knitting in the dark

Welcome to 2010. I have missed spending time here at knitting in the dark so I’m back!

And I’m committing to posting every day for the month of January (eeep!). There is a large backlog of finished objects and planned posts around here - some already even have drafts written!

This was a very productive fall season for me - personally, professionally, and in terms of knitting - and winter is looking good so far as well! I have a lot of big plans for 2010. Stay tuned.

Work has been more exciting than usual this past week.

We had a protest in front of the theatre the night of the first preview, but it’s almost always a mob scene in front of the theatre with this cast.

I’m not going into details because I don’t want search engines to pick up the celebrity names, but the production is actually quite good: a high quality revival of a mid-century American play led by a British director and design team. I would like to encourage everyone to see it, but I don’t get discounted tickets and many nights are already sold out.

On to the knitting front:

This pile of yarn is 16 balls of Jo Sharp Silkroad DK Tweed, color Boheme. My grandmother purchased it for some unknown project and passed it all untouched to my mother. My mother let it sit in a closet for almost a year before I ‘borrowed’ it while visiting in April.

Originally I swatched it for a sweater for myself inspired by this Cobblestone Pullover, which I started and then ripped in August.

And I started the ever-popular DROPS 103-1 Jacket, which I realized I didn’t like so much in the lighter weight. RRRIP.

Flipping through the books on my knitting shelf I rediscovered Demi in Vintage Style… perfect! During my time off before tech rehearsals for this show I whipped out the body in about eight days.

And since tech started I’ve been working on the sleeves during my 45-minute-each-direction subway commute.

The first is finished and I am about a third of the way through the second. The pattern is easy to convert to knit in the round and the cable pattern is simple enough to work without the chart after a repeat or two. The pattern is written for an aran-weight tweed, but I am loving the results with DK as well.

I’m hoping to finish by Rhinebeck because I’m hoping to actually go this year. I have both days off - I just need to find a way to get up there.

And on a completely unrelated note - I have new shoes!

I’d never worn clogs before these… and they are SO comfortable. I wore them four days in a row after I got them! Now I’m off to find some solid sock yarn

I have a good feeling about this year. *knock on wood* If history is any indication of future performance: the “odd” ages seem to be better than the “evens” (especially if one ignores my 19th year). I had a bit of a tough 26… with the car accident and resulting depression and subsequent falling out of shape, but I’m back on track! My birthday was actually almost three weeks ago now (August 16). My parents bought me some nice curtains, but my mother also sent me a surprise gift:

my first ever (I know - blasphemous!) skein of Socks that Rock! It’s the lightweight version in color Lagoon and it will probably just sit here on my desk for a bit while I figure out what exactly to make. Yes, probably socks, but which pattern?

And as a gift to myself I ordered some dark red Ultra Alpaca from WEBS to make myself a Notre Dame de Grace - hopefully the pictures on Ravelry are close to color-accurate. Some bright orange Trekking XXL also fell into my cart when I realized it would put me over the “discountable” minimum and the skein would therefore cost less than $7. That’s probably destined to become socks for a friend whose favorite color is orange and is moving from Portland Oregon to Brisbane Australia in about two months.

Does shipping from WEBS take a long time? I’ve been spoiled by The Loopy Ewe’s nearly instant gratification online shopping.

I’m going away for the weekend again. This time to Cape Cod with some theatre friends. I was supposed to be loading-in to the theatre for Godspell on the Great White Way right now (there are still posters up all over Times Square and the LES) but that’s been put on hold, so I’m filling time and designing a few shows of my own instead of assisting for the next two months. If you know anyone who needs some good lighting…

I’m super excited to be knitting again - Penny has been blocked and I’m seaming her up and going to buy a ribbon for the wrap ties this afternoon. I’m also working on a pair of socks for my friend James that I promised him way back in the middle of December (!). But while my left hand was in a splint I had the time to catch up on some books I’ve been wanting to read. I’d been in a reading slump for months and it was nice to find that I can still enjoy a good book:

Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
Color by Victoria Finlay
The Know-It-All by A.J. Jacobs
Talking to the Dead by Helen Dunmore
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
Lucky Girls by Nell Freudenberger
The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory
The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

and I am now most of the way through A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson.

