Thrihyrne

A very social weekend, and of course, more insights

Mon, 04 Mar 2019 15:27:19 GMT

The start of my weekend was unique in that the clinic closed at 3 o'clock to host an 8 year celebration. I'd thought it would be an informal thing, and I believe it was, but it also became plain that in addition to there being lots of wine and sparkling wine, that it would be going on for a good couple of hours with the physicians and their families. With all that being the case, I decided that having extra daylight at the end of my day when I was already off the clock and not needing to spend lots of time around free alcohol (I'm not uncomfortable around it, but was already thinking about how to answer any questions about why I was abstaining) meant that I came home. The weekend was very social, especially for Evan and myself. We gave blood Saturday morning, then went by Mod Physique to pick up a cord for the inversion table I bought from Jessa (we're sadly *still* missing one element to the heater/massager element for the table), went to Seagrape for me to get a vial of essential oils I like as well as a ceremonial candle, saw Jocelyn at her house, then later in the evening met Evan's sister, his nieces and brother in law for a very yummy birthday dinner at a Thai restaurant south of Milwaukie. It was in honor of Arwen's birthday and a really great time. It felt tremendous to be comfortable to be with them just as I am. Yesterday morning was, of course, sauna, with me sharing yet another outpouring of thoughts and visions for myself in this amazing transformative year, then we went out to Hillsboro to be with Nicole and Chris and Holly and Elizabeth. What a treat!!! In between all of that, I had a long phone conversation with my dad and stepmom, hearing about their recent trip to New Zealand and Australia, with my sister, and also my mom. I even touched base with my friend Rhonda from my Nashville Opera days, but she was out with a friend herself.

Newish items to my self-awareness: in addition to being a Burgeoning Indomitable Leader, I'm also a Pavonine Creatrix. This is my Bespoke Year. I already wear a lot of bespoke clothes since I knit a lot and do sew on occasion, plus I take existing garments apart and make new things, or dye them, things like that. My hair is also bespoke, and as of last night's experiment, a rose gold with hints of magenta and looks pretty fried. :( It'll get better. Things I'm considering as part of this big year, since I know that 49 is the big one for me, not 50: an orchid/lilac leather pantsuit; a commissioned piece of jewelry, perhaps using some of the stones I have that are in settings I never wear; and then this list of actions and goals:

Plus my regular to-do lists and new job and regular work schedule which starts today! I'm working Mon-Fri now, approximately 9-5:30 M-Th and then 8-4:30 on Fridays.

Speaking of, I have to go get ready for work. On this week's to do list is to really make my new Mind Movie, just recognizing that I want to be sure about specifics since I'm in such a powerful manifesting state. If I believe I'm going to make it happen, I will!! A few things for it beyond what's in the list above is us getting a cat (I passed the 3 month post-alcohol mark a few days ago)and finishing my 3rd and final Reggie/Kelp story that I was working on daily until everything creative in my world turned to fiber arts. ;)

Here's to a really good week!!!

comments

Knitting projects, visions, ideas, yarns

Sun, 17 Feb 2019 23:00:37 GMT

I thought it might be easier to create a 3-dimensional representation of what's going on in this supercalifragilisticreative brainscape in which I find myself than to try and use words. Plus, I don't think I've ever tried to show a concept of something in my head via a photo shoot! It's a few things, the most prominent one being of a double-knitted, 100% reversible swing coat with an op-art-sized houndstooth image, or oversized houndstooth pattern generally. Then there's also this Fox Paws pattern with a knitting technique I've never done so I got a set of 5 colors in inexpensive yarns to practice it. This picture sortof captures what's going on in my head with this explosion of ideas, patterns and concepts of creations I'm going to be making into real garments!

comments

Eels, and writing. No, the topics aren't really related. ;)

Thu, 10 Jul 2014 01:05:40 GMT

evannichols and I watched a video via Netflix titled "The Mystery of Eels" found via Nature. I'm delighted to let you know that it's available online here via PBS. While the narrator's voice wasn't ideal in terms of tone, nuance and the like, the narrator is a writer and artist, and as it turns out, this documentary is based on a book he published once this 'finding out more about eels' project became bigger than anticipated. Or it seems that it became larger than he'd anticipated. James Prosek is a naturalist and other things, and what struck me about the documentary was how engaging it was. Evan and I had selected it because 1) it was live streaming and 2) neither of us knew much of anything about eels. But because this guy James has an artistic approach to the topic, and brought in so much in the various locations (New England, New Zealand, Japan), I found myself quite surprisingly moved and it was poignant. Evan was similarly engaged (though with the narrator's not-made-for-narrating-voice, he'd apparently wanted to bail at first) for many of the same reasons. While it is a documentary about eels, it's mostly about people's interactions with them, lifetimes spent studying them, generations of people revering them and them taking on symbolic capture or freedom.

