crack

updating. i can do it.
after my garden was attacked by deer, i have had little desire to write about it. i can't write bout most of my knitting because it is stealth, and rW has been busy with a show, so we have not gone out and taken pictures of our shenanigans.

but!
rW did take me to his show and rewarded my willingness to drive to Frederick with a gelati at Rita's, mexican food, and a trip to a yarn shop. we also hit an antique store that had some mid century and bought a magazine rack.

i think Mad Men is making affordable mid century hard to find. the rack was a sweet deal.

however!
we came home to leaking ceiling that just got worse and worse. this was supposed to be repaired while we were on vacation. clearly i am now irritated. i already hated our kitchen. this does nothing to help.

my pots and pans are all out of the cupboard. everything from the counter top is stacked on our dining table. i have piles of smelly damp towels everywhere, and these little insects have invaded us. boo!

failing to have created good news to report, i will share some older pictures. i finally sorted and uploaded the pictures we took on vacation and when we picked blackberries and peaches. rW has a radical hair change from one album to the next!

Vacation July 2009

blackberries and peaches 2009

i'm nice to my boyfriend

first the catch up.

long time no blog. i have been busy busy with starting the first 5 shows of the new theatre season, opening Marat/Sade (my final show of last season), helping on season selection for one theatre company, working at the store, teaching crochet class, seeing a friend whom i have not visited with since 2001, and completing the wedding gown i designed for another friend.

she is getting married today.

congrats to R. and her man D. i hope she feels (and looks) like a million bucks today, and even more than that, i hope they have a long and happy life together.

i may post a picture of the drawing of her dress after the big day is over. i will put a photo up once they get the professional shots back. that will probably be in a few weeks.

now the yarn projects.
while i have worked on many things, all my finished projects have been for rW, as this post title suggests.

rW's Rockabilly Bathmat (and Atomic Radios Shower Curtain)
designed by kittything

knit in many skein bits of random cotton from my stash (doubled) on size U.S. 10.5 needles.

started: july 3, 2008.
finished: july 9, 2008.

rW. moved into a new apartment on july 1, and he was blessed with a bathroom that had a manly 1960s pink tile renovation. me being that polly-anna, lemons into lemonade sort, i made him some accessories that made the place a little more his style.

it started with the atomic era radios shower curtain. i bought some yardage at the fabric store and sewed it to the correct dimensions and added grommets. voila! $20 bucks and an hour at the machine is much better than $40 and an hour at Linens and Things.

to go with the pink tile and crazy colored curtain, i took all the scraps of pink cotton in my stash and paired them with the black cotton bits and made a random stripe bathmat. very straight forward and a fast knit.

now that i have given it a chance, i think i would like to try crocheting a bathmat or other rug for myself in the future.

the other nicey nice thing...

The Great Green Sock Tie
aka Koigu Tie
designed by Maie Landra

knit in Hand Jive Knits Nature's Palette Fingering (1 skein NP122 "spring grass" 100% wool.) on size US # needles.

started: june 17, 2008.
finished: july 24, 2008.

this was a fun and easy knit. if i had been more focused, it would have taken me much less time, but this was tv watching, commuting, long meeting type knitting. whenever i had the right combination of silence and good lighting, this project got ignored in favor of the cables or lace haunting me currently.

one last picture to show some stitch detail....

finally.... remarkable things!

1. rW asked me to knit him this "sock tie". (!!!!)
2. he picked out the yarn himself with minimal guidance from me.
3. he wore it within 48 hours of completion, and he is already talking about "the next tie you make me...."

someone knows ow to get a knitter to make them gifts.

