Weekend: Not as Advertised.

So Friday's blog didn't happen. This was for a multitude of reasons, but basically, it just boils down to the fact that it was a really, really long day that would not end. In fact, I'm writing this on Saturday and it could be said that this is just more like Friday, Part II since there was really no sleep to be had last night.

It started with work. I will spare you the gorey details, but suffice to say that it was another frustrating day of beating my head against a wall, accomplishing nothing, and struggling to find people to fill in the gaping holes left by others who can't be arsed to show up. (I'm a wee bit fed up, can you tell?)

After work, I met up with Missouri, who is house sitting this weekend. We hung out for a while, then went to a movie (City of Bones, for those interested. I won't say that it was a great movie, but despite it's flaws it was enjoyable and Missouri said it followed the source material more than she expected it to).

The movie was much longer than I expected. Around 10:30, I finally made it home (this after getting up at 5 for work). I tried to power through to finish a knitting project, but it didn't happen. I was too tired and the cast off was just way, way too long to finish in one go. I finally collapsed into bed around 1:30.

At 3:30, my phone rang. I was so tired that I evidently slept through a text message and I had picked up and answered the call before I even had time to process which ring tone it was.

On the other end, it was Missouri. She asked me to take her to the ER.

As soon as I got to the house, I knew that she was in a lot of pain. Her tollerence for pain is one of the highest of anyone I know, so when it's bad enough to cause dizziness, sweating, and difficulty breathing, it's time for the ER.

So we went.

While she was being examined, I manged to catch a 45 minute cat nap in the back seat of my car, in between texting various parties on her behalf that needed updating on the situation.

The final diagnosis was an extremely bad muscle spasm in her upper back. Meds were perscribed and picked up, and then I took her back to her parents. She needed some things from our place, so I went there and tried to sleep. I knew she'd be knocked out from the drugs and therefore unable to get herself into any trouble. I went back this evening to check on her and drop off the stuff she needed.

It's been a long day. My relaxing weekend (which I've been looking forward to for two weeks now) has so far not been very relaxing. Hopefully, better news is on the way.

[As of right now, Missouri is fine and mostly pain free, just very groggy. By the time you read this, she'll be back home.]

P.S. If you are ever in the Columbus area and need emergency care, or really any hospital services at all, I can't recommend Dublin Methodist enough. I've known several people treated there and all of their physicians are excellent, they have a great bedside manner and the facility is new, clean, well organized, and very comfortable. Seriously, either go there or OSU. I could tell you some horror stories about our other hospitals.

A List of Things

1. Due to some nonsense with Yahoo, I've deleted my account. If you need to contact me, you can do so through my gmail address: knotmagickknitter (at) gmail

2. Read Recently: Haunted London by Richard Jones
While hardly the end-all-be-all of travel haunting books, this was really fun to read and includes stories of over a hundred haunted places in London. A few I've been to, a few I'd never heard of, and a few I knew more about than was mentioned in the book. If you're into that sort of thing, then it might be nice to pick up before your next trip. Each entry includes a brief overview of both the haunting and the history of the location, as well as it's location on a map and the nearest tube stations.

3. Read Recently: Sailor V manga, vol. 2
If Pacific Rim didn't restart my anime kick, then this definately did. I'm a huge Naoko Takeuchi fan, have been for years. I love her art style and I can't tell you how excited I was when I found out that not only are Sailor V and Sailor Moon getting reprints with all new (better!) translations, but there's going to be a reboot of the Sailor Moon anime starting later this year. So far details are very hush-hush, but I'm stalking a couple of the SM boards and fansites looking for details.

4. Watched Recently: Ripper Street
I love Matthew Macfadyen. He stars in this excellent Victorian-set crime drama (available on Netflix), and if you haven't seen it yet, go find it. It's wonderful. That is all.

5. Currently Watching: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
I watched the first FMA series (most of it) when it was first coming out in the US. My college roommate was completely obsessed with the series, so really it was unavoidable. It was good.

Brotherhood is so much better.

I find myself incapable of watching less than half a dozen episodes in a sitting, and I don't remember the last time I did that with an anime. 

This one is also on Netflix.

6. Caffrey continues to get a workout. Can I just say again how much I love, love, love using a typewriter for outlines? My current outline in progress is top secret, however. I might give a few details next week, if I decide to pursue it. If not, it will go into the file I've started for outlines.

