June my @#$%^ !!!

It's been damp and cold all week here in fabulous San Francisco. Who knew that January was going to be warmer then June.

Hey, it's an excuse to keep knitting sweaters! The cotton cable is coming along. I finished the front.


It's been another long week at work with lots of understudies going on. There's also been a lot going on with me. Some potentially exciting knitting/life news that I can't talk about yet. I'll know more in a couple of weeks, and I'll keep you posted.

Tomorrow is the yarn swap at Chicks with Sticks. It's my chance to get rid of the remainders of many projects, and of course add some more yarn to my stash.

Here's the bits of leftovers I have


And the whole balls (or cone) I have leftover


I'll let you all know the goodies that I find tomorrow at the yarn swap. More later

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.

Cherry Blossoms & finished objects

FINALLY a spring day!! I leave for San Francisco in a week and this is the first gorgeous day since I got home. It's been cold and rainy and then, boom, 76 degrees and bright blue sky. Yesterday David cleaned up the deck, cut down all the dead plants, swept up and made it livable again. Our pal Nell came over and we had our first brunch on our deck. Bagels & cream cheese on our deck on a perfect Sunday is my idea of heaven!


I finished two and a half of the sweater capelets for Melissa. Here's the small one.











Not much is happening in our garden yet. All the perrenials are starting to peak out, there are a few little tulips poking their heads out.


The flowering quince is looking good


As great as hanging out on our deck was, we decided to head off to the Botanic Garden to check out the Cherry Blossoms. The festival is next week, but that's my last day in town, and I must go to the fleece festival in the zoo!

The main esplanade was not in bloom yet, but there were many other trees in bloom

(Me modeling amongst the blossoms)

(An actual model amongst the blossoms)

Being in the garden inspired us to do a little planting of our own. I'm usually the gardener, but since I'll be gone most of the summer, David will be on his own. We decided to plant one box of lettuce for David to enjoy between now and the end of June.


Saturday is my last day off in New York, and then it's back to San Fran. I've packed a bag full of cotton yarn, and last months Vogue Knitting. I plan on making a lot of the little lacy sweaters this summer.

Back to knitting on the subway

It's odd the little New York rituals and routines that you take for granted, even hate sometimes, that you miss like crazy when you spend five months in a strange city. I've been back home for almost three weeks now, I only have a little over two left until Jersey Boys takes me back to San Francisco. I ride the subway everyday, carefully calculate the walking time . . . if I get the train at 8:17 am it's crowded but you might be able to get a seat by DeKalb, 8:21 I can get a seat right away, 8:26 TOO crowded. The careful New York math based on travel time to work v.s. ability to sit. I'm catching up on plenty of podcasts, and of course, knitting.

I've finished the front and back of my mohair cotton sweater


Here's the detail of the mohair lace pattern


I'm putting the sleeves on hold in favor of knitting up the three sweater capelets I promised to my pal Melissa from Tour 1. Here's my progress so far on the first one.


On Thursday I went to the Tea Lounge for a Park Slope knitting Meet Up. I could only stay a little over an hour, but it was so nice to see folks.

Where to start . . .

So much is happening, I don't know where to start.

My biggest news is, a week from Monday I'll be back home (yeah!!!). I am switching from Jersey Boys first national tour, to the second national tour. This means I get to be home for five glorious weeks while I rehearse with the second company. I can't WAIT!!! I'm beyond thrilled to sleep in my own bed and see (hopefully) spring come into ole New York.

Last weekend my mom came to visit me. We did a lot of sightseeing. That was fun for me, since I mostly knit, watch TV, and do the show. That's it. On Monday we took a sightseeing bus and it was a FAB 80 degree day. Here are a few random tourist pics:

(Union Square)

(TransAm building)

(China Town Gate)

At Telegraph Hill near the stairs to Coit Tower there was this house with these kind of cool statues on it's balcony

(View from Coit Tower)

(Coit Tower)

(Murals in Coit Tower)











(Houses on Alamo Square)

In other knitting news, I made a little sweater capelet for the fabulous Jackie Seiden for her birthday. Here she is looking as gorgeous as she always does (oh, the short woman next to her is me).

I've also started a sweater of my own design. I'm loosely basing it on a sweater from the pattern a day calendar, but it's mostly my first design. I had an idea of mixing cotton tightly knit for the body, with a lacy mohair top and sleeves. I'll post some pics in progress.

Last big news is, set your TIVO & VCR's for this Monday night's Tonight Show. The first national cast of Jersey Boys will be making their network television debut. We fly to L.A. Sunday night after the show, arrive at the studio on Monday morning for spacing rehearsal, then camera rehearsal, then into costume and make up, tape the show, wash our faces, and back on a plane home.

Tell ya all about it later.