Recovering
I've mostly recovered from the eye infection. After running through all the systemic antibiotics and a full bottle of the antibiotic eye drops with steriod-based antihistamines, my eyes have mostly cleared up. The flu thing that hit me so hard pretty much finished out the month for me.
I slept a lot for nearly two weeks. Thank you to *everyone* that wished me better health when I was having problems.
Last weekend, darkprism_fics and I heard back from Torquere and they want the manuscript, with another set of edits, and the editor was good enough to deliver on the pain before delivering on the "I want to see Torquere publish this". (Uhm... it's been a funny kind of Yay Us! But We Have To WORK). So we spent the first five days of last week cutting 10,000 words, and going over it with a fine-toothed comb after.
Which, amusingly enough, is the target goal for Nanowrimo writers to *write* that first five days. We spent it cutting that many, and, in play, in the evenings, we wrote about that many as well. What had started as a txt msg exchange during a wedding darkprism_fics needed a bit of sanity at, has turned into a full side fic of probably 8000 words. And I've been pecking away at the next chapter of Winter War whenever we had a moment to breathe between editing rampages.
Yes. October was the first month of the last seven that I *didn't* get 50,000 words. So I'd signed up for Nano just on a whim. I know, I know, it's insane to sign up for 50,000 new words when I'm having to spend the first two weeks editing a book that a publisher has mostly accepted. *laughs*
October was also the oddest month, as we usually have snow before it's done. When I came back from Oakland, the world had turned to fall, and all the leaves had turned to gold or fire, and were drifting down. It was very, very warm here, though, and one of the oddest things was that the raspberry canes were still producing fruit! Usually they do a big blast of berries in August, if I cut them all the way down for the winter. But this last year, I didn't, and I left the canes until March, and even *then* I left a few of them long. So we had a bunch of berries in June, and then again in September and October!!
So that's a picture of October raspberries. I've never had that before, and they were good.
The other thing I did was knit Jet another sweater, as he'd clearly grown out of the camo green/brown one that I'd made him last year. I had exactly four skeins of this Quaddy Blue from Schoolhouse Press. I made up the pattern as I went, just starting by measuring around Jet and seeing how big he was and going from that. I made up the cable patterns, and just kind of made up the construction as I went. When I finished the last sleeve, and got to the cuff, the yarn ran out just two rows from the end.
Now *that* is a good estimate. *laughs* The sweater is actually a little long on him, but with blocking, I managed to get it wider and shorter by a little, and the sleeves a little wider and shorter as well. He likes how it fits now, and when he elongates again, I'll probably be able to block it to his new shape. *laughs* I love wool.
If you're interested in the project details and are on Ravelry, you can see the project here.
I'm now in a binge of socks, but am about to cast on a purple version of the Aeolian Shawl, pattern courtesy of Knitty. With beads. *laughs* But they're beads that I put on with a crochet hook, not ones that I have to string on all to start, so I am vastly more content. Plus, the Knit Picks Alpaca Cloud lace weight is just a dream against the fingers (cheeks, skin... *laughs). Lovely, lovely stuff to work with and I'm really, really looking forward to the Estonian Lace.
*sighs happily* I love beginning lace projects, with beads. *laughs*
I slept a lot for nearly two weeks. Thank you to *everyone* that wished me better health when I was having problems.
Last weekend, darkprism_fics and I heard back from Torquere and they want the manuscript, with another set of edits, and the editor was good enough to deliver on the pain before delivering on the "I want to see Torquere publish this". (Uhm... it's been a funny kind of Yay Us! But We Have To WORK). So we spent the first five days of last week cutting 10,000 words, and going over it with a fine-toothed comb after.
Which, amusingly enough, is the target goal for Nanowrimo writers to *write* that first five days. We spent it cutting that many, and, in play, in the evenings, we wrote about that many as well. What had started as a txt msg exchange during a wedding darkprism_fics needed a bit of sanity at, has turned into a full side fic of probably 8000 words. And I've been pecking away at the next chapter of Winter War whenever we had a moment to breathe between editing rampages.
Yes. October was the first month of the last seven that I *didn't* get 50,000 words. So I'd signed up for Nano just on a whim. I know, I know, it's insane to sign up for 50,000 new words when I'm having to spend the first two weeks editing a book that a publisher has mostly accepted. *laughs*
October was also the oddest month, as we usually have snow before it's done. When I came back from Oakland, the world had turned to fall, and all the leaves had turned to gold or fire, and were drifting down. It was very, very warm here, though, and one of the oddest things was that the raspberry canes were still producing fruit! Usually they do a big blast of berries in August, if I cut them all the way down for the winter. But this last year, I didn't, and I left the canes until March, and even *then* I left a few of them long. So we had a bunch of berries in June, and then again in September and October!!
So that's a picture of October raspberries. I've never had that before, and they were good.
The other thing I did was knit Jet another sweater, as he'd clearly grown out of the camo green/brown one that I'd made him last year. I had exactly four skeins of this Quaddy Blue from Schoolhouse Press. I made up the pattern as I went, just starting by measuring around Jet and seeing how big he was and going from that. I made up the cable patterns, and just kind of made up the construction as I went. When I finished the last sleeve, and got to the cuff, the yarn ran out just two rows from the end.
Now *that* is a good estimate. *laughs* The sweater is actually a little long on him, but with blocking, I managed to get it wider and shorter by a little, and the sleeves a little wider and shorter as well. He likes how it fits now, and when he elongates again, I'll probably be able to block it to his new shape. *laughs* I love wool.
If you're interested in the project details and are on Ravelry, you can see the project here.
I'm now in a binge of socks, but am about to cast on a purple version of the Aeolian Shawl, pattern courtesy of Knitty. With beads. *laughs* But they're beads that I put on with a crochet hook, not ones that I have to string on all to start, so I am vastly more content. Plus, the Knit Picks Alpaca Cloud lace weight is just a dream against the fingers (cheeks, skin... *laughs). Lovely, lovely stuff to work with and I'm really, really looking forward to the Estonian Lace.
*sighs happily* I love beginning lace projects, with beads. *laughs*