The Great Rage-Induced Tea Purge

Yesterday was spectacularly unproductive, work-wise, but I did get my kitchen mostly cleaned, managed to get the old wax out of some glass candleholders, and purged the tea cabinet. When people know you like tea, you tend to get a lot of tea as gifts, in gift baskets and the like. But that tends to be flavored and herbal stuff, and I mostly like tea-flavored tea or spiced chai, so the fancier stuff sits in the cabinet. I finally threw out boxes of blackberry and chamomile herbal tea with "best enjoyed by" labels in the early 90s. I think I got them as part of a college graduation gift, along with some other tea accessories and a book on tea. This means I've moved them twice since the expiration date (not that I've drunk any in all that time). Who knows what else I'll find when I delve into the cabinets. I'm going ahead and boxing up some of the seldom-used glassware, like vases and candleholders, just to get them out of the way.

Oddly, as big of a hassle as moving can be, I'm kind of looking forward to the process because it will be a chance for a fresh start and maybe I'll be able to start in a new place with some systems established for keeping things more in order after doing a good purge. I think that's part of my current problem -- I'm so used to moving every few years and using that as an opportunity to purge and re-set that I never thought of how that works when you live in the same place for as long as I have. This move's going to be different, though, because it's not just a case of finding a new place and then moving since I have to sell this place, and that means having it ready to show to potential buyers, so I can't just purge and pack, unless I somehow manage to find a new place and move and then get the old house ready to sell. I may just pay off the balance of the old mortgage so that it becomes no longer an issue in getting a new one.

This is my last week of "normal" extracurricular activities, with dance and choir (but not children's choir), so the holidays are about to begin, and I really do want to give myself some "holiday" time. I've started watching the Christmas movies (look for a post on that soon) and I've got what I hope will be a good Christmas-set book ready to read. I just hope it's not another case of the first few chapters taking place during the lead up to Christmas, and then it abruptly skips ahead to mid-January (I hate it when books do that, and it happens way too often).

I think some of yesterday's cleaning frenzy was spurred by my intense rage at the mid-season finale of Once Upon a Time, which had some of the worst execution I think I've ever seen committed by so-called professionals. It wasn't the actual events that were sheer shark-jumpage, but rather the way they were written, with terrible pacing, no emotional payoff, and the failure of Chekhov's entire arsenal. Not every gun has to eventually be fired if you're using one as a misdirect, but at least one should be, and all of them should be if they do relate directly to the plot. In this case, it was a whole bunch of things that were set up and that ended up not mattering at all. Then there was a massive logical leap that I can't figure out how they got from A to B with the information they had available. Any editor I've ever worked with would have sent that back with some massive questions about how all that worked. It was so frustrating because the setup was interesting and they totally fumbled the payoff. The post-finale interviews the writers have been giving show that they don't even see what was wrong. Maybe I should write up a detailed critique and send it to someone because boy, do they need help.

Meanwhile, once I finish the hat I'm knitting, I will be taking a break from hats. Our church was trying to get enough stocking caps to pass out to everyone at the homeless shelter on Christmas morning, and I hear we passed the goal. This is the last week to turn them in. I'm working on #11. Someone said we're doing it again next year, so I can start earlier and spread them out. I like the pattern I've been using (it has cables. I like cables), and it makes a good portable project, but I'm ready to do something else. I've got the yarn for a lace shawl I want to make.

And that's the exciting life of a Very Important Author-Type Person.

Unintentional Stripes

I got about halfway through inputting the editor's changes on the manuscript yesterday, so I should finish that phase today. I also need to write a foreword to set the stage for what is alternate about this alternate history. Strangely, she wants this to explain an area of history that's not even relevant to this story, but she for some reason thinks that it would be offensive not to mention this part of history. I did have it mentally worked out even if it isn't relevant, so it's not like I'll have to create something to explain elements that mean nothing to the story, but I thought that was a little odd. Fortunately, I'd already written this kind of introduction and will just have to add the irrelevant (but potentially interesting) information. She did thank me for being patient with her through all this, and there were some nice notes in the manuscript about things I changed the last time around, saying that this was a really good revision and she liked the result.

So maybe I'll remove one of those pins from the voodoo doll.

Last night's kindergarten choir was rather fraught. One kid burst into tears when he didn't get to do what he wanted to do and had to do what he didn't want to do (sing). He claimed he didn't know how to sing, so he didn't want to. I think he was mostly just tired, and the exhaustion came out in tears. He's in kindergarten and already playing multiple sports, plus doing church activities at two churches (he actually goes to another church, but his mother is friends with our organist, so they do music stuff at our church). It was one of those times when it was best to just let him sit aside and cry until he got it out of his system, and then he seemed to be a lot better and back to his usual self. I just have one more normal session with them, then the program where they sing for the parents, and then I'm free!!!! I also get done with my choir earlier this year, so we may get a longer summer break.

