Sweater Done!

In time for Christmas even!  Thank you Shady Cels for the wonderful encouragement!

Snow, Sweaters, and "Failure"

I'll admit it.  I gracefully dropped out of NaNo a few days ago at 21k words.  I just really wasn't feeling the story at all, and there's no shame in realizing that.  Is there a part of me that wishes that this wasn't my first non-win?  Of course.  But as I didn't enjoy writing this story most of the time, pushing through to 50k would have just been a waste of my mental energy, which I've been lacking in lately anyway.

It's December, which marks the third round of Nerd Wars on Ravelry.  I don't know if I've posted about it before.  One of the challenges this round is to finish a WIP.  So I'm digging out my "Obnoxious Christmas Sweater".  The sweater I've only got a front finished on.  Hey, I've seen people start and finish sweaters within a month, so I'm going for it.  Back and sleeves.  I want to get it done in time to wear for Christmas, but I'll be happy with just finishing it.

 What do you think?  I love it, which is why I want it done.

We've also just had the first snow of the year.  A piddly little dusting overnight that barely did anything and melted by noon.  But still, first snow of the year baby!  I'm ready for snow and cold for some reason.  I'm tired of it bouncing around between 60 and 40, I'm tired of rain, and I just love snow.

So happy December everyone!  Only 25 days until Christmas.

If only novelling was as interesting as Minecraft

Still behind on NaNo, and I haven't decided if it's a bad thing that I don't really care.  I'll be honest - my story has barely any plot, or at least nothing of the sort that would keep me going.  I'm working towards something at least, but it's still not really a plot...

No, instead of writing like I should be, I've been playing Minecraft again.  It's one of those games that you play and play for days at a time, until you run out of goals again and get bored and don't play for six months.

I've only just updated my game today, well yesterday as it's after 2am, but you get the point.  I've been playing for around a week now I guess, and I was hesitant to actually update mostly because I wasn't sure how I'd feel about the new hunger bar.  Plus the idea of Endermen creep me out a little.  I have a hard enough time with zombies.  But I did it anyway.

My first world after updating - I make new to experience all the new stuff in a fresh world - and I spawn on a freaking island in the middle of the ocean.  Would you believe that?  A teeny tiny island with practically nothing on it, and which is miles from anything but a few other small islands.  I am so lucky that one of the small nearby islands had a single tree on it.  Seriously.

So... chop down that one tree to get wood.  Fortunately I got three saplings from that tree and I planted them all.  My little spawn island had a nice little area where I set up a tiny cave lair.  I always seem to set up cave lairs initially.  It's easier than trying to build above ground.

They changed a few controls between 1.7 and the current version (1.0?).  Or at least one that really threw me that first night - in the crafting screen, shift + left click on the things you've just crafted used to take just the ones shown and put them in your inventory, but they changed it so it takes all of them plus all the ones you are capable of crafting based on what you've got put together.  Which is all well and useful, except when you are used to the old method and accidentally turn all your logs into planks in one shot.  I spend the first night without torches.  But I did get to make a door first thing...

Spent a few days getting things set up to my basic standards - torches, door, furnace, crafting table, and at least a single chest.  That's really all I need to survive the night.  But you know what?  Not a single little animal spawns on my island even though zombies and creepers and other scary things do.

I planted wheat, but it takes forever to grow.  Went digging around underground in the hopes of finding spiders to slaughter for string for a fishing pole.  Which says something - spiders are almost as scary as creepers.  Didn't find any spiders, but I did find a bunch of stuff I couldn't mine yet - gold and gems and redstone and other things like that.  And plenty of lava.  On the upside if I ever need to build a Nether portal I've got plenty of lava available.

My hunger bar ran out before my wheat grew.  What followed was a slightly annoying period of time of my health depleting to half a heart, accompanied by the hurt grunt.  It wasn't long later a zombie killed me, but that did reset my hunger bar back to full.

