I am not as comfortable working with a sewing machine as working by hand, but I’d love to get a small cheap one to practice on.
25. I love fantasy stories. My favorite fantasy authors are David Eddings, J. K. Rowling, Michelle Sagara, and I’m starting to get into Jim Butcher.
26. I absolutely adore the Harry Potter books, and actually rather miss the anticipation of getting the next book.
27. I would have to say that my favorite author, based on number of books that I’ve enjoyed reading, is Nora Roberts/J.D. Robb. I love her trilogies and …in Death series. I love the character interactions and relationships.
28. My favorite colors are, in no particular order, purple, green and blue.
29. I really enjoy knitting socks for some reason.
30. I don’t really like felting things, since I don’t have a washer of my own.
31. I’m really bad about supporting my LYS. Even though the people there have always been nice, the selection isn’t very good unless you like Patons a lot.
32. I can be very lazy and procrastinitic (is that a word??), particularly when I’m bored.
33. I am a good swimmer, have taught swimming and been a lifeguard for years, but am terrified of the ocean. I like going to the beach and watching the waves and listening to them, but not going into the water when I can’t see what’s underneath!
34. Christmas is my favorite holiday. I love decorating for it, wrapping presents, playing and singing carols and Christmas songs, baking, cooking, and just being around my family. I have to be in the right mood to go shopping, though.
35. I’m very shallow when it comes to movies. I like it when there is some witty repartee, decent action/special effects, and the good guys win at the end.
36. I really don’t like philosophical or biographical movies. I like stupid comedy even less.
37. I am a martial artist. I have a first-degree black belt and am working on my instructor jacket in Songham taekwondo. I’m also training in Haganah/FIGHT, an Israeli streetfighting martial arts style, and I recently started aikido as well. I don’t consider myself a fighter, although "my guys" say I am.
38. I love Chinese food and am a chocoholic.
39. I rarely drink soda anymore. It wasn’t a conscious decision; it just doesn’t really sound good very often anymore. I prefer water, juice, or milk. If I have a soda, it's Mountain Dew.
40. I keep the knitting patterns that I’ve printed out in a three-ring binder in sheet protectors. I have tons more saved as favorite websites or as files on my computer.
41. I can physically handle up to ten martial arts classes per week when my work schedule allows. My classmates, and occasionally my instructors, think I’m nuts, but I love it!
42. I have been officially engaged (I had a ring and everything, although no announcements were made) once, and unofficially once. (“When we get married…” kind of talk.) Neither worked out.
43. I love soft things. Clothes, blankets, stuffed animals, yarns, whatever.
44. I hate being cold and I don’t like snow unless I’m indoors and warm.
45. I love thunderstorms. Particularly daytime ones that I can watch and not be tired afterwards.
46. I’m terrified of earthquakes.
47. I could never be a vegetarian.
48. My two favorite quotes are "I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be." (Douglas Adams) and "Only those who attempt the absurd will achieve the impossible." (M. C. Escher).
49. My favorite Bible verses are Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Him who gives me strength.” and Hebrews 11:1, “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”
50. Zip-up hoodies are the best things ever invented. Fleece ones are ten times more so.
51. I think more people should go to stage productions than movies. At least you don’t have to worry about bad sequels.
52. I think Disney’s last good movies were The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, and Beauty and the Beast. The Emperor’s New Groove was pretty good, too.
53. I love music. There is always music playing somewhere around me, when I have any say whatsoever in the matter. I'll listen to pretty much anything, too. I don't really collect it, though, and I prefer the radio or mixed CDs rather than listening to an artist's album.
54. I’ve actually stage managed more shows than I’ve assistant stage managed or crewed. Nothing like getting thrown into the deep end.
55. I have been known to turn jobs down because I got “bad vibes” during interviews, even when I had the job if I wanted it and needed it. I’ve also been known to stubbornly work through bad situations that should have been reported.
56. Most of the major decisions in my life have been based on gut instinct and going on what “felt right,” including going to Purdue, moving to California, moving to LA, working with PCPA and going it the military/going back to school.
57. I firmly believe that you can’t learn stage management from a book or a class, you have to go out and do it and learn it hands-on.
58. I think that trying to define a stage manager or what they do is kind of futile, because it changes from company to company and they can do a lot of different things, ranging from really really petty to really really important
59. I love just going outside on a clear night and watching the stars.
60. I’ve been knitting since 2004. An ME taught me during Hamlet.
61. I am the oldest grandchild on both sides of my family and was the only granddaughter on both sides for twenty years. I was and am spoiled rotten by my grandparents and aunts and uncles.
