The Weekend

Sahara
Originally uploaded by magicknits

Ok, so post 3/3 for today. I'm really going to have to start blogging from home so that I can just go ahead and put all the pictures in one post, but I'm also lazy and mainly use my computer at home to watch DVDs and call people :oP Anyways, the weekend was good. I headed west to go visit DF and spend the weekend lazing around his apartment, finishing up the Nano book (I won, I won!), and knitting on Sahara until I ran out of yarn. I knew I should have brought another skein with me, but this gave me the chance to finish the Noro sock (see post below). I'm completely in love with the Sahara pattern and tonight I should get close, if not arrive at the short row shirttail shaping, so I'm quite excited about that!

Tonight Barbie and I are making a bunch of food. We decided that we wanted some good food this week, so we're going to both cook tonight and share the different foods. She's making homemade clam chowder and fried oysters and I'm making scalloped potatoes, and possibly chili if I can find some decent hamburger around here.

I'll let you know how the cooking spree goes!

Knit on...

One Sock Down...One to Go

Noro Sock
Originally uploaded by magicknits

I did manage to finish one of the Noro socks this weekend. I am actually already about 1/4 through the next one too, but stupid me forgot to take pictures of that one. Ah well. I like the color changes of the yarn, but I really do think that this will be my only pair of Noro socks. I'll use the rest of the sock yarn for scarves and other projects that can show off the color changes, although the feel of them is quite nice after trying on the first one. We'll see how they wear.

Knit on...

The Tree

Naju Tree
Originally uploaded by magicknits

My parents sent me a Christmas tree in the mail so that I would have at least a Charlie Brown tree to decorate my apartment. I had fun decorating it on Thanksgiving, as per my family tradition, and discovered only after decorating the whole thing that only half the string of lights work (it's a pre-lit tree). I did however buy more lights this weekend, so now I have a happy multi-colored twinkling tree decorating the tiny apartment!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Japan sea36
Originally uploaded by magicknits

It's pretty much over for America now. Last night I had a Thanksgiving dinner with some of the American native speakers in Naju and we had quite a feast. There were fried oysters, mac and cheese, mashed potatoes, asparagus, green beans, and rice pudding with vanilla ice cream. All in all, it was a good time. After dinner, I decorated my Christmas tree that my parents mailed over to keep with the family tradition.

There has also been knitting, but I forgot to take pictures of it. Hopefully I'll have some decent pictures of a finished sock and other knits on Monday. Everyone have a great weekend!

PS: for those who are wondering, the random picture is from the Japan Sea when DF and I went this summer. I needed to use a picture for the blog feature to work on flickr :oP

Knit on...

And Here's Sahara

Sahara
Originally uploaded by magicknits

Part two of the blog post for today! Sahara is about to be joined for work in the round, so hopefully I'll make some more progress on that. I'm also hoping to get in some spinning tonight since the alpaca roving has been sitting out taunting me to do something with it. I am still in love with the Sahara pattern right now, so the two of them will have to battle it out for who will get the most time.

I did get some writing in today. I'm hoping to work some more on the book for the next two periods and then after my last class of the day so that I can be just that much closer to finishing the darned thing. Then I'll let it sit and try to edit it sometime in January. Fun times.

knit on...

The Sock Progress

Noro Sock
Originally uploaded by magicknits

Yep, I'm still blogging via flickr right now because blogger is still being banned at the school for some reason. At least flickr does allow me to blog, albeit with just one picture at the top. Anyways, here's the progress on the Noro sock. I have since turned the heel and am about to start working my way down the foot. The next post will have the Sahara progress!

Knit on...

And Here's Noro

101_2366
Originally uploaded by magicknits

And here's the Noro sock in progress. I'm working on it a little more today, but I really need to make myself write. I've fallen behind the past few days and since I only have five days left to finish this novel, I need to get cracking. I'm hoping to be very close to 50k by the end of the day today. I don't have much time between classes today, so instead of knitting a few rounds on the sock, I figure I can make myself type and get the word count flowing again!

Knit on...

Finished Ziggy

101_2372
Originally uploaded by magicknits

Well, the school has blocked blogger again from the computers, so until I get that fixed again, I'll be blogging from flickr or from home. I finished the Ziggy scarves this weekend. I ended up adding more length to the first one and then using the leftover yarn for the second one. I gave the two scarves to their recipients today at school and they are both modeling for everyone around here, so I take it to be a sign that they like them.

I also started the Noro sock yesterday and I'll have pictures of that in the next post since I haven't figured out how to get flickr to allow me to post multiple pictures into a single blog entry from their site. Oh well!

Knit on...