7. Since he's been getting so much use, I'm starting to think that Caffrey needs a bit of a makeover. The grey 70s look just isn't me, and I've got a tube of royal blue acrylic paint that has been sitting unused for some time, not to mention several cans of spraypaint. But that is likely a project for another time, since I STILL haven't pulled out the steampunk typewriter. I've started to three or four times this week, and then gotten distracted by other things. Perhaps over the weekend. We'll see.

8. Lists happen when I am both in a funk and when I'm feeling super creative. For once, it's the later. My brain is going in about a hundred directions at once, and it wants to DO ALL THE THINGS. I'm trying to rein it in with some knitting. It may need to be tied down with something stronger than yarn.

Less than Motivated, and a Detour.

While things hat Chez KnotMagick are slowly returning to normal, I'm still not feeling myself. I've not been very motivated to do anything, but I've still be getting a lot done--lots of cleaning (but still not all of it or even "enough"; I've kind of gone into clean freak mode where every little bit of mess drives me nuts but I can only find the energy to deal with about half of it), and a fair bit of writing. I've been working on an outline for the last two weeks. I'm trying to outline an entire storyline (which will probably encompass 2 books) before I start work on the book itself. I've been handwriting the initial draft while I'm at work with all of my notes and other information, and then coming home to type it up on the Sterling.

I love using the typewriter for outlines, almost as much as I hate using Microsoft word for the same. I particularly hate the 2010 starter version that came on my laptop. It has all of these autoformating options that I can't turn off, and they're usually wrong for whatever I'm working on. The typewriter does exactly what I want, every time.

The outline itself is beginning to look like a novel. I'm only about halfway through and it's already seven pages long (I write pretty detailed outlines).

I did not work on the Steampunk typewriter yesterday the way I had planned to. Hopefully I'll get to it some time this week. Instead, I was working on a quickie knitting project for the house (more on that another day) and marathoning Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood on Netflix.

It appears that going to see Pacific Rim last week triggered something in my brain. Half of the movie is your typical American action flick, but it's mixed with spot-on mecha anime.

If you haven't been here all that long, then you might not have seen my obsessive anime "phase." I started really getting into anime and manga (Japanese animation and comics) in middle and high school. I loved (and still love) just about everything about it: the art, the storytelling style, the music, and the cultural influences. Yeah, I was one of the girls who ran around in cat ears and dropped random Japanese words into conversations with fellow geeks, but it was a lot more than that for me. I studied the culture and history of Japan and the way it affected the art style and storytelling mode to the point that when I wrote a paper on it in college, my teacher accused me of plagarism until I dumped a stack of research, an award winning paper (okay, it was a 4-H award, but still. I was in high school) and a list of character references in her inbox.

She very quickly changed my "F" to an "A" with five extra credit points.

When I started art school, I wanted to be a comic book artist. That eventually got derailed, and then I forced myself to back away from anime completely because I couldn't afford it anymore and I didn't have a powerful enough computer or internet connection for streaming/downloading.

This was about eight years ago. I do still love anime, but I'm so far out of the loop that I'm not even on the map anymore.

Watching Pacific Rim brought all of that back. I started thinking about Gundam Wing and Neon Genesis Evangelion, both of which bear a strong resemblance to Pacific Rim. Then I started thinking about other anime, and my journey down that candy-colored rabbit hole started again. I've been watching it. I've been reading it. I even started sketching a little, and let me tell you what a huge deal that is--I've had so much anxiety regarding my art since art school that I've basically only sketched knitwear designs since then. I'm not doing anything great or intricate or even anything that should ever see the light of day, but it's reminding me a little of why I was so interested in art in the first place. I'm keeping it to myself for the time being. Maybe I'll come out on the other side and just be happy for the break from my every day. Or maybe this rabbit hole is actually a tunnel to Tokyo and it'll spark a renewed passion--It's already giving me way too many ideas. I don't know. But it's a bright spot for me and I'm going to enjoy it. It's been far too long.

The Health Benefits of Knitting

So in the last few days, I've (re)discovered something: I'm an anxious person. I get depressed easily.

I knew this before. I was under treatment (counseling) for a while, and when the issue came up we decided that since it's primarily situational depression, and really only gets bad a few times a year and then for short bursts, that it was something which could be managed through diet, excercise, journaling, and other non-chemical treatments.

