Neomera Knits

I know. I’m terrible at this whole blogging thing. I’d have photos for you today, too, if I weren’t so damn lazy. Oh well, moving along.

I HAVE been thinking about blogging, though. Really. Lots of stuff! I mean, c’mon! Mar had a BABY! (And he’s the most adorable thing that it’s just not even fair.) I’m almost to the last chart on Icarus- took me long enough! I’m excited though. I’m going to knit Sahara, as soon as the yarn comes in the mail. I may get back into socks, dangerous though that may be. I’m considering a pair of nice, warm, knee socks, because my feet get so cold in the over air conditioned buildings of the DC area in summer.

Issue 1 of Spwug came out last week, and was shipped to all the pre order customers, and I am super excited and super nervous. I want feedback, but I also want it to be positive! Such dilemmas. Figuring out taxes for a business that made no money last year is kinda wierd, too. Also last week, I went to New york to do some work stuff with fewer distractions- there’s no internet at Jeff’s apartment, so no World of Warcraft to get in the way. Tuesday night he took me out to have a seder with some of his family. Just a nice, small, quiet thing at an Italian restaraunt, bring-your-own-bitter-herbs-style. It was interesting. I’d never been to one before, and they let me read and everything. Go Go Theatre Training! Annunciate! Read Fast To Eat Sooner! They seem to have liked that last part. Good stuff.

Ok, so no real photos. Sorry. I’ll do better next time. I promise.

Dang. Sidelined by freelance work and Diginin Publishing stuff. The Diginin magazine comes out in April, and I’ve been hella busy getting all that worked out. I have the proof and it looks awesome! I can’t wait!

Not as exciting as other blogs, I know. Actual content coming soon! I promise!

You know, by way of thanks.

One of my favorite artists. Katsushika Hokusai- Iris Flowers and Grasshopper, circa 1830.

For the rest of you, go check out this site to see why.

Ok, short post today, as I am suffering migraines galore. The Big Surprise is ready for beta testing and suchlike. I am still tweaking, but you can, in fact, buy things. Comments are welcome!

http://www.digininpublishing.com/zencart

I am horribly horribly ill. I will write a real post when I am no longer trying to avoid death. oog.

Today I was coming home from a theatre in Arlington Virgina and I caught sight of the Potomac River. It got up into the 60’s today, but hte water was still fairly cool, and it had been raining all morning, so there was a fabulous cloud of mist rising off the water. It was almost too nice to be driving past without stopping. Sadly, it seemed to be time to admit that I have caught another cold, and I just came home for some tea-and-sock-knitting therapy.

I didn’t get very far on the sock part, because I ended up in a long conversation about Mister Rogers. I am a child who very much grew up in the Neighborhood, and when he died it hit me as hard as my own grandparent’s deaths. It was even harder than when Mr. Hooper died on Sesame Street, probably because I understood it better. What I hadn’t realized when I was young was just how frighteningly smart Fred Rogers was. He wrote all the scripts, wrote (or helped to write) all the music (which was all played live, right there in the scene. Including the theme music.) and built and operated all the puppets. He also came up with things like this from King Friday XIII: “Scintillate, Scintillate diminutive stellar orb. How inexplicable to me seems this stupendous problem of your existance. Elevated at such at an imeasurable distance, in an apparently perpendicular direction from this terrestrial planet which we occupy. Resembling in thy dazzeling and unapproachable efulgance, a gem of purist carbon, set solitaire in a university of space. ”

“Efulgance”? who uses words like that on a children’s show? Mr. Rogers did, and that’s one of the reasons I have so much respect for him. So. I leave you to meditate on a few things: Every body’s
fancy. I have always wanted to have a neighbor, just like you. I like you for you. And, of course- I’ll be back, when the day is through, and I’ll have more ideas for you. And you’ll have things you’ll want to talk about. I will too.

Also, Fred Rogers’ mother knit all his sweaters. I’m guessing that she’s where he got his amazing patience from, cause woah. That’s a lot of sweaters.

ok… so it’s been a while. I’ve really just not had anything to say, I think. I’ve done a lot of sock knitting, and a lot of sitting in my room not doing much at all, and that’s about it. I think I needed time to recharge and adjust to this whole not-having-a-steady-job thing. That thing has started me thinking about other things, and what with one think leading to another… well…

I’m going to take the GRE’s, and I’m looking about at schools. We shall see, hmm? Between that and actually pursuing my language studies, my Year of 007 is pretty much sewn up. I want to knit some sweaters, of course, and I have an idea for a World of Warcraft sweater, but there again. We shall see. Anyone else have any fun plans for the new year? I hope it’s a wonderful one for everyone.

Oh, and there may be a fun and exciting announcement soon. The final and secret reason that I haven’t had much to say here lately…

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.

As I allow it to really sink in that I am both leaving my stable (if infuriating) job AND my country, I am surprised to find myself somewhat panicky. I’m convinced I’m going to forget to pack something important like panties. Or my passport. I occasionally have to remember to breathe. Yes, I know it’s silly, but there it is. I take stressing myself out to lengths from the ridiculous to the sublime.

Meanwhile, back in real life, I have a WHOLE SHOW to worry about before I can sweat packing. It’s been a very strange process, let me tell you! I’m used to the pressure being on by the day after hang, which is usually only 90% done when the boys roll in with the truck full of scenery. By now I should have spent two weeks stressfully switching between electrics and carpentry, trying madly to finish both before focus. There has been none of that this show.

This show is HUGE.

So huge, in fact, that the poor scene shop is still frantically building. We hope that some of it might start coming over today, but I don’t see myself having time off this weekend. Ah well. That’s life in the theatre. It’s going to look really nice, I think- all castles and craziness. I should have pictures, once there’s something to take pictures of.

As far as knitting goes, I’ve been plodding along on the White Lies sweater, but the stitch pattern is almost as monotonous as stockinette, so I keep getting bored. So instead I have a hat and the Icarus shawl. The shawl has been started five times now, and it truly will bring me to the point of madness, but I will prevail. I have FAITH, people! At least I have faith in my ability to conquer a lace chart. I have no faith in my ability to remember to pack pants.

Last night as I drove home from Pennsylvania, I listened to several episodes of Cast On (what do you MEAN you don’t listen? Go now! I’ll wait…) This latest series has been focussed on what Brenda Dayne calls a sense of place- meaning your home, where you think of as home, and what ties you to it. There have been lots of really interesting and touching essays about mountains, about travel, about children, and such things, and I started thinking about myself. I can’t really say that I HAVE a sense of place.

Now that doesn’t mean that no place feels like home. Lots of places feel like home to me- and that’s kinda my point. The place I live- my house, with my family and my stash in it- is clearly home. But so is my grandmother’s house in Eugene, Oregon. Every dorm I’ve ever been assigned has felt very much like home. heck, even hotel rooms I’ve stayed in have sometimes felt like home, depending on the people I was with.

But none of these places show up in my work. I don’t bring the soft textures of the Pacific Northwest into my knitting to tie me to the place I was born. I don’t plan projects in the reds and browns I think of from Hong Kong. I don’t even feel particularly drawn to the colors and textures of Maryland, where I’ve spent most of my life. I guess it means that I’m still searching for a place to really call home. Then, I will knit it into my life completely.