The Nutcracker and knitting on schedule

So today I took a break from knitting and trip planning and took my niece, Rachel, to see The Nutcracker. She had never seen it before, or been to a ballet before, and I think she really enjoyed it. The production was that of a local ballet academy, with students and a few professionals thrown in. It was very well done, for what it was. There was a slight recital feel to the proceedings, as a group of tiny angels opened up the second act for no particular reason, but in general the kids were talented and the production values were well done. The Sugar Plum Fairy was played by a high school senior who could have fooled me. I would have pegged her for one of the pros, easily, had I not known her age. Reading her bio, she is a very serious ballet student, probably in classes every day and definitely going off for workshops and such. Her consort was a pro dancer, which helped because he had experience with the partnering. Overall, it was a nice little show and I may take Rachel again next year if she wants to go.


I wish there had been a ballet company like this near me back in the day...I would have loved to have been in The Nutcracker. We had recitals, but it was nothing at all like this.


A couple of years ago, I took her to see the Rockettes...and maybe when she is older, I'll fork out for a professional ballet production of The Nutcracker, but for now this little program works great.


I was up WAAAAYY too late Friday night/Saturday morning trying to pick a pattern to knit for C's sister. (Which made the Saturday NIN work meeting and subsequent running around town to do errands an exercise in staying awake.) I also have other gifts on the needles right now and I'm feeling okay about my prospects of finishing things on schedule, but my oldest brother and his wife may get their gifts after Christmas, which is no big deal. I have been doing really well knitting from stash but I did need to buy some dark brown Cascade 220 to blend with the stripey Jasper Wool I wanted to use for this, which is turning out to be a fun and relatively fast project, although I have about 16 more of these squares to go and then lots of I-cord and weaving in of ends:

Without revealing too much, I'll also post this, which is also a gift:

I'm also using my newish project bag that I got from Interweave Knits when I ordered Franklin's book. It uses one of his cartoons:

And although I'd like to work on these mitred squares some more, I need to go pin the sleeves for C's sweater because right now they are soaking:

Okay, what I really should be doing is making a list and checking it twice of items to pack tomorrow. We are headed to Maui Tuesday and I need to give that some thought.

P.S. I won my first fantasy playoff game (against Geoff, aka The Misogyinst) and will play my brother Rudy in the next round. C advanced as well, but he is in the other bracket.