All of that to say: highly recommended. :)

And in very exciting news, I completed my first original fiction story. It's not the first one I started, but it's first one to be finished. YAY!! I know it will need some serious editing; this was definitely a first pass and was started months ago as a fic for the Harry Potter community. I veered away from that pretty quickly, but I'll need to be sure that the flow and pacing and characterizations are consistent since I worked on it off and on (a lot off) for the past 9 months or so. This gives me hope for returning to my monk fic, which was last summer's project, but hey. My printout is in its binder, ready for me to get back to it for a Grand Re-Read to remember all of the characters and probably take it in another direction as I didn't like what was going on where I'd stopped it.

comments

The Muse, she awakens and stretches

Tue, 26 Nov 2013 04:45:45 GMT

I've proofed two stories for an LGBT press thanks to snottygrrl putting in a good word for me. Proofing is done for free, but it's meant that I've been reading M/M fic again, which I haven't in ages. I'll admit I wasn't blown away by either story, but something about the fact that there's a market for these works apparently has finally nudged my Muse. I was working this afternoon when thoughts of my monk story (the original fiction work 'Defender of the Way' I was writing back in 2010) and elements of a Wraeththu story with all original characters came to mind. It occurred to me that I have the makings of at least a couple of novellas using primarily my characters from DotW, but changing the focus and adding a bit more world-building to it. I found myself getting excited about revisiting some of my characters and actually charting out a plot for them, and taking chunks of already-written material and adding lots of new elements to it. There's a market there, and I believe the quality of my material would be acceptable to the editors at this press.

I'm mostly excited that I'm thinking of writing again, and it not be from scratch, and also to take some elements from different situations I enjoy writing and put it in front of a new audience. Now if only evannichols would win the lottery, we could both quit working and do creative projects full time! ;)

comments

Knitting roundup update post

Sat, 06 Jul 2013 17:00:11 GMT

I've finished or nearly-finished a bunch of things, and am hot onto 2 new projects with a 3rd to start as soon as the yarn arrives! I checked out a book from the library and was so swoony about several of the garments that I just bought a copy used from Powell's. Yes, me and my crazy $5 on a whim purchases. ;)

The book is Loop-d-Loop: More Than 40 Novel Designs for Knitters and while some of the garments are rather odd and the styling is also somewhat bizarre, there are several designs I will be making out of this book. I'm starting with the one-shoulder tunic.

That said, I'm also smitten with this short-row fair isle top:

and this yummy pullover with leaves:

So here are links to all of the goodies I've made or nearly-finished or just started on Ravelry!

http://ravel.me/Thevina/t1
http://ravel.me/Thevina/b1
http://ravel.me/Thevina/fft
http://ravel.me/Thevina/o1
http://ravel.me/Thevina/ost

comments

#hpfanfic_i'vemissedyou

Mon, 01 Jul 2013 17:21:24 GMT

I just wrote in my composition notebook: "What in Merlin's name is Shevchenko going to think about you inviting along some academic squib you don't know from the Lady of the Lake's mercat?"

I LOVE WRITING.

That is all. :)

comments

Because we're all worth it

Fri, 09 Nov 2012 16:47:24 GMT

One of my long-time LJ friends from my Tolkien days is a silversmith, jeweler, and has also taken to leatherwork. Each winter season for the past few years she's posted about making things to sell, as well as taking commissions. Like Etsy, but even more direct. So here is this year's post. Just wanted to share and support another artisan. My Dwarvish heart has admired her for a long time. ♥

comments

Couple 'o pics

Fri, 19 Oct 2012 04:18:56 GMT

It's been a challenging couple of weeks. Work continues to be a variety of things, including disheartening and perhaps a short-term environment for me after all. More details in a day or so in a non-public environment, just in case.

But! In very exciting news! Under the cut is a new and up-to-date photo of yours truly with my new haircut and haircolor, for however long it lasts. Will be fun for Steamcon. Speaking of that, I'm actually sewing again, for the first time since 1988 on a sewing machine other than my own.
( see here! )

I don't know if anyone else on my flist has made anything from a Folkwear pattern. My assembly is further along than in the picture; I can almost try them on. I'll be sporting them at Steamcon, though I'm not sure with what.

If you'd like to see the other pictures in the set that evannichols took during a mini photo shoot from the 17th, they are here.

I hope you all are well! Sorry so quiet on my end. Sorting through things.

comments

I need a new phrase

Mon, 16 Jul 2012 13:49:36 GMT

'Vomiting rainbows', while descriptive, is disturbing to a couple of people on my flist. I'm open to suggestions, because that does appear to be a theme here in my life. And I don't want that to change, I might add.

