For a vacation week, I've seen a lot of 5AMs, and not the kind that involve hissing at the sun as it rises while you pray to the porcelain god. Nope. this vacation involved a day at the office, and several early call times for Knitty Gritty. It was all good fun and I got to meet some people I'd long hoped to meet and reunite with people I'd met before. First and foremost on the meeting people roster, was the one and only Stitch McYarnpants. I contributed a couple of kitschy patterns to her book, but this is the first time we had actually met in person. If you follow her blog, you probably know that she gnaws her nails like they are carrot sticks, so a manicure was in her immediate future.
She channeled her inner hand model and posed amongst the granny squares of Macy's. After spending the day browsing books, eating food and, having our cuticles bashed about, we headed back to our respective lodging and rested up for a long day at the studio.
My first Knitty Gritty duty was as knitster for Lily Chin. I'd taken Lily's class at Stitches West but this was my first chance to really talk to her and get to know her as a person. She's got a great enthusiasm and energy.
The other Knisters and I posed for a picture with her spectacular boots, but it appears to have come out a touch blurry. I would be the blob on the left holding the green, Lily shaped blob.
To the right of the lily blob is Eevone and Renaissance (forgive me if I spelled your names wrong), my knitsters in crime. We made needle cases using a method Lily developed for producing true crochet stitches with knitting needles. If you want to know more, you'll just have to wait until seasons 7&8 are released.
The same day I got to meet the Glampyre herself, Ms. Stefanie Japel. I even got a peek at the new book, and it looks great.
As Stefanie was shooting her episode, Debbie and I were prepping and rehearsing for our episode the next day.
Ours is a Kitchmas episode, so step one is trimming the fun fur tree. These won't be a project on the show but will be available as a pattern eventually. Nag Stitchy if you want more information since it's her friend's invention.
I'm not saying that the entire cast an crew liked the tree more than anything we did, but I'm pretty sure the cast and crew liked the tree more than anything we did. Having arrived at the set at 7AM, I didn't get out of there until almost 6, so I missed the opportunity to do dinner with folks who had shot episodes recently. It was worth it though, since I was up again at 5:30 AM to get back to set by 8AM.
I'm not sure why I insist on getting to set early every time, but as can be expected, having done so, the earlier episode experienced a plethora of technical difficulties and our shoot kept getting pushed later and later. If I had been late, that show would have wrapped up early and everyone would have been waiting for me. This is just the way of my life.
This left Debbie and me plenty of time to distract the crew. Stefanie, a producer who has been on the show for the last three years, had been pushing to get us beer can themed episode, to no avail. So instead, Debbie brought her samples in and we did our own shoot.
Classy!
Finally it was time for our episode. Deb was act 1 and half of act 2. I took the other half of act 2 and all of act 3.
That's Deb's tissue box turtleneck.
And rehearsing with Vickie.
And here I am with our Knitsters, of the San Diego Craft Mafia
Of course, no kitschy set would be complete without a creepy clown.
After that, we met up with Jen of DomiKNITrix who shoots an episode on Monday. As a blogger, I should have photographic evidence of this, but I do not. You'll have to check her's and Deb's site for proof that I am not liar. We had dinner and chatted until we were sure the waitstaff would kick us out. I've been a huge fan of her work for years and I was so excited when I saw her book the other day.
Well, I'm completely exhausted and in need of a vacation but wouldn't take the week back for 20 lbs of cashmere fiber.
