Today, Mom, my niece, and I went to see Ragtime at the Papermill Playhouse in Millburn. Absolutely wonderful. This is one of those shows where, if the actors don’t have the pipes, they can’t carry their roles, no matter how good their acting may be. Every actor had a wonderful, strong voice. (Okay, Father’s wasn’t the best, but his is a smaller role and he did fine.) Since the singing was everything you could hope for, the show was great. It’s got one of the best soundtracks around, I think–the incredibly moving dirge, “Till We Meet That Day” at the end of act one, “Wheels of a Dream,” “New Music,” which Coalhouse uses to lure Sarah down the stairs is one of my absolute favorites, and even the opening number, “Ragtime.” All amazing. If you like this kind of thing and get the chance to see it at a decent theater (see note above about necessary singing quality), by all means do. As it is, I think I’ll be listening to the soundtrack in the car for the next couple weeks, and my niece already has a copy of her own, now . . .

I was very brave, too, and brought some knitting with me–a washcloth that I decided to make out of some of my leftover Calmer from my NbaT. It started as a double moss stitch, but I got a little lost knitting in the dark, and ended up doing some ribbing there, in the middle (grin). I think the kind thing to do is to frog back to the last row before I lost the pattern and carry on from there. Or maybe I’ll just leave it there as a little “souvenir” from the show! I haven’t entirely decided yet. I think it was pretty inevitable, though, that, doing anything other than garter or stockinette stitch, that I’d get confused on the pattern, without being able to see what I was doing. But wasn’t it brave of me to bring it along?

  And look! Finally, a winner in the Union Market Square Pullover Yarn Contest. Rowan’s 4-ply Cashsoft. Not only did Jimmy Beans Wool get this here very quickly–I only ordered a day or two ago–but look, they included a lollipop, too. I’m so relieved; now I can finally start this sweater. (And I was thinking about it during the “Night that Goldman Spoke at Union Square” number in the show this afternoon, too!) It’s unusual for me to pick colors so close to the ones in the pattern–I tend to like to pick my own–but . . . I love red for sweaters, first of all, it just makes the sweater extra cozy, or something. And for the accent color? There weren’t that many to pick from that weren’t too dark, too light, or that clashed too much, and darn it, it’s a nice combination. Didn’t it catch my eye in the first place??

  Hey, my niece made herself a Candy Bar Doll. Isn’t she cute? Picture the hair a shade or two lighter, and, well, you’ve got it. (I made one of myself last month, you’ll remember. Fun!)

• Tags: Family, General, Knitting/Spinning • Permalink:Ragtime! //