The knitting stage manager

So perhaps the worst idea I've had today is to try updating my blog for the first time in months less than a week before I go into tech.

For those of you who are outside of the theatre world (do I know anyone outside of theatre anymore?) tech is that crazy week where we decide to put all the lights, sound and costumes together for the first time. It usually consists of long days, late nights and short tempers. (Though I will admit, things at Wayside go much more smoothly than any other theatre at which I've worked - usually)

But for some reason I think I will have time to update more during this week. Yep. Uhhuh.

So I have been rather busy over the last few weeks. First off I've been moved. One of the great things about where I work is that they house me. I have at this point lived in 3 different rooms and I am now back in the room that I moved into the first day I worked here. And here is my conclusion.

I have too much shit.

I believe at last count I had 30 boxes. For most people this may not be a whole lot, but I basically live out of 1 room and at least 6 or 7 of those boxes were books and 4 (very large toilet paper boxes) were filled with yarn. It is not possible that I have this much yarn though since #1) I still stand in front of my stash and think "I have nothing to knit" and #2) I still have this overwhelming urge to go to the yarn store on Friday.

I've also been in rehearsal. We are currently rehearsing Are We There Yet?. Besides the fact that this show just makes me giggle, I am in love with this cast and the people I get to work with. The ever steady Thomasin and Larry are back and are joined by our new intern Melissa. And though my love for them is eternal I am also very excited by the return of my pseudo-big brother JT. We first met my second season here when he performed in Spitfire Grill and Lee and Brown: Lighting the Fuse. He's also probably one of maybe 4 actors that I've kept in touch with after a show has closed.

Okay, to the knitting.

I'm working on a couple of projects (as usual)

Camo Socks
Two years ago I bought sock yarn in Tulsa (it was acrylic and cheap and I thought it would be good to learn how to knit socks) It of course sat in my stash until about two weeks ago when I got this urge to knit all my old yarn up. And now I've realized why I don't like acrylic. It's annoying to work with. It's scratchy and feels like plastic....wait, it's plastic.

Adamas Shawl
Some day this may be finished. I so admire those woman who did this as part of the Olympics.

In process pictures will be up soon.

So a brand spankin new yarn shop has opened in Winchester which of course meant a field trip!

Natalie (my assistant who shows up modeling so many scarves on this blog) and I went down today to check it out. Not too bad. They are obviously still waiting for some inventory to arrive, but they are carrying a lot of yarns that the shops in the area do not have yet. Also they carry the beautiful palm lantern moon bag that I've been drooling over for a year. For some reason I can drop $100 on yarn no problem, but I cringe at the $24 for the bag - I have no logic in this matter I've accepted it. I did manage to pick up some supersock by Cherry Tree Hill in Java which I'm hoping will inspire me to actually start knitting socks. Natalie swears it will and actually prescribed me the yarn to get me out of the funk I've been in lately.

I will get pictures up soon.

In other news I finally got some scarves out in the Curtain Call. Everything I put up during Christmas (except one) sold and it was looking pretty bare.

Months worth of Knitting!

It's been months since I last posted to this blog so I have a lot to catch up on. I did not stop knitting, but I did however get fairly sick and my focus has been on other aspects of my life. But I'm hoping to pick up this blog again and to get you caught up with my needles.

My amazing job allowed me and my Asst. Natalie (pictured looking oh so happy in previous posts) to sell some of our work in the concession area of the theatre. We figured we would sell a few pieces, but mostly it was a way to show off what we had done. Well, surprise! We were a huge success and made....well let's just say enough to make the holidays a little easier. Above is a group photo of the first scarves/shawls I put out. (All of these sold!)

This is my ice-blue shawl. The pattern was given to me by the owner of my favorite LYS. The original pattern called for Eros, but she had knit it up in white Zen and it was gorgeous. I've made one in black (a present for my sister) and this one in blue.

Here's a close-up.

I used a handpainted yarn for this which immediately stained my beautiful wooden needles the same color as the yarn. But I love how the colors striped next to each other. I just may use my old metal Boyle needles next time. In any case I have a ton of pictures to still upload, but this post is already really long. And i have a poncho that is screaming for me to finish.

No, really, Oscar wants to be wearing my new keyhole scarf.


See, he's a very pretty boy.

Happy Halloween!!!

So I love Halloween. It's my favorite holiday and my girlfriend's birthday. So Double Good.

But I also love these. Knitted Zombies. I love it.



Go to the link so see the whole series. Hannah Simpson is amazing!

This is me by the way.