I've got a fishing pole now.  Currently my goal is to simply get self sufficient where I don't have to worry about resources anymore.  Maybe when I get bored of that I'll take the boat I built and sail and sail until I hit real land and start over on the continent.  In the meantime, just call me Gilligan!

 So in short, I should be writing but I'm not.  I still plan to win though, but then again maybe last year's epic comeback has given me a skewed idea of where I ought to be right now.  I'm super behind, but I don't even feel any last minute worry...

NaNo has made me nuts

Or perhaps I've made my NaNo nuts.  That's probably the closer answer; I was already nuts.

This year is my "no kidnapping or torture when stuck" year.  I'll be honest, while I love my previous two novels, they do have a very similar underlying plot - Someone wants one of my MCs for some reason.  That someone eventually manages to kidnap that MC.  Other characters must rush to save victim before victim is killed or whatever.  Somewhere in there torture and villain gloating ensue, though to which character varies.  Villain is way overpowered.

Like I said, I love those novels (even if no one will ever be allowed to read 2009's).  And yeah, other stuff is going on around that basic skeleton.  But I didn't want a third story that relied on that same old same old to keep me moving, no matter how entertaining I find it.

Nope, this year is apparently my "silly" year.  My goal was something lighter, preferably without the overpowered villain screwing with everyone.

I'll be honest, I've had motivation issues this year.  Starting from day 1, I didn't really want to write.  I've had a very hard time making word count, especially on days I work.  That first day, it was late afternoon before I realized I had barely written anything, in fact only premise set up, and didn't even have any MCs.  So I had to make myself make some.

Evi is 13, and grew up in an underground society.  Tradition states she has to spend a year on the surface world.  Leaf is a fairy boy, can talk to animals, and talks...oddly.  I love him way more than Evi, though she's starting to grow on me.  I'm afraid she's managed to pick up "hates confrontations" from me, so it's probably a good thing Leaf doesn't mind them.  Maybe he'll be able to solve problems.  If he does he'll be the first character I've ever had that can do that.

I've got a lady with too many children, I have pirates and ninjas, I have a person who is part bird part human who tells awful knock knock jokes...  I'm not so sure I have a plot other than "travel around and get into trouble and silliness", but that's ok.  My story is a tv show.

Poor Ethan, Alyssa's making you watch her favorite show every day.  You could get off the couch and do something else until it's over.  But no, you stay there and watch and then complain you hate it.  Well maybe the latest episode with the pirates and the sea monster and the ninjas will entertain you.  We'll have to see, but in the morning.

It's officially the end of the 15th day.  I should be at 25k.  I am at 18,789.  I'm doing better than I was word count wise than I did last year, but I really don't have an excuse.  Last year I was handwritting.  Of course I'd be doing better by typing, just by sheer virtue of the fact it's faster.  And yet I'm still only averaging a little over 1,000 words a day.  I'll catch up this weekend I hope, and preferably get ahead.  On the other hand, that may kill my motivation...lol

Now answer me this: Why is it that a chapter involving a sea monster, a mutiny, bad jokes, a pickpocket cat, capture by pirates, and rescue via distraction by ninjas shorter than a chapter about looking for a job and babysitting for the woman with too many children?  I mean really, babysitting takes up more words?  Fair enough I did get a chunk of change out of simply listing off all sixteen children, but gosh!

Now see, why can't I write story like I wrote this blog post? 600+ words no problem, gee!

Pumpkin Carving - A Personal History

I'm having a hard time getting pumpkin carving out of my head. So until it's time to actually, you know, do it, I guess I'm just going to be babbling about it here. :P So I guess I present A Personal History of Pumpkin Carving


There was apparently a time during our family history in which normal faces were carved. I was too young to remember, but there is a really old video of both me and the next youngest going trick-or-treating at a very young age. And visible in the background are our normal pumpkins.