The weekend was truly lovely. evannichols had Dude Night Friday, which meant that we had a later start to our weekend, but there was still cake to be enjoyed that night— a delicious Carrot Zucchini/Hummingbird gluten- and dairy-free cake from Petunia's Pies and Pastries. Long story short on this: I'd special ordered a unique cake for Evan's 50th birthday and by human error (not on my part), the icing was incorrect. The cake was scrumptious, but Lisa (the founder and pastry chef) felt really badly when she found out and offered up cupcakes or another cake in the future to make things right. So I took her up on it as part of my own recent celebration. Saturday we went out to sushi with grrlpup and sanguinity, which was also delicious. Sunday featured our usual rituals: coffee and online Boggle and an online Tuesday NYTimes crossword in bed; breakfast and internet, domestic chores, a couple of phone calls, some work on personal projects, and as an added bonus, doing Pilates. We didn't so much follow along as use the DVD as a jumping-off point to do our own Pilates with our own music and the DVD on mute. It worked. The weekend was particularly quiet (his sister, BIL and niece were at the coast) and restful; Saturday I even took a nap! This is highly irregular, but apparently much-needed. Yesterday I also had an hour-plus long phone call with emansil_12, which was absolutely wonderful. I'm thrilled to say that she's coming out this way next month and I'll get an entire day to spend with her. :D

This week is my big transition week: I'm still on assignment at the company in Beaverton, but I'm moving up my last day to Wednesday so that I can have a bit of downtime and prep time before jumping headfirst back into full-time work in a new job, in a new work environment for me, and a new field in many ways. I'm terrifically excited!! And also want to make sure I don't start out sleep-deprived and anxious.

And as an aside, I'm so glad that I had a couple of my Etsy sweaters-in-progress to show and tell with grrlpup and sanguinity. sanguinity pointed out something that I knew in my heart to be true with the beginnings of my first sweater with my hand-dyed yarn, which was that with the short variegations and the pattern I'd chosen, it was super busy. She articulated what I knew was the case, so I undid it and am now starting on it as a cuff-to-cuff pullover, which will be different simply because it's cuff-to-cuff, but it will be subtle and showcase the yarn. I'm much more at peace with it now. So, thank you, Sang!! ♥

comments

Endorphins, my friends

Fri, 15 Jun 2012 15:06:05 GMT

I went jogging yesterday! Three and a half miles, even! Planning to do the same today and through the weekend— until it next rains, even. It felt so good to get some cardio and slow down when I needed to in order to keep it at a jog. Heh. Oh, and the plasma center yesterday was a bust. After three hours I'd still not seen anyone, so I gave up and decided my time could be much better spent than hanging out in their office. Seems ridiculous that the center in Harrisonburg was so much more sophisticated. Maybe another day.

This morning I've been super-productive for whatever reason; maybe a solid night's sleep, though I was deep in the midst of a dream when my alarm went off. I was so on top of things by 7:30 a.m. after doing my laundry and hanging it outside on our impromptu clothesline (ie: the chain link fence in the backyard) that I finally took a couple of pictures of Cooper, the boxer who is so adorable, all cozied up in his favorite chair. The first is with the flash, but the second captures the ambiance better as the curtains are drawn and the room is rather dark.

( Cooper, the sweet boxer, in his habitat )

This morning I'm determined to apply to 5-7 positions (four down thus far), do laundry (done), type in the last of the Gimlific I'd been writing on prior to the holidays last year, and some other things before going to catch the bus and meet evannichols for lunch. It will continue on to be a productive afternoon as well. I'll try and post my knitting WIP, item one from my Secret Endeavor that has had its starts and stops. I'm especially excited about more dyeing once I have my own mini-set and can do it here, or at Evan's.

Happy Friday!

comments

Knitting pic- dyed yarn

Thu, 17 May 2012 16:00:58 GMT

As noted, this past Monday I got not only a fabulous massage, but I dyed some yarn with my massage therapist (and former big-into-tie-dyeing) friend Joseph. Below the cut is a picture of the yarn which I dyed two colors: one end was fuchsia and the other bright orange, meeting and blending in the middle. I think it turned out marvelously. Nice and bright! The ball of neutral in the middle is what the yarn looked like before. It was taken from a man's large, so I have YARDS of the stuff which I'm going to dye in three different two-color colorway batches to make three different garments. The piece on the right is a gauge swatch both in stockinette but also an overall pattern that I think I'll use with a different set of yarn. :D :D
( pic )

I could easily get waaaaaaay into dyeing, though I don't have the facilities here where I live. But Joseph does, and he seems very amenable and encouraging of me doing all the dyeing I want there at his place with double sinks and all that good stuff. Out of the sweaters I currently am taking apart, only the one is one I'd want to dye, but it's good to know that with this experiment that if I find more neutral ones (or not) that I can dye them to make the transformation even more striking.

comments

...Gulp...

Tue, 15 May 2012 15:07:10 GMT

I'm about to do my first ever knitting design, as in, not just putting a pattern on a shape (like a vest), but modifying a cable pattern in order to make something new. I'm going to obsessively write down what I'm doing and see how it turns out. Note to self: get a hold of some graph paper. I have a sneaking suspicion that evannichols may be just the person to have some on hand, which will be most helpful.

Wish me well!!

comments