Progress?
Posted by Elizabeth on 04-01-2010 at 12:45 pm Script Frenzy is under way.
I did not make it to midnight last night; work was crazy yesterday so I ended up going to bed about 9:30. I got up at 5:00 this morning, though, and got quite a bit done. I only have about half a page (give or take) to write this evening to stay caught up, and that isn't counting the title page or the character list. If I count those, I am actually a bit ahead.
However, I doubt I will make it to the goal. Not because I don't think I can, but because I am not actually trying to write a full-length play. It probably will not be the full 100 pages. Even if I include the background on the characters, the setting, and all of the side information that they are not supposed to reveal about themselves in the game unless directly asked, it might not make 100 pages.
Which really means that I have no excuse what so ever for not finishing this project this month, I guess.
I did trim the cast down to just eight players and an inspector. The Mayor of the town might make an appearance in the script, but I doubt he will be in the final game.
I hope my 'Frenzy shirt arrives in the mail today!
Uh-Oh
Posted by Elizabeth on 03-24-2010 at 12:46 pm Do you ever have those moments where you realize just what exactly you have committed yourself to? You feel the weight of it sink in, and you kind of feel like you're in the deep end of the pool and just forgot how to tread water and you start to panic just a little bit? Come on, it can't just be me, right? Script Frenzy starts in just one week. I have one week to do the pre-planning for my murder mystery. I have characters; it's the plot points that are missing. I did manage to get some scripting software installed. I ended up going with Celtx, since it runs on the version of Linux I'm using with relatively little trouble, and it's supposed to be one of the better programs out there. Not that I would know, because I have never tried writing a script before. *gulp* So, I will be at a writing meeting tonight, with headphones on to ignore the other writers and try and get something resembling a plot cobbled together. This weekend I need to work out some of the formatting requirements, and by next Thursday, I might actually be ready to start writing this thing. Ha. Like I'm ever prepared for anything I do.
Spring? Ha!
Yes, happy Spring. We got an inch and a half of snow and ice yesterday. Most of it didn't stick to the roads, but because of work I was in and out of the mess all day long. About halfway through the day, I developed a tiny, sad cough, which has developed into a rather yucky cold over night. So, while I'm sitting around the house, drinking plenty of fluids and having chicken soup, I have been working on some spinning! The fiber is 2.5 oz. of merino from Th'Red Head Designs, acquired last year at the Kansas City Renaissance Festival. It was a gift from my friend whose wedding dress I made, purchased when we were doing the rest of her bridal shopping. Incidentally, even though things at Renn Faires can be kind of pricey, we still got away for way less than it would have cost to buy a comparable amount of stuff at GiantBridalStore. Not to mention that it was of higher quality, and more fun. The spindle is one I made several years ago out of a twelve-inch dowel and a wooden wheel with a cup hook stuck on top. So far they have served me well, but I would like to purchase one that was professionally balanced and all that at some point. Now, a note on spinning: I do not feel the need to purchase a wheel, personally. I enjoy spinning occasionally, and I like knowing how to spin. It makes me feel like I could still clothe myself in the event of a zombie apocalypse. However, I do not like it enough to justify either the cost of a wheel or the space it would take up. Aside from that, I do not agree that one "graduates" from a spindle to a wheel. Generally, I agree with Abby Franquemont, author of Respect the Spindle. Anyway, I am about halfway through one half of the fiber. I took the roving and pulled it apart down the middle. I plan to Navajo-ply it to keep the color changes together, so I should end up with two mostly-matching skeins of kind-of self-striping yarn, approximately DK to worsted-weight. Once I have the finished yarn, I want to make a pair of wrist warmers similar to Verdigris from Knitty.com, but that pattern calls for approximately sock-weight, and mine won't be fine enough for that. The plan is to finish the spinning by the end of the month, but I'm not sure I am going to make it.
It's Alive!
Sorry about going missing again. The past two weeks have been somewhat stressful. Last week, though, I finally planted some seeds. Everything has been started, now, except the basil and carrots. Both of those need to wait for warmer temperatures, so they still sit in their envelopes. It's a good thing, too, because this is what the view looks like out my living room window this morning: That hanging basket is where the spinach got planted. Good thing it can handle frost, because that, friends, is snow. We have been teased by nature with a few sixty-five and seventy-degree days, and now it's snowing. Most of it is not sticking to the ground, at least, and the weather might slow things down at work today. The spinach has not come up yet, but the rest of the seeds have sprouted. . What, you wanted to see a picture of the sprouts themselves? The box is to keep the cat from munching on the little leaves. Husband put that together last night out of the box our new fencing blades came in. Inside the sprouts' cardboard prison looks like this: Not much to look at, are they? Oh, well. I have three chive plants, two parsley, and two orange bell peppers. I probably won't be keeping all of them, but I wanted to make sure I had at least one of each. So, multiple plantings. I do think that every single seed I planted managed to sprout, though. The Seed Saver's Exchange germination rates are pretty high, apparently. The rosemary from last year is thriving indoors, by the way. At least, is is now that I have managed to get a light on it. I did lose the thyme, but I can re-plant. Not a problem. Anyway, now I really have to get in the shower so I can get to work on time. Ta!