A big part of that for me is knitting. My friends from high school can attest to the fact that if I don't have something to do in my hands, then I kind of go stir crazy. I don't have to actually be doing it, it just has to be there. The act of holding a pen and having a notebook or sketchbook in front of me is much more calming than just sitting there with nothing in front of me.

For the last few years, knitting (and sometimes crochet or embroidery) have been my constant companions. I never leave home without them, and if I have to, I've usually got a little notebook so that I've got something.

I don't know where this twitch came from. But the last few days I've been on detox, as it were, while my yarn is decontaminating.

At the end of last week, we discovered that we had bedbugs. So on top of the hives and the heat rash, I also had parasites living in my bed. Which meant cleaning everything, including all of my yarn and craft supplies.

Now obviously, a ball of yarn or a half-knit scarf can't go in the dryer like everything else we've been washing. A friend suggested bundling everything up in garbage bags and sticking them in the back of my car on a hot day. If it it's 112F, then the bugs die.

Brilliant! I thought. I loaded up three garbage bags of craft supplies and costumes too fragile to be washed, stuck them in the car with a thermometer and went to work.

Three days later, and I'm still waiting. So far, 110F has been the maximum.

Three days with no crafting at all, and it's supposed to be cool here for the next week.

I am not handling this well, let me tell you.

I have been doing more writing in the last few days to try to compensate. I've been playing video games and finally gave in to Missouri's urging and joined Tumblr (you can find me there as PerilousProse--I've been posting kittens, history, and writing related stuff. And typewriters), but I won't be myself and this blog won't be back to normal until I can knit again (I've been cheating a little and knitting in my car before work. I figure that if it's there, I might as well).

In the mean time, cross your fingers that I don't go off the deep end before this is over.

My handle on life broke.

Every time I start to think I'm get a hold on things, getting my finances in order, the house cleaned up, health problems kicked to the curb--something always decides to swoop in out of the aether and knock my down a step or two. Or a whole flight.

The last couple of days have been like that. This weekend was rough. More than a little. Nothing life threatening or permanently damaging, just one of those weekends where crap just kept happening and I couldn't catch a break. Things are starting to even out, but it's going to be a while before we're back to "normal" and in the mean time I'm frazzled, exhausted, and pretty much at the end of my rope.

On the bright side, as I'm writing this, our house is cool enough that I've turned off two of our fans for the first time in ages. I'm enjoying the (relative) quiet (there are still at least three running, plus the dryer). I'm celebrating...by drinking my favorite English tea. I'm nothing if not contrary.

Today, I needed some comfort. How about you?

Typecast #11: Health Benefits of the Typewriter

Sent from my Smith Corona Sterling

Broken Break

If you've been following my Twitter at all, then by now you've probably gathered that the laptop is still out sick. My tech has been dropping like flies lately; just this afternoon my wireless keyboard and mouse died on me, so I had to walk down to Office Max to get a replacement.

I still don't have any word on what is wrong with the laptop (according to the shop, nothing is wrong with it and there's absolutely no reason for it to keep giving me the blue screen and shutting down, let alone doing it three or four times a day and doing a full system restore without any prompting or error messages).

I have managed to cobble together a workable connection on the desktop, but it tends to go in and out. Mostly I've been using it to get on Ravelry and check my email. Honestly, it's been nice to take a mini-break from blogging. It seems I have to take one 2-3 times a year to recharge the batteries. Since I have no idea when (or if) the laptop is coming back, I figure I better use my meager signal to put together a few blog posts. I'll try to get back to a normal schedule next week. I've got a couple of events coming up this weekend that you'll get to hear about (or see, or read, or however you choose to interpret it). 

I'll also have a couple of announcements next week--namely a contest. :) Details on Monday. Hint: It involves a pattern and some yarn.

A Proposal and a Rejection

(No, not that kind of proposal. Sorry, Mom.)

Well, it finally happened. I sent it out.

Over the weekend, I bit the bullet and sent the book proposal for CENSORED to two different publishers. In about 24 hours, I had a response from the larger of the two. It was a very polite and encouraging “no.” Still, I am grateful for the suggestions that the editor made, and I’m not at all surprised at the response. A book with that much profanity in it is hard to market to a general audience, and while I would rather work with a traditional publisher to produce a print book that can reach a wider audience, I know that my concept will not appeal to everyone and that they have to consider all of their clients and readers, and their future relationship with them.

