Neomera Knits

I seem to be using a whole lot of three letter words lately. So there y’are. Wow is actually a pretty good description of how much I’ve gotten done lately. For one thing, I got my Big Surprise up and running, (thank you to Jeff, and my Dad, and Jamie, and everyone else who helped so much,) which excites me NO end. (go! Look! Give me feedback! We’re still tweaking.) I’ve also been knitting like mad. Lookit all them FO’s!

I really enjoyed knitting up Monkey. It’s a fairly easy pattern to memorize, so no travelling with patterns necessary. I used Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn in Green Mountain Madness, and I LOVE LOVE LOVE this yarn and this colorway. I loooooooooove these colors.

As we all know, Marietta is awaiting eagerly a wee bairn. (Sorry Mar, I don’t speak German!) Even though I know full well that the young one will not want for knitted warmth, but I couldn’t just let someone have a baby and not knit something! So I got to swing by the theatre today and give her a care package. Something for Maximilion and something for Mom. I think she was pleased.

And one swatch, also from handspun yarn thankyouverymuch!

It’s swatching up to 5 stitches and about 8 rows to an inch I’m thinking of making a cloche hat with it. When I was visiting New York a few weeks ago I had no hat and felt like a total fool. This must be changed. I’ve also picked up Icarus again, but that whole knitted lace thing… it looks kinda like a lump of amorphic dark blue pile. So no photo of that. I am almost to the edging though.

so. Now You’re caught up. I, however, am still behind. I’ve got WAY too much to do! Better get to it!

I know, I know, bad blogger. I’ve got some perfectly reasonable excuses, though! And I’m going to skip over them entirely. (besides, you’ve heard them before. Show, travel, blah, blah.)

I did do some knitting in South America. I knit a lovely sock from Cherry Tree Hill yarn, and left the half-completed mate for it (and all the rest of the yarn) on the bus back to Santiago. *sigh* oh well. At least I didn’t lose Icarus, which I also took and managed a few rows on. What was really exciting was the textiles and whatnot that I got to see in Lima (and a few in Santiago, but not as many.) I saw one of the finest pieces of handweaving known- my sheets are coarser than that piece of cloth is. It’s only some 1500 years old, no big deal, right? I also saw a number of Pre-Colombian spindles, which was amazing. They’re so thin! I described them as beads stuck on those bamboo skewers you get at the supermarket for summer kebab-BQ’s. It made me itch to get back to my spinning. Unfortunately, I didn’t see much in the way of yarn OR fiber for spinning, although on one walk my buddy and I collected several handfuls of wool off of fences and bushes in sheep country.

So there you go, the short, short version of my trip for the fiber-inclined. If any of you find yourselves in Lima, I reccommend Museo Amano. They have a room full of fabrics and fiber arts type stuff- and the guide kept opening drawer after drawer of it, to show the many techniques used by the Pre-Columbian cultures of Peru. Truly impressive.

Man, I’m not dead. I swear. I’m just exhausted.

Things are slowing to a reasonable pace now, and I think I’m going to be allowed to breathe again for a while. First off, the Borrowers is up! Oh man, does it look pretty, too. I haven’t been able to sit in the house and watch the show, but I’ve seen it on the greenroom monitors and I can only imagine how the kids must love seeing the giant screwdriver come through the borrower’s home. They laugh, they cry, they throw up. This one’s going to be a success!

Also behind me now was the ever exciting Connecticon! I hear that the webcomics auction went very well- Mookie, sold for $200, and Hawk went for $350! I am told that Hawk himself bought Trish, and I have to admit that I am totally jealous. I however, couldn’t be at the auction. I was busy setting up a little surprise for the Mookster. You see, one of the things that people do at these conventions is called cosplay. The simplest definition is it’s like Halloween in a convention center. Well, when Mookie returned to his table after the auction, one of his characters, Grench, was waiting for him.



I think he was pretty pleased, don’t you? This was of course, the surprise I mentioned last week. I say, I don’t look half bad green like that! Here’s a shot from the dress rehearsal- those tusks were killer.


I loathed that wig. It went in the trash as soon as I was back at the hotel- if I do her again I’ll buy a really good one. Also, the green paint, while it came off beautifully for the most part, kinda clung to anything that was really dry. Like the calluses on my hands. And my cuticles. I’m green in spots! Jaundice! Oh noes!

I also have some FO shots for you of the camisole, but I’m afraid that my brother has run off with the camera, so I will have those soon! I promise! Wednesday! I cross my heart.

I got to work this morning and had not had any coffee. Thus my boss was able to get the drop on me. See, it all started out innocently enough. We were talking about coffee, and he’s going to the cafe because he’s desperate, but I maintain that he should wait 20 more minutes for the Italian Guy to open, and get the good coffee. I said to hom “You can’t go to the cafe for coffee, their coffee sucks! Your body is a temple! Put the GOOD coffee in it!” he said “Is your body a temple?” “yes, it is!” I replied, all unsuspecting. “That explains why there’s a line to get in on Friday nights!” he said, and then laughed at me groping for an adequate reply. I failed. Hear that Boss? You win!

After that I got Good Coffee for both of us and we had our first preview of The Borrowers. Kids laughed, they cried, I think maybe one threw up. Sounds like a success to me! I’ll have finished show pictures next week.

