Neomera Knits

Well, it may be done but it’s far from finished. I am sending it off to the printers today or tomorrow, then proofs come back and we get to go over those for errors and whatnots. Not to mention all the background stuff that George and I need to focus more attention on- shipping, con sales logistics, tax stuff and whatnots (I’m pretty sure George has a handle on tihs, but I’m worrying anyway.) By then we sould be well into the next project.

I feel fantastic. Seeing the last pages go in gave me such a high that I realized how utterly down I’ve been. I wonder when that happened? Have you ever been so deep into a funk that you didn’t even realize it? I don’t know if I’m all the way out yet, but damn, I’m all creative suddenly. I’ve got two pairs of socks going, the baby pants (yes I missed the shower date with them, shhhhhh,) and a Super Secret Project that I will start revealing soon, I think. It’s kinda strange feeling like this after not even realizing that I didn’t. I can’t explain it very well I guess.

Well, my grandfather’s 91st birthday is on Saturday and we’re having a stealth party for him. Not a surprise party, mind- he doesn’t like surprises- but he knows that my aunt and uncle are in town from Hong Kong and thier son is in from Scotland (man, I wish I’D gone to school there!) and that they’re making him a birthday lunch. They’ve just neglected to mention that the entire rest of the family is going to help. hehe. What should I make, I wonder?

The book Is done. I’m feeling pretty darned good right now. Just so everyone knows.

Ahhh Friday. Thank the gods for Friday. Well, at least when it really IS a Friday (as in the day before the weekend) rather than some nameless day in the middle of your month long work week. Today Marietta (our Resident Knitting Goddess) decided that today was Eat Thai Food Outside of This building Day. We heartily concurred, and off we went to Sala Thai for lunch. Ahh, good food, a copy of Happy Hooker, the conversation…. It was revealed that Marietta does not care for the flavor or smell imparted to food by our friend the coconut. She said the reasonfor this stemmed from an event. It was quickly decided that any story that begins “back when I was a freshman” is bound to end badly. Usually with everyone laughing years down the road. This is why I cannot drink anything green.

Once upon a time I was in college. I was an undergrad, working on a show, and I was turning 21. Now for all my life, I had promised to myself that I would not get drunk on my 21st birthday. I failed to see the point, you see. In my family, alcohol was not vilified, it was not revered, it simply was. Parties were somewhat disappointing for me: “It’s a beer. So what? big deal.” That was, of course, before I had a roaring fight with my boyfriend and stormed off to the closing night party without him. Many rum and cokes later, and I was deciding that what I REALLY needed was a big old glass of water and a chair to sober up in.

This, by all the laws of the universe, was clearly the cue for our lead actress to stumble up to me, throw her arm around my shoulders, and say convincingly “Neomera! It’s your birshday?! You’ve GOTTA do a shot wish me!” and lurch with me to the bar that had been set up in my friend’s basement. she asked for two shots of “rusnmlbbaszh” (I swear. that’s what she said. Course, I was a little drunk at the time…)

Well, two shot glasses full of a clear liquid were placed in front of us, we picked them up, saluted each other, and tossed them back. It was like drinking toothpaste. I have a fuzzy recollection of managing to get the shot glass back to the top of the bar as it slid past my face due to my knees giving up on me. That’s really about all I can remember of that night until my boyfriend and my host appeared in front of me with a glass of water and a pizza. I have no idea where either my boy or the pizza came from, but I thanked them kindly, pointed out that a slice of pizza would not end well, and could I please go back to my dorm room now?

Years passed and the merest hint of mint flavoring in drinks makes me nauseous. Fresh mint? Sure, that’s ok. Green liquid? My brain had firmly cemented the idea that green liquid = mint flavor even when it doesn’t. (Isn’t midori melon flavored?) What was the mystery shot, you ask? I did finally figure out what it was. Rumplemintz. Ick.

In my isolation this week I have beaten .hack//infection. Yes, I know I’m several years late, what’s it to ya? Short review: too much game for the amount of story. Really interesting premise, though. I haven’t decided if I’m going to let myself slog though the next one yet, sorry Ananth. It’s still too cold in my basement to play games at length for my own damn good. Which is probably why I play World of Warcraft on my laptop in my bedroom.

Which is where the trouble started, you see.

See, there I was, wandering through the mighty underground city of the noble Dwarves, admiring the architecture and downing some fine Dwarven ale (and maybe even a bottle of IPA,) when inspiration struck. Kinda fell off the ceiling, you might say. Long story short, I’m thinking of a satchel. And learning how to create my own cable pattern. What fun! Our Resident Knitting Goddess at work showed me a fantastic website that actually has a tutorial on charting cables. What luck! Also, I think I love that vest. That by itself makes me nervous.

