Wanted: Tiara

Knew there was something else I meant to post yesterday.

Monday was another of Pat Cadigan's Borders nights - the guests were Farah Mendelsohn and Justina Robson.

Justina says, and others corroborate, that writing goes much better when wearing a tiara.

Must get one.

A NaNo-ing We Go

This week, I have been mostly writing.

Some of you may know that November is National Novel Writing Month. This isn't strictly accurate - it's international. If you haven't heard of it before, the idea is to write a 50K word novel draft (or more) during the month of November. I think mine will be a complete draft at about 60-ish, which isn't bad for something destined to come out finshed around 90K, considering the draft is almost entirely plot and conversation, with very little description. (This is partially the result of fast drafting, and also partly because it's set in San Francisco, and I need to find out what the locations look like before I can describe them. At the moment, it's all a bit vague.) I'm about 40K in.

Toasty for Typing

mitt
Originally uploaded by Flyingsquid.

The finished product. Actually, there are a pair, but I needed the other hand to hold the camera. I'm really pleased with how they came out, especially as I had never done the double-pointed tubular knitting before. They fit! My hands will be toasty warm when I'm typing this winter.

Day Of The Dead

Day
Originally uploaded by Flyingsquid.

I made this in 1999 for the London Quilters millenium show. It's based on the Aztec calendar (whose millenium has yet to come) and Mexican folk-art, including a candy-coloured Day of the Dead skull.

It's called "Significant Days". Not everyone has the same ones.

Jack, By Himself

jack
Originally uploaded by Flyingsquid.

Halloween Activities

cookies
Originally uploaded by Flyingsquid.

I don't usually like cooking, but this year I did something I've always wanted to do and made iced sugar-cookies for Halloween. Boy, are they sweet. So sweet they make your cheeks hurt when you bite into one. Maybe that's why Mom was never into icing them when I was a kid.

The icing was fun though. To get the black, I thought I could just mix some of each of the four food-colours in my set - blue, red, green, yellow - well I did the white, then made the rest orange, then thought it would be easy to add a bit of green and get brown. What I got, no matter how I tried, were various shades of vile green which would have been ideal if I'd been making iced zombies. Then I had the genius idea (if I do say so myself) of adding cocoa powder. Result: perfect colour. And the black cookies will make you even more hyper than the other ones!

They are presided over by Jack, who I carved earlier. The Cyberman is just always there though.

Worship the Knitting

they're awed
Originally uploaded by Flyingsquid.

See how the little fluffy creatures worship their idol. If they are good, one day they too will get to be knitting...

This week, I have been learning to knit on double-pointed needles. I'd never tried it before, but in the bundle of knitting needles passed on from my grandmother to my mother to me there are several sizes of double-point sets. And I'm still feeling bitten by the knitting bug. So I searched around on-line until I found some advice on knitty.com and socknitters.com and found a pattern for fingerless gloves, which the onset of fall weather has reminded me that I need, and set to.

I believe the interesting spiral-effect in the towering idol is due to my having got the stitches twisted when arranging them after casting on. It's pretty cool how the knitting stands up all on its own.

Knitting and Stiching

Yesterday I went to the Knitting and Stitching show at Alexandra Palace. It was very hot inside. I ran into another quilter I know, and she said to me "why do we do this every year?" And I found it difficult to answer, except that last year I didn't go, and really felt like I'd missed something. This year it felt more like a trade-show than an art exhibition. In addition to the main trade-hall, half or more of the exhibition hall was occupied by people selling things. I came out feeling as though I'd been on an airplane - something was wrong with the air pressure in there.

Notwithstanding all of the above, I came out psyched to do more art. I saw beautiful and inspirational objects, and spent far too much money, some of it on what I am convinced is the perfect knitting pattern for all that wool I bought back when I worked in a haberdashery* shop and could get it at a discount. (The pattern I bought for it two years ago having turned out not to be the perfect one after all.) I got it home and discovered I'm missing the two sizes of needles I need to knit it on. These are probably the only sizes in the world I don't actually own.

I really liked mariko tagawa's little creatures. I also spent ages drooling over Claire Johnson Knight's sketchbooks, but a quick google hasn't revealed any of her art or embroidery on the net.

*For those of you in the States, haberdashery here is not menswear, but fabric and sewing-related items.

Vomit and Ooze

Last night, I finally made it to one of Pat Cadigan's readings at Borders. The guests were Cory Doctorow and John Courtnay Grimwood. It was all interesting, but for me the high point was the bit where Pat admitted to projectile vomiting her novels onto an unsuspecting world, while Cory claimed his just oozed out from under his door.

This was during a discussion of how Cory likes to publish beta versions of his novels in serial form on the net, whereas neither Pat nor John could ever imagine doing such a thing. Later, down the pub, I wanted to make a profound point about how this may not be so much a difference in willingness to let unfinished drafts be read as a difference in perception of the net, but the woman next to me spilled her drink all over the table, and by the time it got mopped up, the conversation had turned to other things.

It seems to me that some people (Cory, for instance) regard the net as a community of largely like-minded people, most (though spectacularly not all) of whom are well-intentioned and intelligent. So that for him, putting writing on the net is not all that different from showing it to his friends. He just has a lot of friends. Whereas others (Pat and John) regard the net as a thing used by people who are mostly strangers, of the sort one wants only to see one's best work, lest they judge you by something you yourself are not yet happy with. I haven't yet figured out where I stand on this.