My earliest pumpkin themed memory is visiting the pumpkin patch in kindergarten. We were allowed to pick one out to take home and everything. While my classmates picked out small, easily carried by a 5 year old pumpkins, I picked the biggest, bestest pumpkin I could find. I could barely lift the thing if I remember correctly. I was very lucky that the bus we rode to the patch was also the same bus that I rode to and from school on. The bus driver was nice enough to let me leave the pumpkin in my seat so I didn't have to take it back into the school building. I was very proud of that pumpkin.

We've carved interesting things for as long as I can remember. We started with those Pumpkin Masters kits that come with carving saws and patterns. I remember when we were little that we'd transfer the patterns to the pumpkins by coloring on the back with a crayon and then tracing it. Back then I'm pretty sure that Dad would help us with the carving - as I've said before, it's totally a family thing.

We used patterns from those kits for years. I think I had progressed to carving all by myself well before we mostly stopped using them. Somewhere we've got a picture of one of the ones I had done that was a skeleton eating a mouse. I still have a fondness for them even if we don't really use their patterns anymore, and sometimes I miss sawing away with those little saws as I haven't cut through a pumpkin in years.

At some point we started looking up patterns on the internet. We collected loads of free patterns over the years, and I definitely remember searching for new ones mid summer even. I'd say internet patterns were our first true trip into what I think of as "three color" patterns - Not cut through, shaved, and cut through, which eventually morphed into Not cut, shaved, and shaved deeper. We had favorite sites and I think this is when I really started loving patterns based on cartoon characters.

I was most definitely carving my own by this point. There's this one year where I was attempting to carve a rather complicated Harry Potter pattern. I was frustrated and taking it out on the rest of the family. Eventually I ended up hiding in the basement with my pumpkin, working through it someplace quiet so I could concentrate. This had to be in the early 2000s as the pattern was based off of one of the US book covers - OotP I believe.

In there we also tried making our own patterns even though we rarely carved anything we made. I've looked through some of my old attempts at making patterns recently. They're...pretty bad. They'd get the point across probably, but they were certainly far from what I'd consider even a decent job now.

And then at some point our favorite site (that we had come to rely on) took down a bunch of their patterns (cartoon based mostly) because of complaints from the people who, you know, actually owned the characters or something like that. Whatever...lol I think this is when my sister decided to start really making her own. She's got a real knack for it, and was nice enough to take requests from the rest of us. I tried myself, but I wasn't as good as she was, so I didn't try very hard...lol Heck, even my pumpkin from 2008 was from one of her patterns I think.

I make them for myself now of course. It's really only been the last few years that I've been consistently carving my own though. I'm still learning the balance between too much detail and not enough. If you leave your lines too thin, for instance, you're not going to be able to carve it easily. But too thick makes things, people especially, look weird. :P

I feel as if I ought to conclude this somehow, though I'm not sure what to say. Umm, pumpkins rock? Haha :P

Tis Fall!

Crunchy leaves, pretty colors, cool nights, and pumpkin guts. I adore this time of year more than any other.

We've bought our pumpkins before the last minute this year. I can't wait to get carving, but unfortunately starting too early means nasty rot before getting to showcase the fun next Monday. My pattern is all set - I'm carving Aladdin and Jasmine this year. My favorites from past years have always been the crazy detailed ones, unfortunate for time but understandable. Why wouldn't I be proudest of the crazy ones? :P

My pumpkins from the last three years, in order:





Patrick was three years ago, and I only sort of remember carving him. Perry is my absolute favorite out the the three even if I didn't get to display him for Trick-or-Treat, and Norm is totally awesome as well. Perry definitely fits the bill for "crazy details", but Norm's got it going on as well. Love love love carving.

In other time of year news, NaNo is coming up once again. This will be my third year and I'm starting to get a tiny bit excited again. I'm going for a lighter story than in past years (no more kidnapping and torture for instance) and hopefully the vague idea I have will deliver. :D

Obvious Word Padding

I'm in the frantic process of getting my NaNo into decent shape before the code for my free proof expires. And as such, I'm finding some really ridiculous word padding.