I also got a book called Viking Patterns for Knitting, which is full of beautiful photos of viking artifacts, and history. The patterns are pretty impressive, too. I don’t know that I’d knit them 100% as-is, but with a few minor modifications I can totally see myself wearing Frode or Vigdis. I’m going to have to give it some serious thought. Hmm… my brother needs a sweater… maybe I should see what he thinks of all that…

In other news, I’m knitting socks. LOTS of socks. I seem to be putting off baby pants in favor of socks. (Also in favor of avoiding the black Hole I’ve hit with them.) I’m rather startled at how fast I picked up the two-socks-on-two-circs method, but I have to tell you- the same thing that I find annoying about circs on regular projects, I find infuriating on socks. That thing? The plastic connector between the needles being permanantly wound up in the position they were in upon purchase. It’s maddeningthe way they spring back at you when you’re trying to sort out which tail and which needle you should be aiming for. And they have laughed at every attempt I’ve made to get them to relax. Scoffed at me, even! Any ideas out there?

So this past weekend was a mess of headaches and sobbing on my bathroom floor. There’s nothing quite so much fun as crazy stress and depression! WHEE!

I mean, um, look! Air! *runs*

Really though, I am sorry for the not updating. My life has taken a turn for the crazy, and blogging seems to be the first to fall off my to-do list. Work has been a madhouse of hangs, techs, focuses, failing cue lights, floors to be painted, and other assorted emergencies. Last week was chock full of Stuff That Needs Doing, and since the boys are at our off-site warehouse scene shop pretty much full time these days, everything falls to me. Well, at least as far as calling my boss about it. Of course, last week, we all had caught the Californian Death Cold (of Doom) and he was home sick. Ah well. I took Thursday off to combat the Death Cold and then worked all weekend on a rather entertaining dance show at the JCC in Rockville. Hooray fun and easy gigs with no stress for me!!

It was at this gig, while I was sitting at the light board, that I decided it would be fun to have a knitting travelogue. I will now show you some of the fun places my knitting went over the past few days.

While I ran lights? I knit for my friend’s baby. The genes that kid is getting, he might have to be registered as dangerously adorable.


Still knitting on Monday.

ok. yes. I need to clean up the desk. I know, I know. I’ll get there when I have a slow day. Er… ok, I’ll get to it by the summer.

I’m sure I’ll have more where that came from. Until then, hey! It’s a cover for a book! Z0MG!

Today was the Three Hour Colossal Waste Of Time Meeting. This meeting was mandatory for everyone who works for our company, and required us to take a personality assessment test prior to the meeting. It turns out that I am an AMIABLE driving person- capitalization theirs. I hope my designer is feeling relaxed tomorrow, because today was also the day I was supposed to be hanging for the next show in the smaller theatre in preparation for focus tomorrow. Instead of dropping color and patterns like I should have been, or wringing out the issues and mistakes as I should have been, I was sitting in a room with all my coworkers. We were talking about how our personalities could be boiled down to two words that may or may not be accurate. It was supposed to help us communicate better with each other. Instead I worked on this while we were being talked into our little boxes (can you tell I am a bit upset at being prevented from doing the job they hired me for?)

It’s my yummy hand-dyed sock yarn from Sundara Yarn, with a 2×2 moss cuff. It’s making me a happy girl. As is this:
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My Socks That Rock order. Turns out I got the Ruby Slippers and the Lapis colorways. Sometimes having a sketchy memory is a good thing, like when I get to surprise myself! I have such good taste! Now, to finish sock 1 and get onto sock 2 before the dreaded Second Sock Syndrome hits.

Here we go everyone! A political organization I think most of us geeks can at the very least get interested in, iv not behind it. Video Game Voters is a group who is paying attention to the fact that the average age of gamers is 30 years old, and we vote.

“The Video Game Voters Network is opposed to legislation that would treat video games differently from other First Amendment protected works and would regulate the content of video games in any form or restrict access to video games.” Most of the legislation restricts sales of specially labeled games to minors. That’s all well and good, but the problem with that is that it doesn’t stop parents who don’t actually care what their kids are doing from buying those same games and just giving them to the kids in question. I’m not a mom yet, but I can say that my parents played our games with my brother and me when we were young, and helped us know the difference between real and fake. You know, like they were parenting or something.

It’s one of my pet peeves, what can I say? Attacking the media- any media (remember rock and roll is the devil’s music!) for violence and failures of parents to actually take responsibility for their children’s behaviors makes me crazy. It is irresponsible in the extreme.

Agree with them or not, the people speaking out is exactly what this country was built for. Gamers unite!

Well, what can I say except that the past few days have been very busy. George came down from Pennsylvania on Wednesday night and we spent most of Thursday and Friday working on City Limits.

The first round of major edits are done and sent back for repairs to their respective artists and authors. Most of them have come back already, even. Speedy guys, those guys!