It's getting warm, so I took the big comforter off the bed yesterday and put on the new knitted bedspread. And then I noticed that there's a goof in there where I got off the pattern briefly in a couple of spots, so there are unintentional stripes. It's not really obvious and it took me a while to even notice or figure out the problem, but now it bugs me. I keep saying that it would be a huge amount of work to undo it to that point and fix it, and I have something else on those needles at the moment, and since I'm currently using it, it would be a bad time to take several weeks to fix it, but I have a feeling that it might get reworked next fall. I might make it a little longer, while I'm at it.

Here's the foot of it, showing the border. If you look really closely, you can kind of see the shadow of the unintentional stripe near the top.

Epic Knitting Errors

My attempt to multitask actually went pretty well yesterday. I revised three chapters, then hit a stopping point where my brain couldn't take any more of that, so I switched projects. There I initially ran into a brick wall because I wasn't sure where to go next, but then did some brainstorming and came up with a really fun idea. It was something I came up with and then discarded for this character's story line in the first book, but it totally fits here. Hint: a Broadway actress figures she knows how to stir up a revolution because she was in the chorus of Les Mis for six months. I'm looking forward to diving into that story line today.

I also seem to have recovered from the epic knitting error. I'm not back to where I was, but I got back to a good starting-over point and have moved forward, and all the math now fits. I'm knitting a lace bedspread, and I sort of made up the pattern based on a shawl pattern, enlarging it and making the border only go on three edges (because I don't want a pointy edge at the head). The trick is that figuring out the number of stitches to cast on required not only figuring out the number of stitches for the pattern repeat in the body, but also figuring out the number of rows in the border, and then the number of rows on the border changes at the corners because there are double and triple joins. I'd given up on calculating all that and just picked a number of stitches that was the right size and that worked with the body pattern, figuring that I could adjust the number of double and triple joins when I got there. And I did, but it turns out that the adjustment is actually counterintuitive, and what worked on paper was the opposite of what I needed to do. And I didn't figure it out until I got to that point and started counting. I should have been able to fix it by undoing about four rows, but in double joins it's hard to tell what you're undoing and I undid too much, somehow. I had to undo around the whole corner and start the corner again. But now it works and I've even counted off and marked the stitches. I think I'm going to end up with more yarn than I needed, but I love this yarn and this color, so I can always come up with something else to make with it. So far, I have a throw and a tea cozy and the bedspread in progress.

I'm really going to have to write a character who's a knitter. Then I'll be able to justify all this as "work." You know, for research. But all the current projects were started before this obsession developed, so I'd have to retrofit the knitting into existing character traits, and I think that kind of character trait needs to be more organic than that. I have that idea for the gothic style story with a twist, and I think Victorian knitting would fit very well in there. The heroine who's shaping up in my head would probably enjoy all the math of matching border to body and figuring out the stitch count. She'd look totally engrossed while she's doing it because it's very detailed, complicated work, and that would allow her to eavesdrop, since the people with her would assume she's too focused on the knitting to pay attention to what she's saying. And she has a lot of tension to work out, so she'd be more or less yarn bombing her own room, knitting for the sake of knitting rather than because she needs a particular knitted item.

The Epic Knitting Project

As promised, I finally have photos of the epic knitting project. It's a lady's circular cape in shell pattern, adapted from a pattern in Weldon's Practical Needlework, circa 1886. It's in the book Victorian Lace Today. That's a whole book of patterns taken from Victorian knitting magazines or books and transcribed (with apparently much testing) into modern knitting terminology. I checked it out of the library and ended up buying a copy because I kind of want to make everything in it.

I made it out of rather cheap yarn because it's a very complicated pattern of a type I'd never tried before, so I didn't want to risk expensive yarn on it. Unfortunately, the only yarn of the proper weight I could find at the local craft store had sequins on it. It would have been fine if the black yarn had had black sequins, but I didn't realize until I started knitting that the sequins were multicolored, which is a little tacky and flashy. I'm considering snipping a few off. Now that I know what I'm doing, I may get some good yarn and do another one because I love the way it came out and I'd like something more usable. But later, much later, as I need a break.

Here it is, as worn. Ignore the frizzy hair. I'd just been out and got caught in the rain.


And here it is spread out so you can see the pattern. With black yarn, the pattern is a little harder to see well.


You cast on with the neckline, then the pattern gradually grows to create the full circle. Then after the body is done in the shell pattern, you go around the edges, picking up stitches and knitting on the border. The interesting thing about this is that you never actually bind off. You just take stitches off the needles to knit the border onto, and then at the very end of the border, you graft the edges together. The only binding off is in the border pattern to create the points, so you start with 16 stitches on each border section, then it grows to the point, then you cast a few stitches off and start again.

