Thursday 13 #83 ~ All the World’s a Stage

I am pretending (for now) that I haven’t been such a slacker. I will be less of a slacker shortly. I hope. In the meantime, here is a list of the various theatrical endeavours that have been eating up that elusive thing called “free time” since January….

(they’re roughly chronological from most recent to oldest)

1. Guys & Dolls – tech week
2. Cinderlla – auditions
3. Yeomen of the Guard – shows
4. Into the Woods – pre-production meeting
5. Annie Get Your Gun – audience
6. Yeomen – rehearsals
7. Godspell – audience
8. Gondoliers – audience
9. Guys & Dolls – auditions
10. Camelot – shows
11. Bye Bye Birdie – audience
12. Bye Bye Birdie – box office assistant
13. Camelot – rehearsals

Apology

By way of apology for being mostly absent this week, I present to you a lolcat.

Do not worry about me. I’m just in Hell… Week at the theatre.

This really is a good thing. The show’s the most ready of the shows I’ve been involved with for a long time. (I shouldn’t have said that, should I?) and it’s a fun show. With great people. I’m looking forward to opening.

I’m just really tired in the meantime. So, enjoy your kitteh.

Thursday 13 #82 ~ Tekgrrl

13 Reasons to Read TEKGRRL by AJ Menden

1. It’s a great book. Probably ok as a standalone, but very good as a sequel to Phenomenal Girl 5.

2. I know the author. (And she’s very nice.)

3. Superhero contemporary fantasy with a touch of romance. Who could ask for more? (No one that like the kind of books I do….)

4. Realistic characters… if you can accept the superpowers and the aliens and all that jazz…

5. It’s got a pretty cover.

6. Books are a great value for your money. And in this economy, value is a wonderful thing.

7. The more people who read this one, the more likely it is that the series will get to be completed.

8. The author really is very nice. She’s a good writer, too.

9. I really liked the book. And seriously, if you’re reading my blog, you probably have very similar taste in books to mine. (Unless the romance thing sets you off, I suppose.)

10. There’s a battle between good and evil. (Or two.) And unlike in our world, you can tell who is good and who is evil very easily.

11. Magic helps out, but isn’t the answer to everything.

12. Happily Ever After. I do so like those.

13. It’s a very humorous book. And did I mention I know the author?

Monday, Monday

(I wonder how many times I’ve used that blog title? I know more than once. Ah well.)

I thought I’d take pity on you, and start off with a picture. Because goodness knows, it’s been a month of Mondays for me.

This is where I was as of this weekend on the Anise socks. There was sun, and enough energy to get outside in it for a photoshoot, which is why you get the progress as of Saturday and not more recently than that. I’ve been sick, so I’m making use of energy when I have it and not counting on having it any other time.

The cat wanted to help. I let him. (Why not?)

Colorwork is fun, and I’m enjoying knitting these socks. But my love of knitting socks has been wearing thin. I’m not sure if I’m sick of the thin yarn, or the similar construction, or what. But I’ve knit more socks in the past few months than I have in any other year altogether, and it’s starting to show. (One pair per month for Jan – April, plus one sock in May. Not bad.)

I’d signed up for a “Great Sock-Off” thingy on Ravelry, and – while fun – it’s taking up most of my knitting time. Which is why I didn’t hesitate to cast on the CPH… which I will post about later this week.

Happy Monday, if there is such a thing!

You Must Be Kidding

Because, seriously. It’s JUNE already? No. No way. That’s just crazy.

I have been up to a bit, but nothing that seems worth not having blogged quite so much. I’m going to have to start doing more blogs on my mobile, just to get something or other posted. Because this is rather ridiculous. I just DON’T DO two weeks between blog posts. Nope. I just don’t.

So, what have I been up to, you ask? A birthday, work, and knitting. And theatre. Always theatre.

The knitting makes for the most interesting pictures, however, and I feel guilty for having nothing on here for so long that I’ll post pictures.

This is the progress of my Central Park Hoodie (herein after the CPH) as of last week sometime. I’ve been knitting on it since, too, and am close to the point where I’ll need to measure to check when I should start the arm shaping.

It’s very fun yarn: Nashua Handknits Ivy, in Blue Teal. These photos don’t do it justice. I’ll have to use a camera (rather than my iPhone) to take a picture one of these days to show off the color.

But it’s fun, it’s sparkly, it was a birthday present, and it’s NOT SOCKS. Believe it or not, I was starting to get pretty sick of socks… Then again, I’d been knitting a pair a month all year. (Kinda. I’ll talk about the May socks later.)

Sorry it’s been so long, and I promise to come back again sooner rather than later!

Nom!

Ok… the real reason for the “nom” in the title is chocolate. Which is not in the picture. But you get the idea.

