Come Together

It's almost the beginning of a lovely, long holiday weekend, and I am having trouble focusing on anything remotely having to do with my actual work (testing software).  I'm muddling through it, but, then again, I'm also writing this blog entry while I'm waiting for things to load.  My college roommate is visiting me this weekend from out of state so I'm working from home for a half day today, and then I think we'll head out to one of the many microbreweries here in town.  I may bring a sock to knit on, just in case of an emergency.  You know how it is.

I finished off my Quite Contrary socks last Friday and I love them!  They ended up being a teeny bit tight on my feet, so I think I'm going to give them to my Grandmother for Christmas.  I'm pretty sure she's going to adore them.

Quite Contrary Socks in BMFA Socks that Rock Lightweight (Forget-Me-Knots)

I posted a few questions in the Ravelry Group forum for the Rockin' Sock Club about this pattern and then posted the above picture in the same forum.   The response that this photo got actually made me blush!  Everyone was so complimentary.  The pattern designer even decided to make it one of the featured pictures on the pattern page!  Squee!  

On that note, I have recently realized just how much I was missing out on by not being more involved in groups and forums on Ravelry.  I've been on Ravelry for years now but had really only used it to find patterns and keep track of my projects.  Now that I'm actually starting to get involved with the community, a whole new world has opened up to me.  I don't really have any knitter friends, so being able to talk and share with all the lovely knitters on these forums is truly a blessing.  Maybe a bit of a curse too as my queue continues to grow exponentially...

I joined in on another Sockdown in the Sock Knitter's Anonymous group.  One of this month's challenges is to knit a pair of socks with a pattern designed to show off self-striping yarn.  I've had some KnitPicks Felici (Splash) in my stash for a few months so this was the perfect time to try it out.  This is the first time that I've used self-striping yarn, and it's magical!  I don't understand how it works, but I am constantly thrilled every time a new stripe starts.  I keep talking about it to the aforementioned non-knitter friends, and they just smile and nod while looking at me like I might be safer in a padded room.

I decided on the pattern Down the Rabbit Hole and am loving it.  A few hours after the above photo was taken however, I realized that I had different numbers of stitches between my traveling stitches.  I couldn't figure out where I'd made the mistake so I had to rip back to the ribbing and start over.  I think this actually ended up being a good thing as I decided to try a different way of cabling without a cable needle for the traveling stitches, and I'm much happier with the way try #2 is looking.  In case anyone is interested, I'm using method D described in this article.

In non-knitting news, last weekend was full of festivals.  On Saturday, me and a bunch of friends headed down to the Colorado Renaissance Festival.  My parents started taking me to this festival when I was 3 years old.  I have gone every year since (save for one where I was stage managing a show out of state).  I look forward to it all year and it didn't disappoint!  It was a day full of friends, huzzahs, corsets, and beer.  

That's me in the front on the right....the short one.

On Sunday, I attended the Colorado Brewer's Festival where I sampled some very delicious microbrews.  Let me tell you, if you ever visit Fort Collins, aim for the Brewer's Festival weekend.  There were 100+ beers there from breweries all over the state.  There's also live music, shopping, games, and rides.  Makes for a truly wonderful day!

No real theater news to speak of this week, which is probably good as this is getting long (as usual).  We start choreography rehearsals for Journey to the West this next week so I'm sure I'll have more to talk about soon!

If anyone is reading this, I hope you have a wonderful Independence Day!

Ding, Dong! The Witch is Dead!

BFF Socks by Cookie A. in
madelinetosh Sock "Whiskey Barrel".
Nice leg hair, eh?

And by "The Witch", I mean my "Manly Socks".  And by "Dead", I mean "gone-from-my-life-forever-thanks-be-to-god".  I officially finished them (meaning weaving in ends and blocking) this past Saturday (in plenty of time to give them to Andy before Game of Thrones Sunday).  But, the Thursday before was when I really felt like celebrating.  When I finished that lovely and magical Kitchener stitch (it never ceases to amaze me and I actually really enjoy doing it...provided no one tries to talk to me during the process) to close the toe, I could barely contain my joy.  I texted people who really could probably care less, I posted an announcement to Facebook...to be frank, I almost knocked on my neighbors' door just so they could celebrate with me.  I eventually got myself under control, tossed them in the sink for a good soak in Soak, then proceeded to start winding my Rockin' Sock Club April shipment of yarn.

Andy received his socks as soon as he got to my house on Sunday, and, yep, all the pain and anguish effort of knitting those giant socks was worth it.  He was so excited and kept telling me the entire night how soft and warm his feet were (it was snowing on Sunday....yes snowing in May....not that uncommon here but I'm still shocked and dismayed every time it happens).  I've already gotten requests from other guy friends for socks, but the experience of knitting those enormous brown things is still too raw....maybe someday I'll forget (kinda like childbirth...or so I hear).

Couple of self critiques on these.  They're slightly too big for him, wearable, but a little large...I was estimating as best I could and was maybe a 1/2 inch off.  I don't like the toe - I actually ended up doing my Kitchener with 12 sts on each side instead of 12 total so they look really flat and kinda weird.  They're the same colorway but very obviously a different dye lot.  I toyed with the idea of switching between the leftovers from my first hank and the new one for the second sock but decided that would 1.) kill me and 2.) not matter because they would still look different.  All in all though, I was OK enough with them to gift them and the recipient loved them (he doesn't know any better) so all's well that ends well, right?  Right.

