Count down, cast offs, and goodbyes

The count down begins. I have 8 more shows, 6 more days, 4 rehearsals left of Jersey Boys before I'm HOME. . . . back in Park Slope, back in my own bed, sitting in my garden. Then, a week from today I will start my training at The Point. Yeah! I should be packing today since Wed - Sun I need to be at the theatre at noon. I'm avoiding it by blogging and watching The Colbert Report. I've been here for nine months, so I have a LOT to pack.

Yesterday was a big day for cast offs and stash busting. I finished two of the "left over cotton projects". My mother in law gave me a ton of white and red cotton yarn. She had been given a half finished sweater that neither of us liked or wanted to finish, so we frogged it and reballed it. First I made the white cotton cable sweater


The pattern called for the sweater to be knit straight (with no side shaping),
but I added side shaping since cotton has no negative ease. It turned out pretty good, but I could have gone narrower in the waist. I really like the cable on the shoulder and the roll neck line.

I still have a lot of white cotton left, but not enough to do the lace cardigan in Vogue's summer 07 issue, so I'll buy some more. Why is it that the attempted stash busting always lead to buying more yarn??? Does that happen to any of you?

As for the red cotton. I whipped up this little cable tank.




Next cast off from yesterday was a simple garter stitch triangular shawl/scarf. It was made from some cool black and white boucle yarn (more Mother in law left overs!) mixed with a ball of leftover black mohair from my cotton/mohair sweater.


Of course you can't have cast offs, without cast ons. Continuing my trend of stash busting, I'm making a little lace bolero from my two leftover skeins of Rowan Polar from my Winterwonderland sweater.



That's count down, cast offs, and now to the goodbyes . . . Yesterday was my last Monday with Chicks with Sticks. Sadly I could only stay a half hour (more about that later). I was glad I came by, but sorry I missed so many folks. I can't thank this group enough for welcoming a stranger into their midst nine months ago. It's been my home away from home and, many weeks, has been the only part of my week that I've liked. This group was a big part of my decision to change my career and my life. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

I ended my evening going to a benefit performance for BCEFA. It was a join effort by the casts of Jersey Boys and Avenue Q. They were great! Some highlights for me . . . the puppets of Avenue Q auditioning for Jersey Boys singing "God I hope I get it" from Chorus Line. The swings from Jersey Boys singing about how hard it is to be understudying all those roles to the tune of Avenue Q's song "It sucks to be me", but the winner has to be Jake Speck's original country music song - wait for it - "You're only gay if you take it". Beyond words.

Right before intermission was the auction. At one point when the bidding had slowed John Hickman offered to put on a red bra if they got a bid of $1300

John Hickman, Drew Gehling, Jarrod Spector

Here's another pic from the auction. This was for the Jersey Boys package. It went for $2800!

Drew Gehling, Jarrod Spector, Jenny Lee Ramos

The boys singing their movie medley


The whole cast singing the finale

Cast on, Cast off

Okay, so it's really more like cast off, cast on, but that didn't sound as "Karate Kid".

I cast off two projects this week, and I've got two on the needles.

First I finished the sweater for my sister. It was a really a fast knit. I didn't use a pattern, I just figured my gauge, and knit it to my own body. It came out so cute that I have to knit one for myself




Next it was my very own mohair and cotton sweater. I got the design idea from a cotton sweater with a net top and sleeves I saw in a store once. I liked the idea of using mohair for the top for a contrast of textures. I owe some of the design features to a few knitty.com designers. The basic stitch pattern from the mohair comes from the Spring Fling. The shaping I used on the sides came from the Honeymoon cami.

































I've always wanted to do a sweater with a ruffle sleeve, and after much trial and error, I'm pretty happy with how it came out.


On the needles is the ENDLESS k1, p1 rib that is Tempting II. It's my at work project. Something I can mindlessly knit during understudy rehearsal.


My at home project is to use up all the cotton yarn that my mother in law gave me. I can get a few projects out of it, but the first one I chose was a boat necked cable sweater.