I’m still waiting to hear back from the second publisher. I’m a little more hopeful about that one, since it’s a small press, but I also strongly suspect that they will have a similar response.  If I’m right, then it’s not the end of the world. I’ll simply begin the process of self-publishing the patterns, and eventually combining them  into an e-book. It will take longer, but it will give me more control and I’ll be able to work at my own pace—if I feel like taking a break in the middle and working on a pair of socks, or designing something that doesn’t include illusion, then I’ll have the luxury to do so.

But of course, that is all contingent on publisher #2 and how they feel about the book.

----

Thank you to everyone for your kind thoughts about my uncle. I was able to talk to him on the phone the other day, and he seems to be doing okay. Not taking care of himself, but he's recovering and as much as I would like to I can't beat him over the head until he stops smoking or changes his diet or just rests long enough to have time to heal. Still, I appreciate the well wishes and I know that he does to. Thanks.

Irony, or my psychic powers at work

At work, I tease my coworkers and tell them that I have psychic powers. Mostly, this is because I've been there long enough that if someone starts to ask me a question I can usually tell what the question is before they finish asking it and nine times out of ten, I have the answer.

The posts about Grandma's box have been sitting on Blogger in draft form for months. My uncle sent us the box right before Christmas, but between the multiple computer implosions and moving and the suck that was the beginning of the year, I never got around to loading the pictures into the post so that I could share it. When I finally sat down to do it, it still took me three days because Blogger didn't want to load the images.

But that's not the point. The point is, after waiting months, I finally posted something about my mom's family, about someone who was dear to me even though I didn't get to know her as well as I would have liked. Most of the people on that side of the family are like that for me--I seldom get to see them, but our personalities just match.

This morning, I got a call from my mom. Her brother, my uncle, had a heart attack/stroke. She described it as "mild" though I don't know how a combination heart attack and stroke can ever be mild. I guess that's what the doctors call it when you're still alive to tell the tale and not permanently disabled.

Uncle Steve is probably my favorite person on the entire planet. He always makes me laugh, and he never takes anything too seriously. Unfortunatly, in the past couple of years, he's been dealt some really, really shitty hands (no other word for it) and hasn't been taking care of himself.

He's been released from the hospital. Evidently all of this happened on Wednesday, but because he doesn't have any friends or family to speak of near him, there wasn't anyone to call us until he got home.

I would give anything to be able to go up and see him right now, to spend a summer with him like I did in college, but that's not going to happen. I had to save for a year just to get to Cincinnati, and I'm still completely wiped out from that trip, financially speaking. It is unlikely Mom will be able to go see him, either. 

So do me a favor and hug someone close to you tonight, because I can't.

A Little Peace, Please.

I had a pleasant, cheerful post planned for today. All that was missing were a couple of sunny shots of the yard, which I fully planned on taking once I got of of work.

Instead, I spent my lunch break watching footage of an explosion, and when I got off work, I had what I found to be an extremely offensive text message (from a family member) waiting for me. "Explosion at boston marathon...time for the non americans to say good-bye."

Sometimes, people forget that my senior thesis project was dedicated to world peace and tolerance. They spout these things and expect me to agree or pat them on the head as a reward. Sometimes, they forget that my mother is an immigrant. She is naturalized, but the fact remains that not so very long ago, she was considered a foreigner. Sometimes, they forget that our family came to this country seeking religious freedom, since Quakers weren't exactly well liked in England at one time.

Sometimes, they even forget that 98.8% of the people in this country are either immigrants or the descendants of immigrants. (US Census Bureau, 2011 data.)

That same person sent the same text message to my roommate...who is racially Jewish.

Gee, I wonder what happened the last time a big group of people got together and decided to get rid of the outsiders?

A lot of people are throwing around words like "terrorist." There were rumors about a Saudi national being arrested, and different theories as to motive.

To be honest, I've stopped following the news on this story. It's not that I don't care. It's simply that there is too much speculation flying around at this point to know much of anything for certain other than a lot of people have been hurt or killed, and a whole lot more are frightened.

