Strings & Yarn

Hey everyone! I have my first University of Oregon Symphony Concert tonight! If you’re interested it is at Beall Hall at 8 pm.

We are playing two Mahler pieces; one is a vocal piece called Songs of the Wayfarer, and the second one is a piece originally composed for the 1st symphony, but ended up being excluded called Blumine. After that we are playing a Tone Poem by Strauss called Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks, and then Dukas The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.

Wow! That’s a ton of information! Gotta love Wikipedia!

There will be a meeting for all NaNoWriMo people in Eugene on Sunday 10/30 at 6:00 at Espresso Roma. I’m not sure yet if I will be able to make it, but I’m interested in going so that I can maybe talk to a few people about NaNo. Especially the people that have done it before. I could use some tips on how to people have gotten it done in the past.

If you are signed up for NaNoWriMo and did not recieve info about the get together it’s probably because you haven’t set your location on your profile. To get future up-dates on Eugene NaNo stuff go edit your profile on the NaNoWriMo website.

About NaNoWriMo
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My Book
My Research

I can’t believe it! Nanowrimo is four days away! This is my last weekend to try and get things together and done before the chaos insues. I have several things I want to get done this weekend before I start including organizing some of my school work and doing some sewing for around my house. I’m still debating whether I’m going to blog my book or not. I don’t think very many people read this and even fewer would be interested in reading the crappy mass amount of words that will being spewed from my computer everyday.

The thing about Nanowrimo is that it isn’t about writing quality, but quantity. Which is fine, because who’s first draft is even close to what it ends up being? However, I do think I will blog excerpts so that I can get some feed back on sections I like. Would anybody be willing to read excerpts and comment on them?

I hope I can get everything done. I also hope I don’t end up doing a huge chunk of it during Thanksgiving break. It would be nice to have a few days off here and there, but the nice thing is it’s only one month of intense work. I hope I have what it takes!

So I figured I would post a little about my book. I have been working on it for a year and a half and I haven’t really told anyone about it so this is a big step.

First, my novel is set in the early 1920’s. The main character, Ellen, is a young woman who has graduated from college. She has been trying desperately to find a job, but despite all of her efforts and qualifications she cannot seem to find a job. Originally she tried to get a job in her field, but she wasn’t able to find anything, so then she tried getting a job as a secretary.

As she is struggling along, staying with a friend, and going through interviews she runs into another young woman, Katrina. Katrina is a dancer in the a speakeasy and immediately sees potential in Ellen. Ellen is swept up in a new job and lifestyle without totally being aware of what is going on around her.

Of course, since speakeasies and bootlegging was riddled with crime and scandal there are plenty of opportunities for lots of drama. Ellen would never have been involved with a speakeasy if it wasn’t for her circumstance and because of this she leads a double life for a long time. Her friends are not aware of the nature of her new job, but silently notice changes in her look and behavior. Eventually Ellen’s double life catches up with her and unavoidably conflicts.

That is basically it. Of course there are a slew of other characters and a lot of smaller things that take place including some very odd romances. The romances are not really romantic, but instead are instigated out of fear of being alone. I am going to try and play a lot with the attitude of a soldier that has just come back from World War I.

I hope this gives you and idea of what I’ll be doing. Let me know what you think.

I finished reading Stitch n’ Bitch Nation! This one didn’t take me nearly as long because there isn’t much to read, but instead is mostly a new library of hip and funky patterns.

This book centers on learning how to modify and edit patterns so that they will be the perfect custom fit. Somehow I have been lucky and whenever I need some advice on my knitting, the right book seems to just float into my lap. I really needed this book so that I could continue the sweater that I had started and finish it. I am hoping to add this to my personal library sometime (I borrowed it from the Eugene Public Library) because it’s a great resource. It goes over all the math formulas you need to make a garmet fit like a glove… or a sweater… or a scarf.

If you haven’t started your own local Stitch n’ Bitch, maybe the success stories for Stitch n’ Bitch’s around the world will help get you on your feet. If you are looking for ideas on how to start a local SnB then check out the original Stitch n’ Bitch book.

I was so very sad when I had to give this book back to the library. Hopefully the next person to check it out enjoys it as much as I did.

I finished my sweater! I promise to put pics up as soon as I can. It turned out really good (especially for my first one) and I can’t wait to wear it around. Now I can start making lots and lots of sweaters! Of course that’ll be a little hard since I’m not allowed to buy new yarn, but hopefully I’ll get my way through a good portion of my stash so I’ll have room for more. Oh, the anticipation….