Classical Music for Kindergarteners

Choir went a little easier last night because Problem Child wasn't there. The choir is singing in the early service Sunday morning, and is it bad that I'm hoping he won't be there because he didn't get the reminder yesterday? I can only imagine what he might do to act up when he's got that kind of audience. The focus last night was on the "dress rehearsal." My latest attempt at exposing them to music appreciation, Gregorian chant (to show them what people sang in church a long time ago), didn't go over so well. They aren't fond of anything slow or quiet. They say it makes them sleepy. But one of the kids did ask for the Chopin again, so some of the brainwashing may be working. I figure it's like introducing new foods to kids -- do it often in small amounts, until it becomes familiar enough to tell if they don't like it because it's different or if they really don't like it. I think next week we may make tissue ghosts and make them dance to "Danse Macabre" or "Night on Bald Mountain," then talk about scary stuff and sing the song in our curriculum about not being afraid and what to do when you're afraid. Because of various special events and holidays, I only have to prepare for four sessions between now and Christmas. For Christmas, I may introduce them to Renaissance music and jazz. The Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack is a good intro to jazz, and I've got some Baltimore Consort Christmas music.

Meanwhile, in adult choir we're starting work on pieces from Messiah, and then the women are doing the "Lift Thine Eyes" piece from Mendelssohn's Elijah. I've sung it before, but I was doing the first soprano part at the time. Now I'm having to learn the second soprano part. But since we're now heavy in second soprano (and not all the firsts can actually do the top notes), watch me have to switch as soon as I learn it.

I got off track with writing yesterday because by the time I had things ready for choir, it was almost time to go. I may have been slightly sidetracked by knitting. I got my own copy of the Victorian lace book from Amazon (finally), so I can return the library copy when it's due Friday and still finish my current project. I got to the tricky bit yesterday, and it took me a few tries to figure it out, but now that it's started, it's going along pretty well. I'm making a lace capelet for steampunk convention wear, and it's knitted first with the body in a kind of modified fan and feather scallop pattern. Then you go around all the edges, knitting on a frilly border. I'd finished the body and had to start on the border, and it took me some playing with it to get it going in the right direction. I'm about to round the first corner, which will be a challenge. Since this is for a convention and will be part of promoting the next book, it's easy to tell myself this counts as "work." It is good for something to do when I get stuck. Today I have some errands to run, but I hope to get back to the writing, too.

Making Things Concrete

As the summer starts to wind down (ha! I wish!), I have to say that my knitted blanket, the thing that started what became a minor obsession, has worked out exactly as I hoped. On warm nights, the open, lacy blanket on top of a sheet has been just enough weight and warmth. If it gets cooler as the night goes on, I pull over my light down throw. I've got an idea for another blanket I'd like to make that's more elaborate and that would work as a full-on bedspread, but that's about three projects down in the queue and will require some thinking, as it's a modification of a Victorian shawl pattern. First I have to finish the current blanket, a cables and bobbles pattern I'm doing for Project Linus, and there's a Victorian capelet I'd like to have ready before Octopodicon (a steampunk convention) in November, and then there are potential Christmas gifts.

I spent yesterday revisiting and replotting the current project. I decided to start by working out the resolution and then reverse engineering. That led me to realizing that I had to commit to who the villain was. The villain is mostly offstage in the first half of the book, pulling strings that affect the viewpoint characters without them knowing who's doing it (like in a mystery), and I had several characters from the previous book who could potentially be doing it. I took another look at the previous book's outcome, and realized that a character I hadn't even been considering as the villain here actually made the most sense. Then I had to figure out exactly what the villain was doing offstage to thwart the heroes, essentially plotting the book from the villain's point of view. That made me realize that I'd done a few things wrong, but fixing those things will make the rest of the book a lot easier. I still haven't quite met in the middle -- I have the beginning and the end -- but I probably need to fix the beginning before I can figure out the middle. I have to give some props to Lou Anders of Pyr Books for his screenwriting lessons for novelists workshop at WorldCon for helping me figure out the end, which set all this off. I was pretty vague about the outcome, but I needed it to be concrete. The goal had to be something we could see being achieved, and we needed to definitively see the heroes achieve it. It also helps if achieving the goal coincides with the heroes realizing something important about themselves. Working until I got that made other things fall into place. I also think I've got a more concrete structure instead of a nebulous mass. The structure doesn't really change much because it was more a case of discovering it than creating it, but it makes it easier to think about the story in a coherent way.

