You know you're a geek when...

...you write a letter using mostly the first lines of all the songs (in chronological movie) order from Across the Universe. Feel free to link back to this, but treat the below as an original work (cause it is) with the exception that the lyrics belong to The Beatles, so I'm not claiming them as mine. There, I think I've covered myself. Anyway, enjoy!



[Dear] Girl,
Words are flowing out like endless rain into a paper cup they slither while they pass they slip away. It feels so right now, close your eyes and I'll kiss you! I wanna hold your hand, it won't be long till I belong to you. What you would you do if I sang out of key? Would you stand up and walk out on me? Had it been another day I might have looked the other way, and I'd of never been aware, but as it is I'll dream of [you] tonight. When I find myself in times of trouble Mother Mary comes to me, speaking words of wisdom, Let It Be. Come together, right now, over me. Why don't we do it in the road? No one will be watching us. If I fell in love with you, would you promise to be true? I want you!
Dear Prudence, please don't be long cause I might be asleep. I am he as you are me as we are all together. For the benefit of Mr. Kite, there will be a show tonight because something. Oh darling let me take you down cause I'm going to Strawberry Fields. You say you want a revolution, well we all want to change the world. I look at [it] all, see the love there that's sleeping while my guitar gently weeps. Across the universe, when I get the bottom I go back to the top of the slide where I turn and I go for a ride till I get to the bottom and I see you again. [You're] not a girl who misses much.
Blackbird singing in the dead of night, take these broken wings and learn to fly. Hey, Jude [took] a sad song and [made] it better. Don't let me down. There's nothing you can do that can't be done, picture yourself in a boat on a river with tangerine trees and marmalade skies. All you need is love across the universe!

Lord of the Flies

Not too long ago I made a decision to try and work through all the classical literature you're supposed to read in high school and college, which I never have. It's not that I've been un-exposed to classical literature, just found reading it quite a bore. I've watched a lot of film adaptations of stories; Frankenstein, All Quiet On the Western Front, various Shakespeare and some Dickens. Reading these works is another matter entirely.

On a whim I made my decision and have made it through some of the first chapters of Lord of the Flies. Also on my nightstand is Animal Farm, but I've not had the courage to being that just yet. Oddly enough both of these books are creepy. Simply reading the first few paragraphs of LOTF I was overwhelmed by the underlying sense of something sinister coming to get me. I was afraid of any new things introduced in the book, of the finger-like shadows of palms, of the birdcalls. I believed I was there with the boys, feeling the heat of the jungle island drip off my skin, the temporary relief of the breezes that blew in off the water. Ralph positively terrifies me. He's sinister, and I feel, slowly going crazy. Piggy will die first or be the last to die. I'm not exactly looking forward to delving back into the book but I want to know why they are all there on the island, how they will find food (and kill their food), and if Ralph is going to murder everyone or something equally as strange. So I plod on, suspicious of the crackling of branches beneath my literary feet, and wonder if I'm going to make it till the end.

Crafty Haul and a New Project

JoAnn's is having a sale all this week and it's a lucky thing for my bank account not to be there any more. It was horribly difficult to walk to the cash register with six skeins of yarn and eight fat quarters. I'm not greedy by nature, but when yarn or fabric is on sale...I WANT IT ALL!!!



However I was very, very good and left some for other people. The store on the other hand should have given me something for my promotion on their behalf. I was in line and a young lady in front of me glanced back at my basket full of this cacophony of colour and made the fateful turn. I knew she was looking at my haul, so I caught her eye. "They're lovely colours," she said. "Aren't they?" I replied, all innocence. Then, dropping my voice to a conspiratorial whisper I told her they were half off. $5.99 yarn ($6 I know) for $3! Her eyes grew wide and after a moment of "step forward, step back" she jumped in place and ran off to buy yarn. "I don't need any more yarn," she had said. I didn't remind her that no knitter ever doesn't need more yarn. We do, more importantly, we want it. I speaks to us and it's colour, texture, and usually price seduces us into taking it home, placing it on a mantel, shelf and simply admiring it with blissful sighs from time to time.