Friday afternoon we decided enough was enough, and after a quick oil change, we had lunch with Hawk, at which it was discovered that both Hawk and myself had only been going to this particular restaurant because we thought the other liked it. HAHAHA! oops. The food is mediocre and the beer sucks, so nevermind. We can go to College Perk instead. Then, after dropping Hawk off to do homework, and a quick stop at home for a nap (vacations are for napping, aren’t they?) we headed back out to Bethesda in search of mojitos and friends. No mojitos were found, sadly, but there was sangria, and there was an awesome chipotle taco salad, and an AMAZING kahlua flan for dessert. Indeed I was a happy girl. Back to Ananth’s house for STILL MORE friends, and a viewing of The Aristocrats. Good movie. Interesting, actually. It will scar you for LIFE, but interesting.

Saturday was clearly zoo day. OH MAN the zoo. Once everyone was all met up and at the zoo (no small feat considering the insanity of the subway on a beautiful Saturday afternoon) we got to return Hawk back to his home,

and visited with his family!

We also had a fun time in the small mammals house. I finally saw the mouse deer!

They’re about the size of a large housecat. And cheetah! We saw the almost all grown up now baby cheetahs!


I did have to break my vacation a bit early to go help do changeover after opening night for Huck Finn. This morning we had Hip Hop Anansi scheduled, so we had to turn the set over, and I went in for that. It was done pretty durn quickly (honestly, it’s mostly just stuffing burlap out of sight) and got talked into having drinks with the cast and crew. It was decided that since I was still technically on vacation, I needed an umbrella in my vodka tonic, but as there were no umbrellas around, they used what was handy.

The pine cone came from the candle centerpiece thing.

Busy busy busy! And social! First time in a while, and man did it feel good to be getting out of the house and being with actual people. I really think I need that or I’ll go completely nuts. Today, though, I’m glad I don’t have to deal with anyone I don’t want to. I may wander off to an establishment of yarn selling so that I can start some frantic baby knitting for my friend Jen. I’m thinking this, at least. I’ve got some “manly” blue cotton stuff that I think I’ll use.

I admit it. I am not a good conversationalist. I really quite envy my mother who seems to be able to strike up lengthy and interesting conversations with anyone on earth (up to and including the Dalai Lama- no joke) and as near as I can tell, everyone walks away from her feeling like it was a worthwhile exchange. I am actually more jealous of that ability that I am of her skill at winning arguments without approaching hysteria, but that is for another post. I will admit that I am guilty of being terrible at talking.

This is not to imply that I do not talk. I talk far more than is good for me. It is, in fact, the reason I am not a good conversationalist. I am a companionable-silence/ speak-my-mind, say-what-I-feel sort of person. This tends to get me in trouble. Besides being impolitic (which in theatre is likely to wind up causing an acute case of unemployment,) it is often impolite. This admission of guilt was sparked by a barter- my boyfriend agreed to provide a back cover texture if I promise to be nicer to him. Between that and watching Katherine the Great in Philadelphia Story, I got to thinking that I should probably work on that. We’ll see.

ON ANOTHER NOTE- my sock yarn from Sundara Yarns came yesterday. I am almost to the heel on sock 1, and it is jsut plain fun to knit with this yarn. I haven’t ripped back once, even! AND my Socks That Rock, um, whatever color I ordered, has shipped as well. Mmmm. Yarny goodness. YAY! I promise promise pics tomorrow morning. I shall edit this post. I swear it! Assuming that I can find the camera’s data cable…
*EDIT* Apparently I can’t find that cable. There will be room cleaning to avoid actual work and hopefully it’ll turn up.

On EVEN ANOTHER side note, work continues apace on City Limits. Due to unfortunate mid-term timing a couple of submissions are still en route, but that is acceptable. George is coming down to do serious edits on Thursday and Friday. Coming soon, possibly even to a comic book store near you!

Well folks, I am officially on vacation. Not that it means much more than I get to sleep in. I am actually very excited about the sleeping in part, but otherwise I’m looking at a week of not a whole lot. Yesterday got the whole vacation thing off to a bang when my dad discovered this cool place and we all went on a field trip to see it. Live, right in front of me curling! WOOT! It seems that we managed to drop in during a tournament, which was rather exciting. While Mom chatted up the ladies behind the lunch line (there was a cold-cuts buffet of sorts) my dad tried to figure out if we could get up there during one of the Learn To Curl days. Unsurprisingly there has been a recent uptick (if by ‘uptick’ you mean ‘flood’) of people expressing interest in curling lately and all the next few classes are full up with a huge waiting list. Maybe we should jsut be patient till October- that’s when they lay down the new ice for the season.

So far as hobbies go, since the end of the Knitting Olympics I have started and ripped out the same sock four times. Then I decided (wisely I think) to put that sock down and started some orangey wrist warmers for my mum. I’ve ripped those out twice. I think I’ve got Project Burnout. I can’t seem to keep on anything for more than ten minutes. I’m hoping that when my hand-dyed sock yarn comes in that’ll be what I need to break through. I bought 2 skeains of “Black Lagoon” I also broke down and bought some Socks That Rock- and I honestly can’t recall which color! I was drooling so much over so many of them that I have not a guess as to which one I broke down for. IT’s going to be such a wonderful surprise when it finally gets here. Hooray! New Yarn Day!