Month: September 2002

Spinning…and Musicals

Sarah Crafts

I showed my mom the yarn I wanted to buy, and she pulled her spinning wheel and a basket of wool out of the basement. I think I’ll still buy the yarn for this vest, but I would like to learn how to spin. It’s actually very rhythmic and relaxing, once you stop thinking about it. I’m not very good at it yet, as you can see from this example. Although, I suppose the fact that it holds together fairly well when you tug on it a bit is something…

I actually did get a part in Sound of Music – as a nun. It’s a small part, but it will still be fun. Unfortunately, thinking I hadn’t gotten a part, I agreed to accompany a children’s theater production of Guys and Dolls. So, I’m going to be very, vey busy this fall. If I had to go to every rehearsal for Sound of Music I would literally have a rehearsal for something every night of the week except Sunday. But considering it’s such a small part, I imagine I won’t have to be at every rehearsal until closer to the performances…I hope!

Wow!

Sarah General

Knitty.com is fantastic! It makes me want to design something to contribute! In the meantime, though, I’m almost done with the first of the mystery Christmas projects – I’m going to have to find a way for non-recipients to view these things, since waiting until after Christmas is a long time – and since it’s going so fast, I found a project to make for myself. :) Unfortunately, it calls for Colinette Point 5 yarn…at $19.50/skein, that’s going to be one expensive vest. So, I rolled all of the change in my bedroom and came up with just enough for three skeins and the needles I need for it. It must be a sign.

Adventures in Home Ownership
(or, how to have a new furnace installed, in three easy mistakes)

Sarah General

So, I worked from home yesterday so that we could have a new furnace installed. Yay. I thought, this will be great – no interruptions, I’ll get tons done… Mistake #1 – I forgot that everyone who might usually stop by my office also has my phone number. Mistake #2 – not finding “doggy day care” for Molly. Molly was, to say the least, very disturbed by all of the banging and rattling going on in the basement, and spent the entire day barking at each and every heating register on the first floor. Continuously. Just in case, of course, I didn’t realize the danger that at any moment might spring through the registers into the main floor of the house. Mistake #3 – not understanding what the installer meant by, “you should open your windows, there will be some smoke when you start the furnace the first time”. Try prodigious amounts of smoke, pouring through the house, causing all of the smoke detectors to go off. (Side note: I didn’t realize that the different smoke detectors in the house beeped at different pitches and rates – I guess this would let me know where the smoke was at any given time?) And, of course, being vertically challenged, I couldn’t reach the detectors to rip out the batteries. Finally, I relocated myself, my laptop and Molly to my parents’ house to try to salvage the rest of my workday. What a relief to come into a quiet office today.

Christmas Project Woes

Sarah Crafts

Last night I realized that I had totally screwed up a sleeve I was almost done with all the way back at the beginning. The only way to fix it was to rip it all out. The only thing worse than ripping out a sleeve is ripping out a sleeve done in Fair Isle (two colors). The only thing worse than that? Ripping out a sleeve done in Fair Isle on double-pointed needles. I just took ’em out and ripped…all the way back to the ribbing. I did manage to pick up the stitches there, though, so at least I didn’t need to re-do the ribbing. Funny, though, I was determined to at least put back part of what I had ripped before I went to bed, but it went so much faster than the first time I did it I managed to get even further than I was before I’d ripped. Maybe I’m just finally getting used to these dratted double-pointed needles… I actually finished the sleeve on my way in to work. (Thank goodness for car-pooling!)

Update

Sarah General

I didn’t get a call-back. Oh, well. I think I’m actually somewhat relieved, though, because I saw my entire fall (my favorite season) getting very busy, very quickly. Now I’m only committed to band one night a week. The rest of my evenings will be spent knitting! :)

Am I Crazy?

Sarah General

Last night I auditioned for Sound of Music. (As if I didn’t get enough of it last spring!) Rehearsals are three nights a week, and I’m starting band tonight, which would make four nights a week I’m not at home… Of course, that all assumes I get called back, and then manage to get a part. I guess the worst that could happen is that I don’t get a part and I have more time to sit at home and knit. :) I’m really glad I did the audition, though, because I was very nervous about it, and seeing as how I used to think I’d like to do theater professionally someday (way back, ages ago, in high school), I was angry with myself for being scared of it. But once I got up on stage I realized I had nothing to be nervous about, and I think I managed to not make a fool out of myself.

Part of me thinks I shouldn’t publish this, because I might jinx it, but the rest of me figures that’s silly.

…And Again!

Sarah Photography

I have another Picture of the Day!

So let’s see, this weekend (three days for me – I took Friday as vacation) consisted of knitting, buying knitting supplies, and watching football. Ahhh. I love fall. I’m starting Christmas gifts now, which I can’t put up pictures of, because the majority of the people I’m making things for read my blog on occasion. Oh, well. Let’s just say that I bought a significant quantity of yarn over the weekend, all of which is destined for gifties. My living room looked like a yarn shop by the time I brought in all of the bags!

Picture of the Day

Sarah Photography

Check it out – my picture is Picture of the Day today! This would be much more exciting if I didn’t work on the project, but it’s still neat. And no, I’m not the person who does the image approval (thank goodness – I wouldn’t want that part of the job!) so it’s not like I hard-coded my image in there or anything. :) <shameless plug> Go on, upload some pictures – you know you want to! It’s a contest, besides, so if you don’t work for Kodak you have a chance to win neat stuff, like digital cameras and Ofoto credits. </shameless plug>

Finished Objects

Sarah Crafts

See? Another project finished. I can too finish things occasionally! I have so many projects that are “almost done”, I will hopefully finish several things in the next week or two. Of course, only one person was really hassling me about it…not mentioning names or anything…just someone who lives in my house and isn’t a dog. :) So, now that I’ve finished that project, I can start another, right?

Just a warning…

Sarah General

..to all of you who like to put your hair up and have to travel by air… Bobby pins do set off the metal detectors, at least in the JetBlue terminal at JFK. Ugh. I figured I was safe when on the way there my jewelry didn’t set off the detector, because jewelry has at least as much metal as bobby pins do, right? No such luck. Actually, the worst part was the other passengers waiting in line staring at me suspiciously. UGH. It’s a good thing I checked the bag with my knitting needles. I can just see trying to explain those to the security guards. But here’s the thing. If you can’t bring knitting needles on (and I’m talking large, 8mm plastic needles here) why are you allowed to bring pens and pencils? I would think those would make just as good – and unlikely – weapons. Oh well. It was worth it to see my nieces and totally surprise Denis’ mom for her birthday. :)

The side trip to the yarn shop turned out to be a dud, for the first time since I’ve started going there. How disappointing – they were having a fantastic sale, just not on any yarn that I wanted. At least I got a few more pairs of needles, which I’d had a hard time finding here. Jo-Ann’s and Michaels seem to think that if you want big needles, they should also be very long. When you’re only knitting a 7-inch-across thing on 36-inch circular needles, it’s a royal pain. 10-inch straight needles work much better! (Yes, I’ve started a new project or two – I didn’t bring my computer along with me, so I haven’t updated the crafts page yet…maybe tonight, if I’m not too busy knitting!)