Lucky Girls and Talking to the Dead excepted, I really enjoyed and highly recommend each of these. The Other Boleyn Girl is complete fluff (perfect summer beach reading) but very good entertainment. Eat, Pray, Love is just as good as everyone says. And The Complete Persepolis was beautiful and absolutely changed my preception of graphic novels; I can’t wait ’til the movie comes to me via Netflix sometime in June.

Does anyone have one of those Amazon Kindle digital book-reader things? I think I want one (I’m envisioning a sort-of ipod for books in terms ease of use and portability), but I also think I might miss the physicality of turning pages and holding paper. I suppose if I started carrying that everywhere I wouldn’t get to do much subway or in-line knitting… audiobooks (especially on my ipod - which is many years old but still running like a champ) would allow me to do both, but audiobooks are so expensive compared to hard copies!

This is my sad left hand and wrist:

There won’t be any knitting for me anytime soon… well, at least until I figure out how to wedge a needle more securely between the fingers of my left hand (I give myself about three or four more days)! I got hit by a car (a van, really - one of those big cargo/commercial types) Tuesday afternoon. I was (amazingly for a New Yorker) in the middle of a crosswalk, crossing with the light, and not talking on my cell phone! The driver and I saw each other right before impact, so he was able to hit the brakes and I was able to put my hands between the rest of my body and the hood of the van. Right as he hit me I jumped down the street in the direction he was traveling so I managed to stay on my feet and not go flying onto my ass or head - I find it astonishing how quickly the body will respond to this sort of situation in order to save itself without any prompting from one’s brain! The only thing I remember thinking before impact was: “he’s going too fast - he’s really going to hit me - asshole!” (and my mother says I’ve been in New York too long…) After the adrenaline wore off, my hand started hurting a lot… which makes sense considering they think I’ve fractured two metacarpals!

Except for that whole getting-hit thing, I feel really really lucky. It could have been just so much worse; I’m quite happy to have walked myself out of the street to sit down on the sidewalk to collect myself and wait for the paramedics. And the driver stopped and called 911 and didn’t run! And it’s my left hand and not the one I write with! The little things for which I’m thankful just keep coming… Now, there are plenty of things about this experience that are frustrating and upsetting - and I’ve cried at the strangest times - but I am trying to remain positive, which is pretty easy when I consider what could have happened!

So I’m going to visit an orthopedist/hand surgeon Monday morning. The PA, xray tech, and radiologist from the ER visit and the doctors in my primary care office don’t seem to think I’ll need surgery or anything more than to wear a splint for the next month or so, but they want a hand specialist to go over the films and confirm the fractures and supervise my recovery. They gave me some big-dose painkillers, but I mostly just need them to sleep and only take them otherwise if my hand is swelling up.

I know it was a whole two weeks ago now, so I’m not going to bother telling you that Renegade was cool; I’ll just show you my loot. It appears I’ve started hoarding fabric this year as well as yarn… I never used to do this until I started reading craft blogs! Yikes! There’s just so much inspiration out there. Anyway, I spent a reasonable (mostly affordable) amount of money at the reprodepot.com booth:

The cherries are on cotton stretch jersey - I have plans for a t-shirt quilt to take to the park and beach and I think this will make a cute accent!

And these lovely flowers are on heavier weight upholstery fabric - perhaps for the back of a pillow or to recover the cushions on my comfy chairs…

And I just couldn’t resist (slightly less affordable) new art for a wall in my new apartment (apartment yet to be found):

It’s one of a kind and very cool up close. I love the red and icy blue details:

Speaking of new apartments, you’d think that a person could find an apartment for herself somewhere in Brooklyn with a reasonable commute time into the city for $1000 or less per month, but apparently not. It’s not like I want to live in Brooklyn Heights or Park Slope or anything (well, I want to, but I know I won’t be); I’d be very happy staying in Sunset Park or moving to Greenwood Heights. And small is okay (I think I could live in about 250 square feet), but it has to be a fairly clean building and there has to be decent natural light in the apartment since I work from home quite a bit. I just can’t bring myself to move even further away from Manhattan - not only does that make the commute longer when I have to go in, but it also makes a taxi more expensive on the nights that I need to take one.

