On background and broadripple

When you wake to the sound of a cat puking before 6:30 am, really, your day can only get better from there.  Right? Can only go up!  (Yes, as in "getting up way too damn early on a Saturday"). I'd expected to crash early tonight but since I'm still not sleepy I'm going to see if I can get caught up on some blog posts, 'kay?

After giving my hair a day to recover, I went back to be an extra again on Thursday. Actually the casting company calls us extras but to the film crew we are "background".  This was definitely a more interesting day.  Besides the traditional sitting on one's butt knitting and sipping coffee or scrounging snacks from craft services, there was time spent on a Catalina Express boat, where through the magic of camera angles 20 people on an empty boat will somehow look more like 200 people on a full boat.  There was much getting off of the boat carrying strange luggage,  running back, and then getting off again.  There was a van ride to and from lunch break, after which there was more of the sitting around on one's butt, this time without the knitting and a vital lesson was learned. If they say it's okay to leave your stuff there because you'll be coming right back to that same location - don't do it. Two hours stranded in a different place from your knitting is a verrrrrryyyyy looooonnnnnngggg two hours, let me tell you. There was also much walking up and down sidewalks, zig-zagging back and forth and around, again making 20 some people look like an actual crowd.  

Towards the end of the afternoon while waiting for the next take, I observed the group of people standing a few feet in front of me, getting a VIP style reception from the crew.  I leaned over to one of the other background folk and asked, "Is that?" to which she answered in the affirmative.  So if the SciFi geeks slouching down in the back row would like to sit up and pay attention please?  I was standing behind Lando Calrissian. (What? He has some other name?).  While there were definitely some parts of the day I enjoyed more than others, it certainly didn't suck. And it went into overtime.  Definitely not sucking.

Somewhere in the midst of going overtown for computer repairs, waiting around on plumbers, and being background, I started a pair of Broadripple socks:

Much more progress has been made since this shot was taken, especially during all the time I spent on that boat Thursday!  The heel flap is longer than I'm used to, which surprised me.  But the additional rounds for gusset decreases go quickly, and they seem to be fitting me just fine.  I also really like this particular colorway, the tan has less frequent repeats than the blue and green. Unlike the previous pairs, these socks are being knit one at a time.  I really like doing them at the same time, doing the leg of one, and then the other, followed by the heel of one, and then the other, etc., but I don't have a set of size 3 needles at all and thankfully was at least able to borrow this set for this project.  And no, I cannot buy size 3 dpns locally, I've tried.  Obviously this means I need to do something about enhancing my needle collection, eh?  Hmmmmm......