Thanks Chris! It’s a lovely fun package, which includes a black kitty card (big surprise… ), kitty stitchmarkers, books by Keri Arthur and Lori Handeland, sheep sticky notes, a pen bookmark, and a CD of vampire music. Which kinda scares me.

And chocolate. Which (hmm, surprise surprise) is not in the picture. 

Have a great Tuesday, everyone!

Thursday 13 #81 (I think) ~ Randomized

13 Random Things

I have no idea what theme to do. So, you don’t get a theme. You get random.

1. I’m involved in 2 theatre productions right now. And strangely, it doesn’t seem insane the way it would have 10 years ago.
2. I have my own little binding machine because someone I knew got theirs jammed up and I said I might be able to fix it. I thought I might do something here or there with it. Turns out to be probably the most useful thing I never purchased. If it were to truly break now, I would likely replace it.
3. My cat wakes me up every morning by pulling things off my desk. I have no idea how this actually wakes me, but it does.
4. I have always been a Marching Band Junkie (aka would go to football games to listen to/watch the band, and follow bands at parades) and yet never actually considered that I could be IN one.
   1. Then again, it’s rather hard to march with a piano.
5. I love stationary. Pens, paper, notebooks, even paperclips can make my day. (Paperclips do tend to need to be fun colors or something, though. Basic silver toned don’t quite do it.)
6. There is kitty-print flannel sitting on my desk waiting to be made into jammies. I expect to barely have them made by the time I want to wear flannel jammies again.
7. I used to think Tetris on a cell phone was the perfect entertainment. And then I got an iPhone.
8. Post-it notes are wonderful things.
   1. The more fun-colored, the better.
9. I miss my Commodore 64.
10. My favorite video game series was the King’s Quest series. Say it with me now… “Ah, life-giving water, nectar of the gods! Graham can now feel renewal flowing through him.”
11. Speaking of computers… the first computer I owned (as opposed to family-owned) was a Mac laptop. My current computer is a Mac laptop. There is, however, nothing else in common between the two machines. I shudder to remember the grayscale screen on the old one.
12. If you can’t tell, I’m a Mac girl.
13. Prince Philip is my favorite Disney prince. When I was little, if I had to choose a Disney princess to be, it would have been Sleeping Beauty because of Prince Philip. And then I thought about how helpless she is… Now I lean toward Cinderella.

Fair-ly good

Le sigh. It seems every time I think I have everything under control, something slips.

At least at the moment the slippage in question is “just” blog writing…

So, to distract you from the lack of postage, here is a photo or two of the fair isle sock progress. Provided I can get the iPhone app to upload the photo…

Firsts

This has been a year of firsts. I knit my first entrelac, finished writing my first YA novel, finished (though have yet to block) my first lace stole with beading as a huge part of the pattern (as opposed to just being included in the edging) and something else.

This.

My first ever fair isle.

And now that I’ve tried it, I just have two things to say:

1. Thank you, DeeAnn!

2. Drat you, DeeAnn!

You see, the sock kit was a gift from her when I complained one too many times about being scared of fair isle. I kept saying I didn’t want to spend the money on something just to discover I wasn’t good at it.

And now I have no more excuses. This stuff is fun.

Now I just have to learn how to make a sweater that actually FITS me…

I did figure out through trial and error what people mean by the importance of which yarn is held dominant (I think that’s the semi-right terminology). I didn’t quite get it before, but there’s nothing like learning from experience.

I just have one main problem: end management. How on earth do you tie off the ends while you’re knitting? (And sewing them in after you’re done will be obnoxious.) I mean, though, do you tie them to the next color? To the background color? To the last float in the color you’re tying off? I’m confused.

Draconic

Wow, the blog posting thing has gone to pot lately. Sorry. I would love to say it’s because I have a new job (which I do) and so haven’t been able to keep up online (which I haven’t) but truth to tell, the blog slacking started way before that. So no excuses. Just an ever-present attempt to do better.

And here’s a start at that attempt! Finished socks are always a good thing to show off on the blog.

These are the Shur’tugal socks, aka my Dragon Rider socks.

Only they’re turning out to not be for me, but for a gift instead. Ah well. That’s okay. One fewer Christmas present I’ll need to worry about in half a year. (Eeep! I so did not want to think about that.)

I really like them. I used Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks That Rock yarn in medium-weight, and it was so fun to knit with. They knit up faster than smaller-gauge yarn does, too.

It’s a good pattern. I don’t feel like finding the links at the moment, so in the interests of getting the blog post UP NOW before I run out of time or energy, I’ll forgo the links. If you want them, ask for them, and I’ll see if I can find the energy.

Have a great weekend, everyone!