Elizabeth Moon's Blog, page 41
April 20, 2011
Tending to My Knitting
Long, long ago (45 years, thereabouts) my mother taught me to knit. (That's after wasting years trying to teach me to sew...) I took to knitting. I knitted a fair amount of simple things for some years after that, as time allowed (the USMC, a second degree, and graduate school interfered somewhat...) Then came here, with EMS duties, an adopted kid who turned out to be autistic, and serious writing, and the knitting sat in the corner and waited.
That was then. Now, thanks to the knitters on Robin McKinley's blog, and some hand pain that I thought knitting might help, I began to think about knitting and finally one night, in a fit of whatever, tried to cast on using pencils for knitting needles. And lo, it worked (amazing, really.) Admitting this on McKinley's blog led to nudging that verged on shoving, and I busily worked through casting on, remembering the knit and purl stitches, making and unraveling little patches, etc. And then I found a project (a blanket for The Linus Connection) and ordered yarn and ran up a gauge patch (tonight before choir practice) to see if 7 was the right size needle. On my earlier practice patches, I was using size 4s, and some old wool yarn of my mother's. For the blanket project, I needed a machine-washable yarn, so went to nylon/acrylic.
I decided early on (before looking for the right yarn) that I wanted to make blankets that would appeal to both boys and girls (girls who liked not-typical-girl colors) and in a larger-than-baby-toddler size. I remember as a kid liking richer colors than kids my age (especially girls) were supposed to like. The yarn I ordered did not exactly match the color in the on-line catalog (and I didn't expect it to--everything from the light in which it's photographed to the color balance of my monitor would almost ensure it wouldn't) and I'm sure the pictures below won't really match it either. However: there's the multi-colored yarn that will be most of the blanket, and a green multi that will be stripes on it, and a sea-colors ball that will be for a different project.
This yarn (Berroco "Comfort" worsted weight 100 gram skein) is very comfortable to work with. The knitting gauge on the skein suggests US size 8 or 9 needles, but I like the look I'm getting with 7s. I may try a patch with 8s or 9s to see. I still haven't found all my mother's knitting equipment.
That was then. Now, thanks to the knitters on Robin McKinley's blog, and some hand pain that I thought knitting might help, I began to think about knitting and finally one night, in a fit of whatever, tried to cast on using pencils for knitting needles. And lo, it worked (amazing, really.) Admitting this on McKinley's blog led to nudging that verged on shoving, and I busily worked through casting on, remembering the knit and purl stitches, making and unraveling little patches, etc. And then I found a project (a blanket for The Linus Connection) and ordered yarn and ran up a gauge patch (tonight before choir practice) to see if 7 was the right size needle. On my earlier practice patches, I was using size 4s, and some old wool yarn of my mother's. For the blanket project, I needed a machine-washable yarn, so went to nylon/acrylic.
I decided early on (before looking for the right yarn) that I wanted to make blankets that would appeal to both boys and girls (girls who liked not-typical-girl colors) and in a larger-than-baby-toddler size. I remember as a kid liking richer colors than kids my age (especially girls) were supposed to like. The yarn I ordered did not exactly match the color in the on-line catalog (and I didn't expect it to--everything from the light in which it's photographed to the color balance of my monitor would almost ensure it wouldn't) and I'm sure the pictures below won't really match it either. However: there's the multi-colored yarn that will be most of the blanket, and a green multi that will be stripes on it, and a sea-colors ball that will be for a different project.
This yarn (Berroco "Comfort" worsted weight 100 gram skein) is very comfortable to work with. The knitting gauge on the skein suggests US size 8 or 9 needles, but I like the look I'm getting with 7s. I may try a patch with 8s or 9s to see. I still haven't found all my mother's knitting equipment.
Title Change
The third book in the Paladin's Legacy group had a temporary (it turned out) title of Crisis of Vision. However, in a flurry of transcontinental and trans-Atlantic emails Monday and Tuesday, it acquired a new (and, I hope, permanent) title: Echoes of Betrayal.
It's the same story, though with a new title I can feel some paragraphs wanting to align themselves with the new title instead of the old--but the book's in production now. Titles decided on early affect the story while it's being written. Titles decided on late have much less (often no) effect on the story.
Titles are a strange form of writing. The title needs to convey something about the book--and if in a group of books with a single story arc, it needs to connect to the other books and their titles. It also needs to intrigue the right readership and resonate with the various themes and plots and subplots, so readers don't put it down thinking "How does that title relate to that text???" Titles can suggest genre and even subgenre: right now, non-mystery-genre titles with "blood" in them strongly suggest vampire stories. Like cover art, titles are mostly connected to marketing, but by being words, titles also connect to the text of the story itself.
