Katydid Knits

But this is just awesome.  My friend Carrie sent me the link to the Mental Floss article, and I just thought it was too cool not to share.  (That link has the lyrics, BTW).

October 26th, 2009 | Category: Misc. | Comments (3)

Thanks to dbennett from the Knittyboard for sending me this totally awesome to the max link. Can’t imagine why he thought of me…

YouTube – Aqua – Back to the 80s – OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO.

October 25th, 2009 | Category: Misc. | Comments Off

He made me cry.  I want to hug him, or buy him a beer, I’m not sure which.

YouTube – Philip.

October 21st, 2009 | Category: Misc. | Comments (6)

Posted by mobile phone:

So, I was on the way to the theatre on Sunday before our closing performance (*sob*), and I saw the oddest vehicle ever. I had to get a picture of it. Now, of course, I want to know how you get inspired to start a business like this. Is it a calling?

October 20th, 2009 | Category: Misc. | Comments (9)

This is it, we’ll hit the heights.

And oh, what heights we’ll hit!

On with the show, this is it!

(Please tell me I’m not the only one who remembers the old Bugs Bunny theme…)

Anyway, I’ve been a bit absent lately, being so busy with the show.  So, yes, we opened this past Friday night!  We had a GREAT opening night – the show went beautifully, and we had a wonderful audience.  They had tons of energy, and we just fed on that.  They laughed, they applauded, it was awesome.

We were actually talking about that backstage one night last week – one of the other women in the show was saying that she had friends who were at a show once and had some random woman come up to them at intermission and tell them they were laughing too loud (yes, it was a comedy) and that it was bothering her.  She seemed to think that when you are at a live performance, you should sit quietly and not make a sound.  FYI, this is NOT TRUE.  Actors LOVE to get feedback during a show – if something is funny, laugh.  (Now, of course, this doesn’t apply if you are laughing at something going WRONG – we’d prefer you don’t even acknowledge that.  )  If you are onstage and you have a responsive audience, the energy is just awesome.

OK, so, yeah – we had a terrific show, and then went out to celebrate.  (That’s the other thing – I’ve never met an actor who didn’t want to go out for food after a show, even if dinner was right before the show.)  We had fun, and everyone headed home.  Unfortunately, for one of the cast members, the fun of the night ended there.  Mike, our hilarious leading man, was getting out of his car when he was attacked by a group of seven guys.  They took his wallet and backpack, and pretty much beat the crap out of him. Fortunately, his jaw was not broken, and he didn’t have a concussion.  He’s pretty battered and bruised, and ended up doing the show with a handful of bandaids on his head.  I’m still impressed that he WANTED to do the show Saturday night, but he clearly believes in “the show must go on”.  He should be able to rest up this week, and hopefully be back to normal (well, as normal as an actor can be) for this weekend.

So, yeah, great opening, followed by one for the “some people suck” file.

October 5th, 2009 | Tags: theatre | Category: Misc. | Comments (13)

You guys remember that awful old knock knock joke, right?  Sorry to bring up an old groaner, but you’ll understand momentarily what made me think of it. 

Anyway, I thought I’d show you the goodies I picked up at the fibre tasting at fibre space on Friday.  I went with a plan in mind – Laura Chau at Cosmicpluto Knits released her Honeybee Cardigan pattern recently, and after seeing Jesh’s, well, yeah.  It was on my “to-do” list for sure.  So, I was planning to look for something to use for that.  I also ended up picking up some of the Imperial Stock Ranch yarn that we were playing with at the event, and one of their patterns.

Yeah.  Orange and more orange.  (I’d better watch out, or I know of two people in PA who will come steal it from my stash!)

The top yarn is the Spud and Chloe yarn I mentioned the other day – it’s their Fine yarn (80-20 superwash wool/silk sock yarn) in “Clementine”.  I think it will work beautifully for the cardigan.

At least, it will when the additional two skeins arrive in my mail.  It helps immensely to check the yardage on the skeins and do the math CORRECTLY when figuring how much you’ll need.  (D’oh!)  Thank goodness for awesome stores who will help you out when you are a nitwit. 

