gypsygirl

I forgot to take photos of my Christmas knitting projects before giving them away! Well... they were for my housemates, so I may yet get a chance. I made two pairs of fingerless gloves (Fetching pattern from Knitty that I made for myself a couple of years ago), one in black, one in variegated pink. The third housemate got a cap and scarf. Now I can get back to work on the jacket I've been making for myself (another Knitty pattern - cover image from last fall). It's been a while in the making. I started it last winter but kept getting sidetracked by gift knitting and only got about halfway up the back by the time it was too hot to continue (I don't knit in Texas summer). By the time I picked it up again a couple of months ago, I was totally lost, so I ripped it all back and started over. So far I've finished the back and am halfway up the right front (might get that finished today or tomorrow).

I've started working on baby projects for T. I've already made a little panda hat. I still need to buy eyes for it, but otherwise it's finished.

The other project is going to be a pullover with a train on it. I found a pattern, and I'm going to change up the colours to make it look like the Hogwarts Express. I had ordered the pattern a couple of weeks ago, but they had run out, and I had to wait for their new stock to come in. It finally arrived at the end of last week. Now I just need some yarn - I have some in my stash that I want to use, in red, black, white, and yellow, but I also need some grey, blue and green.

The melodrama goes up in less than two weeks. I'm not particularly excited at this point, but then, I hadn't wanted to direct to begin with. I wanted to be nice and rested when auditions for Children of Eden came along. Ah, well. We do get to use the theatre space as of tonight, which is a week earlier than we'd expected, so that's nice. Even though we don't get to do any set building as yet (the Children's Theatre are still officially in the space), at least the actors will get a feel for the dimensions and the acoustics.

I went downtown to watch the fireworks last Friday for the first time since coming to live in Waco. The closest I'd come to this before was hanging out with friends in one of the Baylor parking lots when I was an undergrad and setting off some of our own little ground based fireworks and then watching the big display from a distance. It was quite fun. I hung out with Beth and the 92.9 tent; and Eileen came and hung out with us too.

I've just started working on Anne of the Island for LibriVox. I had been working on Mr Hogarth's Will and Angelina, but I just couldn't get into them and I kept procrastinating and not doing any recording at all. I've turned Mr Hogarth's Will into a collaborative, and started up Anne as my new English solo. I feel sort of guilty abandoning Hogarth, especially because no one has shown any interest in it in the nearly two weeks since I turned it collaborative. But I've also started recording more often now that I'm working on a project that interests me. If no one picks up any of the chapters, I'll probably do one here and there just to keep it alive. Oh, and for the first time since, I think, my second project, someone beat Ans to signing up to PL one of my English solo projects!

I'm still working on Angelina too (more enthusiastically since I started Anne). Spanish is so under-represented in the catalog, that I feel it's my duty to contribute as much as possible, both in solos and collaboratives. I've currently got three collaborative projects going - part 6 of Aesop's Fables, Jose Martí's La Edad de Oro, and I took over part 2 of Don Quijote from Gesine when she needed some time off. Angelina is only the third solo Spanish work in the catalog, and one of the other two is mine as well.

Queen Victoria was a hit! I made a couple of alterations toward the funny side to the text Lise sent me and got lots of giggles. The worst was Tommy, who kept anticipating parts of the speech and would start laughing before the punch line. I watched the final performance in character and had an awful time trying to keep a straight face, especially when Regan looked straight at me and made a face at me.

I'm going to be co-directing this summer's melodrama with MB. I hadn't intended to direct it, because I knew MB wanted to try her hand at directing and thought the melodrama would be a good place to start (as it was for me, two years ago). But for some reason, the board decided they didn't want a newbie directing by herself, and asked if I'd co-direct with her. As far as they know, I'm directing and she's watching and learning. As far as we're concerned, she's directing and I'm offering moral support and suggestions.