Stash Enhancement

My stash nearly tripled this weekend when DF brought back yarn I had ordered and that had been given as a gift to me. My stash was really quite low though...I only had two skeins of Lorna's Laces which I was saving for a desperate sock knitting moment and the rest of the skeins for Sahara and Donegal. Poor Donegal. The sweater is sitting in its box, hanging out because I've become obsessed with the Sahara sweater pattern now. Donegal will have her day again soon though. Anyways, here's what DF brought back:Six skeins of Lorna's Laces. That's Franklin's Panopticon, Amy's Vintage Office, and Mt. Something that I can't remember its name.Four skeins Malabrigo laceweight. Can you say dragon shawl?3 skeins Noro Silk Garden sock. One will become socks, but I have other plans for the remaining two.
Two bags of hand-dyed roving by Jessi. I also had two skeins of kitchen cotton, but forgot to take pictures of them, so imagine blue and yellow cotton here :oP

Knit on...

You Know It Was a Good Weekend...

When it involves the purchase of a sheep hat:More tomorrow...

Knit on...

Uh, Yeah...

So it snowed yesterday. I don't mean that it just flurried some, I mean that it dumped a nice white blanket all over the place:There's a good three inches on the ground as I write this and it's still peppering down, so who knows how much will accumulate.

I did knit some last night too. Here's Sahara:I'm almost to the front armhole shaping now, so it's growing quite steadily. I would have knit more last night but I had a headache from the blasted weather changing so suddenly.

I also have been crocheting at school when not writing:This is the Ziggy scarf pattern. It's a very easy crochet lace pattern, but it certainly flies. I should be done with this one by the end of the day since I don't have any classes to teach.

Hopefully there will also be some writing today! :oP

Knit on...

Sahara

Let me just say that I am in love with this pattern. It's very simple, but the construction is keeping my attention. This is my first top-down seamless sweater in the round, so it's some new stuff for me, which is always nice. I love the color of the Devon Shepherd Worsted, I love the feel of the yarn, and I love how well this pattern is written.

Here is the current state of the sweater after knitting 20 rows of the front tonight:I did write some more. If you'll notice, the word total is getting very close to the 50k mark. I'm really hoping to have this finished by the end of this week so that I can spend more time with Sahara and the stash. I've missed the stash. Good thing they had that intervention for me yesterday :oP

Knit on...

An Intervention

I spent most of this weekend writing, hoping to hit 40,000 words by the end of the weekend. I was at almost 39,000 when I realized I needed milk if I was going to eat cereal for breakfast in the morning, so I took a walk to the store. When I came back, this is what I saw:I was concerned because I had not placed the yarn there. In fact, I have been intentionally neglecting the yarn stash this month because of the novel. I also saw that my novel was no longer on the screen. I read the letter and this is what it said:I started to get very concerned. The stash was now talking to me. Had I really neglected knitting and fondling yarn for 15 days now? Was I in need of an intervention? Had my novel really taken over all my free time? I picked up the skein of yarn and pressed it against my face, feeling the uber softness that is Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted. I looked at the needles and the pattern and said what the hell. I'll knit for a little while and then get back to writing.Yeah, it's horribly curled up because of it being plain stockinette, but this is the back of the sweater to the armholes....yeah, no more writing was going to be taking place this weekend.

It's 10 PM here, so it's pretty much my set bedtime here, but I can't...put...the...sweater...down...

I'm back!

Knit on...

PS: I intend to be close to finished if not completely finished with the novel by the end of this week. I can't travel with the sweater, so work time will be writing time. Don't worry, the novel is not going to be neglected :oP

This is a Knitting Blog!

Look, before I go any further:Knitting. There, I proved that I do actually knit. This is the feather and fan scarf of abandon. I call it this because I started it, thinking it would be nice and easy to work on while nano-ing, but no. I abandoned it, threw it aside as the writing muses took over and forced me to be a slave to the computer as the words just seemed to flow. Yesterday I had the day off work, so I knit some, albeit still not very much. I was more interested in cooking two huge pots of vegetable soup and freezing one. Now I'll have some nice, hot soup for dinners now that the weather has turned pretty cool.

Maybe I'll knit some this weekend too. Of course I'm at almost 35,000 words too, so maybe I'll just see how many more I can crank out and just how close I can get to the story's end.

We'll see :oP

Knit on...

I Will Knit

I want it to be known that tonight and tomorrow I will knit. My fingers are twitching involuntarily now and the book is about half way done. Plus I just found out that I get a day off work tomorrow. So help me God, I will knit tonight!

Anyways, here's the current stats:

Words: will be at 32,000 before I leave school
Chapters: 14
Favorite line in Chapter 14: Several wrong turns, some strong cursing, and two hours and a purchased map later, the unlikely group arrived at the city limits of Baysan.

Tomorrow...knitting...must...knit...

Knit on

Uh, What Knitting Pictures?

Uh, did I promise pictures of knitting yesterday? Clearly my mind if warped from this novel writing thing. I would take pictures of the knitting normally, if my mind wasn't thinking about weaknesses of certain main characters and how a certain bad guy is going to exploit those. I would normally knit if my head wasn't churning out plot ideas on how my main character is going to save his friend.