I couldn’t help but notice this article when I saw that picture. It was really interesting reading about traveling in Japan and the differences between cultures. This past weekend we were just talking about how food differs in different countries. We may think that fried Jellyfish sounds weird, but to many Asian countries cheese is equally foreign. Eating milk that’s been left out for a long, long time doesn’t sound particularly appetizing to me either! Ah, but I know the wonderful tastes cheese can hold.

Traveling in Japan as easy as the code of the slippers

Last night I listened to the Eugene Symphony perform The Planets by Holst. I had performed this a few years ago, but I had never seen it performed live.
The concert was great! The Hult Center is a beautiful hall and seats 2,500 people. It has two balconies and the walls and ceiling are a very interesting basket weave. We were sitting off to the side on the slightly raised section of the main floor and could hear everything just fine. However, we couldn’t quite see all of the trombones and basses.
The soloist for the evening was Nokuthula Ngwenyama. I’m pretty sure that she played with the Flagstaff Symphony two years ago which means that I played a concert with her before. When she played the Teleman Viola concerto in Flagstaff with an encore of Preludium and Allegro by Kriesler. Last night she played the Walton Violin concerto which was amazing. I have heard the Walton performed many times, but always with the piano accompianment. The orchestra part (as usual) really added a whole new dimension to the piece for me and I’m excited to add it to my listening list.
Since the Eugene Symphony does special ticket pricing for students I’m going to have to take advantage of the wonderful concerts they are offering this season. Plus I’ll have to practice a little harder so that maybe next year I could make an audition.

Every once and awhile I participate in the Barnes and Noble University. I have read several books along with the book clubs that they have offered there, including Oryx and Crake, by Margaret Attwood and Wicked by Gregory McGuire. I also did a book club for Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince so I could get other ideas on Snape theories. Most recently I read The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Fowler. There are two really great things about the online book clubs; 1) they are free, 2) the author is part of the book club giving insight it their work.
JABC was a good book, especially if you’re a big Jane Austen fan. I haven’t really read much Jane Austen, but found the book interesting because it was a book about a book club. Kind of like a play within a play. It had been on the Best Seller list for a while, and I had seen it around so I figured why not give it a go? I haven’t quite decided it the book was plot, or character driven. JABC starts out with five women and one man who meet once a month to discuse Jane Austen. The characters are intriguing, each of them bringing a slightly different perspective to the group. We learn about each character from their own perspective when they host the group, and because of that I felt that the book was mostly about getting to know the characters, and how they would grow from participating in the book club. However, the ending was what shook me. Without giving to much away, the book ended because of the events that were taking place around the characters, instead of by some sort of personal growth like I expected.
One of the main themes for this book was how similar characters could be even if they were separated by 100 years. Jane Austen and Karen Fowlers’ characters are very concerned with how they are supposed to do things. Not only are they highly concerned with this, but the major plot lines are around romance and marriage, similar to Austen.
I really enjoyed my book club book about a book club. (Say that 10 times fast) I’m hoping to do Son of a Witch by Gregory McGuire in November, but we’ll see how busy I get. I highly recommend the Barnes and Noble book clubs, especially if you enjoy seeing what is new in the literary world.

Well, if you know me I do love to knit. I’ve looked at lots of patterns. Fun and funky things to give as gifts, wear, or maybe even a stuffed animal, but I can’t say I’ve ever seen a pattern for a breast prosthetic.

These were designed by a breast cancer survivor, and as a cancer survivor myself, with a prosthetic, I know how it is impossible to get anything that looks real. I don’t have a cover on my C-leg (it’s a pretty flashy leg and the cover take away some of the function), but I had a cover on my previous legs before that. I actually was so worried about not having a leg with a cover that my spare leg has a beautiful cover. Even though it looks great, it hardly ever gets used. I am so used to my C-leg now that the cosmetic one only gets pulled out if I absolutely have to. Since the C-leg can’t withstand large amounts of water, my covered leg is good for water balloon fights and washing the car.

I think it’s really great that Beryl Tsang decided to take action and make her own breasts when she couldn’t find something that looked or felt like a real breast. This could open up a whole new market for yarn porn.

Tit Bits

Tit Bits Pattern