The fiery ball of orange fuzz is Imperial Stock Ranch Bulky 2-Strand.  It’s a pencil roving (for my non-knitters, that’s unspun wool), and that color is “Spiced Poppy”.  I couldn’t resist it!

It’s going to be a Honeycomb Scarf (heh… Honeybee Cardi, Honeycomb Scarf… another pattern there!  Didn’t even think about it.), which is one of the designs that ISR publishes.  It’s a neat technique – i-cord linked to itself to  form the pattern and then felted.  They had one in the shop, and it was just beautiful.  I may want to stab my eyes out knitting that much i-cord, but I’m hopeful.

September 22nd, 2009 | Tags: Knitting, Planned Projects | Category: Misc. | Comments (8)

So, I’ll actually give you a WIP shot of this one. 

I started (finally) Tempest last week, after having the yarn in my stash for a year and a half.  I bought it at Maryland Sheep and Wool in 2008, right after the pattern was released.  I even wound it and took it with me to SeaSocks, figuring I might get it started.  Yeah, not so much. 

I’m moving fairly quickly through the back.  I’ve almost finished the small stripe section.

The yarn is Brooks Farm Ellie – a lovely thick-and-thin wool-silk blend.  It’s great to work with, and I really love the texture it’s giving me.   (This shot is a little glow-y.  The colors are accurate in the other picture)

Isn’t it pretty?  The striping is a little subtle, but I think it will read well once the sweater is done.  It should be good backstage knitting, which is perfect, since we got the set mostly built yesterday, and we had our first on-stage rehearsal last night.  Only 11 days until we open!!!

September 21st, 2009 | Tags: Knitting, WIPs | Category: Misc. | Comments (2)

After knitting Ishbel, I’ve discovered a great fondness for Ysolda Teague‘s designs, so I started poking around and saw that her second set of “Whimsical Little Knits” patterns was being made available.  I decided to buy the set, so each week I get an email that one is ready for download.

When I got the email on the 10th of September that the Snapdragon Tam was up, I knew it would be mine.  I hadn’t entirely planned on it being mine quite so soon, but my original plan for a next project (the Clasica Coat from IK Fall) hit a small snag, so I went stash-diving and came up with some Alchemy Synchronicity in “Foxglove”.

After a few days (and some rehearsal knitting time), I had this:

It’s SO cute!  And look at the patterning:

Ysolda does some really beautiful work, doesn’t she?  The best part is that it LOOKS really complex, but it’s really quite a simple pattern, mostly because it is so clearly written.

I made the largest size, and I probably could have done a smaller one.  What I may do once the weather (eventually) cools off is add some elastic thread to the ribbing just to snug it up a smidgen.  Or not, we’ll see. 

Oh, and for my dear smartass friends, we didn’t EAT the yarn.  We SWATCHED the yarn.  We ate the cheeses.  Silly, silly people.    (And no, it’s not an accident that “smartass” links to that option of the three of you… )

September 20th, 2009 | Tags: FOs, Knitting | Category: Misc. | Comments (15)

Yup, that’s me.  I’ve got two more FO’s to show off, each of which took about 4 days to do.

Today, it’s my Milkweed Shawl.  I’ve been seeing this all over the place, and I just loved the combination of the garter stitch and simple lace, so I knew it would be mine.  The pattern is really well-written, and was very easy.

I picked up this yarn (Spud and Chloe Sweater in “Toast”) on my first trip to fibre space, fully planning to make Milkweed with it.  It’s a lovely soft cotton-superwash wool blend, and was very nice to work with.  It’s also a worsted weight, and as the pattern calls for fingering weight, I was obviously going to change that.  My thought was that if it worked in fingering to give a shawlette, the worsted would size it up enough to make it a full-sized shawl.

Ta da!  Success!

It’s soft and squishy, and since it’s a neutral color I think it will come in quite handy this fall to grab when I don’t need a full-on jacket, or as an option when I want a scarf this winter.

Oh, I picked up some more S&C yarn last night at fibre space (Amanda and I went down for a yarn and cheese tasting event – it was great!), which I’ll have to show you later.

September 19th, 2009 | Tags: FOs, Knitting | Category: Misc. | Comments (15)