Fear can be good in terms of self preservation. It lets you know when something isn't right. But when allowed to go unchecked, it can do a lot of harm. Fear of the unknown, fear of those from other nations, other religions, with other languages--that is what got us into this mess in the first place. Maybe that fear was on our side. Maybe it was on theirs. But either way, that fear has been fed and now it is a disease that is crippling our country, choking it from the inside and preventing the growth of things that we need--the economy, foreign policy, education. Tolerance.

A lot of people I know have been arguing about gun control. A popular argument that has be repeated over and over on facebook is that the disarming of the people is how the Nazi party took power.

The Nazis took power by breeding distrust among the people, by laying the country's problems at the feet of a group of people so that the general population could give their anger and dissatisfaction a direction, a name.

Gun violence is merely a symptom of a larger problem. Until we can learn to trust each other again, nothing will change.

I have had enough of the hateful messages. I've started blocking and unfriending people on social media that spread that anger around. I hear so much of it in real life where I can't filter it, that I am not about to listen to it in a forum where I can.

Positive messages only, from here on out.

Increase the peace.

So Many Books!

It feels good to bring books and reading back into this blog. Last year, I was so stressed that reading was difficult. I had trouble finding the head space to sit down; I'd get bored, or distracted, or anxious, feeling like I was wasting my time by not working on something productive. I might read a chapter, but when I closed the book I couldn't have told you what happened in it. I tried audio books, but I'm not an aural learner by nature and found those even harder to concentrate on.

So I did a lot of knitting and watched a lot of movies, and tried to write when I could.

I still haven't done a lot of reading this year; not even a quarter of what I would like. but it's coming back. I'm hoping that once I get Censored off of my desk, I'll be ready to start working on fiction full time again, since I have way too many of those projects waiting to be completed.

One step at a time.
-----
It's started to warm up a little around here. We've opened the windows once or twice to let things air out. I've even seen the sun a few times, which lends a sense of optimism to any situation. It feels like things are finally starting to look up. I don't know how far up they're going to go, but right now I'll settle for baby steps.

Just a little at a time.

Some Beach

I don't know about you, but I am so over this whole "winter" thing. I'm sick of the rain and the snow and the cold and the fact that we haven't seen the sun for about three and a half months.

We have started to get the first fitful hints of spring. It was almost seventy the other day, and then two days later there was snow on my car when I left work. Mother nature teases us with a day or two of 50's, then it's back down to freezing. The up and down is murder on my allergies. I wish we could just pick a season and stick to it--preferably a warm one.

Lately as I'm knitting, I've been watching everything I can think of that involves beaches and sunshine: Magnum, PI; Blue Crush 2; the Single Handed Knits podcast. I'm adding Hawaii 5-0 to my list, too. And then I've been watching music videos like this one:

That is one of my all time favorite songs. If you're feeling the distinct lack of sunshine, too, here are a few more:

I have an entire playlist of these songs, which I've been playing over and over on my ride to and from work. It helps keep me from veering south and just taking off for Florida or parts unknown instead of driving through the rain to work. Of course, the fact that I don't have enough gas in my car to get to the state line is also a motivator.

Here's hoping that spring comes soon, or at the very least, that you find the lounge chair with your name on it:

P.S. Don't forget about the poll running in the sidebar!

Shuffling

It occurred to me this week that it was a bit insane for me to finish three large knitting projects, write a knitting book, and write two novels and at least three short stories in the next twelve months while holding down a full time job. And also blogging and you know, having a life. It sounds dumb, but it really did take me taht long to realize that the reason nothing was getting done was because I was trying to Do All The Things...and doing them at the same time!

So, I've reshuffled a little bit. Since I have outlines for the novels, but am currently a bit bored with them (these being versions 2.0 and....6.0? respectively), I've decided to set them aside. The post club stories are complete, but will probably be revised at some point. I would like to do some more short stories this year, but they will likely not be for publication, rather for character development purposes on the novels. I guess they're more writing exercises than anything else.

I've jotted down notes and the beginnings of two or three potential novels since the beginning of the year, but I'm not sure they will go anywhere. For the moment, my creative writing is either parked or idling, inching forward when I need a break from knitting.

I'm focusing all of my efforts into "Censored." About 50% of the patterns are written at this point, and most of them have been test knit. I'm working on putting together a submission packet as we speak, and will probably send it out in June, goddess willing. There is a possibility that I'll have to hire someone to do some sample knitting, or perhaps find someone willing to loan me one of their test knits. I'm keeping Kickstarter in the back of my mind for this reason.

