Hyvetyrant Talks

Guess where I was?

New York, but I didn't go to Rhinebeck.

I'm horribly calendar impared. I first got the week I was going to New York mixed up, then couldn't match it up in my head with Rhinebeck.

I was in New York working, but managed to have fun also.

Monday and Tuesday I went to customer visits.

Tuesday night I went to Spring Awakening. I LOVE this show - I've now seen it twice. (Once in the spring, before it won the Tony, and then last week). I also decided to be silly - and waited for the cast to come out the stage door. I've never done that before - it was fun. (I did feel old - the people around me were in their early 20's, and I'm...sigh... 36...) Actually, if you're on Ravelry - this show is the source of my current favorite swear word -see track 15.

What I didn't expect was how gracious the two lead actors would be - especially John Gallagher Jr. He has a way of asking and answering questions that make you believe he is completely interested in your answer - leading him to have long conversations at the stage door. I felt comfortable being a total fangirl, and saying this was my second time to see the show, and that I had been watching the Tony broadcast and hoping that both he and the cast would win. And, I had been wondering how they would get around the... explicit... nature of their songs (again, see Track 15). He was fun to talk to... and I found out 1) that the grin on his face when the started "The Bitch of Living" was _not_ due to his Tony win (as I had thought), but to his attempt to not choke when he inhaled for his first line; and 2) that the covering of their mouths during "Totally Fucked" (track 15), was at least partially his idea. (I thought it was brilliant, and told him so. I also told him I stood up and cheered when he won - which I had).

Wednesday was a DAY OFF. In NEW YORK.

I spent hours at the Met looking at art. (I love museums). I went to Purl. (I had gone to Habu on Monday before the customer visit). I bought yarn, of which I have no photos yet.

I do have photos from the trip in general, which will be up in my Flickr space soon.

Wednesday night I went to see Young Frankenstein. OH MY GOD IT IS SO FUNNY.

Really.

OK, so I would have been happy with only a good Puttin' On The Ritz number. But it had so much more!

Roger Bart is perfect as Frankenstein (that's Frank-en-steen.)

Megan Mullaly - my god, the woman has a set of pipes on her! There's a song in the second act where she lets loose and WOW!

Sutton Foster is hilarious as Inga. And acrobatic. And, she yodels.... all in the first song she's on stage. (then she gets better...)

Everyone else is good also, but... It was worth every penny of my extravagant ticket. I predict a Tony for Best Musical 2008.

On Friday, I went to see Cyrano de Bergerac with Kevin Klein and Jennifer Garner. This was also a wonderful show, with a strong cast and lovely sets. (not extravagant sets, but lovely) Swordplay. Poetry. Love. Grief. Sigh....

Saturday I came home and collapsed.

Oh yeah, I also went to Photo Plus Expo 2007 on Thursday and Friday :-)

I have to take some photos to have a true knitting update. Coming soon (hopefully tomorrow)

Tigger at PPE learning about Adobe

Tigger at PPE learning about Adobe, originally uploaded by hyvetyrant.

-melissa

Tigger having Sphinx dreams at the Met

Tigger having Sphinx dreams at the Met, originally uploaded by hyvetyrant.

-melissa

Giraffe looking at pink glasware at the Met

Giraffe looking at pink glasware at the Met, originally uploaded by hyvetyrant.

-melissa

Tigger in the Fashion District

Tigger in the Fashion District, originally uploaded by hyvetyrant.

-melissa

Tigger at Habu

Tigger at Habu, originally uploaded by hyvetyrant.

-melissa

Mittens - swatching and rethinking.

Again. Megsgarden spoiler alert.

So, I pulled out two lovely yarns from my stash, and started a cuff. I picked a pattern from the Mitten Book, and because I like ribbing on my mittens... did ribbing. And colors.
I quickly remembered why I don't do much colorwork - because of the way I knit, its a bit tedious. I drop the working yarn after each stitch. It works for regular knitting, but not so much for colorwork.

Still, its pretty.

Yesterday, while chauffeuring my knitter daughter around, I described the mitten project to her. She asked about lace. I thought about that for a while.

Today I thought some more about lace, and did some paging through one of the Barbara Walker treasuries.

Tonight, I'm ripping out the above and swatching lace. And ribbing. Together.

My stitch pattern looks kinda like this:

Row 1: *k1, yo, sl1, k2tog, psso, yo, k1, p3*
Row 2 and all even rows: P5, K3
Row 3: K5, P3.

I may make it a 2 row repeat, and I may through a cable in there also. We'll see.

These would be fingerless gloves, btw.

Mittens - the pattern search

First, if you are Megsgarden from Ravelry, and you want to be surprised... stop reading now.

OK.

Really, I mean it.

So, I signed up for a Ravelry mitten exchange. Sounds like fun, right? Yes. I agree - fun.

My mitten buddy lives in Tracy, CA. I looked at the weather, and winter temps there are in the 40's - you don't need heavy mittens there. Light mitts would do fine, though. Or fingerless.

My buddy likes Merino, Alpaca, Cashmere, soft cottons. I can understand this - soft fabrics, not much tolerance for harsher wools (not an issue for me, as I can't knit with harsh wool for the same reason)

I had a couple ideas floating around my head - and if my design efforts (or time) completely fail, I'll fall back to one of them.

My fallback idea is using some Malabrigo for some Natalya fingerless mitts. Wonderful things, they are. And Malabrigo is a dream to knit and wear. I had a pair, but lost one (sniff...), and keep meaning to make another pair for myself, especially now when there is a chill in the air.

But, back to mitten finding.

Again, light mittens are best. Soft fabrics.. I think of sock yarn. Koigu, esp. mmmm.... So, I grab a stack of books to look for interesting patterns. And do a couple web and Ravlery searches as well.

Nothing grabs me strongly, but as I let the idea ponder in my head, I remember buying yarn to make Stained Glass Mittens (saw a sample set in one of my LYS's and was inspired). I can't find that yarn, but I do find some KnitPicks Gloss (merino/silk) in black, and a lovely Koigu in greens and golds. SCORE.

Now that I have a colorway in my head, I can move faster.

One of the books I had kept out to ponder further was The Mitten Book - full of scandanavian mitten designs. I'm also considering the Anemoi Mittens by Eunny, and just popped across her Endpaper Mitts (which are a first backup right now if a design doesn't work)

I almost decided to do one of the patterns in the book, then kept changing my mind. I decided to reread some of my target's blog to get some more background and it struck me. She is into Highland Dancing - maybe instead of these Rose patterns that keep popping up, I should look into a Thistle pattern. more to ponder.

And sketch. And think. And, time to ball up the yarn, as the needles are coming out soon!

Well now...

Amazingly enough, the blog is still here even if I'm not.

I have been travelling, reading, taking pictures (but not of my knitting), tweaking my job, volunteering, getting my little one set for Kindergarten, dealing with the big one's hand issues, and pretty much overextending myself all summer.

And, who really wants to read posts that are more of "too busy to take pictures, but I'm knitting, really", and "I have been having issues staying with things", and "I love Ravelry!"?

Active on my needles right now, though, is a Cherie Amour from the latest Knitty, a Hallowig from last Halloween. And, I'm starting a mitten for a mitten exchange I'm in.

And, that's whats brought me back. I'm mucking with a design for this one, and (hopefully) documenting as I go. Next post starts it all off!