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an unlikely knitting conviction
I apparently have some kind of conviction that I’m going to knit something, because I keep stopping and staring avariciously at yarn. I don’t knit. I mean, I knitted something once. A scarf. It turned out well! But…I don’t knit.
Despite that, today I came across this really pretty inexpensive dark blue sparkly yarn and…folded. I bought four skeins and two of black sparkly yarn and I have vague thoughts of a matching hat and scarf. And then since I was on the road to hell anyway I got some chunky red yarn to make a scarf for Indy, who immediately suggested we get some blue, too, and I could make a STRIPED scarf. *laughs* I said I wasn’t that good a knitter and maybe we could try that later, a suggestion to which he was amenable. :)
I got needles of appropriate size for the yarns and since the whole essentially incomprehensible purchase ran €11.50, I feel that I can probably afford the bonkersness of it. Especially if I actually knit something.
So the first thing I need to do is learn to cast on. Easy peasy. :)
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dribs & drabs
Or possibly dirbs and drabs, as I typed first…
We had a nice day in to Dublin, though in the end we’re not sure either of us actually wanted WHO KILLED AMANDA PALMER (I thought Ted did, he thought I did), so I don’t know, maybe I’ll do a give-away of it or something at some point. Dropped by Sub City, where I picked up the last of the X-Men graphic novels that’ll get me more or less caught up to the current storyline. Read K.E. Mills‘ THE ACCIDENTAL SORCERER, which was quite enjoyable, on the train. More importantly, though, I latched onto Ted’s brain and extracted ideas for not only the sixth Walker Papers novel, but also “Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight”, which is starting to come together pretty nicely now. I may have to spend some time working this afternoon, in fact, to get the ideas written down so they don’t fall out of my head. And so I don’t spend time during the week writing those ideas down when I should be doing revisions.
Whilst in Dublin we saw an advert for tall ships in Belfast the 2nd weekend of August. That would be pretty cool to go up and see, and there’s a bus that goes through Longford up to Belfast. In theory, anyway. The Bus Eireann website will not, of course, load for me right now. *sigh*
There’s a knitting group starting up in Longford. It’s called Knitwits. On general principles I feel I should join, ’cause that makes me laugh. :) But it’s apparently going to be meeting from 2-4pm on Mondays, which is dead in the middle of Word Wars. *squinchy face*
Arright. I have to go run a couple of errands.
As soon as it stops raining.
miles to Minas Tirith: 480.5
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synopsis of +2 to storytelling
Hm. Well, the original synopsis was some 1500 words. I’ve written another 2000, some of which obviously cover the same territory, but many of which are fresher thoughts and ideas and suggestions on how to wind things together and…it’s stronger than it was. Whether it’s enough to see me through a hundred thousand words without agony, I don’t know. I doubt it. :)
On the other hand, at least I have a reasonably good idea of what I’m doing with chapter four, which I really had absolutely no idea of before, so this was worth it for that. Heck, if I can manage that daily I’ll be in good shape.
A good writing tip: a few days ago my friend and fellow author Jeri Smith-Ready commented that the scene she was working on was boring her, which probably meant it either didn’t need to be there or needed to be rewritten. I’d never fully parsed it that way, but it’s an excellent observation and one I intend to apply ruthlessly to my writing from here on out.
I just saw a headline which said, “Irish jobless claims hit new peak; income tax to rise”, which seems astonishingly bass-ackwards to me. Unemployment is at 11% and rising here, and everywhere you look the government is utterly blundering in its attempts to stem the tide. It’s like watching a natural disaster (not just here but everywhere–742,000 jobs lost in the US in March, putting job losses there at nearly 2 million for the year), and, like a natural disaster, it makes me feel helpless to stop it. No wonder I’m avoiding the news. :p
I think I’ll go work on my scarf for a while.
miles to Minas Tirith: 150.5
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very confused
Agently response on TRUTHSEEKER was, in almost its entirety, “Hey, that was fun to read!” Given that said agent also gave me a thumbs-up on the proposal for the fifth Walker Papers book (which never, ever, ever happens: she always says, “Not bad, but there’s kind of too much information dump, don’t you think?”), I begin to fear that she has been replaced by Folger’s Crystals. But I HAVE NOTICED! HAH! Take that! So I am very confused, but also quite pleased. :)
I went back to the massage place yesterday and can now turn my head further to the left than I’ve been able to in years. If I can figure out how to afford it I’m going to keep going back for a while. He seems to think he can fix my right shoulder entirely. That would be nice. Somewhat inconceivable, but nice.
And I’ve knitted almost 24 inches on this scarf. It’s very pretty, all sparkly and silver.
That’s my exciting life.
miles to Minas Tirith: 137
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mostly metrics
Ted made a stunningly good dinner tonight. Salmon with herbs de provence in dijon mustard, and grilled vegetables and lemon-and-garlic spinach. Insanely, insanely good. And he cleaned most of the house.
Me, I read a book. And knitted eleven more rows. And did laundry. I think he wins the Superior Human award for the day. I also swam, and my shoulder is/was acting up, so I’m spending as little time as possible online for a while. *scoots off*
miles to Minas Tirith: 112.3
ytd km swum: 27.9
