The husband was a little nervous when I asked him if I could post this here, but I thought it sounded great. 
I recorded him singing “Sweet Afton” by Nickel Creek.
Let me know what you think!
Posted: July 30th, 2006 under Tunes.
Comments: 9
oh dearie me, I have spent last night and tonight agonizing, travailing over my short story for creative writing class. I wrote my initial draft last weekend and posted it in my class for peer review. No one has reviewed it yet. In fact, my study group members seem to have fallen off the earth, or at least this side of the Internet. ok.
Then I waited all week to continue working on my story because, as I like to word it, I need to “marinate” my ideas before setting them down right. I know, I know, all the writing advice is to “write everyday, about everything” but that just feels forced to me. Because let’s face it, sometimes you just aren’t inspired and if the most you’re going to write about creatively is the dishwasher, you should probably just not write. Wait a day or two, and true inspiration will come. That’s what I think.
Anyway, so last night my creativity finished marinating and I sat down to continue my story. I’m supposed to have at least five pages but no more than ten for this assignment, keep in mind. Last night I wrote straight for three hours and did not finish until 3 AM. Brilliant!! It was the creative zone–sucked me right in. I *loved* it. loveloveloved it.
I’ve always heard writers say that their characters “wrote themselves,” or something to the effect of, “I just let her talk, and I wrote it all down.” That always struck me as slightly schizo, until now. Now I understand. (Or I’m schizo too.)
I had the basic plot, characters, and story in my head. Somewhere between the marinating and writing, the characters literally transformed themselves and, well, I just wrote it down. (Really helpful and explanatory, that.) Again, I can only describe it as being in the creative zone; things just clicked, and flowed.
Tonight I’ve been working on the story–finishing it, actually–for another couple of hours. Remember how I said that it had to be at least five but no longer than ten pages long? Right. Well, I just copied the entire text of my story into Word (I compose in Copywrite, the freeware version), and my story is THIRTEEN pages long. oy. oy! What to do? And I was even wanting to add more to it tomorrow before it’s due to turn in! egads.
The main reason it’s so long is all my crazy character development. I had to explain, after all, why my characters are about to do what I know they’re going to do and it took me a considerable amount of deliberation to figure out the ending. (I decided not to kill someone off after all; that just didn’t work out.) I simply can’t imagine cutting out anything. Everything I put in the beginning was for a purpose; I didn’t want to just dive into the action without any logic or reason why.
I’m wondering if my professor will understand why I wrote the story so long, and maybe I should just leave it as is? But I know in the morning I’ll end up re-re-re-editing it, and changing some things as I always do, and certainly adding some things, and it will possibly end up being 16 pages instead of 13. But hey, if they’re a good 16 pages, then surely he won’t deduct for my going over the limit, right? Hopefully?
It’s late. Even possibly schizo crazy writers need sleep.
[tags]writing, college[/tags]
Posted: July 30th, 2006 under Miss Education, The Writer.
Comments: 3
I am thinking of chucking my plans to make Tubey and making the Simple Knitted Bodice in the long-sleeved version instead. I have 15 balls of Elann’s Sierra Aran in Jasper, which is more than enough to make the SKB. Too many future projects, not enough time! 
I think the long-sleeved version of that top is so elegant and pretty. I bet if I show it to the husband, he’ll love it because it looks very medieval and Ren-fairish to me.
There had to be a reason all this Sierra Aran has been waiting in my stash, right?
[tags]knitting, yarn, simple knitted bodice, sierra aran[/tags]
Posted: July 29th, 2006 under Knitting.
Comments: 2
Until recently, I didn’t really “get” the podcast thing–what are they, talk shows? Radio? But then my favorite ghost hunters started TAPS Para-Radio, so I had to download them. I’ve been known to play my Ghost Hunters season 1 DVDs on repeat. I’m actually surprised they still play at all.
So lately I have been listening to podcasts while knitting. And assuming there are podcasts on everything, because everything seems to be on the Internet, of course you know there are knitting podcasts. I think the first one I listened to was Pointy Sticks, which I subscribe to. Then I searched on iTunes and some of the popular ones that I have since subscribed to are Lime & Violet and the very popular Cast-On.
I really like Lime & Violet because they’re so natural and (I mean this in the kindest way) not professional. It’s like listening to two knitting friends gabbing and blabbing about yarn, etcetera, and it is so fun, and funny.
Cast-On by Brenda Dayne, which I have been listening to a few episodes back-to-back because I just discovered her and she has 31 episodes, or something like that, and I’m catching up, is really growing on me. Honestly, I didn’t like the podcast very much at first but I really enjoy it now. And I have her to thank for inspiring me to make a fourth Clapotis.
Brenda is also a really, really great writer. I love her essays. Couple that with her velvety voice, and I’m knitting pretty for hours at a time.
Which leads me to the real subject of this entry, I suppose, a long-abandoned and neglected scarf I started around last Christmastime, I think. I can’t even remember when I started it, that’s how long it has been. It is the Misty Garden scarf from the Scarf Style book–a really great book, by the way. I am actually using the yarn called for in the pattern, Jo Sharp Rare Comfort Infusion Kid Mohair. I bought three balls, the required amount, when the husband and I went to Albuquerque months ago. In the yarn store, I really had to debate between the colorway used in the book and this lovely purple colorway that kept talking to me, really begging to be petted. So I ended up with color 614, Jasmine Tea. This lovely mohair has been sitting atop my stash (alongside my Edgar Allan Poe doll), unused and neglected.