In the coming weeks you'll probably see a lot more knitting on this blog than previously--not just what I'm working on, but also inspiration shots. I'm open to answering questions or posting tutorials, as well, so if there's something you'd like to see, drop me a line. I've also got some book reviews lined up, as well as some posts related to textile history and conservation.

The writing and typewriters aren't going to go away, they're just going to be set aside, for a little while. They'll still pop up from time to time, but if I'm going to get anything done this year, I need to narrow my focus a bit before I go completely mental. Considering I'm already halfway there, I don't need any encouragement.

P.S. Speaking of test knits, there is currently one running on Ravelry for "Charlotte." If you're not on Rav and would still like to take part, please email me. 

It was knitting week, with a side of TV.

It has been a long day. An incredibly long day, filled with crazy, angry people, including one guy who thought it was totally cool to use my workspace in an associates only section of the store as a changing table for his 2.5 year old.

Yeah, it was that kind of crazy.

On the bright side, though, my tax return finally came through this week, so while I've done a bit of knitting, most of my attention has been on this:

With the decal Missouri got my for Christmas. It's not my
laptop unless it has stickers on it!

 I finally have my own laptop again, which is wonderful. I miss my Mac, but I'm adjusting since my check from Uncle Sam wasn't quite enough to cover the repairs the Macbook Pro needed, and get caught up from the mess that was January. I'm starting to make peace with the fact that it's a lost cause at this point, so next week I'll probably take a box full of tech in to be recycled.

Now that the computer issue has been sorted out, it makes it a lot easier for me to work on Censored. My first test knitter got back with me in January about the next pattern, so I'm working on revising the pattern and finishing my sample. I've got a whole lot of TV lined up for while i"m working: Marple, Teen Wolf, and Supernatural, plus I am woefully behind on New Girl and The Big Bang Theory, and then there's the Never Ending Neflix Queue. I know a lot of people (knitters in particular) have been watching Downton Abey lately. I watched the first 3 or 4 episodes and I must say that aside formt he cast, i really don't see the appeal. But that does remind me that I'm at least a seaon behind on both Dr. Who and Torchwood.

We won't talk about the travisty that became Torchwood. And I haven't enjoyed Dr. Who since David Tennant left. I'm trying to get back into it, but I really just don't like Matt Smith or the Ponds. I know I'll probably get flamed for saying that, but it's true. I used to marathon Dr. Who and now I have trouble sitting through a single episode.

But! I did get caught up on Castle, Once Upon a Time, The Murdoch Mysteries, Glee, Lost Girl, and Criminal Minds last week, and was surprisingly productive while doing so, even if it doesn't show. The afghan I've been working on  is so large that unless I actually measure it, 6 or 8 or even 12 rows aren't all that noticeable:

 I've also put in a few rows on the London Calling Cabled Cardigan, about one pattern repeat or so? Something like that:

There's actually more of it now, but that's the most recent photo. I know it's an older picture because my cable needle is in it, and this week I learned how to cable without one! It's very exciting. I'd been wanting to learn but just never looked up the instructions. Then someone posted a link to a video on Twitter, and about thirty seconds into it I figured it out and felt really dumb for not figuring it out sooner. If you're intimidated by the technique, you should try it out. It's super easy, and it's great because I'm always losing my cable needles. I actually have avoided doing cables in the past because I like my knitting to be self-contained. The less extra "stuff" I need to carry with me the better, and now that I can do this you'll probably see more cable patterns around here. (Who's up for a Fuck You fisherman's gansey?)

My last knitterly enterprise for the week was that I ventured out and actually socialized--I tried out a new knitting/craft group in the Short North called "Hey, Ho, Let's Sew." Any group that names themselves after  Ramones song is definitely one I want to be a part of. The people were nice, the conversation was fun, and there were some great projects getting made by people of all skill levels and interests. Knitting, crochet, sewing, embroidery, and cross stitch were all represented.

We're thinking about starting our own craft meetup here, but we need to get the basement sorted first. We have a great work space, but no tables or chairs to put in it. It's a problem. Maybe the next time someone decides to hand me a grand I'll be able to buy a table!

Not Quite as Planned

Today is the first day of February. That means January is over. I am declaring today the official start of the new year, and we'll just pretend that January never happened, 'kay?