And that's why the thesauruses and dictionaries and pads of paper were in use in three different offices. Echoes of Betrayal will be out sometime next spring.
It's the same story, though with a new title I can feel some paragraphs wanting to align themselves with the new title instead of the old--but the book's in production now. Titles decided on early affect the story while it's being written. Titles decided on late have much less (often no) effect on the story.
Titles are a strange form of writing. The title needs to convey something about the book--and if in a group of books with a single story arc, it needs to connect to the other books and their titles. It also needs to intrigue the right readership and resonate with the various themes and plots and subplots, so readers don't put it down thinking "How does that title relate to that text???" Titles can suggest genre and even subgenre: right now, non-mystery-genre titles with "blood" in them strongly suggest vampire stories. Like cover art, titles are mostly connected to marketing, but by being words, titles also connect to the text of the story itself.
And that's why the thesauruses and dictionaries and pads of paper were in use in three different offices. Echoes of Betrayal will be out sometime next spring.
From Twitter 04-19-2011
08:25:16: RT @robinmckinley: Yes, I'm worrying. I feel the webby pull & I'm *old* http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/apr/17/news-websites- ...
08:25:29: RT @robinmckinley: Hope hope hope? http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/apr/17/brain-implant-paralysis-movement
08:26:28: RT @JSCarroll: "You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him."
James D. Miles
08:30:47: Yesterday got hot (over 90F I quit checking temp) and today's supposed to be hotter. And dryer. And windy. No joy in fire-watching.
08:31:44: Book III's getting a new title. Don't know yet what, but Editorial Discussion is ongoing. Can I re-use its original for Book IV? Doubt.
08:32:27: Aftermath of great visit w/Houseguest is...I don' wanna work...
18:57:38: RT @Quotes4Writers: "Marry somebody you love and who thinks you being a writer's a good idea." Richard Ford (Born 1944) Author http://bi ...
22:27:33: TX legislature redistricting Texas is like the class bully allowed to divvy up the snacks for a class party.
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April 19, 2011
Gerrymandering: Texas GOP
Thanks to previous redistricting, GOP politicians in Texas have had a chance to stick it to us again and once more this current redistricting is all about them, and not about fair redistricting...they divide communities, they make districts shapes so much like the original "gerrymander" it's not even close to funny. (My Congressional district is shaped more like a snake than a rational district.
You can't expect anything else of them, of course. Last week or the week before, they joyfully announced that they were going to spend over $2 million dollars from the state's development fund and give multiple-year tax cuts to e-Bay so e-Bay would open a facility in Texas...because e-Bay might bring in as many as a thousand jobs. This at the same time they've chopped education funding so that thousands of teachers are being laid off and school are closing. State funds for all areas providing service to the public, from parks (including closure of several state parks) to libraries to Medicaid, MHMR, child protective services, etc. have been chopped because of the GOP created deficit and Perry's refusal to use the funds designated for emergency use.
What kind of jobs is e-Bay going to bring in? Even in numbers it's not enough to offset the job losses these other cuts will produce in a cascade, as jobless teachers can't pay for the things they now use--it will impact everything from grocery stores to plumbing contractors and the real estate market may dive again. (Perry brages about the jobs supposedly created by his "economic initiatives" but they were only about a third in number of the jobs lost in the same period, and many of the "new" jobs were low-paying...as I suspect the e-Bay jobs--should they ever materialize--will be.
But with the GOP in control of the Texas legislature, with the power to set district boundaries, they can make districts 150 miles long and a mile wide if it suits them.
You can't expect anything else of them, of course. Last week or the week before, they joyfully announced that they were going to spend over $2 million dollars from the state's development fund and give multiple-year tax cuts to e-Bay so e-Bay would open a facility in Texas...because e-Bay might bring in as many as a thousand jobs. This at the same time they've chopped education funding so that thousands of teachers are being laid off and school are closing. State funds for all areas providing service to the public, from parks (including closure of several state parks) to libraries to Medicaid, MHMR, child protective services, etc. have been chopped because of the GOP created deficit and Perry's refusal to use the funds designated for emergency use.
What kind of jobs is e-Bay going to bring in? Even in numbers it's not enough to offset the job losses these other cuts will produce in a cascade, as jobless teachers can't pay for the things they now use--it will impact everything from grocery stores to plumbing contractors and the real estate market may dive again. (Perry brages about the jobs supposedly created by his "economic initiatives" but they were only about a third in number of the jobs lost in the same period, and many of the "new" jobs were low-paying...as I suspect the e-Bay jobs--should they ever materialize--will be.