When the new season was announced, I had wanted to direct the Hallowe'en show, Dial M for Murder, but I got sick and wasn't able to get the proposal in on time. I learned today that a guy I know from a couple of shows this past season is going to be directing. He was kind of a pain in one of the shows, so I don't think I'll be auditioning as I'd originally intended. But that's ok, because I also found out recently that The Cachinnator is going to be directing the Christmas show (A Christmas Carol), and I really enjoy working with him. If someone else had gotten DMfM, I might have ended up working on shows from June - December (not that I really expected to be cast in DMfM, because there's only one female role).

I finally got around to working on my project for Jana's baby (about time, since he was born over a month ago!). I had originally intended to make a little dress set out of one of the Baby Dale pattern books, because she'd been told she was having a girl. But then Elliott arrived, and I had to change plans. I decided to make a vest, and I wanted to try some fair isle, but I didn't like the patterns I was finding, so I made one of my own. I've nearly finished it. I just have to do the ribbing on the armholes and neckband. I've posted a link to the pattern here: http://www.karenrsavage.com/blog/toddlers-fair-isle-vest/

The Man Who Came to Dinner has finished. I got lots of compliments on my character, and lots of "it took me a second to realize that was you when you came on stage" type comments. During the course of MWCtD my friend Tredessa applied for and got the directorship of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, which is the next show coming up. I hadn't been particularly interested in auditioning for that show (I find Tennessee Williams terribly depressing), but I enjoy working with T, so I checked to see if they had a stage manager for it yet. They didn't, so I signed up for the job. We've had auditions, but rehearsals don't really get started until the New Year, so there'll be a bit of a break. As much as I enjoy doing stuff at the Civic, it's nice to know that, for this gig, I actually do get paid a small stipend (yay, crew!).

I'm heading off to CA on Friday to spend Christmas with mum and Paul's family. I just learned that Alondra's sister and her two sons will also be there during that time. That is going to be one crowded house. I think I may be asking to go to work with mum more often than I would otherwise have done. I know she wants me to play Santa to all her friends one day at least.

I've been knitting frantically for the past few of weeks to finish Christmas presents. I've made a purse for my sister-in-law. I finished the actual knitting a couple of weeks ago, but it wasn't until this past weekend that I got around to sewing up the seams and putting in the lining (which I think I made a little too big, but by the time I figured it out, I was so far into it that I couldn't bear the thought of starting over (again - the first try was too small)). My other project was a scarf for mum's friend Natalie, which I also finished last weekend. I took both patterns from my "knitting pattern a day " calendar. I've been pulling out the patterns I like and storing them in one of my notebooks. I was pleased to be able to use a couple of them. I'd post pictures of them, only I haven't been able to find my camera for several weeks now.

I've finished both the projects I was working on for LibriVox. I finished Pride and Prejudice over Thanksgiving weekend, and Novelas Cortas the following week. Now I'm working on another of the Scarlet Pimpernel books, The Elusive Pimpernel. At this rate, I may end up doing all of them (that are on gutenberg, anyway). I got the new MCC continuing ed schedule in the mail last week, and I saw that one of the seminars they're offering is about doing voice over work. I'm seriously considering signing up for it.

I went to see August Rush and Enchanted around Thanksgiving. I really liked them both. I've gotten to the point where I usually just wait for a movie to come out on dvd before watching it, but there are a few that intrigue me enough that I'm willing to shell out five bucks for a matinee.

I'm thinking of buying a set of the Knit Picks interchangeable circular needles. I'd seen them before, but the original version had nickel plated brass needle tips, and I wasn't sure about them. But now they've come out with a wood tip version which is calling out to me. They call them Harmony and they're yummy looking! I've been moving more toward wood and bamboo needles lately, so these are definitely appealing to me. And then I could get rid of that hodgepodge of circular needles that I have now, all of which have been given to me by other people.

So my new office is frickin' freezin' and I'm told it gets even colder in winter, so I've started preparing. I made myself a pair of fingerless gloves last weekend. They turned out quite nicely, and were ridiculously quick and easy to make. I may make several pairs in different colours, but these will do for starters.