We'll see how coherent I can be today. I took my first ever dose of Allegra in desperation when the allergies (ragweed season, yay!) got to the point of distraction. Benadryl works on the allergies but knocks me out, and I have to drive this afternoon. Theoretically, Allegra is non-drowsy, but supposedly non-drowsy Zyrtec knocked me out for 24 hours. I have children's Allegra and took a child's dose. So far, the sneezing and runny nose have eased, but I feel slightly "off." It's not a sleepy or impaired "off," just a sense of difference that may or may not be related to the drug. I may just be in shock from not having nasty allergy symptoms.

And tonight I have my first real choir session with the Holy Terrors. I need to come up with an action-packed lesson plan designed to maintain the attention of kids with serious ADHD for 45 minutes. I don't know if there's an actual medical diagnosis here, but I figure I should plan for it, and if they can focus longer, then it's easier to adapt to remove items from the list while doing other things longer than it is to scramble to come up with new things to do when they get bored after thirty seconds and I run through my whole lesson plan in fifteen minutes.

Back in Hot Water

For those who actually like me writing about my hot water heater, you're in luck!

Saturday morning, I was out watering and chastising my plants ("I just watered you. How can you be dry already? Are you hoarding water and selling it on the black market to the Evil Alien Vines? That would explain a lot.") when I noticed that the paving stones and patio near the water heater were wet. The same thing that had happened a couple of weeks ago and that I thought was fixed was happening AGAIN. I turned from berating the plants to berating the water heater (which was strangely ineffective, though it did make me feel better).

Mind you, it's been about six weeks since the ceiling of the water heater enclosure collapsed and the contractor said it needed to be fixed. It's been two weeks since the last group of contractors came out to see it to put in a bid and the door actually pulled out of the wall when they went to open it. So I sent a nice note to the HOA administrator begging to know when this work will be done and explaining my situation. Under other circumstances, I'd have just called a plumber and had the water heater replaced this morning, with minor inconvenience to me. But I don't want to get a new water heater installed in a cabinet that's rotted out and that doesn't even have a door on it, only to have it taken out and then reinstalled. I'm not even sure a plumber would be willing to install a new water heater in a setting that's so badly out of compliance with building codes. I also don't want to sink hundreds of dollars into repairing a water heater that will be replaced soon, if it can even be repaired. I may have included a joke about asking the board members when would be a good time for me to come over to use their showers, but I held back the nuclear option threat of sending photos to the city code compliance officers and getting back in touch with my college friend who's now the chief investigative reporter at one of the local TV stations (they just love to do HOAs behaving badly stories).

Fortunately, they called me first thing this morning to say they were escalating. One of the board members is a contractor, and he's going to come over today to take a look at the water heater for me, and then they hope to try to get the work done this week or early next week. Playing damsel in distress seems to have worked so far. I can get hot water briefly by turning the water supply to the water heater back on long enough to take a shower, then run out and turn it back off. It still leaks, but it's not a waterfall, and the enclosure's already ruined. The one time that will be an issue will be after dance on Tuesday night, when I really don't want to run out in the dark to play with the water heater. I may gut it up and take a cold shower. I washed dishes last night by heating water in the teakettle and using that to fill a washing sink and a rinsing sink. I'll just pretend I'm camping. If it's delayed to next week, I suppose I could go visit my parents for a few days, but I'm a little afraid of leaving the water heater unattended in case something goes horribly wrong, and I have lots of church stuff this weekend. Stay tuned for further tales of the Week Without Hot Water.

In other news, I finished the latest knitting project last night, a shawl/scarf for use in overly air conditioned environments, especially at science fiction conventions.


I don't know how well you can see the pattern in the photo, as it's fairly subtle. I look forward to people's reactions when they figure out what it is when I wear it. I still need to block it and do some finishing work. And since I know I will be asked, this is the pattern from Knitty Magazine. I used heavier yarn and bigger needles (size 6 US) than called for because a trial attempt found that knitting with the tiny needles hurts my hands (I'm not great with really fine motor control, one reason I have terrible handwriting), I had a hard time finding yarn that fine that wasn't wool, and I wanted it to be bigger to be more of a shawl than a scarf. I learned a lot of new techniques in order to make this, but I now feel a real sense of accomplishment. The next project will be a blanket for Project Linus, using the first yarn I got for this and decided was wrong and a pattern they were giving away at the store where I got the yarn. It involves cables, so there's more fun stuff to try. I've learned that my church has a knitting group that meets on Sunday afternoons at a local coffee shop, and I may look into that, but I'm not sure how much I want to turn a solitary pursuit into a social thing. It might be good occasionally to get help or to learn of new charity efforts I could knit for.

Meanwhile, I've got about 5,000 words written on the new book. I took the weekend off and hope to get back into it today, though I do want to spiff up my house if neighbors are going to be wandering through to look at my water heater.