Artistic new year.

Okay, so lots of exciting things coming up for me in Artsland.. After waiting a week for the results of the auditions, I was cast as the Baker's Wife in "Into the Woods" although it is really an ensemble piece she is considered to be the female lead. I'm really excited about this, since I've wanted to do this show since 1988. (I was hoping for this role or the Witch) It is going to be a lot lot lot of work, Sondheim shows aren't easy, but I think they are worth it. I think we have a good strong cast assembled from what I saw of the auditions and from the people on the cast list who I already know. We're getting a new director and none of us has met him yet, which is a little daunting. We're going to be learning music for a while before he gets here.

In addition to that, I'm going to do that arts retreat I did last year, only this year I'm not doing pottery. The pottery I would have done, is with Ken Sedberry, and I had a workshop with him in August, since there were only 3 of us, we got a lot out of it, and this workshop is essentially 3 days, so I wouldn't be getting too much new material out of him at this point. If more time had passed maybe.. but not 6 months.. the other ceramics studio is hand building and figurative, which my work doesn't tend to be (and since I got the role in the show, I'm not sure how much clay dust I want to be breathing while I'm in rehearsal for a heavy singing role) So, I'm going to be taking a ring making workshop with Tim Lazure who teaches at East Carolina University. I'm looking forward to it, mostly so that I can maybe in the future incorporate some small scale metal work into knitting/fiber projects, or into my pottery pieces. But making rings might be really cool too. It's just such a great retreat, I've been looking forward to it all year..

And finally, so you have a photo for your viewing pleasure, here are the socks I' presently working on.



This is the azure sock pattern from the current knitty. The yarn is Panda bamboo wool in the Color Ultramarine. The flash brought out the color pooling more than it looks in real life. The yarn mostly looks tealy green, with some flecks of other color init. It is really soft and I like how it knits up, although it is easy to split if you're not paying attention. I'm almost done with the gusset increases now, but haven't taken any more photos yet. But they may get put on hiatus soon, with everything else kicking into gear..

Into the woods it's time to go...