Tutorial: How to use a scale
I have recently been doing a lot of baking and trying to improve my techniques. One of the biggest issues that I was running into was that all the good baking books (good here meaning technique books, and not books full of good recipes) give their recipes primarily in weight and not volume. My birthday was last month, and my husband bought me a kitchen scale (mine is the red one). We had done a bit of research beforehand to figure out what I needed, and this was one that fit the bill fairly well. With most scales, there are two numbers you need to look at. The first is capacity, or how much the scale can hold. The second is readability, or how accurate the scale is. These numbers are usually expressed as (capacity)x(readability). In the case of my scale, the capacity is 11 pounds, and the readability is 0.05 ounces or one gram, so 11 lbs x 0.05 oz. Now, the readability does not mean that the scale can accurately measure down to 0.05 oz, or whatever the figure happens to be. It means is that whatever value is displayed on the scale can vary by as much as the readability value from the actual weight of the thing on the scale. It is kind of like a margin of error, in that the readability is how far off the display might be. For example, if I weighed out what I thought was six pounds of flour, it would be within 0.05oz of six pounds. This is plenty accurate when dealing with quantities of this size. The trouble is when you get into smaller quantities. According to the baking book I have been working out of ( How Baking Works), an acceptable range is usually ten percent. To figure out the lightest thing you can weigh with relative accuracy on the scale, then, you would multiply the readability by ten. So, in my case, the readability is 0.05 oz (or 1g). I can accurately weigh 0.5 oz (or 10g) and be sure that I am not off by more than ten percent of the total weight. I have seen a lot of people weighing smaller amounts of, say, yarn for a sock yarn blanket swap. Several of these are around 5g. These amounts can be weighed on a scale like this, but you have to realize that when the scale displays an amount, it can vary the amount of the readability from the number displayed. In my case, this means when my scale says "5g", the yarn could actually weigh anywhere between 4g and 6g (1g away from 5g). So, to have at least 5g, you would have to keep adding yarn until the scale reads 6g. It will actually weigh anywhere between 5g and 7g, but the minimum weight would be the required amount, and you wouldn't be shorting any of the swappers. If any of this is not explained clearly, please comment or e-mail and I will happily try to clarify. Similarly, if I have gotten something completely wrong, please let me know and I will correct it.
It Starts
Today, I planted seeds. It sounds so monumental to me (and I know it really isn't, and that seeds grow all by themselves every year, but I'm growing more this year than I ever have before, so cut me some slack here), but it only took about ten minutes. So far, I have planted chives, parsley, and orange bell peppers. I am using one of the 25-spot Jiffy seed starting trays, but I only used seven of the pellets so far. Later on I will be planting basil indoors, and I need to get some potting soil for the spinach. It can start outdoors already. The carrots get to start outdoors in May, since they don't like transplants. The chives are going to be planted in with the carrots to help repel bugs. Interspersing them, according to the Wikipedia List of companion plants, will confuse both onion and carrot flies. If I can get rid of bugs without much effort, I will. Also, chives are tasty on potatoes, among other things. All I need now is more dirt and a 10" deep window box for the carrots.
