Yet again, I've let weeks go by without updating my blog once. Now I understand why no one ever links to me on their knitting pages.
I've come down off the Nutcracker tour, which was largely to blame for my lack of updates---but not lack of material. My web activities were largely restricted to checking my email off of my cell phone. Provided that my cell worked there, which it doesn't in half of New England. Great "national" plan.
My phone died on xmas day. I'm very lucky that it held on until I got home. My dependence on my cell phone while away is almost 100%. Also, the phone was still under warranty, so my service provider overnighted me a new handset. One of my friends recently lost his cell phone on the El and I gave him much crap about not having all his numbers written down elsewhere. I was quite smug about having mine in my palm pilot. So, I was really setting myself up for the nasty discovery that I did not in fact have them all there. All but a few numbers have been recovered through other means, some no longer needed. Only one is totally lost.
I can breathe easier now that the packages that I mailed to myself have arrived. A surprisingly older gentleman from Fed Ex delivered the boxes two days after xmas. I was a bit nervous, since they were to have been delivered the day before and not showing any progress on the obsessive-compulsive fed ex tracking service. Then they arrived, unbroken, and were quickly opened to show my mother all of the good things that I gathered in my journeys.
A short list:
* two skeins of rowan 4 ply to make color block socks
* two skeins of jamieson's yarn for same purpose, from a wonderful store in lenox, mass.
* two skeins of funky variegated stahl yarn that were a gift from karen, now being made up in wonderful double cable pattern socks
* a skein of blueberry colored bartlett yarn, purchased in new hampshire, where i also went on a crazy search to find aveda products for my pig-pen hair. turned out they were available across the street from our motel.
* two skeins of wool/tencel blend sock yarn from Green Mountain Spinnery, the only redeeming feature of Putney, Vt. Visit them online at Green Mtn Spinnery
* Four skeins, various colors, of Mountain Mohair bought from the orphans basket at the spinnery.
* the remnants of my ball of Schaefer hand-dye, used to make the hat for Matt. there may or may not be enough there for another hat. perhaps for someone with a small head.

My mother gathered all of my projects in progress into a lined basket while I was away. I have many, but still the new projects call strongly to me to start them. I finally finished the faux-fairisle socks that I began months ago. I think they'll look snazzy with my birkis.
Works in progress (that I'll admit to):
* lilac rowan script bag. needs to be blocked, lined, and finished.
* red cherry tree hill spiral rib socks. not holding breath on 0 gauge knitting approching completion in foreseeable future.
* charcoal mohair lined socks. still haven't reached the heel on the first sock.
* gedifra new age shell. lost the pattern, still hoping that it will turn up.
* brown miniringel socks. promising start on first sock, worked plain. almost to heel.
* currently working: cabled sock. I enjoy the challenge, since I haven't done cables since the ugly palm pilot cover that I made. Big push to actually make socks, as it is cold and I'm tired of getting cracks in my feet.

I'm also making a few late xmas presents for folks I've yet to see. Some knit, some sound things. It's nice to have a little extension!

Live Freaked or Die
I'm sitting in a motel room in the great state of New Hampshire. It seems to be populated by yankees straight out of central casting, all of them kind of eccentric. Or more than kind of. The clerk at the motel told us a really pointless story about Handel's Messiah (which he repeatedly referred to as "Handel's The Messiah"). He is now referred to as Norman amongst the crew.
My injuries have multiplied, but are all on the mend. It remains to be seen whether or not the cut on the palm of my hand will scar. It's pink and shiny now. The bruise on my chest where Matt hit me with a pipe is a nice ripe yellow, and the accompanying abrasion matches my hand. I got a sliver in my middle finger yesterday ( ? days of the week no longer have meaning) off of one of the pipes at the theater. It hurt, and I couldn't pull it out, so I had to slice it out carefully. I never realized how much I used my middle finger, other than for the obvious, until it was encumbered by a big old bandaid. I took it off today so that I could knit, and it looks fine.
I finished two pending projects during the performances tonight (not to be named, as they will soon be presents). It was very gratifying. The mixing console was in the back of the house again, which I appreciated greatly. The board is a kid-magnet, but a lot of women also wanted to talk to me about my knitting. I went to the LYS here, which was an old lady type knitting store, but found wonderful heathered yarn from Maine there. I've also got a hat planned for one of the dancers, out of Noro Kureyon. He has a large head.
About the mixing console---the show has never sounded so good. And probably won't again. We use our rig at the next theatre, which should sound especially bad after this system. The ballet really should invest in an equalizer. And admit that you cannot use only two speakers for the house. The set up here almost sounded like an orchestra (thanks to fine equalization on the part of the local sounhd person and kicking subs), with the exception of the tape hiss during the sugar solo. It's really strange to hear tape hiss on a cd.
Karen and I went to the Shoetorium during lunch today. She was in search of a pair of Red Wings and I was drawn in by the name. The manager, who helped us, was incredibly knowledgeable about feet and the proper fitting of shoes. I finally bought a pair of Birki super clogs, which were pretty cheap since New Hampshire has no sales tax. I've wanted a pair of super clogs since my freshman year of college. There's something very fun about plastic shoes, although I went with a sensible navy.