I'm changing the pattern a bit to add shaping on the side. The picture looks like there's shaping, but the pattern doesn't have any. Here's it on the needles


David came to visit from Brooklyn and brough a bit of our garden. In the form of pictures:



He also brought me lettuce from our garden. It was delicious. It makes me miss Brooklyn more then ever.

I also miss going to all my yarn shops in New York. I'm coming home for a few days in July, maybe I'll go on a yarn crawl.

Two Monday's could not be more different

Last Monday I was sitting by the water enjoying a relaxing day knitting and feeling fine. A week later, I'm 2000 miles away, I'm sick as a dog, and sitting by my 99 year old grandpa's bedside, feeling like crap. What a week. I just got home and I've never been so tired in my life.

The week started out pretty nice. On Monday I went to the Embarcadaro to sit by the water, stroll around the shops, poke around the book stores, and sit, and sit and sit and knit. It was heavenly.


In the front there are lawns and tons of places to sit. On the inside are rows and rows of little shops. It reminded me a bit if the holiday craft market at Grand Central (or maybe I was just homesick).

Out the back door was the water. Plenty of benches to plop down, veg out, and knit.















From there I hoped on the MUNI to the Bliss Bar to meet up with Chicks with Sticks. It was so nice to see everyone again. I finished my first sleeve of my cotton mohair sweater.


It was a good thing I had one relaxing day. Tuesday at noon began our 8 show, 4 rehearsal week. That means being in the theatre noon - 10:30 pm everyday that week. At some point a sour throat turned to a cough turned to a lost voice. I felt like crap most of the week.

Saturday my mom let me know that my grandpa was not doing so well. I spent my dinner break between rehearsal and the show on Saturday looking into flights. I found a decent flight on United, took a bereavement day from work and left for the airport at 8:30 am on Sunday. My brother picked me up at the airport and we got back to my mom's house around 6:00 pm. It was a LONG travel day, but it was worth it. My sister drove in from Michigan that morning, and we were all together by dinner. We ordered take out and drove my brother back to his house and all had dinner over there. The next day we spent a lot of time with Grandpa. All things considered it was great to see him and be able to talk to him and have all his grand kids together.

It was an exhausting couple of days, and coughing all night long and not sleeping didn't help much. On the upside, two six hour plane rides let me finish the cotton mohair sweater. Here it is blocking back in San Francisco.


I also plyed up another spindle full of yarn that I had spun before I left. Here's another niddy noddy full.

Now it's time to sleep and wake to face another week of 10 hours of theatre rehearsal, 8 hours of studio rehearsals, and 5 shows for me. It will feel like a long time before I hit a day off.

Back in Brooklyn and LOVING IT

I've been back in New York a week. I came back to rehearse the second company of Jersey Boys. Last week amongst all the pre production paperwork, I managed to have some late afternoon and Saturday fun in Brooklyn.

The first thing I did when I got home last Monday is rush up to our roof garden. It was mostly still sleeping . . . except for the crocus bed. There, spring has sprung



I've been loving spending time walking around Park Slope and doing little Brooklyn things like going to the 99 cent store with my pal Nell (or as Nell calls a particular stretch of 7th Ave in Park Slope, "the 99 cent district") to buy crap we need, and more crap we don't.


Here's a lovely view of Carroll Street in my hood



Friday afternoon was spent searching for the elusive baby blue yarn in the perfect gauge that Melissa Strom wants for her sweater capelets. The alpaca I ordered from Knit Picks is really pretty, but not the color she wants. So, off to Seaport Yarns I go. Sadly, no luck. Baby blue is not a popular grown up color. Lots of baby yarn, not much chunky, yummy yarn. As long as we were at the Seaport, Nell and I did the tourist thing.


Nell and I having a little Seaport lunch


My cotton sweater is coming along pretty well. Soon it's time to add the mohair lace. More on that later.


More tales of Park Slope, searching for the perfect baby blue yarn, Jersey Boys rehearsal, and of course . . . knitting to come in the next few days. I've gotten a bit behind