I'm in the home stretch on Lewis's sweater. Only the hood remains to be knit. That sounds small, doesn't it? Sadly, it's 26 inches long, with a moss stitch border, so not as quick moving as I would hope. As I was knitting it last night, I actually thought that I might like to start sewing the sweater together, as a change of pace. I hate finishing sweaters, because it can make or break a garment. You can spend weeks knitting beautifully and ruin the garment in an hour of bad sewing. Eeek. Instead, I read a refresher on finishing, which was very exciting. Very good tips on sewing sleeves to a body, though the ilustration was pretty humorous, showing the stitches between armhole and sleeve like big shark's teeth. Now I face a decision: do I want to put dangly cords on the hood? The sweater is shown with them, but they're pure ornament. That can't be used to cinch up the hood, so I don't see the point. And I'm afraid they might be a bit dainty for a man's sweater, but suspect that they may hide some horrible join between neckline and hood. Hmmm... And, well, I'm looking forward to starting my next project.
One of my regular online reads, blue blog, pointed me in two delightful new directions: another knitting blog and a knitting podcast. The blog, knit and tonic has some delightful designs and great attitude. I even bought one of her patterns, the Somewhat Cowl, which I hope to make soon. You know, after all of my current things. I think it's swell (you can check it out here) and plan to make it up in teal Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino. I snapped up a millpack of it on ebay on the cheap recently.
The second find was a knitting podcast, Cast On. It seems like it wouldn't be very interesting, as knitting is very visual. Maybe I like the idea of knitting podcast because it brings out my supernerd: knitting and sound all in one! The podcast is like having a long (one-sided) chat with a friend, with excellent music breaks. Highly recommended!
You're probably wondering why I haven't referenced that photo yet. It was attached to an email from one of my knitting comrades from Sound of Music. Other people had a lot of free time on that show..

She knits all her own socks

But not lately.... It sounds kinda creepy when someone else (my cousin Chris) says it, but yeah, I knit my own socks. When I wear them, which is rare. Lately, my knitting attentions have been elsewhere, such as the three scarves I gave away at Christmas. All of them were previously featured in this blog, but none of the recipients seemed to recognize them. More proof of what a vanity project this blog is! I've also made three hats lately, and started a pair of socks for my grandmother ridiculously close to Christmas. She has two feet, so three days really aren't enough! Maybe they'll be her birthday socks instead, which gives me six months to finish them.
I was rummaging around in all the pre-chrimbo madness and came across a long-abandoned UFO. It was supposed to have been my first sweater with sleeves, but I never got around to making them. First, I had to remember what pattern I was using, because the dark navy of the body made it damn near impossible to do any knitting archeology. Yes, a little joke. Hypothetically, I could have charted out all my decreases and designed a matching raglan sleeve cap to match, but the idea alone makes my head hurt. So, I tracked down the pattern and got out the needles. After finishing one sleeve, I realized that I don't have quite enough yarn to make the second one. Maybe that's why I didn't knit the sleeves in the first place... I'd used a formula to calculate how much yardage I'd need for the sleeves (since they're colorblock, this is an important detail), which clearly doesn't work for raglan sleeves. So, now I'm looking for the no-dye lots random yarn to finish the project, with little success. I may have to just start over on the sleeves, which means that this project is going back on the back burner.
I broke down and ordered another ball of the French alpaca yarn that I need to finish my sweater. The Canadian yarn shop, which I love/hate, carries the yarn, so I ordered it from them. Seemed more expedient. I also ordered a couple of balls of Noro Kureyon (which I heard pronounced as "crayon" in a very full-of-themselves NYC yarn shop once. It is colorful as a box of Crayolas, but I had to laugh on the inside.) to make a pair of fingerless gloves for Rita. Another project for the list!
So, I've been working on the long-promised Not Another Sweatshirt sweater for Lewis. It's moving so fast, I thought as I worked on it last night, until I realized that I'm knitting it on #11 needles, instead of the #6 ones that are the hallmark of most of my sweaters. I'm on the sleeves now, which I'm knitting concurrently. Since, it's a very variegated yarn, I'm afraid of the sleeves looking wildly different from each other, so I hop back and forth between the two of them. This is a bit slower than one at a time, but worth the effort. I think.