More adventures in touring. The stage manager quit last week, between the matinee and evening performances. He is not missed. Still, we’re soon to be two persons short on the crew, with many dates left in our short tour. Note that I say persons rather than men; the artistic director/producer of the tour made a point of telling the crew that she thought the production manager should have hired more men. What a limited, sexist view of the world---and very out of step with modern stagecraft. Most of the technicians that I know are women.
Today, we had a few hours off between the lecture/demonstration (which we were initially told that we weren’t required to work) and the show call, during which the master electrician and I headed to Lenox to pay another visit to Colorful Threads. It was one of the quickest trips to the yarn store that I’ve ever made. Karen knew exactly what she wanted. She’s a very organized person. I took a little more time, but ultimately found a beautiful skein of hand-dye in shades of orange and pink, as well as a couple of skeins of sock yarn. When I’ll get to make them up, I have no idea, but I always enjoy finding yarn on the road.
Someone stole Matt's ugly hat tonight at the theatre, which is pretty amusing. Still, it's quite cold here in the industrial northeast, so I told him that he can have the hat that I knit in Burlington. That also means that I must now make or purchase a different gift for the person for whom the hat was intended.

We were supposed to tech the show today, which sort of happened. The company and artistic director were held up in the snow storm (it is the end of November, after all), and we had to wait. Luckily, it was a union shop, which meant that we had to be out of there by a specific time, rather than letting it drag on and on. And, thanks to all of the hold-ups, I managed to get a lot of knitting done on the *secret* xmas present that I'm making for a family member. I have a fair amount of down time during the show--the whole first act--so I'm knitting and getting paid. The hat looks really good. I'm making it out of hand dyed wool that I purchased at Colorful Stitches. The color blocks made interesting stripey blotches with a kind of lightening bolt motif.
We finally got our paychecks signed today. This is a bad sign. Late checks without apology. Checks on time without a signature. Postdated checks to the principle dancers. I will never work for this company again. And I'm cashing the check tomorrow.

It's Thanksgiving Day and I'm sitting in a hotel room about a thousand miles from home. It's week two of the bus and truck tour from hell. Actually, that implies that we have a bus; we don't. The company travels with two Penske trucks, two minivans, and various personal vehicles. We had to pester the production manager to get the minivan (into which the crew and our belongings barely fit), as we originally had a retired police cruiser, with broken spedometer. Five people in a sedan is a tight fit. Six people with their bags is impossible.
Most of our problems on the tour stem from lack of organization and piss-poor management. The company really needs a company manager in addition to the production manager. We just finished a rough week at a high school in Sheffield, mainly hindered by the owners of the venue. They refused to move giant piles of scenery and general crap, meaning many of our man-hours were wasted carting around their things. The we had to reset it at load out. I think that the school doesn't have vast experience in presenting.
Luckily, there are a couple of people on the crew with whom I would like to remain friends after this tour has ended: Matt, our master carpenter, and Karen, the master electrician. Matt and I became fast friends when we were stranded at the Albany airport for three hours by the company. That was a big bad omen, if ever there was one. Matt is another Chicagoan, with a wonderful sense of irony and sarcasm. We daily tell each other how glad we are that the other is on the tour. Karen is my road roommate (but not at the convent where we are normally lodged--luckily, the company recognizes that we need some personal space). She reminds me a great deal of Ingrid, my wonderful sophomore year roommate. They have very similar voices, and an easy going attitude that is essential when dealing with all of the mess this tour generates.
Karen and I went to Lenox on our day off this week. Lenox is quite different in the winter than in its tourist summer days. Our main objective was to visit Colorful Stitches, a LYS with a beautiful ad in all the knitting magazines, and to get a decent cup of coffee. The wonderful side effect is that I also got to know Karen.
I am teaching Karen how to knit. It's a pleasure. A little over a year ago, my mother taught me to knit. It was very hard for her to resist the temptation to take my first project away and do it herself, as her grandmother had done so many years before. So, when Karen complimented me on my patience, I also silently thanked my mom. My desire to take up knitting brought my mother and I closer together this past year, and I think that Karen's desire to learn is helping to forge a friendship between us.

Ok, I'm not very faithful to my blog. I don't update very often any more, probably because I don't have a lot going on at the moment. I'm passing time until I have to leave for tour. Yesterday, I decided to burn many of my cds to minidisc, to save space, etc. It has proven to be more time consuming than I had anticipated. My minidisc player is supposed to insert track marks in the appropriate places. This only happens sporadically, possibly because of the frequent bleed through of tracks on cds. So, then I must listen to the minidisc, sometimes in its entirety, to insert the track marks where they belong. Makes me a little envious of the people with NetMD players, but I'm generally satisfied with my little MZ-R700.
I'm still knitting up a storm, mostly in preparation of xmas. There is a limit to the number of knit garments that people need, so I'm trying not to overdo it. Also, I want to maintain the distinction between homemade and handmade. I'm currently working on a scarf made out Sirdar Snowflake for a friend who has pestered me for over a year to make a scarf---except she's allergic to wool. I am skeptical of all of the self-diagnosed wool allergies out there. Of course, some people may legitimately be allergic to the fiber, but I think that most people are just intolerant of the coarser fibers. There are some wonderful new blends (and old blends) of wool that are nothing like the dreaded wool sweaters from childhood.