Working things out
My husband has large feet, and you know what they say about men with large feet. They wear large shoes. And therefore, large socks. Of course this is about knitting! Where did you think I was going with that? Anyway, yes, large feet. He usually wears about a size 15 shoe, and his feet are actually right at a foot long. As a result, he doesn't get that many pairs of socks. At least part of the difficulty is that I am constantly afraid of running out of yarn for said socks. The top-down style with a heel flap is my favorite way of knitting them, and they fit his feet the best. However, this requires that you know you have enough yarn for a given length of cuff before you start, which is not particularly certain with a foot of knitting to go after the heel. Naturally, I started looking for alternative sock patterns. Short-row heels don't fit him well. The gusset is pretty necessary. Now, I know that there are patterns out there for toe-up socks with a heel flap ( Widdershins being a good example), so there must be some sort of recipe for this kind of sock, right? They have the same thing for toe up socks with a short-row heel, after all. But my google-fu availed me not. I did find a toe-up, multi-size pattern from Wendy Knits (the fingeringweight Toe-Up Slipstitch Heel Sock), but again, it's a pattern and not a formula. Long feet are shaped funny, and I need a formula. I was beginning to think that this was some sort of closely-guarded, sock-designer trade secret that was only transported in a briefcase handcuffed to someone's wrist. Then I found the Toe Up Heel Flap Sock Formula post on Forward Motion, where she discusses the exact same problem, and did enough of the math for me that I can work things out from here. The thing I am going to change about her instructions is that the gusset on the sock will start about four inches from the end of the sock, not two and a half. Deep heel flaps are a good thing. I am also probably going to turn the heel and add ten stitches instead of eight, since the Husband's heels are also fairly narrow and need a deeper curve than eight stitches would allow for. What does all this prove? I am better at geometry than algebra, largely. Anyway, here's the picture of what is done so far: The yarn is Mountain Colors Bearfoot in the Sweet Pea color. It was the most interesting manly colorway I could find at the store. We'll see how long this takes...
Finally, something finished!
Remember the yarn I showed you in this post? I have turned about half of one skein into these: The pattern is the Rona Cuffs (Ravelry link), and the yarn is, as mentioned, from Missouri Alpacas. Both the yarn and the pattern were a dream to work with, but the real love is saved for the cuffs themselves. I am absolutely in love with these cuffs. I love the way the edging resembles Gothic architecture, I love the yarn, I love how warm they keep my wrists. Usually I wear them over a pair of driving gloves, which makes the whole thing function better, but they also do well to bridge the gap between sleeve and pocket while walking. I am trying to decide what to do with the remaining skein and a half of yarn. I could, possibly, be able to make a cowl that has the same edging, but only on one end. My grafting skills are not up to making it on both edges. I might be able to work something similar for the other end, but it would pretty much always be tucked inside a coat and wouldn't matter as much. If I ever figure it out, I will let you all know.
Mistakes were made
Sometimes things are just so bad that they can't be fixed. I have been working on a vest on and off for about two years. Yes, I know that's sad. It's just a vest. Doesn't matter. The fabric is kind of a pain to work with, the pattern is not really working for me, and I don't know that I can make it work. So far, I have tried the following: - Shortening the pattern, which (mostly) put darts in the right place but made the vest too short overall
- Adding the same amount in length to the bottom that I took out of the middle, which made the bottom too small around
- letting the darts in the back out to add some width, which made the back hang funny
And, I decided to change fasteners from a zipper to buttons partway through the whole debacle, so I have to add a placket to the front to deal with the inevitable gap. I also want to change the neckline from a v to either a deeper v (sits below the bust) or a scoop-neck. This is just too much work for a vest in fabric that I don't even like that much anymore. I really hate giving up on projects entirely, but at this point, I don't think it will ever reach "wearable". It will just continue to hang, part-finished, in my closet until I get tired of it and throw the whole thing away. Or, I could skip right to that step and get rid of it now. Done.
Oh, plans
My birthday was last week. Because of some circumstances out of my control, I put of the party until this weekend. Ordinarily, I don't do birthday parties, and anyone who mentions my birthday at one of those restaurants where they make you were a silly hat and stand around singing is in danger of being stabbed in the parking lot. However, last month I went to a Harry Potter themed party (yes, for an adult. I'm pretty sure I don't know any children), and it was a lot of fun. I was inspired to have my own structured party, so I will be hosting a murder-mystery dinner. The packet itself came from Red Herring Games. It is the "Murder on the Disorientated Express", one of their free modules. Every single name in the game is a pun, which suits the group that will be playing just fine. Anyone who is interested but does not want to write one themselves should go check it out! That last bit is what brings me to the main reason for this post. After I see how the party goes, I think I will write one of my own. Script Frenzy is coming up, and the writers I have been hanging around with all want to participate. I realize that this isn't a proper script, but bits of it are scripted and this is the closest thing to a play that I actually want to write. The cast will, I think, be coming from the Commedia dell'arte (Wikipedia link). The actors in a troupe will be the suspects/players, not the play characters themselves. I just need to come up with the rest of the plot now. Who gets killed off? What are the interpersonal relationships between the actors? Do they mirror the character's roles, or turn them on their heads? Where is the troupe when the murder occurs? I think I need to work out setting, death, and personal relationships first, in that order. Everyone needs at least one motive and at least one alibi (one of which will be false). Then I have to figure out how to dribble the information out along the rounds. The round info and the script is what will be written during April, I think. The rest of it I need to work out beforehand. This is going to be fun! Also, NaNo2010 preview: Were-Vampire-Cats, the MCs from Supernatural, and a shopping mall.
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