This week we got our first good news in a month. A friend of a friend is converting his furnace, and said "Hey, if you can move it, you can have the fuel oil tank and everything in it." So our heat for February will be free! We are thrilled, obviously. We also did need the new tank, since it looks like this one might be leaking around the connections and the cap, but that probably won't get installed until spring or summer, when we can afford to shut off the heat for a couple of days. Since today's high was only 18F, that's not going to happen any time soon.

---
A few days ago, I finished up the entrelac neck warmer I've been working on. Then I went to try it on, and decided that it was completely wrong and ripped it out. I don't have any photos to show just yet, because while I have started over, I have not seen very much daylight this week thanks to work, and my  lamps aren't very photo-friendly.

---
On Monday, I'll have another preview for the KnotMagick Post Club for you, so stick around!

The KnotMagick Post Club

[A bajillion thanks to Rob Bowker, who inspired this]

In the knitting world, we have “yarn clubs,” in which knitters sign up and for a fee every month for a set period of time they are sent a skein or two of yarn, a pattern, and maybe some other extra goodies.

I am borrowing that concept now, and creating the KnotMagick Post Club. This is how it works:

Every month, via email or post (or both) you’ll receive a PDF chapter of an ongoing novel. In addition, depending on your subscription level, you might also receive a typed copy of a short story, an exclusive knitting pattern, or other goodies.

Below, I’ve broken down the 4 subscription levels:

Copper: 3 short stories (1 hand typed*, 2 PDFs via email), delivered over the course of 12 months ($15)

Copper: 2 short stories (1 hand typed*, 1 PDF via email), and monthly installments of the novel (also PDF via email) ($30)

Silver: Welcome packet, monthly installments of the novel, in PDF format (delivered via email), 1 knitting/crochet pattern, and 2 typed short stories over the course of 12 months. ($50)

Gold: Everything in the Silver package, plus an additional swag bag**, short story, and pattern.  ($75)

Platinum: (only 5 slots available) Everything in the Gold Package, plus an additional swag bag and 2 surprises. These might be an extra short story, or another pattern, or a handmade item, or something else altogether. ($100)

Sign ups are open now [all of this information and more can be found on the club page], and will run through the end of February. The first shipment will go out in early March. The club runs from March, 2013-March 2014.

Between now and the beginning of March, I’ll be posting teasers of some of the things you can expect to find in the club—blurbs, excepts, pattern photos, etc. Check back here every Monday for a new teaser!

Even if you decide not to sign up, I would appreciate it if you spread the word about my little project, since this is my latest effort to keep a roof over my head and the heat on (you don’t want to know what the temperature in our house is right now. Suffice to say I’m shivering as I write this).

Borrowed time and a borrowed laptop

After a weekend spent with my parents and hiding in my room, I'm trying to be more optimistic. My parents gave us some food, which will get us through the next couple of weeks, and I'm borrowing my mom's laptop so that I can get some writing done. I managed to get the desktop back online, but I had to move it across the room and it's not in the best location now. Great for watching television. Not so much for getting any work done. It is still questionable whether or not we will be able to pay all of the bills this month or next, or what we're going to do about heat, since I can't charge another $600 fuel delivery.

If you would like to help out, I've put a few things together for sale, and I'll be adding more later this week.

If you haven't been following my Twitter this week, then you might be wondering why I missed Monday's post on both of my blogs, and also pretty much vanished from Raverly.

Remember that old, old laptop that I managed to resurrect just in time for NaNoWriMo? The one that really just needed some TLC and a new battery?

It died. I'm officially calling it. The software is so outdated that it keeps freezing, especially when I try to get online, and that three month old battery is no longer taking a charge. Since it's a Mac, it's too expensive to fix, and at eight years old, it's not really worth it, anyway.

My "good" laptop? The newer one? No change there. Still broken, and probably too expensive to fix.

The desktop? My wireless card is fried. It died on me this week. Even moving the computer closer to the router couldn't get me a decent connection. Since it is not practical to move my entire desk or even my computer out to the living room, I'm calling it a loss. At some point in the future I will look into getting a USB wireless receiver, but that's not happening this month. We're at the point where we are taking food where we can get it, wondering if we're going to have water and electricity next month, and pretty much collapsing into a glibbering heap at the thought of another $600 fuel oil bill. We are trying to think of things we can sell. Sadly, those computers and my car are the sum total of things I own worth anything, and I need the car to get to and from work. I'm thinking about posting knitting, crochet, sewing, and embroidery classes on Craigslist, but am generally distrustful the people who use that site (myself included). Oh, and if anyone needs a 119 gallon water heater, we've got one for sale.