BOOM!

yesterday we had very high winds here in the DC area. the theatre i was working in had a series of power surges that screwed with the lights (we were working upstairs by i hear the show that was running downstairs was made rather special by this event) and when i got home there was a surprise waiting for me.


yep.
that is half a pine tree that feel down out of our yard onto the cul-de-sac. picture if from my kitchen on the third floor. the branches hit my neighbor's car. he was fortunate it didn't do much damage. i heard from my other neighbors that what i saw was pretty good because there was significant clean up before i got home.

the hanging wires are just cable lines (so we have no cable. thank you to my neighbors for sharing their wireless with me until we get it fixed.) but the truck you see in the corner of the shot is the power company coming to untangle them from the power lines.

never a dull moment!

when i was awake and not working

another tech week has come and gone. this one was particularly tricky and energy draining for several reasons.

1. cast of 19 actors ranging in age from 14-40ish.
2. Chicago = musical. musical = always more work.
3. 118 mile round trip drive daily. (that is approx 60-75 minutes one way)
4. rain. lots of it.
5. i was trying to get 2 other shows under control at the same time.

but when i was awake and not working, some interesting things happened.

for instance, i learned that you can buy drain opener in a convenient 80 oz family size bottle. this is very good when you live in an old apartment and this elixir of life allow you to shower and wash dishes. i always just bought two bottles at a time in the past. score!

while picking up some props for the director of my next show i bought a second 6-drawer organizer. it is now filled with all of the notions, trim, crafty bits, and other flotsam and jetsam of being a costume designer. i used to keep this stuff in bags piled in my anne frank closet (yes, that is the name--and it is a story) with little rhyme or reason because i hadn't taken the step to get organized. now my sequins are all together! now i won't buy a 15th package of 3/8" wide non-roll black elastic!


this organizational bender (which was undoubtedly fueled by sleep deprivation) reveled that i own 9 tape measures. yes, 9. that i am aware of. new ones crop up all the time. but i can never find one when i want it. if you looks closely in my new and improved bag of tape measures (in a drawer!) you will see that one of those tape measures is still in the package. nice.


i finished knitting a mitten. production meetings are always so long, and you spend so much time talking about light cues that traveling with knitting is a must. i am lucky that my director for this show is a friend and he is married to one of my knitting BFFs. he gets it.

isn't the mitten beautiful?
i love it. i can't wait until i have two finished mittens! i am also excited about taking a picture outside in real light. the colors are amazing in real light. this is my own take on an existing pattern. don't look too closely at the top decreases they are hard to work in seed stitch and maintain the pattern.

lizard ridge #3

my third lizard ridge block is finished. this means that i have used up all the yarn that santa brought me for this project. but a little bird told me that cupid may be nice to me. that would be swell. who needs a "better" half? or even chocolate? there is always knitting.

(i will say, however, that i have alwasy had a soft sot for flowers. perhaps because i don't get many.)

in an unrelated but annoying note, the squirrels have invaded my attic again. have to see if the landlord gets back to me about it in a timely fashion this time.

in the continuing saga of home repair and improvement

remember the squirrel in my apartment?

i have been told his name is "chippy". well, chippy & friends still have a way in and out of my closet and they have been taking advantage of that. hopefully that will stop today because the landlords have ponied up the bucks to have the gutters and fascia replaced on the house.

nice.
well, almost.

the contractors were supposed to be here at 8am. they didn't arrive until 11:15. now i am concerned about the way they swing a ladder. my windows may not be so safe in this adventure...

and i was the naive one who thought all of my problems from the last apartment would be solved by living on the top floor. nope. new problems. mostly related to ladders and squirrels.

major knitting questions....
do i start another pasha? or another pair of fetching? i promised one of each to friends. due date is after the holiday, but i am considering getting started now so 2008 can be the year of the sock right from the get-go.

gathered pullover is coming along. well, the first sleeve is. it is the perfect mindless knitting for sitting in a design run or rehearsal.

gobblegobble

happy thanksgiving to all the other folks in the good old USA. to everyone else--hi! hear about our holiday! i had a low(ish) key holiday and a few adventures. more will come with the weekend. i think we need a bulleted list.

