Snake Surly

So the eye surgery got postponed until next Tuesday. Grr. Oh, well.

Instead of going under the knife laser, I took Amy over to the yarn store and then we had lunch with her sister and the kids, then we sat around at her house and knitted. It was pretty domestic. I made a hat with some of the sari silk that I got at Artfibers, but I think I’m going to take it apart since it’s way too freaking big.

After an interesting but somewhat tedious class today, I walked up to Artfibers. I’ve been meaning to go for months (it’s like four blocks from the A.C.T.), but haven’t gotten around to it. What a FOOL I’ve been!

I was inspired to go because Stephanie was raving about their Chai silk yarn. Well, it’s as gorgeous as she said. It was tough to pick a color, but I got the sort-of-rose color. Then I grabbed some earthy variegated Paco, a cotton/alpaca blend. It doesn’t look spectacular on the spool, but the plain stockinette swatch they had was just stunning. Then I was lured into the corner where the hanks of reclaimed sari silk were hanging. I’d seen a lot of this at Stitches, and had been disappointed in the texture. But this stuff is sleek and heavy and smooth, and the colors are hypnotic. So I got some.

And then I saw the Kyoto. Holy Mary Mother of God. This stuff is positively luminous. It’s like it’s lit from within. It’s a strand of lofty mohair twisted up with luscious, glowing spun silk in a *slightly* lighter color. Did I mention that it’s luminous? I normally don’t like the royal/electric blue family, but that’s the color I got. I’ve never seen anything bluer. And holy shit, I thought I’d need sunglasses to look at the orange color.

I eventually had to leave because I was starting to get dizzy.

Less blogging, more knitting.

This has got to be the funniest thing I’ve ever read. It might be because I’ve had a long day and I’ve eaten a whole bunch of Peeps, but I am seriously about to die laughing.

I mailed Abbie’s Cheshire Cat hat (and bonus other stuff) today, so I can post a picture of the hat (but not of the bonus knitted item), which is just too damned cute.

The show opened last night. It was fine, no disasters, and the audience seemed to like it. I left the gala early because my eyeballs were tired. I’m going to have PRK surgery on Tuesday at Stanford, and I’d had my pupils dilated earlier in the day. I wanted to have LASIK, but apparently my corneas are too thin. How absolutely unfair that there’s a part of me that’s prohibitively thin. Oh, well, at least this way I’ll be getting some Valium.

I got home from rehearsal last night (it was good) and discovered I didn’t have anything to knit. (Well, I DID, but I didn’t wanna knit on my cashmere scarf and I didn’t want to work on Misty Garden, which is my at-rehearsal-or-the-dentist-or-stuck-in-traffic project.) So I picked up that Crystal Palace Kid Merino and my US10s and dug in.

Man, it’s weird to work with this stuff after working with Manos. The two yarns could not be more different. The Manos is dense, textural, entirely of the earth, and the kid merino is so light I can barely tell I’m holding it. It’s like knitting with cotton candy. When I cast on, it kept snagging against the hangnail on my thumb.

But I like it a lot. I can’t wait for this little scarf (from Last Minute Knitted Gifts) to be finished. Alas, I can’t knit very fast with it. Every time I start picking up speed, I make a mistake. Funny that this is so slow and plodding and the Manos was lightning fast.

If it was a little less scratchy, Manos del Uruguay would be my new perfect favorite yarn. I just whipped up a hat with it, and it was unbelievably scrumptious to work with. The variations in color and thickness were absolutely fascinating, and they made every stitch interesting. I’m dying to make something else with it, but I’m not convinced I’ll be able to stand it next to my skin. I think I’ll make a wristband with the remains of the skein and try it out.

It was actually not too bad. I’ve been through much, much worse Tech Sundays. This was pretty low-key. Still, there’s a ton that needs to happen before we open. Some of the plays are really cool and good, and some of them haven’t quite gelled yet, but I’m confident it will all come together as shows always magically do.

Yesterday I got a great big skein (440 yards) of beautiful, variegated deep blue Alchemy Promise mohair. It’s scrumptious. I have no idea what I want to do with it. Any ideas?

I love the show tunes channel on DIRECTV. I really do. However, having to hear MICHAEL FUCKING BALL sing "The Winner Takes It All" really, really, really, really freaks me out. It’s so horrible, I can’t turn it off. I want to call the Abba people and ask them if they authorized this, and if so, can they please send me some of the DRUGS THEY WERE ON WHEN THEY DID.

Margaret, back me up on this!

Went to the Pear today to try to be helpful. Was weird to be let loose in somebody else’s theatre. Tech is tomorrow. Not convinced the projector situation will work as planned. Convinced that Ron and Jossie will make it cool anyway.

Just got back from seeing Blithe Spirit. There were many martinis onstage (without ice in the shakers, which puzzled me). Made me thirsty. Am now having drinkie.

The Cheshire Cat Hat is finished. It looks pretty great, but it’s kinda big. Next time I make one, I’ll cast on fewer stitches and that should help. Also, I’d like to tweak the decreases towards the bottom. It sort of drops off a little too fast. But it looks swell on, and I’m sure Abbie will dig it. It’s nice and warm, and very festive.

I still have a migraine. Could I have a new head, please?