So instead, I give you more novel info! I do solemnly swear that this blog will go back to its usual pictures and knitting content once the novel is finished. I intend to let it sit for at least a few weeks before I go through and read all the craptapulous stuff that I have now written.

Word Count: 28,000ish
Chapters: 12
Character Deaths: 1
Flashbacks: 2
Near Death Experiences: more than I care to count.
Favorite line from chapter 12: Being almost killed in uncountable ways in the course of forty eight hours really puts things in perspective, he thought as he ate the piece of tasteless bread.

Knit on...

The Autosummary of my Book

I was reading the nano forums from the procrastination station and found this thread about autosummary in Word. For fun, I decided I was curious enough to see what words were being used way too much in my book. Here is my 10 sentence summary:

Brennan cringed. Brennan asked. Brennan asked. Brennan asked. “Brennan. Brennan nodded. Brennan nodded. “Thanks, Brennan. Brennan shrugged. Brennan nodded.

As you can see, Brennan nods and asks too much stuff :oP If Brennan were not the name of my main character, I would also be even more horribly frightened of this :oP

Writing, Writing, Writing

That pretty much sums up the weekend aside from a trip to an art show in Gwangju. It was a nice art show, but for the most part, I don't get modern art. Sure, there was some stuff I liked, but there was a lot of stuff that looked like stuff I might have drawn when I was two. Oh well.

The book is almost 28,000 words now, so it's growing nicely. I'm in the middle of a flashback with my main character, so that's giving me room to expand the story some more.

Knitting pictures tomorrow!

Knit on...

Knitting? You Mean She Still Knits?

Yes I Do! I do still knit people. Some things never change, even if they slow down a little due to writing a book and catching a stupid cold on my birthday. Thank you to everyone who commented about the birthday on here yesterday! The gathering at the apartment was nice, even if I felt a little like death warmed over. The good news is that I feel quite a bit more human today and my appetite finally came back, so that probably means that the worst of this is over, or at least that the leftover pizza and cake will be devoured tonight...

Anyways, look, here's my progress on a feather and fan scarf:Ok, I said I still knit, I didn't say I had been knitting a lot! I'll try to work on it some more this weekend, but I really need to sit down and get the word count up on my NaNoWriMo. We'll see which one wins out now.

Knit on...

Ahem

I do actually have to clear my throat to say this since the zicam has not cleared up the bug I have managed to catch. I am not as sniffly as yesterday, but I am really wiped out and tired. But on another note:

Today is my birthday, or well, it's the day of my birthday over here. I was born in America, so I still have about 4 more hours until it's my birthday over there :oP

Ahem :oP

There may actually be some knitting content on this knitting blog tomorrow. I know, it's hard to believe, isn't it?

Knit on...

I Do Still Live

Hey, everyone. Just popping on to let you know that I still live, but I might be catching a cold. Tonight when I get home, I am hitting the Zicam in hopes that if this is a cold, it will wipe it out. Right now it feels like my sinuses have a life of their own, so we'll see.

I have been knitting some on the scarf, but due to brain cells possibly joining the party in my sinuses this morning, stupid me forgot to bring the picture that I promised yesterday. If I am able to function when I get home, I'll try to post it. If not, just imagine a whopping three inches of feather and fan lace in knitpicks turquois splendor.

And it looks like we have a new president now. My blog is a politics-free zone, so I won't share my thoughts about it on here, but it looks like there will be a lot of change coming for sure.

Lastly, the word count on my novel is almost 16,000. I hope to get to 17000 by the end of tonight, but who knows how well I'll be writing when I get home.

Knit on...

OtherKin Random Update

My favorite line from the book so far:

All Brennan wanted to do was to have a cigarette and sleep and hope that when he woke up, he would be back in his dirty apartment without any voices in his head or things randomly catching on fire.

We Interrupt This Knitting Blog....

With a writing blog. It's November, which means for thousands of people, it is also National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo for short. The past couple of years, I have watched as Renee and Kim have been writing, sometimes competing in nano. Well, this year, I had a story that really needed to get out of my head and onto paper. I'm really good at coming up with decent story ideas, but I never get around to finishing them because I tend to write as if going down the rabbit hole. This year is different though.

This weekend, I managed to log in over 10,000 words on my story. So far at school today, I have logged in almost 1500 words and will probably have more by the end of the day if I am still feeling the story grow.

So, yeah, this is a knitting blog, right? I did knit a little on Friday, and I have knit two repeats today on a feather and fan lace scarf. That's the extent of my knitting right now. It's been at a stand-still since last week when I was writing the last parts of my outline so I know where to direct this story.

I'll have pictures of the two-inch long scarf tomorrow though. And probably more word updates!

Knit on...and write some too.