62. I believe that your attitude towards your situation is more important than your situation.
63. I prefer handmade to store-bought on most things. Furniture, knits, and jellies, particularly.
64. I think the fountains at Purdue made it the most beautiful campus ever.
65. I am too geeky for a lot of people because I enjoy being online and playing role-playing games, but I am usually not geeky enough for the gaming crowd because I’m not that interested in most games and tend to flit through them.
66. I have the basic skills to work in a scene or costume shop and produce something useful, but not enough to do anything really big unless I have someone supervising and advising me.
67. I would rather be too busy than bored.
68. I’m a card-carrying-white-picket-fence-happily-ever-after romantic.
69. I love mythology and legends, although I never got into Arthurian legends. Greek and Roman are my strong suits.
70. I love puzzle games and trivia games.
71. Jewels of the Oracle was probably my favorite PC game ever, but it doesn’t work on my computer anymore. I also like games such as Trivial Pursuit, Jeopardy!, and You Don’t Know Jack! Myst is also great, although I sometimes don’t have the patience to figure out all the clues.
72. I’m studying Spanish and hope to become fluent, or at least conversational.
73. I have a book of easy crossword puzzles by my bed so I can do them before I go to sleep.
74. I’m kind of a slob sometimes, but never too disgustingly dirty. I can’t deal with having dirty dishes around for more than about an hour.
75. I don’t consider myself to be artistic at all. I follow instructions or layouts that someone else has written.
76. I have never smoked anything in my life, and have no intentions of doing so.
77. I have been known to indulge in alcohol on occasion, but have only gotten sick once from it.
78. I’m surprised so many of my 100 things have changed in just two years.
79. I’m an expensive drunk and only drink beer with pizza after sparring.
80. I get shy about acting silly around other people.
81. I tend to be far more aware of reputation and control than a lot of other people I know. I’m always the “safe and solid” person who rarely acts too silly or does something too stupid.
82. I love Christmas carols. I start listening to them right after Halloween.
83. My first rule of socializing is to make friends with the bartender. At work, always make friends with the janitor.
84. I have a minor addiction to kiwi-strawberry flavored Propel water.
85. I have an nine-year-old cat named Teddie. He adopted me from the shelter and lets me live in his apartment now.
86. I love candles.
87. My favorite scents are lilac (real lilac flowers – they can’t replicate it properly for anything), citrus, and vanilla.
88. I occasionally drink coffee, but am definitely not addicted to caffeine anymore. (It dehydrates you, which is bad for class!)
89. I enjoy cooking and baking, and don’t get to do it often enough.
90. I really really love Orange Dream Machines from Jamba Juice and Orange Obsessions from California Fresh.
91. I really hate folding laundry and putting it away.
92. I believe people aren’t as classy as they used to be, and it’s becoming more and more acceptable to be rude, inconsiderate, and stupid.
93. I think the best way to get to know someone’s true colors is to travel with him/her.
94. I really hate the grammar and spelling one sees on the Internet and instant messages nowadays. I don’t mind such shortcuts on license plates, though, and applaud some of the more creative ones I’ve seen.
95. I really hate job hunting and having to sell myself to companies. They should just be able to see how awesome I am =)
96. Unnecessarily loud things really irritate me. I have very good hearing. I enjoy hearing things. I want to continue to enjoy hearing things as long as possible, not blow out my eardrums.
97. I also try to be considerate of the fact that you can turn your back on something visual, you can not touch or taste anything you don’t want to, but it’s very difficult and inconvenient to not smell or hear something unpleasant.
98. I have 500+ cable channels, and only watch four (Fox, USA, TNT, and SciFi) on any kind of regular basis. And haven't watched those in a couple months, either.
99. I can watch Law & Order, and any spin-off of it, all day.
100. I prefer talking through email than talking on the phone, in most cases.

Failure!

Okay, so not really. I didn't get a project done in time for a January FO, though, which was one of my New Year's knitting resolutions. If all goes well, I might get at least two done in February (Jaywalkers "due" Feb. 14 and Lady Eleanor "due" Feb. 26). Oh well. I did frog my Jaywalkers three times, and learned entrelac, and started my first ever sweater, so the month was definitely not wasted =)

Speaking of which, the sweater actually looks like a sweater now!

I'm working on the second body colour. I only have one skein of that particular colour (although it's a cheap no-dye-lot acrylic, so I'm not worried if I have to get more), so I have to make sure that I leave enough left over from the stripe to put a similar-width stripe on each sleeve.

This afternoon/evening is/was a Mummy and Jaywalker marathon. Size 1's are sooo slow!

Damn KnitPicks. I got their catalog today in the mail, and immediately fell madly in love with their Kimono Style sweater. It is so totally something I would wear. Unfortunately, I have neither the yarn nor the time to make it right now. Definitely added to my "Need To Make" list, though.

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.