AnotherPurl :: a knitter's life

sometimes the knitting wins

I started (Monday?, well, it is on Ravelry) the paper dolls sweater, which starts off with an eleventy-billion stitch icord cast on followed by corrugated ribbing.

So far, the knitting is winning.

The first sweater I ripped out, because I had twisted the cast on.

The second sweater I ripped out (last night), because even though both myself and an employee at Stitch House checked it for twisting I had managed to either twist it as I finished the cast on or managed to introduce twist sometime during the corrugated ribbing.

I'm hoping that the third time it will stay up!

If I didn't actually really want this sweater, I would have bagged it after last night's late-late ripping out on the train. Yuck!

[10 Tuesday] my staycation

I have yesterday and today off from work, ostensibly so I can get more sleep. In reality, I'm doing all of the little things that I cannot normally do during prod week (I feel like prod week should be capitalized). I started a new sweater, I will be working on the scarf for the show, and I will be getting just enough rest that the midnight or later bedtimes don't kill me.

This week's 10 on Tuesday are things to bring on vacation. As mine is at home, pretty much everything I would want to bring on an away vacation are here with me.

My things in no particular order: 
A book (or more). I haven't really used my ereader in the last couple of weeks. I've been busy enough that I pretty much decided to go back to reading when the show is over or at least till next week when we should have a couple of days before our last weekend of performances to be people again. Of course, I'm totally psyched that Maggie's second book is available for the ereader: Wild Hunt. I loved the first book, so I'm totally getting this book next to read. See! I can buy books that are not just transferring my print collection to the Kobo.

A craft (or more). Yesterday I pulled out the card table and my sewing machine to work on Pirelli's purse for the show. 

This was my first time using a purse frame. Heck, it is only my third bag ever and the first two were knit. I used this tutorial for the basic instructions, however there were a few things that I needed to do differently and a few things I should have done that I will probably try if (when) I do this again.

1. Buy a few frames. While it was great having the one frame, when starting out it would have been better to have a half dozen frames so I could try different things without needing to undo all of the stitching.

2. Because this is a sew in frame rather than glue, I should have made my outline based on the interior dimensions with an additional 1/2 inch or more for seam allowances, etc.

3. Make the lining extra long. Then you can cut it to size right before you flip the ends in to top stitch shut. My lining ends almost an inch before the bag. Because this is for theater it is not a bad thing. However, if I were making these to sell I would not be able to get away with this. The extra fabric you waste isn't the end of the world, especially on something of this size.

Of course, that isn't the only craft I'm doing. I started (and restarted) a sweater yesterday. Now, I could hate the icord cast on, but it isn't the cast ons fault that I managed to twist the first row and ended up needing to take the entire 234 stitch cast on out and start over. That said, the cast on really does take nigh on forever. I also have about 30 inches of scarf to knit before Friday's opening. I will be working on that today and during my commutes most of the week.

Food. It should go without saying that if you like to bake or cook that your vacation will be even more relaxing if you don't have to go anywhere and do things that are like chores. My yesterday was definitely a bit more travel than I wanted as I picked up yogurt for lunch and bought various and sundry items. I would have loved to only have left the house for coffee and dog walks.

Today I'm hoping to make either smores bars or chocolate peanut butter rice crispy treats. They'll be for the refreshment stand at the show over the weekend, with at least a couple left at home for our own nomming. It will be good to take a little time on a much cooler summer day (I was cold last night waiting for the bus) to heat up the oven. 

Drink. My husband and I are loving the Soda Stream. We have 2 sample packs and 4 large containers, plus I put together actual fruit and sugar (and simple syrup for adjusting) to make homemade strawberry and raspberry lime sodas. I don't know that we are technically saving that much money, but it feels great to not have to go to the grocery store and lug huge twelve packs home every couple of weeks. And less cans and bottles to farm makes the kitchen and living room area automatically look cleaner. Yeah!

Staycations are great if you don't use them as an excuse to do all of the errands you haven't gotten to and just relax, so I'm going to go back to playing Scramble for a bit before taking a nap, knitting or reading a book or maybe all three (umm, except the nap. I don't think I can do that at the same time)!

making put in extra fun

Yesterday and today I've been helping with the light hang. I'm ground crew. I cart things up the scaffolding and run to space dock to pick up things, but mostly I move the scaffolding from one part of the stage area to the other. The rest of the light crew hang up Pac150s, color melds and even more lights than I know about, add gels and then test the entire shebang.

As hard as put in is, being ground crew is a lot of fun. I may not be playing with power tools, and lifting (as much) heavy stuff, but a good person on ground crew stays close by, pays attention and doesn't wonder off to do other things without letting the guys on the scaf know that you'll be MIA for a couple of minutes. If you are staying close, you either converse, which can lead to missing instructions, or you can bring something to do. Books, crossword puzzles or other activities that you can easily start and stop. 

My activity was knitting. The scarf I'm working on for the show (Mabel) has a chart, and requires more attention to detail than I wanted to put in on ground crew, but the two tone shrug from Fitted Knits met all of the requirements for a bit of hand work during put in.

So, for the last two days I've worked on the ribbing for the collar and body.

Today, in between shoving the scaffolding around, I finished.

Started: July 24
Finished: August 1

Not bad for about 12 hours of pushing scaffolding.

Yarn: 3.5 skeins of Berroco Inca Gold

The yarn was wonderful to work with, squishy and with a beautiful hand, probably because of the silk content. While I could have made the next size up and had a bit more opaqueness across my back, I think that it will be more than satisfactory for the weddings I'm attending this fall.

And I tried on the dress finally, and it fit. A good thing too, because I was too busy to try it on when it arrived in the mail. Phew! Though I should still go back to the gym for a bit of a better fit. Isn't that always the way.