Next up? Hard to say. I really want to dive into my Christmas sweater. No, not with reindeer or snowflakes. My mom gave me absolutely amazing Colinette yarn to make the sweater on the cover of the current issue of Interweave Knits. It arrived two days after Christmas. This could lead to startitis, very easily, so I've decided not to even wind the skeins into balls until I have finished Lewis's sweater. It's such a temptation! I also have a bunch of little projects that I could do, like scarves and those socks. When I have a bit of cash, I'd like to check out the awesome cabled armwarmers I saw at Knit1. I hope that store takes off. It's tiny and carries a lot of high end yarn, but maybe it will find a following. Of course, I should concentrate on finishing the projects I have going now, knitting the yarn in my stash before snapping up anymore. Since I have a few weeks before my next show starts, I think I can make a dent in the current inventory.

My show closed on Sunday. It was a very emotional affair. We spent the last nine weeks together, living, breathing, and eating the Sound of Music. We became a big, dysfunctional family of actors, knitters, techies (with some overlap between those groups) because we had no time to see our real families. Closing a week before xmas makes for a rough reentry into the family sphere. Some of us will work together again, but it won't be the same.
I'll miss Mitch and Melody, who are sure to become legends in the Chicago theater community, the most. There's something incredibly appealing about getting a hug from a seven year old who's genuinely glad to see you every morning when you go into work.
They're great kids. Mitch is incredibly helpful and kind, the best sort of big brother to Melody. He helped me do my mic checks while I had laryngitis. It seems as though a voice is not terribly important for the person engineering the show, but it is hell running a mic check without one. Also, writing notes to communicate doesn't work very well over the ClearCom! Rita, the stage manager, and I both adore M&M, so she took Melody to see the SM booth. Melody even got to press GO on the light board after the theatre was clear. Since Mitch was curious about sound, I had him run through a couple of big cue sequences. I loved how exciting our jobs were to the kids. So, I suggested to Rita that we let them run the storm sequence (thunder and lightning, very exciting stuff) together. We were almost as excited as they were. I'm really going to miss those kids.
My next show doesn't start for a month, which leaves me with loads of free time. Too much, I think. A month is a long time to go without a paycheck, but not long enough to pick up another gig. So, lots of Netflix and knitting, I guess. I didn't have as much time as I thought I would to knit during SOM/WTP, so my grand plans to knit a million things for xmas didn't come true. I did knit a few things for people on the shows, so I guess it all balances out. Under the xmas tree this year, one might find the following things from my needles: two cabled scarves, of similar design; a cushy ribbed scarf of kettle dyed wool from south america; one hat, made from odds and ends of Manos; a tiny sweater to illustrate the larger one that I meant to make in time for xmas but didn't get around to--- if I get around to making it. I've been on a finishing kick, to get all those things ready. My beautiful French alpaca blend sweater that has languished for months as I worked on SOM/WTP came to mind. All it needs is the second half of its shawl collar finished and some seaming. A good afternoon/evening project. I can't find the collar piece--still on the needles--even after an exhaustive search of the house. I've asked St Anthony of Padua to have a look around for it, though I imagine this is his busy season. I don't have enough yarn to make a replacement collar piece. I hope that it will turn up soon, since I don't want to send off to Belgium to get more yarn to finish it. As soon as I do, the lost piece will turn up.

KILL THAT MOUSE!