• my apartment is incredibly clean. i get to feel superior about this until january 1st when i realize i need to take down the holiday decor.
• i forgot to clean the blades on the kitchen fan, and i have decided that this will not dampen my sense of superiority over those who partied and visited all day. ha.
• my cousins called me. it was jess's number, so when her husband was on the other end of the line gobbling madly at me... well, needless to say it gave me a bit of a start. and a laugh.
  
• i lost my wallet. this caused me to call my mother... swearing and spitting. i was a regular pirate. without the eye patch. or rum.
  
• the nice vietnamese family that runs the beer/wine store found it and they kept it for me until my dumb ass figured out i lost it and came back. i am glad i drink and have a regular place where i buy my libations.
• i had dinner with one of my bestest friends who was also unable to make it home to the family. she and i have been pals for 17 years. that is right up there with family.
• we went to La Tasca downtown for tapas, which were bountiful. the highlight was a fried eggplant with amazing garlic cheese dip. we also had a pitcher of sangria and dessert.
  
• i work tomorrow. at the store. on black friday. boo. hisssss!
• holiday tree goes up this weekend! i'll post pictures.
  

for those of you that are traveling over the next few days, please be safe!

full bloom

yesterday i took a walk through my neighborhood. we are in full spring! this is one of my favourite parts of living in takoma park. people here have a lot of plants, but they don't torture them into manicured shapes. they are natural and pretty.

click to enlarge--these pictures are worth it!


this is the house around the corner from me. they have amazing azaleas. they will peak later this week. pretty!


this is a close up on an amzing tree some people down the street have in their front yard. it is probably 40 feet high and full of blooms that drag all the way to the ground.


science at work! this little field of bells across from my house shows natural hybridization. see the blue, white, and mix color? awesome. science still works!


my neighborhood is call "Between the Creeks" because... well... we live between two creeks. i am at one extreme edge and this is the creek 100 yards from my front door. the bell flowers grow near it.


i love daffodils. aren't the peachy colored center neat? i've never seen them that color before.


iris! look at it. these are very typical in ohio, but i almost never see them out here. when i was little we had a whole huge bed of them in the front yard and they smelled like grape candy to me. here there is one plant, and they don't smell. boo.


phlox! we had these in our yard when i was in high school. you also don't see a lot of them here, and they don't spread to be as big as they get in ohio. i think they like the special kind of nasty weather you can only get in ohio.


enlarge this one!
this is the bottle tree that the folks a block away keep. they put it in this fall, and it is colorful year round. i really want to know if they bought it finished or if they drank all of those bottles of wine to put on the tree.

i'm sad.

it is very hard to find a roommate. impossible, maybe. i don't think i have impossible standards, but i still have a few. they all seem to be deal breakers.

things i have seen people seeking....

• roommates into nudism
• roommates who want to live with a single mother and 3 children under 7
• or 4 large dogs
  
• roommates who are willing to not cook
• or use the bathroom (?!?!)
• or use any space that is not their own room except to enter/exit the premises
  
• or have overnight guests (not even my mom!)
• or come/go after 9pm
• or consume alcohol (at all, not even outside the house!)
• or be an overnight guest somewhere else...
  
• roommates who will schedule the use of the washer and dryer (one load per week)
• and the kitchen (30 minutes at a time and no foods that smell)
• roommates who don't mind the livingroom becoming a weekend flophouse for bands on tour
• roommates who don't mind having their male roomie wander around in their underwear... their womens underwear.
  

so the world is full of puritans or looney tunes.

to make matters worse, the ones that sound okay have a major absurd flaw. they won't have me because....

• i'm under 30
• i'm over 23
• i'm a vegetarian
• i'm not a vegan
  
• i don't like dogs
• or babies
• or multiple dogs + babies
• i'm not the correct gender
• i'm not the correct sexual orientation
• i'm unwilling to spend $100+ for cable (cable alone! ack!)

sigh...