In other news, I've been reading lots of other knitting blogs for awhile now and I'm always jealous of the gorgeous pictures of yarn, projects, and notions everyone seems to be able to take.  So, I started reading up on cameras and photography.  I almost convinced myself to buy a DSLR, but I got a hold of myself and instead went with a Canon Powershot S110.  It's not a DSLR by any stretch of the imagination, but it's a big improvement over my iPhone.  I can shoot in manual mode and control the aperture, shutter speed, and ISO.

KnitPicks Hawthorne "Sunnyside"

 So, Friday after work, I had a little photo shoot with all the yarn mentioned from my previous blog post so I could get all that into my Ravelry stash.  These pictures make me so happy!  I still have a lot to learn about photography, but I just love that I got the background to blur without having to do any post processing.  Whoopee!

Araucania Huasco "#5 Green Brown Turquoise"
Much better picture than in the last post!

"Paua Socks" in Socks that Rock Lightweight
"Mad as a March Hare"

I started my Paua Socks for the Rockin' Sock Club.  These are going to one of my closest girlfriends, Kristina.  I cast on the first sock on Saturday morning and I'm already on the toe of that sucker.  That's pretty fast for me!  Should be done with that one tonight.

No real updates for theatre since I'm on my break.  Worked Debut Theatre's staff show last Wednesday which was a bit crazy since I was having to manually bounce between two of the cues programmed for the Debut Players' show and manually bring up one of the dimmers for blue lights.  Still, I had a good time and it was fun to watch.  Tricia from Bas Bleu sent an email asking if I could house manage The Woman in Black and I said I would if she couldn't find anyone to cover a couple of nights, but I really wanted to take full advantage of my break.  Plus, I loathe dislike house managing with the fire of a thousand suns quite a bit so probably a good thing to avoid if I can.

Phew!  That was long....but I guess it was a pretty exciting week!

These are the socks that never end....

Yes, they go on and on, my friends.

I made the rather large and naive mistake of promising one of my guy-friends, Andy, a pair of hand knitted socks.  Now, I have only just started knitting socks this year and had only knit socks for myself (size 6 foot) and a friend (size 7 foot).  I had no idea what I was in for when I promised Andy size 12 socks....in fingering weight yarn on size 1 US DPNs.  If I ever utter the phrase, "I'm knitting Andy socks" again after I finish these, I hope someone shoots me.

Pattern: BFF Socks by Cookie A.  Yarn: madelinetosh sock in Whiskey Barrel

It was about at this point during the foot in the sock that every time I looked at it, I felt either like crying or throwing up on it...maybe both at the same time.  Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the pattern.  It was extremely easy to memorize and easy to execute so it's great for TV knitting (which is pretty much the only kind of knitting I do).  But after you've done it for 11 inches (yes I knit for 11 inches, then ripped out two inches because I realized the ending sock would be way too big) you start to go a little crazy.

I "finished" the sock Sunday evening and had Andy, who came over to watch Game of Thrones, try it on and lo and behold, it was still about an inch too long.  So yep, I ripped the entire toe out and then another inch of the foot.  So, now I have a finished sock which is really much longer in spirit than it is reality.

Terrible picture, I know.....try to ignore the dog hair.

So what does that mean?  I get to start on the second one tonight...and as I typed that my hands started to shake.

This might be a good time to mention that I am a single project knitter.  While so many knitters are able to switch from one project to another on a daily if not hourly basis - I can not do that.  That's not to say I don't have multiple projects on needles - I currently have a sweater and a shawl on the needles.  It's just that those get ignored for seriously long periods of time.  In fact, they'll be lucky if they are ever in my hands again.  Especially with this sock knitting jag I'm on....and the amount of sock yarn I've bought.

Prospero standing on the beach - The Tempest produced by OpenStage Theatre

Gonzalo on the ship - The  Tempest produced by OpenStage Theatre

In the world of theatre, we just had the second to last weekend of The Tempest and this coming weekend is the end.  On May 7, I'm working a friend's show, but that's only one night of work.  After that, I have nothing at all until June when I do a Reader's Theatre production of Desert Cities.  Just think of the knitting time!  Socks will be pouring off my needles!....right.  Even though I'll have a ton of knitting, relaxing, re-acquainting myself with my non-theatre friends time, I am a little of scared of not being involved with anything for so long.

The Tempest has been a great run and is such a fun show to call (now that all the projected scenery is behaving).  But I'm about ready to be done with this one....it'll still be sad to let go but I'm looking forward to the end much more than I did with my last production, Dangerous Liaisons.  The cast is wonderful but we aren't as close as the Liaisons cast was which may be part of the reason that I'm not dreading the end of this one the same way.

Last but not least, I'm desperately hoping that my nightmare (that woke me up at 5:30 in the morning in a dead panic) involving me forgetting to lock up OpenStage's donation jar isn't true.  I don't remember locking it up on Saturday, but I've never forgotten before.  I've tried to go by the theater to check but it hasn't been open or I'm unable to find the concierge to let me in the dressing room.  Will probably try again on my way home from work....gulp.