In other news, it's a good thing I remembered my camera the other day. This morning, walking across the Heath, I found they had taken the table down and were about to go to work dismantling the chair, with a large crane and a camera crew in attendance.

Photoshop Is Not Involved

sculpture
Originally uploaded by Flyingsquid.

This appeared last spring. (I've been meaning to blog about it for ages but have only just got round to taking a picture.)It sits just past the steep bit of Parliament Hill, on Hampstead Heath. For scale, there is a person (who just handily happened to be standing there) at the right of the photo - you may need to click and look at the full-size version to see.

Teenagers are reputed to have been caught having sex on the table-top. What I want to know is: how did they get up there?

Also, it looks OK, in a surreal sort of way, in my photographs. In person, it's hideous, and spoils one of my favourite views. I believe it's not a permanent addition, though.

A Little Friend

moth
Originally uploaded by Flyingsquid.

We have a big hanging paper lampshade in the front room. It's wide in the middle, but narrow top and bottom, which generally prevents moths this size from getting in. It does not, however, prevent them from braining themselves in the attempt.

This little guy kept landing on me for a rest between attempts. After much dodging about trying to photograph my own shoulder, I persuaded him to sit on my hand instead.

Anthea and Carrie-Anne

Anthea and Carrie-Anne
Originally uploaded by Flyingsquid.

That's Anthea on the left. She's bubbly and outgoing, and always lets everyone know exactly what she thinks. On the right is her cousin Carrie-Anne, who is one of those quiet ones you have to watch out for.

They're not best friends yet, but they will be.

In case you wondered if I'm writing a story about them, the answer is yes. Only I'd quite like it to be a graphic novel.

That's Sprat in the background, keeping an eye on them for me. (And they're standing on the ironing board, hence the strange green flower under Anthea's feet.)

Spreading the Love

Maureen's heart
Originally uploaded by Flyingsquid.

The hearts I swapped for have all arrived. Here they are for you to admire. I had a little trouble with the colours on this one - some of the fabrics are shot silk, which is hard to photograph, it turns out.

This is addictive. Must make more hearts!

Rosemary's heart

Rosemary's heart
Originally uploaded by Flyingsquid.

Rosemary and Maureen's hearts arrived the same day. I got home from an unusually long, hard day at work to find them waiting on the ironing board ready to cheer me up.

(Doesn't everyone put un-opened mail on the ironing board? No? I keep my ironing board set up behind the sofa, where it makes a handy repository for far too much junk.)

Sandie's heart

Sandie's heart
Originally uploaded by Flyingsquid.

I've received these three beautiful hearts, in return for mine. You can see the kind of workmanship I'm trying to live up to!

Pieces of lace and fabric came with them. I'm thinking of making an album of the hearts, with quilted fabric pages, so I'll probably use as many of these bits as I can on the cover.

I Heart Crazy Patchwork

lavender heart
Originally uploaded by Flyingsquid.

Another Heart

purple heart 1
Originally uploaded by Flyingsquid.

This was the first one I made.

Heart 3

purple heart 2
Originally uploaded by Flyingsquid.

I haven't put up any crafty posts for some time, so here's what I've been working on since getting back from Scotland. While goofing off at work web-surfing, I stumbled across Chains Of Hearts on Yahoo. It's a group for swapping 6" crazy hearts. I'd never done crazy patchwork before, but I had all the materials and embroidery threads, so I couldn't resist joining.

These are the first three I've made. The embroidery toys are happy to be played with again!

One Last Post About Worldcon

xerps
Originally uploaded by Flyingsquid.

Because, after all, I shouldn't leave out the parties. The above was taken at the Xerps party, easily the best I went to. Also the only one not held in a large, brightly-lit function room. I don't know, I find it hard to get into a party mood in bright light.

They've got my vote for 2010!

And Then The Convention

Right, enough about the sightseeing. What we really went to Glasgow for was Worldcon (the World Science Fiction Convention, for those who don't know) after all. It was fantastic, and huge, and exhausting, and for the whole week afterwards, I kept checking my watch every hour, wondering where I had to be now.

I probably did too much. I know I tried to, but Trev did (mostly) succeed in making me pause for things like food. I am awed, and informed, and inspired, most especially to actually send more stories out. I do have a confession to make. I went with the intention of trying to meet editors. There were certainly enough of them present. I chickened out.

I can think of two reasons for this. One is that I get very shy among large crowds of strangers - and there were about 4,000 people at this thing. Of whom I knew, oh, maybe a dozen, at a generous estimate. But that's not the main reason. Really, it's the fear that if I go up to an editor (most of whom seem to be men my father's age) and say "Hi, I've written a book" they'll give me a slightly disbelieving look and say something along the lines of "Have you? That's nice dear."

I know I'm not giving them a fair chance here. It's just that when I used to tell people I was Chair of London Quilters (which I was for two years, stepping down a year or so ago) I'd get such looks of astonishment and disbelief that I've been forced to conclude that I look a) far too young to be/have done any such thing, and/or b) too flaky.

I'm reminded of when my mother, at around this same age, ran for City Council or some such thing, and failed to get taken at all seriously, for much the same reasons. Of course, looking flaky might not be so detrimental to a writer.