I'm still working on the elephants as well. I've got all the pieces made on the first and I've started the second (finishing is my least favourite part of knitting, so I'm putting off the evil day until they're both done).

My office mate is wackier than I am. He decided to keep the tissue box cozy on his desk.

So, on Saturday I went to my first Baylor football game since I was an undergrad. The library won a "does your department have spirit" photo contest and we were given 200 tickets to split among us. I figured, since it was free, why not? I mean, sure I don't like football, but watching the game isn't really the reason I go to sporting events, it's to hang out with friends (except tennis matches... I do enjoy watching those, but that might just be because I understand all the rules). So I went. There was also a tailgate party beforehand. MB came with me as my "tailgate date", and then I sat with her and her friends on the student side. We definitely looked like we were having a better time on our side than where my real seats were supposed to be. We were right next to the band, and as MB and her friends are all ex-band members, I had coaches on what to yell when. So, even though we got slaughtered, and Baylor's level of play was atrocious, I did have a good time. I don't think I'll be running out to buy season tickets any time soon, but it's OK for once in a while. Plus the fact that I had such a good time yelling with MB and her friends that I yelled myself almost hoarse and didn't get to do any recording the rest of the weekend, so it's definitely not something I want to do regularly.

I also made one of these this weekend. Now, normally, I'm not into these sorts of items. They're too frou-frou for my taste, but it this case, frou-frou was exactly what I was looking for. I made it as a prank for my office-mate, Eric... in pink yarn with little pastel flecks. I'm just waiting for him to step out of the office for a few minutes so I can slip it onto his tissue box. This all started because he and another guy wrapped everything in the girl across the hall's office in foil for her birthday a few months ago, and a couple of weeks ago, when we were helping him move his desk around, she found the two boxes of foil in one of his desk drawers and decided to take revenge. I've been helping her, because it's fun. I'm getting a little nervous though, because he hasn't retaliated yet.

Since I still haven't gotten back my knitting patterns book from Meredith, I've decided to start a project of my choice for Asa. I figure if I don't start it soon, I may as well give it to him for his high school graduation. So, I found this pattern for a stuffed elephant that looked really cute, and I decided to do that for now. I'll probably still do the other when/if I get the book back from her.

Cute, isn't he? I'm making two of them, one in a darkish blue-grey for Asa, and one in yellow for Jana, since I don't yet know what her baby will be. I'm about two thirds of the way through the first one and I only started Friday night, so it's knitting up really quickly. I'll post photos of my two versions when I get them finished (this photo is one of the ones on the pattern).

I did finish A Little Princess last weekend, but I didn't get around to finishing cataloguing until the end of the week. I decided to do a collection of Alarcón short stories for my next official project. Ans is proofing both that and P & P for me, because I was starting to run out of room on my laptop with all the audacity files for P & P that I'd been saving up. She can't understand a word of what I'm reading for the short stories, so she's reading along and just comparing sounds.

I finished El Dorado yesterday! Woohoo! No more wanting to smack Armand!

It really did end up being a very good book, once I got past those beginning chapters where he was being such a goose, and once the action moved onto the other characters. I've decided that one reason I was so annoyed with Armand was that Orczy changed him so much from the first book to this one. In that, he was the responsible elder brother, who had looked after his little sister from the time their parents died, and was completely devoted to the Scarlet Pimpernel's cause. In this book she made him younger than Marguerite and completely reckless and foolish.

And I have two chapters left of A Little Princess, so I should be done with that this weekend. Now I need to find something new to read. I am still working on Pride and Prejudice, but when I started it, I didn't realize there was another solo version in progress. It had been semi-abandoned, but it started back up this week. As it's a newer reader, I don't want them to feel like I'm infringing on their territory, so I'd rather not take P&P public just now. My plan is to keep working on it, but I need something else for my public project. I'm thinking of, perhaps, some more Nesbit, another Anne book, or maybe the first Katy Did book. But I haven't decided yet.

I finally got my invite to Ravelry yesterday. I spent part of today adding completed projects to my page. I don't know how much I'll use it for organization, but it's a great place to get new ideas!