Now this lovely lady is my first attempt at a top down sweater-ish something. I'm on my second skein of yarn and almost kicking myself for not purchasing a third, but we'll see. I'm thinking of some lacey sleeve because I, personally, loathe cap sleeves. They do nothing for my arms (nor many female arms for that matter) and I end up looking fat. So far I love it, I love the technique and plan on knitting most, if not all the sweaters I design from now on this way. It's so simple! It's called the Azrael Bolero (or maybe Jacket?) I dunno yet.
But I'm in love with it's yummy sparkly goodness.

Fabric of Life and Times

She was awake, that much was certain, but when it came to actually thinking in an orderly fashion all was lost. Perhaps it was too early? Reaching through the curtains that surrounded her bed her questing fingers finally groped their way to her cellphone. 10am. Not too early, too late. With a groan and several unspoken curses she flings back her covers, twisted and tangled with a listless sleep, and lies there for several moments, eyes closed, smelling her baby blanket. Finally after a moment too many she rises a little unsteady on her feet, to fumble her way to coffee. Her eyes search for the nearest sweater, vest, jacket...and slips one on. Grey with a ship on the back. She makes coffee automatically now, hesitating only to wonder if she has performed the steps correctly.
The phone rings, her cousin on the line, and she lets her brother answer it. Turn out to be for her and through a haze she speaks to her aunt, not her cousin at all. Thus her morning leads into her day determining in it's unofficial way how her day will turn out. Most of her day is spent staring off into space and wondering why. More coffee in consumed, her bedroom is tidied. This changes her previously cynical perspective on the day, altering it to passably pleasant. She still stares off into space and continues to wonder why. Why is her brain so slack? So torpid, sluggish, swollen and lethargic? Where has the wonderment it once possessed gone? Why does it not yearn for learning, plan moments to steal for reading something new, day dream about stories in her head? Has she grown up so much that the child she promised to remain has been orphaned? All of these queries and more ramble through the river of thought in the space of several hours of one day. Now the sun has set, dipping into s northern slumber while the pale sliver of moon casts it's pallid, mysteriously enchanting glow on the uninterested cities. She considers her day and it's not quite so bad after all, there's a new one tomorrow to make up for any deficiencies of today. Her consolation found, she is content to spend her evening reading and listening to raucous music.

Some Knitting, sadly nothing witty.

While this blog is called the Knitting Stagehand, there's not been a whole lot of knitting or stagehanding. Well, let's just say that I took care of a bit of that today, just for kicks.

These are for my Grandpa to keep his hands warm as he writes.



Pirate Mitts I made not too long ago now, only just blogged. My darling Pirate-In-Stripes hasn't seen these yet, and it's the only reason I've still got them.


And last but not least, my version of a slouchy hat. I love the idea of making a hat that is, ultimately, the perfect bad hair day hat. It slouches down the back of you head covering most of you hair while lending you an aura of bohemian, "I just got up and look gorgeous." I think it's still too short to actually slouch down in the back, so it's back to the knitting needles for these!

Ramble, ramble...

It's a slow quiet day here in Seattle. For the first time in what seems like a long time, we have sun again! There was snow all this last week, up and down the state accompanied by hail, and sporadic rain, it felt like the winter was trying to make up for a lack of snow. There's not a whole lot to write about as things are still really the same, but I'm inspired by sunlight and flower scented breezes-even if they are still quite cold.
There's a lot of sewing that is coming, knitting as always, and a couple of costumes have made an appearance. I'm working up a batch of project bags for a sidewalk sale in May, and designing a slouchy hat for some local, brick and mortar shops that are willing to carry my work! Yay! I'm wriggling like a small puppy with excitement at the prospect of seeing something I made in a shop window. Not that my etsy shop is any disappointment, it's just intangible and I'm a very tangible person- no pun intended. I need to touch things, see them in person. Perhaps that's why I love knitting and sewing, they are tangible, tactile, hands-on processes that produce something that will last for decades.
I'm just rambling for now, soon there will be pictures and more organized "rambling", for now, cheers! Enjoy the sun if you can!