by day the blue will pale down into white where it touches the white of the land, after sunset it has a new circumference-orange, melting upwards into tenderest purple. but the core of blue persists, and so it is by night. then the stars hang like lamps from the immense vault. the distance between the vault and them is as nothing to the distance behind them, and that farther distance, though beyond colour, last freed itself from blue. -e.m. forster (a passage to india)
this is morgana's costume from a dance she did in 2012. it's in ellen's closet of possible costumes for other students and it needed a wash and a mending before being worn by another dancer. it's all set now and i returned it to ellen today. there are two more weeks of class for the five year olds. they've been learning "twinkle" and a spring poem dance. not everyone is there for each class/rehearsal, and several of them have missed two to three weeks in a row, so it's all a bit muddled, but they are having fun.
i've been reading anna karenina and knitting a very bulky sweater in rowan big wool yarn.
i'm not a big fan of working on size 19 needles . . even though items on such large needles knit up very quickly. i sized down to a 15 needle . . but it's too small so i'll be ripping out to the neckline and re-knitting on size 17 needles.
i've really been enjoying this book . . (this picture was taken awhile ago, i'm actually on the last few pages).
this is the our common threads cowl that i knit for the vogue knitting live event in january.
eight motifs were chosen from the vogue knitting stitchionary volume three by the vogue diversity committee. seen here are "go your own way" and "houndstooth,"
and "mountain lake" and "making waves." i used quince and co's chickadee, color gingerbread, and mcmullin fiber company's posh sock in the miss woodhouse colorway . . both stash yarns.
and here's pluto on the two pillowcases i hand sewed.
chanda went to ballet in the morning and morgana worked on a few "chicken" skirts for her modern dance/choreography teacher's carnival of the animals piece. ellen's mom made these skirts years ago.
a few of them are new (like the one morgana is sewing) but this one directly above is an original. her mom did beautiful work and made all the costumes for her dances.
i never have an easy time sewing through velcro . .
chanda's friend has a birthday party tomorrow to which we'll all be going for lunch.
the girls were out at a friend's house this evening so greg and i decided to eat out.
we were going to try a new place called taverna, a greek restaurant on bedford street. however, they were all booked with reservations so we went to doma, right next door. i've been here often with the girls but greg hasn't. he used to visit their cafe when it was on perry street a few years ago. they have delicious food. in the pic above this one it shows the chicken liver mousse i had and the gouda cheese greg chose to have for an appetizer. then i had half a roast duck (which i brought home to share with morgana later this week, she's the only one who likes duck besides me) and greg had beef brisket.
he had the amazing apple strudel for dessert. i managed to decline which wasn't easy! (still trying to stay off sugar and wheat.)
around 8:00 a jazz band set up to play. it was a nice surprise to listen to some live music. they were very good.
i'm so tired but have somehow survived a full day of nutcracker work. chanda and i were at the theatre at 10:15 this morning for a dress rehearsal.
we first had a breakfast of steel cut oats and tea. morgana held down the fort while chanda and i left for the theatre (stopping first in the laundry room to put several loads in). morgana stayed home until babysitting in the afternoon, and then she met me at the theatre for chanda's show.
the call was for ten am but they didn't begin the dress until noon!!! this is so absurd. the communication was obviously poor between the person handling the scheduling information and the director of the show. it was not fun hanging out for two hours with twenty party scene children, ten mice, ten four year old christmas trees, and ten five year old little chefs.
obviously the costume person was overworked and didin't have time for repairs. my friend ro (short for rose marie, isn't that a pretty name?) and i stepped up to bat and we sewed up the huge tear in this pink tulle tutu. it was not an easy task and i was proud of our work.
ro had another project to do right when it was time for lunch break. her daughter and several friends threaded six needles for her before going out (she has a terrible time threading needles).
i couldn't leave her to hem this monstrosity of a dress all by herself when everyone was leaving, so i sat down and quickly stitched around to meet her halfway. she was not happy to do such a slap dash job. she likes to sew herself and appreciates careful work. sometimes, however, costumes just get thrown together.
we met the girls at cafe mille feuille. morgana calls it milly filly, which i find much easier to say.
it felt good to get out of the theatre and walk around. being so long inside without windows causes one to feel as if it's nighttime, but daylight was still there for a few more hours.
it was a wonderful show and chanda did a beautiful job dancing. here's a bit from her tech rehearsal on thursday:
a little bit of blowing
a little bit of snow
a little bit of growing
and crocuses will show.
on every twig that's lonely
a new green leaf will spring
on every patient tree-top
a thrush will stop and sing. by anonymous
pippa's song by robert browning
the year's at the spring,
the day's at the morn;
the morning's at seven;
the hillside's dew-pearled:
the lark's on the wing;
the snail's on the thorn;
God's in his heaven --
all's right with the world!
chanda's early morning sewing school: here she is finishing up her collar.
it was a hectic morning as the girls were still finishing up their costumes for macbeth, and they needed to be at the theatre at noon. we managed to have a short breakfast together before they ran off and i finished pinning and sewing and ironing morgana's collar. then i needed to get her lunch together (we've been doing the gaps diet and i can't just slap some goat cheese on bread for her these days) and take the food and the collar to the theatre. i got to enter via the backstage door on theatre row on 41st street, which was fun. then i sat for about 45 minutes in the dressing room gathering the tunic into the collar piece. it came out pretty good. you can see it in the pictures:
rehearsing the cue to cue . . (isabella is ten . . she was very clear in her reading and had good projection . . she was so fun to watch).
the banquet scene where macbeth sees the ghosts . .
let's see if i can remember morgana and chanda's parts. they played several characters each, which is always a fun challenge. morgana: third witch, macduff, third murderer, gentlewoman, seyton. chanda: first witch, angus, first murderer. (i checked the program . . )
the sword fight . . between morgana and deychen, macduff and macbeth.
practicing the sword fight and checking to see if their props are set . .
they had some help from a few professional directors. above is gabriel, and he was very supportive, just giving a suggestion here and there and applauding many of the decisions they had made.
they did a great job. the scene transistions were smooth and quick and the costume changes were clever, with one actor helping another into a simple skirt or cloak.
an after the show picture . . our friend camille did the lighting. she ran a perfect board and this was her only rehearsal, and her first time ever running a lightboard.
greg and i walked home while the girls went out with our friends. we were tired and wanted to take care of the animals and move the car.
it was a nice studio theatre to work in and they had a full and enthusiastic audience.
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