Christmas Blanket and Questions 32 to 42.
I've decided to make a Christmas blanket (though the jury's still out on which particular Christmas we're talking about).
Last year, at about this time, I saw a lovely pattern on Pinterest:
So I went out and bought a large quantity of red and white yarn. Then, since the instructions are not only in Spanish (or maybe Italian) but also very low resolution and completely illegible, I went out again and bought some squared paper, and spent an entire day carefully re-drawing the charts:
Then I spent a whole year limbering up...
And now I've started! Here are the first three and a half squares:
I'm particularly pleased with the one at the front. Just 31 1/2 more squares to go, and then the border, and then I can sew it all together and back it with some fleece.
By July, I should think.
...
32. Who was the last person you called cute?
It depends what you mean by 'person'. The last tiny little person I called cute was a Roborovski dwarf hamster in Pets at Home, when I was buying a length of tubing to make tops for the pens in the writerconuk goody bags. I came this close to buying him and, the funny thing is, it wasn't the cost of him (£10) or a cage for him (£25) that stopped me, it was the thought of all the food, the sawdust, and the toys he would also need...
My last hamster, Swee'pea, who passed away over a year ago, was a Roborovski dwarf hamster, and he got called cute quite often, and not just by me:
33. Who was the last person that called you cute?
You've obviously never seen me.
34. How did you meet your best friend?
My ex husband was my best friend, and I met him at university when his brother, whom I already knew, introduced us. It was, um, love at first sight.
35. Escalators or elevators?
Whatever's available. I don't have any problem using either.
36. Are you named after anyone, who?
Nope.
37. What was your first url?
I suspect this is a social media question... But I do have a first (and only) URL:
http://www.eryn-carantaur.com
It was intended as an archive for my Legolas/Eowyn fics, so it's named after the Elven colony Legolas is said to have created in South Ithilien after the Ring War. nebride, whose Legolas/OFC fics are absolutely, for want of a better word, brilliant, calls her colony 'Eryn Culhallas' ('Wood of the Tall Golden-Red Trees'). I had that name in mind when first I started writing, and the alternative I eventually came up with, Eryn Carantaur, also means 'big red forest'. Unfortunately, I'm now fairly sure I've got the Elvish wrong; I think it should be 'Eryn Garandaur'*. (Still, place names often get corrupted, don't they? ;-)
*Because consonants 'mutate' when in close proximity to other sounds. In English this happens when the language is spoken, in Sindarin it's grammatical. In Sindarin, when two words are joined together, the first consonant of the second word mutates, and T > D, so caran (red) + taur (huge forest) should be Carandaur. Plus, the first consonant of an adjective mutates, and C > G, so Eryn (wood) and Carandaur (red huge forest) becomes Eryn Garandaur :-(
38. Autumn or winter?
I love both, much more than summer. In fact, I would say that summer is just a lull -- sometimes a really annoying, sweltering lull -- between the end of one year and the beginning of the next.
For me, Autumn always feels like the start of the year. (I think that has something to do with school and university!) It's cool, and breezy, and it smells fresh. It's also the beginning of a long period of special events. First there's Halloween (when I make up zillions of little bags to give to the local kids and generally end up eating most of them myself).
The teddies heartily wishing that Halloween didn't come every year.
A pumpkin with battery-powered eyes and treats for the kids.
Then there's Bonfire Night (when we sometimes have fireworks in my brother's garden, because mine's too small, and I make food to take round). Then, at the start of December, I often go to Krakow with my brother and sister-in-law, where there are Christmas Markets, with mulled wine and street food. Then, because my sister-in-law's father has been very ill for the past few years, and she wants to spend Christmas itself with him, my entire family comes to my house for an early Christmas, usually the weekend before the real one, and we have a very traditional Christmas dinner, with presents and games afterwards. And then there's the real Christmas, for whoever's available, which we also have at my house. And then there's a whole week off until New Year...
Oh, and there's also my birthday, somewhere in mid December.
What's not to like?
39. Do you win at scrabble?
I've only ever played Scrabble once, a very long time ago, and I didn't enjoy it. I can't remember who won, but I shouldn't think it was me. For someone who has always written for a living, and who loves words, their meaning and, especially, their etymology, I have a real hatred of word games.
40. Put your ipod on shuffle , who is the first song that comes up by?
I don't do Shuffle, because I don't tend to listen to individual songs, I tend to listen to music that may be in several movements, which need to be played in the correct order. However, turning on my iPod... the last thing I listened to was one of the Preludes - Book 2 no 2, 'Voiles' - by Debussy, which is actually something you could listen to on its own. In fact, I first heard it on its own in a school music lesson, and I remember going to the local record shop to buy a record of it.
41. Have you ever drunk from a mason jar?
Yes! And here's the proof:
This was taken in a Vancouver wine bar called 'The Flying Pig'. I'm not sure why I like the place so much -- but I love the fried sprouts (which you can see in the bowl behind the macaroni cheese), and I enjoy looking out of the window, because the bar's in quite a busy, trendy area. When I discovered it, some years ago, I remember telling my brother, "They serve coke in jam jars, it's that posh." Of course, everyone does it these days.
Here's my version of fried sprouts:
42. Can you draw?
Yes, though I can't do much else art-wise -- I don't really have a visual imagination -- and I'm really, really out of practice.
Here are some very murky photographs of an exhibition I took part in, which was a fraud, really, because my brother and sister-in-law just needed something to fill up the space:
The icons were drawn for my website, but I don't use them any more. The fruit and veg and the little dog superhero -- who is blowing, not vomiting! -- were drawn at an illustration night class I used to go to.