The sweater I knit Abigail for Valentine's Day last year. Evidently the boyfriend sweater curse thing doesn't apply to lesbians. Except the part where if you finish it and you are still together it will last. It was my first attempt at intarsia though, and I thought it worked out well. Also, my first sweater in general.

Okay, this is all I did today. I finished knitting this about 2 months ago and finally got around to doing all the finishing on it. It's my second sweater which is a boatneck sweater for my new little niece (via my best friend Connie) The cardigan is on its way. So soft!!!!

Okay, I know I have to sew in the ends, but I thought it was so cute and I wanted to get it up tonight. It's a little keyhole scarf made out of 1 ball of Bernat's bling. My very good friend Emily gave me two balls, but she doesn't knit so she didn't know about dye lots and they were absolutely different shades. This is the darker of the two. I haven't decided yet what to do with the other skein. My first keyhole scarf!

I have no idea what yarn this is. My mother went to some small town in Arkansas that had a yarn shop. She walked in and saw this yarn and bought it for me as a late birthday present. All I can remember is that it was $15 a skein. Jesus, a $30 scarf before any labor cost goes into it at all. Ya want to know why Hollywood stars stars started knitting? Because they are the only ones who could afford it. But still fun and soft.


I love this scarf. If I make another one I'm gonna buy twice as much yarn to make it really long and wrappable. And probably in black for me. Because everything I knit for myself is black. But I used Berroco's Softee and Crystal held together. And then just Crystal for the fringe.

Anna Marie loved this scarf. I thought it was just okay. But it was my first attempt at a Net Stitch. I combined Outback Mohair and Eros. It was also during a time when for some reason everything I knit was blue and purple.


Now this one I loved. It was knit using Modea Dea's Aerie which, if you haven't used yet go and try it. It's so soft, it's like knitting with butter. It took me twice as long because I kept stopping to put my face in the scarf. I also used the net stitch on this one and I think the solid color actually lets you see the pattern. I get creative and also made a matching hat out of some yarn I had left over. Here's the secret though, the hat is crocheted and the scarf is knit. Due to open work effect you can't really tell.

I got this pattern off of HelloYarn.com. It's called the Besotted Scarf. And I'm so stupid because I was about 6 inches into it before I realized why. You can see in the top picture (though it's kinda a weird pic) that it has x's and o's as its cable pattern. I'm such a dork. I like it anyway though. I do like Nat's combination of scarf and sunglasses though.


My very first multi-directional scarf. I worked it in Reynold's Fusion which took great advantage of its beautiful colors. Thanks to Nat for being my model for the day. (Like she had a choice, I grabbed her and said "Here I'm taking pictures of you" - having an assistant is nice sometimes.)

Okay, this is my first felted bag. If you've ever seen the pattern book "Pursenalities" it probably looks pretty familiar. I used Lamb's Pride worsted and Fizz for the eyelash. I had to go all the way to Los Angeles to find the perfect buttons.
It wasn't really my style, but it was totally fun to make.

Now these puppies are all mine. I found a pattern at my LYS and didn't like the waythe final bag was looking. Besides the eyelash I used was way furrier than what they used in the original pattern. So I thought, "Why not work with the yarn?". So while the yarn was still wet I made a fist, put it inside the bag and starting spinning it around my fist to give it that bubble look.
My Deco Ribbon bag. It seemed like everyone and their brother was making this bag so I thought "What the hell?" Instead of using the called for Deco Ribbon I used Celebrity by Artful Yarns. It was this great orange, brown color. And to give it a modern twist I added the metal handles.

And I loved the colors in this bag. I used Noro's Kureyon. Self striping yarns are the best.

So, yes, this is my second blog and it's here for a good reason. To save my theatre friends from having to look and read about my knitting in addition to having to hear me talk about it obsessivly at work. So, if they stumble on it good for them but they can also avoid it if they like.

Okay, so I've been knitting for almost 10 years now. My ex-girlfriend's mother taught me when I was bedridden with an injured knee and was going crazy. I don't think she had any idea how much money it would cost me in the long run.

But I love to knit. I knit pretty much whenever I am stationary (I'm still working on the knitting while walking.) I'm a stage manager so I spend a lot of time in a dark booth sometimes with 30 minutes of watching a show and doing nothing else, so knitting keeps my hands busy while leaving my mind free to do my job. On average I saw I knit anywhere between 4-6 hours a day. So yeah, I love to knit.

I'm always interested in reading anything about knitting so if you see something and you have any comments please leave them. Good or Bad.

What kind of knitting do I do? Any. Regular, Cable, Lace, Intarsia (which isn't my favorite because I haven't mastered the twisting thing), Fair Isle (which I love, but is hard to do in the dark in a theatre booth). You name it I'll try it.

So onto the pictures.