I am trying to be optimistic. Other than the wireless issue, the rest of my desktop still works. This is good, because it means that it doesn't really inhibbit my writing or designing, I just need to move my chair over to my television and type in my lap. No big deal.

I've also put several more rows in on the London Calling Cabled Cardigan, since a good deal of the last two days has been sitting around waiting to see if the internet is working on the computer, or if the substitute computer (borrowed from Missouri; that's another story in itself) will boot, or waiting for various software patches and updates to download and install. Basically, I've been sitting in front of the computer and not doing much else.

But, I was able to join the pockets on the cardigan last night. And I keep telling myself that I was spending too much time on the internet, anyway. Yes, I've been trying to promote my writing and patterns through social media, but really, there was a lot more time spent looking at cat pictures.

In fact, I'm pretty sure that the only thing that's going to improve this month is Googling "kittens." Repeatedly.

Like right now.

Mutterings and a thank you

How do you like my new laptop?

Click to make it bigger.

I typed that up on Saturday, when the Sterling first arrived. As yet I haven't had a chance to really play with it, since Missouri has been off for the last few days and the basement is really in no condition for much of anything yet. For starters, it's been mopped twice but still looks like a pigsty, partially the fault of the former tenants, and partially because of all the construction that had to be done down there. On the bright side, I have yet to meet any Rachnoss, so while some of their webs remain intact (every time I THINK I've gotten them all...) they seem to have abandoned our basement for greener pastures. Or darker caves, or whatever it is that giant, half-human alien spiders prefer.

It seems that all of the blogs I follow are doing retrospectives this week, but honestly, I'm not feeling the love. This is probably because at the moment I am sick AGAIN (this is is what, the sixth time this year?) and my general feeling towards 2012 is "Good riddance, don't let the door hit you on your way out." The election, partisan politics, the increase in violent crime around the country (at least in terms of mass shootings and such), and some of the natural disasters the world has suffered of late, have not helped this feeling. For my part, I'm lighting a candle and hoping we can put all of this bad juju behind us for 2013.

Some good things have happened--I got published, twice for short stories, and once for a knitting pattern; I had a knitting pattern go semi-viral (1739 downloads and counting), I was saved from near homelessness by the kindness of one of my dad's clients, and through the magic of the internet I met some fantastic people at conventions and writing meetups, and have gained both a great typewriter (or three...maybe) and lots of knowledge because of it. So all in all, not too bad, I guess.

Now pass me that Nyquill. I'm going back to bed.

Called on Account of Rain

I wanted to have before and after photos for you today, but alas, we are stuck "in between." The day we were supposed to get the rest of our furniture, my dad was called away on business, and it's been raining ever since. We only just managed to get a fridge last night, and I suspect that was due primarily to prodding from my mother, who remembers all to clearly the months we spent living in a barn with no running water and limited electricity.

We were supposed to wait to unpack until the furniture arrived--because wouldn't you know it, the biggest pieces are the ones that are missing. We cracked last night, though, and brought in about half of the boxes that were in the garage. Most of them were books, but I found some ofmy clothes and my current pattern I'm working on, and my camera, Which is good, since I have a tutorial on there that I'll be putting together for Friday's blog.

I did the last of the painting this morning. There are a few little things that still need to be installed, and the master bath needs cleaned now that all of the messy work is done. Once the upstairs is done, we can start cleaning the basement and then my typewriters and craft supplies can get moved down there. Which will be nice since I still have boxes all over my room of things that don't actually belong up here now.

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I've been doing a surprising amount of writing since Nano ended. I pulled one of my older pieces out--my Magnum Opus, which has been written and rewritten at least three or four times since I started it in 2007. Parts of it were even posted on this blog, eons ago, but it no longer resembles the original manuscript in anything but the most remote ways. Characters have been added and taken out, my antagonist has changed twice, names, locations, and occupations have been altered...but I think it's gotten a little better every time, and that's the goal, right?

Now if you will excuse me, I have a few dozen things to catch up on.