Friday, November 23, 2007

The Week in Review

Tonight I am staying up late, guilt free! Indeed, I'm required to! Owen and his friend Josh have gone to the local laser tag place where they have a Friday night deal that goes until 12:30 a.m. And I'm to be the designated driver when it ends. Often, I have an urge to stay up late and have to drag myself away from the computer or my projects because my more sensible self knows I'll regret it if I don't. But tonight, I'm on duty. And tomorrow morning, when the Little Emperor awakens, I'm not!

Thanksgiving
Our Thanksgiving was pretty low-key, which is the way we like it. No travel. No company. No big pre-party clean-up. No panic. I did cook the meal and it all turned out ok. The funny part is that I don't particularly like traditional Thanksgiving food. I don't dislike it: just not anything I lust after all year. We had a 12 pound turkey, boiled potatoes, baked sweet potatoes with brown sugar and butter, broccoli, stuffing, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie. Nothing came from a can. Mr. SABLE made the pies from a pumpkin Owen grew last summer. I did provide him with frozen pie crusts, because neither of us has the crust-making gene dominant. Tomorrow, I turn what's left of the turkey into soup and clear a little space in the fridge.

Knit Night
A week ago I went to Late Night Knitting at The Sow's Ear and had a little session of the Hog'n'Blog gang. So named by Dale's Mr. Dearling. Members thus far are Dale, Chocolate Sheep, Molly Bee, and me. Honorary member: Dale's Lovely Daughter. I had Owen in tow, which worked out ok. He practiced some of his magic tricks on the assembled knitters and was mostly well-behaved. When I got out my camera to try to take pictures, though, he put his hand in every one! Eventually I gave up, so, sorry, no photo documentation of the momentous occasion.

Current Projects
I've been working on a submission for a big time print magazine. I have no idea how it will turn out. I'm not expecting too much, not because I think my submission is lacking. To the contrary, I'm quite excited about it. I just find that it's better to approach it all with a bit of detachment. And I have a bit of dread that it might get accepted, because it isn't a quick'n'easy little project. The hard part, though, is getting all excited about a project but then, not actually making it right away! You make the swatch, you draw your sketch, you maybe do a schematic, and write a few descriptive words. Then put it all in a big envelope and send it off. After a time, you either get your submission back or a contract. If you get the contract, then you knit like the dickens for 3 weeks to make the deadline. And then, as far as I can tell, half the knitters in the world post online why your pattern sucks. Or not even the Why, just that It Sucks: no further explanation is forthcoming. So, detachment is in order. I do the footwork, I send it in, I see what happens next. If they don't want it, I'm going to make it anyway; it's just that cool.

Black Friday
I'm proud to report that no one in my family did any Christmas shopping today. Or shopping of any kind. The boys all went to a movie while I stayed home and enjoyed the quiet. I did a bunch of spinning, without too much aggravation to my left hand or carpal tunnel. After a little random Ravelry cruising, I figured out the appropriate use for some yarn that sneaked into my stash about a month ago, so I cast on for that and started. Pictures of that tomorrow. I'm making the Yarn Harlot's One Row Scarf from Universal Yarns Classic Shades. This is a 70% Dralon/30% wool blend, with gradual subtle color changes: very like Rowan Tapestry but much cheaper. I don't know what in the world Dralon is. Sounds like Dacron meets rayon, but whatever. It feels nice and the colors are lovely. The yarn has a nice sheen, no doubt from all that dralon.

(A quick search reveals that Dralon is a type of acrylic commonly used in upholstery. Maybe the yarn in question will wear well. Doesn't look like it will, but maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised.)

9 comments:

YarnThrower said...

I really enjoyed reading your post! (though that is nothing new from any other day....)

I love the Yarn Harlot's one row scarf pattern! So simple, and I really like the resulting fabric!

Best wishes on your submission! You go girl!

turtlegirl76 said...

Point me in the direction of anyone trying to badmouth your designs and I'll be right there to lay the smackdown on them. With Bezzie by my side, I'm sure. Best of luck with your submission! I'm sure you'll make it!

Universal Yarns is a local Charlotte company. I have an in with someone there that I might be able to take a tour of the place. Should be interesting.

Sarah said...

I can't imagine anyone badmouthing your designs. How exciting and scary to have those kinds of submissions! The whole will they like me the first day of 8th grade in a new school jitters. Good luck!

dale-harriet said...

I would think that true and skillful knitters would be so EXCITED to see a pattern of yours! I love "knowing you when"... Also, remember the Perpetually Outraged! They gripe, they complain, they moan and groan....about knitting patterns, about white people portraying Native Americans, about young mothers breastfeeding in public...you get the idea. Hope to see you this afternoon!

Sue, aka seiding said...

What a tease you are! Now I'm on tenterhooks.

I vowed about 15 years ago never to shop on the Friday after Thanksgiving again, when it took me 20 minutes to get out of a Target parking lot. I mean, they still have all the stuff in the store on Monday. Also out: going to a movie. People are crazy!

jpknits said...

Sounds like you're hanging tough on the whole "putting the creative work out there" deal. Will be looking forward to seeing what you ARE working on!

Meanwhile, there is some comfort in knowing that there are many lives of SABLE who DO find balance and DON'T go shopping on Black Friday! So glad you've had a balanced and enjoyable weekend!

Batty said...

Excellent. We didn't go shopping on Friday, either. In fact, the only shopping that was done Thursday through today was grocery shopping on Saturday. The rest of the time, we were warm and snuggly and overfed at home.

Bezzie said...

I've done a lot of badmouthing in my day, but until the badmouthee knows about all the work it takes to write out a pattern, they've got no leg to stand on!

But that aside, the only "badmouthing" I've read of patterns in big magazines usually center on how the pattern is presented in the mag--like the sweater is obviously pinned back, or the "reviewer" just doesn't like the style because it's not their style--nothing more.

But maybe I'm not reading the juicy blogs!

Kathy Kathy Kathy said...

My fingers are crossed that they'll publish your pattern, it'll become so popular that they'll sell so many magazines, they'll decide to give you a substantial royalty and I'll be able to retire in abundance. Hey wait--how did that last bit get in there?