I also finished the camisole! Hooray! Finished Object #2! Um… I’ll have pictures next week. But it looks amazing. I have to go get some bigger buttons, but that’s not such a big deal. Sexy knitting rocks my world. I am now onto the sweater I got from White Lies Designs, and I’m going to work on it this weekend. Well, some anyhow, because this weekend is Connecticon! I leave tomorrow with the Applegeeks Crew, and Matt from Mac Hall. I know, the links’ll be up later. I’m damn tired.

In other news, I also finished a Surprize Project for a friend today. Mom helped more than she should have- I love my mother! I’ll have pics of that next week, too, after he’s seen it. Next week will be a photo-tastic wonder.

So… I actually had a post all written up and ready to post yesterday, but my brand new scanner ate it. Ok, so, my brand new scanner software got all screwed up and forced me to restart the computer, thus losing the unsaved post I was preparing. Same thing, in my mind. dumb old Hewlett Packard. Damn, but the scanner is sexy, though.

Anyway, in trying to recall what I’d written about, I remembered that Saturday was Worldwide Knit In Public Day! I was, um, at work… and welding all day in the back of a warehouse makes for little knitting and even less in-publicness. oh well. It was pretty cool to be able to shake the rust off the old welding skills. I’d almost forgotten how entertaining I find the whole process. and the gods of the beautiful weather on Saturday were even looking out for us! Both welders ran out of welding wire at the same time, thus showing us a sign that it was time to quit.

I DID get some knitting done this weekend, though! And in public, too! See?

Here’s another picture…



Taken with my new phone! With a camera! And the BEST RINGTONE EVER! It’s the Final Fantasy Victory theme. Now, whenever anyone calls me, I throw my hands in the air, then back to my sides, then in the air again, repeatedly. Well, ok, I only did that once. But it deserved a Victory Dance!

Hi, my name is Katy, and I am a geek.

Well! Back home and boy do I wish I wasn’t. This past week in Boston was amazing. I don’t think I have enough words to describe how awesome Mookie is, or how much fun we had before everyone else showed up for the con, and then how much fun th convention was. Instead I have some pictures. There will be more over in the Flicker page, but here’s a week in Boston, the short version.



(top row, left to right: Aido, Ananth, Hawk, Bottom row: Brian, Shannon, me!, Mookie,) Thanks everyone for being so much fun to hang out with.

AAAAAAhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh vacation. So good. I got here yesterday on a flight containing 12 people and the flight crew. I’m not even exaggerating- I counted. Met at the airport by the Amazing Mookie, who apologized for the shower having committed suicide. Apparently it had decided that enough was enough and shed a wall. Teeth were gnashed, tears were shed, and the landlord was called, and in fact was working on it when we got to the apartment. All is well now, and the caulk sealant is almost cured, so life can go on. Life will, in fact, go on to New Comic Day and a bar.

SO. while the bathroom was being repaired, we went out to explore the beauty of Boston. By which I mean we found Mind’s Eye Yarn, which I’ve been looking forward to finding thanks to this guy. ( go! read! listen! he’s cool!) Also, I found Porter Square Books, under the same circumstances. And then for dinner we went to have Ethiopian food, which was at this amazing little restaurant called Addis Red Sea. SO GOOD! I highly recommend it. Good food, good atmosphere, and some really interesting decorations. AND educational!

WOOT! Today Mookie and I celebrate New Comic Day, and seek out this place. I am so excited that I can’t even stand it.

In the meantime, life has looked like this.

Mookie, hard at work on Dominic Deegan So refined at all times!


Pomatomus, I hope. From Knitty, clearly. Also, of course, my order from White Lies Designs came yesterday as I was boarding the plane. At least I have awesomeness to look forward to when I get home!

So. After total immersion in the world of Lord Peter Whimsy, a major Life’s Disappointment has returned to bark at my heels louder than ever. (How’s THAT for a metaphor?) Several times over the years, throughout my schooling, but even more so since I was released from the University of Maryland. This Great Life Disappointment is this: I feel cheated. Cheated of an education that actually means something.

Now, I know that a fair amount of the blame lies at my own feet, for not working harder to wring more out of my time in class, and for not pushing my professors, and whatnot. But really, since I spent most of my mandatory, K- 12 school years being smarter than the teachers, I think it’s fairly understandable if I didn’t have any faith in university profs. I mean, I’m sorry that I’d already read most of the books assigned for us to read at a grindingly slow pace, but hey.

The teachers were less than helpful or sympathetic either. And really, why should I have expected them to be? They had 34 other students in the room to teach, why should they pander to just one? Especially when I wasn’t one of those who was having trouble with the material. They had needier kids to worry over. Still.

So. Back to today. I have a BA from the College of Arts and Humanities at UMCP, department of Theatre. I focussed on design rather than acting and I actually got credit for all the shop time I put in. But. I didn’t take the classes that I wish I’d taken. I didn’t really apply myself to the ones I did. (It’s tough to really stress about it when you’re getting credit for shop time.) So. I guess the short post for today would have said “I think I want to go back to school” but that’s not really the right way to put it. I don’t want to get a master’s degree. Not in theatre, at any rate, I think. Maybe. First, I want to go back and learn all the things I feel I should have learned to begin with. I think I want to go back to take another BA.

Costs are up, though. And other plans are in the works, gears grinding to dust the money and time that would be spend on such things. So, an online course of action would be a wonderful solution. Any suggestions for good undergraduate liberal arts program with a focus on literature and history?

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.