knitting in the dark

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

While I was working in Boston at the beginning of June I had very little time to play around my old stomping grounds, but I did, of course, find time to stop into two (and a half) local yarn stores:

The first: Mary Jo Cole Needlework (don’t bother with the website). I actually went here to find a needlepoint gift for my mother because they have some great brick cover designs to make doorstops, but I discovered that they now carry yarn for knitting… sort of. It’s mostly novelty yarn meant for the scarf-knitters of the world. There’s nothing wrong with that, but I wouldn’t exactly call it a “yarn store.”

The second: Newbury Yarns (again, not a terribly impressive website). Cozy, clean, friendly… I went not looking for anything and came away with (wait for it…) sock yarn! At typical retail price, some Schaefer Anne in beautiful green, blue, and a touch of purple:

I’ve never knit with the Schaefer Anne before, but I hear good things and it has nylon content, so I’m sure it will be okay. And at half price (I think it was a mistake, but didn’t actually look at the receipt until home in Brooklyn - I only got charged for one ball), some deep red Fortissima Socka:

This is perfect yarn for a pair of socks for my father as he prefers solid or slightly tweedy yarns for his annual Christmas socks. I’m already working on the pair for this Christmas, but there’s always next year with him.

And the third and final yarn store: Windsor Button (yet again a nearly useless website). This store was so much fun for me! This is a good old fashioned craft store, which we don’t really have in NYC. We have yarn stores, fabric stores, ribbon stores, button stores, etc, etc, etc, ad nauseam, but no all-around craft stores with felt squares and googly eyes and yarn and zippers and cross-stitch canvas. They had all the basics plus a lot of nicer yarns… somehow I managed to escape without buying anything because I didn’t see anything that was an absolute deal or that I couldn’t find elsewhere.

(warning: end of knitting content!)

I also spent some time admiring the view out my hotel window in the evening during my dinner break:

And took my usual wake-up shot:

And because I’m a lighting designer (read: dork) and constantly taking pictures of light for “research,” I give you a shot of the afternoon sun coming through the window and hitting the wall because the color is just so intense:

This is my other current work project:

And the back of the postcard (with my name - still exciting!):

The official opening night is this Thursday the 15th, but it’s running until the end of the month - so go see it!

This is what I’ve been working on this week instead of my quilt and mittens:

tomorrow, March 10, for one night only: Taylor Mac, Scotty the Blue Bunny, and NakedGuyNYC perform at DUMBOLIO - hosted by the lovely and talented Ed Schmidt and lit by yours truly

SPALDING GRAY: STORIES LEFT TO TELL

So - no posts because I’ve been exceedingly busy in technical rehearsals and previews for above-mentioned shows. On the upside, my fortune cookie at Ollie’s (the best Chinese in Times Square - they have FANTASTIC scallion pancakes) last night read: “All your hard work will soon pay off.” I’m counting on it…

It looks like I’m going to have a week off at the end of the month / beginning of February, just in time for the start of PROJECT SPECTRUM! The colors for February and March are blue, white, and grey… my favorite! I plan on working on (and maybe even finishing) at least three different works-in-progress during those months…

I’ve been collecting blue and white striped shirting fabrics for a quilt from Kaffe Fassett’s Passionate Patchwork for three years now - I even have fabric I bought in Beijing in that stack - and now it’s ready to be cut into triangles and pieced together; I only need to block and seam my white Rowan Classic Yarns Julia sweater; and I have a grey cardi that I’ve been alternately working on and ignoring for almost two years now - oooh, now that I think about it I have a grey argyle vest from a Rebecca pattern that I’ve been working on for at least that amount of time (!) that I should think about finishing up as well.

No knitting since I’ve been in the theatre all day every day…

This is on a ten-minute break during our first 10/12 Tech yesterday - THE BOYS FROM SYRACUSE at CENTERSTAGE. One of my favorite things about working down here is that their artist housing is right across the street so instead of the hour-long commute I have while home I just walk across the street. The downside to this is that my apartment always has a view of the friendly neighborhood prison:

And for my usual “this is what the window looks like when I wake up” shot:

Maybe I should take one of these shots every day… except that I only enjoy them when I’m not waking to an alarm.

Last night instead of working I finished the first of a pair of Endpaper Mitts…

Obviously it needs a mate and some blocking, but I am excited - it is so cosy. (I guess I also need to wash my windows because that one is FILTHY, but what do you expect living on the first floor in Brooklyn?)

In other yarn news: I ordered my first Yarn Pirate handdyed sock yarn (50/50 merino/tencel; colorway: STORM) from the Yarn Pirate Etsy Shop! Apparently the shop was updated last night and I happened to check it this morning - lucky me!

I am a happy happy girl re: all this knitting stuff, but I really should get some work done since I leave for Baltimore on Wednesday to work on THE BOYS FROM SYRACUSE at CENTERSTAGE.

I am a world-class procrastinator. I will do anything to avoid working on a project I want to avoid - even work on other projects that I had previously been procrastinating. Today I did not even need to look so far… I simply did laundry for the first time in about a month. And had dinner with my flatmate and some of his friends. And now I’m writing a post here.

There are just so many updates: Saturday I had an informal interview with Helane, owner of The Point. I don’t have time to work any regular schedule for them, but she kept my phone number and information for fill-in hours over the holidays and the store manager actually called me earlier today to see if I could knit a commissioned sweater for them by Christmas. Can you imagine getting paid to knit? It’s a dream come true. I knit and work in the theatre and people pay me to do these things. Lucky me.

Monday I noticed a mural on 5th Avenue in Brooklyn that I hadn’t noticed before (I think it’s new actually):

Some of the details are really beautiful…

Then for the rest of Monday I was at The powerHouse Arena loading in the dance show.

Their current exhibit, “No Sleep ‘Til Brooklyn: A Hip Hop Retrospective” is really good.

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I stayed the night with my current beau - V. And when I woke up the view out his window was beautifully washed out like an old black and white photograph due to all the rain we had Wednesday morning:

I am designing the lighting for two shows right now. First up is a dance concert chorographed by Spela Sterle and Emily Power this Friday and Saturday evening in DUMBO at The powerHouse Arena:

And then starting next Thursday evening (16 November) through that Sunday I have a production of Sam Shepard’s La Turista running at Collective: Unconscious in Tribeca…

I’m sure there will be photos to post afterwards.