I hope you missed me--I missed myself! I've been awfully busy lately (i.e. too busy to post), as I have (a) successfully mounted the run of my latest musical, Bootie and the Beast, followed by (b) coming down with the most persistent cold (I've nicknamed it "Javert"), that's only now starting to retreat.
We featured the song "Hygge" from the musical Frozen in our show (our shows are assemblage, incorporating extant songs with a brand-new script). I still can't pronounce it (I think it's a cross between gewgaw and Jorge), but I gather it means something akin to happy, comfy, and cozy. In other words, all the feels I get when knitting, contemplating knitting, or gathering knitting supplies.
Because of trying to shoehorn "Hygge" into the show, I incorporated Danish characters, and the Danes came with fibre arts. Here's a group shot of them, with me (I'm playing a Pantomime Dame, so the show has Danes and Dames) looking on:
My love interest, Gunnulf Vestergaard, Danish coach of the Europe's Next Top Nobel contestants, is wearing a fetching cape, which might just be a sweater of some kind slung 'round the neck:
Other Danes include Nanny Freja, the contestant herself (Jorna Jensen-Johnson), her chaperone, her chaperone's husband, and her chaperone's husband's very good "friend" Lars, seen here in the dressing room prior to the show:
He made the beard himself. Note the faux stranded-knitting here (and on the chaperone's husband), it's a printed design.
Our Storyteller is an avid knitter herself, and created her gnomelike hat for the part. She uses her time well and always has some knitting on hand for any downtime during rehearsals:
I'm wearing knitwear in both acts, though it doesn't show. My friend Bev created some knitted knockers for me, and I'm over-the-moon happy with them (as the Dame last year, I smushed up some dishcoths and shoved 'em in my bra, and they're not nearly as nice). I'm going to have to knit some myself now for this very good cause. You can't see them, but you can see the effect of them here:
I was sick during the show, but my voice held out, thank goodness. While at home, when not resting, I continued to sort yarn into project boxes. It's an ongoing process, but I snapped a photo when I was about halfway through:
I'm piling them as high as I think they can safely go without toppling over. Since this shot was taken, the foreground pile (consisting of one box, in the picture) is as tall as its colleagues, and I have more yarn to root through. Anything not assigned to a project (and not designated as eventual socks, which is specific enough), either gets given away or used as scrap/practice yarn. There are some yarns that are singletons but gorgeous, and I'm going to try extra-hard to find yarns that will work with them so that I have enough yardage to actually create something worthwhile (and after all, some of the most exciting yarns do look their best when paired with a dull yarns, it's why pretty girls always had a plain friend in the 1950s--they came in pairs, Betty and Doris, Linda and Joan, Marilyn and Marge, etc.)
On the Needles (and actively being worked on):
Sophie's Universe crochet project #1 (Part 17: Round 109, almost done--it ends at round 113! (And then I add extra rounds, to turn it into a queen-size bedspread))
Sea Grass Scarf by Janina Kallio (I'm in the final set of stripes, and am making a huge push for this intended present to be finished by Christmas)
Persian Dreams Blanket (round 40 of Hexagon 5)
A Dream of Steam and Brass (it's a scarf/kerchief/shawlette--I'm making it bigger than patterned--for a colleague. I'm basically finished it as written, but I'm carrying on in pattern for as far as a second ball will take me)
a linen dishcloth, Eloominator's Diagonal Knit dishcloth by Jana Trent. I'm well into the decrease section!
GGN Norwegian Ski Sweater (finished the torso, currently well above the cuffs of Arms One and Two (I'm knitting both at once--but on separate needles, I'm not that clever yet))
Sophie's Universe crochet project #2 (Part 4: Round 32)