Thursday, March 26, 2015

Selfish Knits

In my last post, I detailed (maybe overly detailed) all the knits that I had worked on over the holiday season as Christmas presents.  Now, I love giving hand knit woolly things as presents -- in fact, they're my favorite kind of presents to give for a variety of reasons which I won't go in to right now.  But after all that generosity, it was time for some selfish knits that had been sitting in my "To Knit" list since well before the Christmas knitting began.  I had to get started quickly as the official winter season was about to over and done with.  Of course, I live in Colorado where wintry weather in June isn't totally unprecedented, but one does feel a bit odd knitting a woolly hat in April.

First up, I made myself a silver and teal version of the Lucy Hat that I made for my friend, Liz.  I just loved the pattern and the finished product so much, I had to have one of my own.  The only thing I'm a bit bummed about on this one is that I apparently have a shorter forehead than I thought, so my hat is just a wee bit too tall for me.  But not tall enough that I wanted to fix it.  Here it is, modeled by my beautiful friend, Sarah.  She truly is the best knitwear model a friend could ask for.  You've seen her a lot more than you think....all those sock pictures?  Yeah, those are her lovely feet.

Pattern: Lucy Hat Yarn: Cascade 220 in Gray and Hunter Green

Next, I needed a pair of mitts that matched the whole teal color scheme I had going on with my scarf (pictured above) and new hat.  I had trouble finding a lacy pattern that I was really drawn to for some reason.  Perhaps I was just in a picky lace mood that day.  In any case, I kept coming back to the Ameliorate pattern (another repeat of a gift I made for someone else).  I love the way the pattern and yarn combination turned out!

Pattern: Ameliorate Yarn: Handmaiden Casbah Sock  in Tourmaline

After that, I made myself some new socks (I can never have too many) with the first shipment from the Cookie A Sock Club.  I joined that club this year instead of the Rockin' Sock Club.  I adored this yarn - both the colorway and the base (soooo soft!).  I chose the easier of the two patterns, mostly because I find mirrored socks endlessly charming.

Pattern: Pai Mei Yarn: Anzula Squishy in Begonia

In other knitting news, I just recently completed one of my goals for this year -- I finished my first lace shawl!  It's blocked and beautiful and I even wore it to work and rehearsal yesterday.  However, I haven't had time to get pictures of it or my recently finished (and again selfish) Treebeard Socks...I had to find something to use to finish up that Casbah Sock.  I'll have pictures of those for my next post.

As for the world of theater, I am just about to go into tech week for Juno & The Paycock.  Tonight is our Cue to Cue.  What a change this show has been compared to my previous four shows, tech-wise at least.  I only have 23 light cues (so far) and about the same amount of sound cues....for a three hour show.  Guess who's going to be doing a lot of knitting in the booth!  Rehearsals have been going well and it's been fun to work with our guest artists.  They're both professional actors who have worked in NYC so I can imagine it's quite a change for them to come to our little tiny non-professional theater here in Fort Collins.  Both of them are just lovely people and I'm glad I've had a chance to work with them.  Otherwise, I don't have a whole lot to say about this one.  By no means do I dislike it, but the show just isn't as "up my alley" as my previous four were.

I've also been working at honing my photography skills on the weekends.  Here are some favorite recent shots.

First, we have a picture I took of a wheel on the cannon (which has made a cameo in a variety of knitting pictures - two of the above pictures actually).

35 mm, ISO 100, f/2.2, 1/1600 sec




And second, a picture I took of my friend, Paul, with my new wide angle lens (10-24mm) that I bought for my trip to Ireland.  Did I mention I was going to Ireland in May?  (Eeek!)  The photo shoot was mostly supposed to be centered around showing off his tattoo, but I took this shot just to experiment with my lens and I love it.

17 mm, ISO 100, f / 4.2, 1/500 sec

If anyone who comes across this has feedback on any of my photos either from a knitting or photography viewpoint, I'd love to hear it! (Provided it's constructive criticism and not just flat out mean).

I hope everyone has had a great start to the Spring season!