My spring cleaning is well under-way and I have come up with a pile of things that I no longer need or want. The books that are still worth a little money I am selling on amazon.com and those that are no longer worth much I have listed on paperbackswap.com. (If you don’t know about paperbackswap.com, go check it out now!) Appliances and other such items I will eventually put on craigslist, but what do I do with the clothing and electronics that no longer work? Good news: the NYC Department of Sanitation 2007 Spring Cleaning Events are coming up soon!

Unfortunately, the Brooklyn event is way out on the border of Queens and not centrally located, but the Manhattan Electronics Recycling and Clothing Donation Event takes place on Sunday April 22 from 8am-2pm @ Union Square’s North Plaza, which is fairly easy to get to from the closer parts of Brooklyn.

They will be giving away free compost (I still can’t bring myself to compost in my apartment, but if you have a garden bring a scoop and containers), collecting used electronics for proper recycling/disposal, and either Goodwill or the Salvation Army will be on site to accept clothing and linen donations.

Electronics accepted: computers, monitors, printers, scanners, keyboards, mice, tvs, and cell phones.

Clothing and linens should be clean, gently used items. “Place items in plastic bags and tie securely to avoid moisture contamination. Tax-deduction receipts will be available upon request.”

I’m encouraging all my family and friends (that means you!) to find new homes for their unwanted belongings instead of just throwing them away… and year-round, not just in April because of Earth Day or whatever.

I have not disappeared; my mother came to visit, but she left early this morning so I can get back to work. There has been some exciting progress on the shirt-stripe quilt (piecing is so my faster when your mother does all the trimming and pressing). But for now, may I present some daffodils purchased in Park Slope now sitting in my bedroom windowsill:

Today was my first day off in about two weeks and this is what I accomplished:

I cut 1,116 triangles out of woven blue and white stripe shirting cloth. That translates into 279 mitered corner squares which will eventually turn into a quilt similar to this one:

The recipe comes from this book: Kaffe Fassett’s PASSIONATE PATCHWORK - which I purchased for my mother years ago and she’s never made any of the quilts contained therein.

I’m going to make my version of the quilt one section wider, though, as the example is only 54″ wide and I like my quilts to hang over the sides of my bed rather than just rest on top. The extra section will leave add about 18″ to the overall width and will, therefore, hang over the sides nicely.

This is the first quilt I’ve worked on by myself and not in the company of my mother. The two quilts I made before this I did with her during school breaks - I haven’t been in school for years now but I want a new quilt. I’ve been collecting fabrics for this one for about three years; some were purchased on my trip to China in 2004 but most have been collected since then from a few choice fabric stores here in NYC. My absolute favorite fabric store in the city is B & J Fabrics (sorry purl patchwork, but at least you come in second over City Quilter, which I find annoying). B&J’s website sucks, but the selection at the store is AMAZING - and ever since they moved there’s actually space to see all the options and the help there is actually helpful and not snotty. They have a giant rack of Liberty prints, which I can hardly ever afford but I love to look at for inspiration.

And now I’m going to rummage around and see if I have a nice neutral grey or blue thread so I can start piecing!

I’ve started saving to buy an apartment (it’ll take me a while, like maybe four or five years - I live in NYC) but I sure was glad that I’m still a renter when the ceiling in my kitchen started falling down a few mornings ago…

I put a bucket under the leak and called my super. In approximately four hours there were 6 inches of water in the bucket!!!

Like the curtains? Oh, thanks - I made them myself (actually, that’s not true, my mother helped while on a visit). But anyway, the Polish guy that does all the handy-work in our building came to patch the ceiling this morning and arrived only half an hour after the agreed-upon time, which I think is really very reasonable and I work from home (ah, the joys of freelancing) so it’s not like I was trying to leave or anything. I think he probably won’t ever show up again to paint the patch, but that’s okay with me because when my lease is up at the end of July my roommate and I are moving out and moving on.