Yesterday, I was sitting in the living room, watching some mindless television, when I heard a squeaking noise. It sounded like a squeaky dog toy. I don't have a dog, or any dog toys, just a ferocious, voracious tom cat. Or so I thought. I went to the kitchen to investigate, and discovered Winston chasing a large grey mouse in circles. An art director couldn't have chosen a better mouse to go with my cat. "Kill it. Kill it," I cheered, then thought the better of it. I felt like a spectator at an underground cock fight, and didn't want to stick around to see the denouement. He chased the mouse for five, maybe, seven minutes. Did Winston kill the mouse? No. I hope that Winston isn't operating under the assumption that the mouse is his playmate or friend, because Winston's #1 job is to kill mice. I gave him several stern inspirational talks about killing the mouse, and brought him back to the kitchen to sniff around. So far, no sign of the mouse's return. You can't prove a negative though, so I will continue to coach the cat to commit rodenticide.

Today, I started knitting a beautiful caramel colored chunky alpaca scarf. For myself. I feel vaguely guilty making something for myself this time of year. All of my other projects are for other people. I even plan to make a scarf for my secret santa person at work, which is perhaps overly ambitious. I bought two fabulous balls of Colinette yarn for a dollar each out of the bargain bin at my LYS. I don't know how I'll get it done, since I can't work on it at work. The secret part of secret santa would be ruined in the recipient recognized the scarf! My scarf is coming along at a nice clip, on size 36 needles. Yes, they make them that large, and they were the envy of all the ladies at work this morning. I've won the big needles pissing contest.
My dad called this morning, to ask about sound equipment suggestions for xmas. Luckily, I keep my phone on vibrate when I'm at work. I think it's so cool that someone would give me gear for xmas!
I used to read the New Yorker from cover to cover every Thursday afternoon (except when there was a double issue) when I was in college. I would just lie in bed and read the entire magazine on the day that it arrived in my mailbox. I haven't done it since then. Some of that has to do with structured time and not reading the gallery listings anymore, but I kind of miss it. I decided that I would read the whole magazine yesterday, during my free afternoon. The magazine arrived over the weekend, but I hadn't had a chance to read it yet. So, I crawled into my nice warm bed and promptly fell asleep before even opening the magazine. I took an accidental five hour nap. Guess I really needed the sleep.

Brown paper packages tied up with string

Hello. I probably haven't talked to you in a while because my life hasn't been my own lately. I'm running two shows concurrently, which means that I have very little free time. Today I had a rare afternoon off, which I enjoyed thoroughly. I spent a few hours at home, while there was daylight, then headed into the city for coffee with Joe Tech and a bit of shopping. No xmas presents purchased, but I had a good time and Joe got his compressor back.
I still have a few presents to buy for xmas. Just the big ones-- the grandparents and my mom. I don't know what to give them. My grandparents have everything they could want and no place to put anything (the two are related). And, well, I don't know what my mom wants. Pout. I'd decided to do an ambitious knitting campaign for the holidays this year. Great, except I work all the time. And since I'm engineering my shows instead of simply a board op, I can't knit during the shows. I got so spoiled during summer stock, when all I had to do was press GO every once in a while.
Knitting is going through the cast like a virus. Last week, I went down to the ladies' dressing room to discuss a mic snafu and found the actresses silently knitting. All of them. It all started when one of the girls brought in a project. She taught one of the other girls in the cast. Her mother decided to learn as well and took to it like a duck to water. Soon, other women clamored to learn and secret knitters brought in their projects to pass the time backstage. I've seen this happen at other theatres, but never on this scale. We've even got one of the actors knitting! That's Kaylie pictured above, with her latest project. She makes amazing, fuzzy scarves as gifts and plays a wicked Uno game.
I've got a few projects in the works. My beloved french alpaca sweater is on a back burner, in order to make things for other people. It's almost entirely knit, too, but I don't quite understand how it all goes together. I guess that's one drawback to using patterns in a foreign language. It makes me feel so damn smart, but when I don't understand something, it's really rough. There are two scarves going now, one out of beautiful Colinette wool tape, and the second of kettle dyed wool from South America. Oh, and a hat. I guess there isn't time to knit any socks before xmas.