Last year, at about this time, I saw a lovely pattern on Pinterest:
So I went out and bought a large quantity of red and white yarn. Then, since the instructions are not only in Spanish (or maybe Italian) but also very low resolution and completely illegible, I went out again and bought some squared paper, and spent an entire day carefully re-drawing the charts:
Then I spent a whole year limbering up...
And now I've started! Here are the first three and a half squares:
I'm particularly pleased with the one at the front. Just 31 1/2 more squares to go, and then the border, and then I can sew it all together and back it with some fleece.
By July, I should think.
...
32. Who was the last person you called cute?
It depends what you mean by 'person'. The last tiny little person I called cute was a Roborovski dwarf hamster in Pets at Home, when I was buying a length of tubing to make tops for the pens in the writerconuk goody bags. I came this close to buying him and, the funny thing is, it wasn't the cost of him (£10) or a cage for him (£25) that stopped me, it was the thought of all the food, the sawdust, and the toys he would also need...
My last hamster, Swee'pea, who passed away over a year ago, was a Roborovski dwarf hamster, and he got called cute quite often, and not just by me:
33. Who was the last person that called you cute?
You've obviously never seen me.
34. How did you meet your best friend?
My ex husband was my best friend, and I met him at university when his brother, whom I already knew, introduced us. It was, um, love at first sight.
35. Escalators or elevators?
Whatever's available. I don't have any problem using either.
36. Are you named after anyone, who?
Nope.
37. What was your first url?
I suspect this is a social media question... But I do have a first (and only) URL:
http://www.eryn-carantaur.com
It was intended as an archive for my Legolas/Eowyn fics, so it's named after the Elven colony Legolas is said to have created in South Ithilien after the Ring War. nebride, whose Legolas/OFC fics are absolutely, for want of a better word, brilliant, calls her colony 'Eryn Culhallas' ('Wood of the Tall Golden-Red Trees'). I had that name in mind when first I started writing, and the alternative I eventually came up with, Eryn Carantaur, also means 'big red forest'. Unfortunately, I'm now fairly sure I've got the Elvish wrong; I think it should be 'Eryn Garandaur'*. (Still, place names often get corrupted, don't they? ;-)
*Because consonants 'mutate' when in close proximity to other sounds. In English this happens when the language is spoken, in Sindarin it's grammatical. In Sindarin, when two words are joined together, the first consonant of the second word mutates, and T > D, so caran (red) + taur (huge forest) should be Carandaur. Plus, the first consonant of an adjective mutates, and C > G, so Eryn (wood) and Carandaur (red huge forest) becomes Eryn Garandaur :-(
38. Autumn or winter?
I love both, much more than summer. In fact, I would say that summer is just a lull -- sometimes a really annoying, sweltering lull -- between the end of one year and the beginning of the next.
For me, Autumn always feels like the start of the year. (I think that has something to do with school and university!) It's cool, and breezy, and it smells fresh. It's also the beginning of a long period of special events. First there's Halloween (when I make up zillions of little bags to give to the local kids and generally end up eating most of them myself).
The teddies heartily wishing that Halloween didn't come every year.
A pumpkin with battery-powered eyes and treats for the kids.
Then there's Bonfire Night (when we sometimes have fireworks in my brother's garden, because mine's too small, and I make food to take round). Then, at the start of December, I often go to Krakow with my brother and sister-in-law, where there are Christmas Markets, with mulled wine and street food. Then, because my sister-in-law's father has been very ill for the past few years, and she wants to spend Christmas itself with him, my entire family comes to my house for an early Christmas, usually the weekend before the real one, and we have a very traditional Christmas dinner, with presents and games afterwards. And then there's the real Christmas, for whoever's available, which we also have at my house. And then there's a whole week off until New Year...
Oh, and there's also my birthday, somewhere in mid December.
What's not to like?
39. Do you win at scrabble?
I've only ever played Scrabble once, a very long time ago, and I didn't enjoy it. I can't remember who won, but I shouldn't think it was me. For someone who has always written for a living, and who loves words, their meaning and, especially, their etymology, I have a real hatred of word games.
40. Put your ipod on shuffle , who is the first song that comes up by?
I don't do Shuffle, because I don't tend to listen to individual songs, I tend to listen to music that may be in several movements, which need to be played in the correct order. However, turning on my iPod... the last thing I listened to was one of the Preludes - Book 2 no 2, 'Voiles' - by Debussy, which is actually something you could listen to on its own. In fact, I first heard it on its own in a school music lesson, and I remember going to the local record shop to buy a record of it.
41. Have you ever drunk from a mason jar?
Yes! And here's the proof:
This was taken in a Vancouver wine bar called 'The Flying Pig'. I'm not sure why I like the place so much -- but I love the fried sprouts (which you can see in the bowl behind the macaroni cheese), and I enjoy looking out of the window, because the bar's in quite a busy, trendy area. When I discovered it, some years ago, I remember telling my brother, "They serve coke in jam jars, it's that posh." Of course, everyone does it these days.
Here's my version of fried sprouts:
42. Can you draw?
Yes, though I can't do much else art-wise -- I don't really have a visual imagination -- and I'm really, really out of practice.
Here are some very murky photographs of an exhibition I took part in, which was a fraud, really, because my brother and sister-in-law just needed something to fill up the space:
The icons were drawn for my website, but I don't use them any more. The fruit and veg and the little dog superhero -- who is blowing, not vomiting! -- were drawn at an illustration night class I used to go to.