I amend my earlier claim that my stash is yarn prison; it’s more like an orphanage, I think, where all the neglected yarn children go, in hopes of being adopted into a loving, stable yarn family.
Anyhow. Listening to Cast-On has kept me knitting, allowing me to combat my crazy knitting attention deficit disorder (aka, knitting ADD). I have terrible finishing issues. Case in point, poor Misty Garden has sat on my work in progress chair for SEVEN months. I think I had started it, knitted about five or seven inches of it, and put it down. I just got bored with it.
As an aside: what is it about being a new knitter that allows you to have so much patience, that a scarf is usually your first project ever? Then when you get into the world of sock knitting and lace knitting and cables, you just dread doing another scarf? Scarves are so easy! But they can be boring. That’s my main beef with them.
In the past few nights, knitting while listening to Cast-On, Misty Garden now measures approximately 17 inches and I’m about to add the second ball. The scarf is one-third complete. Amazing!
Whenever I’m about to finish a ball of yarn, it’s always interesting what feeling I have about finishing it. Sometimes, it’s utter DREAD. I do not have enough yarn to finish the project, so I am knitting very slowly, attempting to somehow…abracadabra ***…make more yarn appear? Magic? (Recently I started the Minisweater, and I know for a fact that I am going to run out of yarn. So that project is on hold. Indefinitely. Until I will myself to purchase more Rowan Summer Tweed in Summer Berry. Maybe by next Christmas?)
But with other projects, it’s a thing of glee to finish a ball of yarn, like with this scarf. Closer to being finished. I know I have plenty of yarn, so running out right now just means that I’m almost there. And that’s a small accomplishment.
If I have waxed poetic or philosophical about YARN, it is all Brenda Dayne’s fault. She gets me thinking about the act of knitting and what it means, and all that.
(And if you aren’t listening to her podcast by now, why the heck not?)
*** Trivia: the word “abracadabra” is Aramaic for “As I speak, I create.” I learned that from the show Cash Cab.
[tags]knitting, yarn, knitting podcasts, cast-on, brenda dayne[/tags]
Posted: July 29th, 2006 under Deep Thoughts, Knitting.
Comments: 4
I copied Kim and made a quiz. Come on, hot shot, show me what you’re made of!
Posted: July 28th, 2006 under Q & A.
Comments: 8
My fellow knitters, please shake me and remind me that I do not need to knit a Clapotis. Why not? Because I already have three! See?!
I think I’m wanting to make another because I recently discovered the Cast-On knitting podcast, in which Brenda (in an earlier episode) discusses her mishap with her beautiful Clapotis and a washing machine. yikes! Also, there is a thread at Knitty that seriously got me envisioning a fourth, count it, a fourth Clappy.
So…hypothetically…which colorway of Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock do you like best? 
(And I’ve already done one in Purple Iris, so that’s out!) I’ve become somewhat addicted to LL yarn, it really is one of my favorites. I might use a different yarn, but I just like LL so much and I know it works well with the pattern.
EDIT: But I really like the Artyarns colorways, especially #132. hmmmmmm.
oh, how addicted to Clappy I am.
[tags]knitting, yarn, clapotis[/tags]
Posted: July 27th, 2006 under Knitting.
Comments: 11
Normally I’d just be coming home from work, but today I took a sick day. Actually, I overslept by half an hour–the second time in two months–but when I woke up, I did feel semi-queasy and overall yucky. So I called my supervisor and told him I wasn’t feeling well. He was okay with it, so I went back to bed at 6:30 AM and didn’t get out of bed till 12:30 PM, when the husband came home for lunch.
I also think that I overslept A) because I stayed up till midnight last night watching the latest Project Runway, but mainly B) because I am sick of my job and just don’t want to go anymore. I just looked at the Help Wanted ads, again, for the third time this week, with no luck.
“Every being has a purpose.” That’s one of the lines in Lady in the Water, the latest M. Night Shyamalan film that is getting extremely poor reviews, but which the husband and I both liked overall. Well, assuming that is true, and my being a…being, I sure wish I would find my purpose.
Right now in my creative writing class, we’re doing short stories. I am SO nervous about this assignment. It is worth 20% of our overall grade. On both poetry and creative non-fiction, I got Bs, and I really want an A on my short story. To prove to myself that I really am an excellent writer, I guess. Though, if I get a B, that will tell me I’m a good writer, and that will be okay too. But I really would like an A! (I place far too much value on my grades, I know. It is the perfectionist syndrome.)
I’m really excited about my story, though. If it goes well, I might even post it here (as a protected entry). I’ve emailed my professor about it, though, because I’m not sure if it’s going in the direction it should be:
I also had a fleeting thought the other day, that if this whole writer thing doesn’t work out, and the whole “I want to open a yarn shop” thing doesn’t work out either, maybe someday I can write for a knitting magazine, or something. Interweave Knits, anyone? I could write about yarn!
As always, I am constantly in need of guidance. (Ironically, my academic advisor at my college is leaving, so I guess I’ll be reassigned to someone new. She is leaving to pursue “new career opportunities.” Good for her, I guess!)
[tags]work, lady in the water, college, writing[/tags]
Posted: July 27th, 2006 under Miss Education, My So-Called Life, The Writer.
Comments: 8