For starters, my main character who generally doesn't care one whit about clothing is describing them far more than he ought to. Not to mention scene descriptions. Ok, yes it's a very good thing to describe where your characters are. I just happen to suck at it and it always sounds out of place and word-paddy.

Then of course there's the times where I repeat myself. Just how many times do you need to tell us that people worrying about you are overreacting Josh? And I get it, your weapon sucks. Quit telling me!

And then there's my favorite. The slightly snarky Captain Obvious moments and really messed up character dialogue.

The woman handed the baby to her husband, then fetched a tea set from the other room. The tea was already hot and she poured us each a cup, well not the baby. The baby didn’t get a cup because it was a baby.

Oh really? The baby didn't want any? Never would have guessed that. ¬_¬

“How can you throw a child?” I exclaimed in horror.

“It’s easy,” he said. “They’re light.”

Actually, I really love this one. But it's so freaking messed up! XD

And don't worry, those two examples are chapters apart. You know, pretending I used chapters. No one threw that baby, it was a different kid.

Yarn Dyeing - The "I'm really lazy so lets just dump it in a jar" method

I love dyeing. Though it might be amusing to share my lazy bum method of dyeing, which also has the advantage of keeping the smell of warm koolaid to a minimum. :P



This is my awesome Dyeing Jar. It's just a plastic, clamp top jar I got at Walmart a while back for sun dyeing. I love it though because I don't have to worry about it spilling.



Here's my roving all soaking in the sink. I'm a lazy lazy dyer, so I tend to just leave it until most of the water escapes the sink or I get bored of waiting, whichever comes first.




After I was tired of soaking, I got the dye ready. I took one of our larger bowls and filled it with water. 3 minutes in the microwave put it just short of boiling. Dumped that into the jar (carefully!) and mixed in some green koolaid. Lemon lime or something like that...




Then I crammed the roving into the jar as well. I probably could have gotten all of it under, but I wanted more than one color so I didn't. Then I clamped the lid down and set it aside. I left it until I got bored and the water was clear by that point. It doesn't take that long because I had the water so hot. Probably not the best move if you're going for super even color, but where's the fun in that?





Here's the roving out of the dye. Half green, whee!





Did the same with red - Black cherry koolaid this time. Yes, it's looking rather christmassy by this point, but I'd randomly selected the colors. :P



There was still bits of white, and while I'm ok with white I needed something to make it less christmassy. I had an already opened packet of orange in my dye box, so I sprinkled it over the white spots. Then to be sure it was wet enough I splashed some of the water from the red job over it.



Then it got wrapped up like a sausage and stuck in a bowl to catch anything that might leak out. 2 minutes got it quite hot, so stashed it away in the basement to cool out of the way. (At this point I made lunch - grilled cheese, yum!) I actually forgot about it over night.




Here's it dumped out in our white bathroom sink - the best in my opinion for being sure that the rinse is clear.





And here's it squeezed out and then layed out to dry. It'll be dry in a few days and then I can start spinning it. :D

Loom Madness?

I walked into Joann Fabric today planning only to get the single ball of yarn I need to complete the shawl I'm working on. But of course I can never stop there. Today's random purchase was a smaller gauge knitting loom, specifically a knitting board meant for double knitting and flat panels, and a kid's potholder loom.




I'm rather pleased with this star square I made following the instructions my new knitting board came with. I mean, sure it's a little wonky, but it's freaking double sided!

As for the potholder loom, I'm not taking pictures of that. I must say, I'm slightly disappointed that it didn't come with enough loops of each color to make the cool, two colored potholder that's on the box. Fortunately, I mostly want to use the loom to try weaving with yarn. You know, once I get the chance to figure it out...lol In the meantime, it's kinda neat to weave and unweave the loops. Not that it really makes a potholder of my thickness preferences.