But with the GOP in control of the Texas legislature, with the power to set district boundaries, they can make districts 150 miles long and a mile wide if it suits them.
From Twitter 04-18-2011
06:54:02: RT @NYTimeskrugman: Let's Not Be Civil http://nyti.ms/hu0DaK
06:54:20: RT @KSmithSF: Cat & Dolphin http://j.mp/fuPwMT
07:12:50: Cloudy morning, but no promise of rain--this will clear off shortly and it'll be hot and windy (and dry, still very dry.)
07:27:17: Houseguest leaving this morning. Sigh. Have had three wonderful dinners enlivened by good talk and great food. Plus the days...
09:51:25: RT @BendyGirl: Disabled Jo Heath sues Ryanair over fireman's lift to plane | This is Money http://t.co/RspD9iK via @AddThis
09:54:11: RT @robinmckinley: http://www.sfx.co.uk/2011/04/16/85-authors-protest-at-the-bbc%E2%80%99s-treatment-of-genre-fiction/ (thanks @dduane)
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April 18, 2011
Smoke, Fire, and Dust
Here's a NASA Earth Observatory image of some of the fires burning in Texas on April 15, with smoke plumes heading southeast. On Thursday, the sky had been clear blue...with the change in wind direction overnight, the blue turned increasingly gray with smoke during the afternoon. It was a very dry, strong wind, and the smoke and ash made throats and eyes sting.
Now there's a dust storm north of us in Texas, some of which will no doubt land on us, though right now our surface winds are blowing from the south.
Now there's a dust storm north of us in Texas, some of which will no doubt land on us, though right now our surface winds are blowing from the south.
From Twitter 04-17-2011
22:02:35: RT @vondanmcintyre: "Don't Say Uterus" Excellent political satire skewering hypocrisy. Go, Raging Grannies! http://www.youtube.com/watch ...
22:34:17: RT @JoshMalina: O Lord, give me the superpowers to change the things I cannot accept with serenity. Amen.
22:36:24: Make friends with people who cook better than you do...because they'll cook for you more often then you cook for them.
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April 17, 2011
From Twitter 04-16-2011
18:10:30: RT @KSmithSF: RT @Quotes4Writers: "If I waited for perfection, I would never write a word." Margaret Atwood (@MargaretAtwood)
18:10:53: RT @GeorgeTakei: New AZ law requires prez candidates provide proof of birth. In related news, new fed law will require AZ lawmakers prov ...
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April 15, 2011
From Twitter 04-14-2011
09:08:04: RT @christineburns: URGENT. This is serious. Please RT widely. The Govt is seriously asking whether it should scrap the Equality Act 201 ...
09:09:59: RT @NYTimeskrugman: Fantasia in D http://nyti.ms/f6DwpS
09:11:03: Today: humid, cloudy/part cloudy/breezy. Tomorrow: dry front moves across lowering humidity, raising wind speed. Back to fire watch.
09:18:56: Yarn is still listed by UPS tracking as having departed Hodgkins IL. Yesterday at noon...where is it NOW? Want more info. #knitting
09:21:21: Time to get serious about prep for houseguest. Er...A WEEK ago was time to get serious about prep for house guest. And here I am...
10:36:12: Potatoes out of stockpot, stockpot clean, check. Hambone out of roasting pan, roasting pan in progress. One wash done, check.
12:24:32: Just watched the first video from sets of The Hobbit. Oh, my. Oh, YES. http://www.theonering.net/
12:52:18: Oh...time to take the lamb leg out of the freezer. And put the ham bone in (for later use in a bean or pea soup, of course.)
12:53:03: With The Hobbit in mind, I'm suddenly in the mood to cook a LOT. What if a company of dwarves shows up at the door???
21:09:50: RT @NYTimeskrugman: Who's Serious Now? http://nyti.ms/eOB3fv
21:31:49: RT @KSmithSF: How to restart civilization, in case you ever need to : http://is.gd/JcX7ns
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April 14, 2011
The 80 Acres project
Those interested in the wildlife management-prairie restoration project might want to look at some of the archived photos and essays on the land project on my main website, or the newer website for the project (not yet connected to the photos--Other Lifestuff keeps getting in the way) or my LJ scrapbook, which has a lot of wildlife and native plant pictures arranged by type (birds, butterflies, odonates, etc.)
Not all species are pictures, and some are pictured more than once.
Not all species are pictures, and some are pictured more than once.
Elizabeth Moon's Blog
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