Inspired by Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812

A few months back, I was obsessing over Hadestown, and seeking out all the content I could about it. One of those avenues led me to a podcast- Jim and Tomic’s Musical Theatre Happy Hour. In their episode on the show, they talked about Hadestown’s director, Rachel Chavkin. They spoke about a previous production of hers, Great Comet. Naturally, I went on to listen to that episode of the podcast next. They raved about Comet and the enthusiasm was such that I listened to the broadway cast recording as soon as I got home that night…

Well, long story short- I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve now listened through the show. I started reading War and Peace and am near the end of book 7. I’m working my way through the rest of the Dave Malloy musical cannon, but can only take in a finite number of inexpressible emotions at once and thus need to pace my listening. My new bucket list item is to one day see a Malloy-Chavkin production live. In the midst of all this completely normal and sane behavior, I got invested in the one lyric in the show about knitting, and set about to learn about Russian knitting traditions. As one does.

I’m a mediocre artist, but a very experienced knitter. So, my form of fanart appreciation is socks. The patterns are inspired by traditional Komi Republic patterns from Mostly Mittens: Ethnic Knitting Designs from Russia, by Charlene Church. The color pallet is inspired by the lighting, set (holy shit Mimi Lien!), and costume designs of Comet. The gold/black motief is a direct reference to the comet chandeliers and stars filling up the night sky at the end of the show. The ‘red star’ band is a bit of an anachronistic Russia pun. It was initially going to be red on white to evoke the collar of Pierre’s costume, but I preferred red on red. The non-Komi/Russian elements of the sock (Scandinavian stars, Latvian braid) are both a reference to the vast cultural scope of War and Peace and a nod to the mash up of styles in Comet. The bear is for the costume designer, Paloma Young, putting bear motiefs in all the ensemble costumes.