just be.

knitorama

let me just start by saying ow. owie owowowow. not the migraine i had this afternoon, which has settled down, but my right hand and wrist. i knitted too much on my queen of beads socks too quickly, i guess, not enough breaks or something, and it HURTS. (the reward, however, is pretty wonderful: pretty new socks for me!)

making my living as i have for the past couple of decades making constant daily use of a mouse and keyboard, usually for double-digit numbers of hours per day and usually for six days per week, i am no stranger to wrist and hand pain. the difference with this is that cracking my wrist and hand joints is *not helping* this time. no response. it's not a joint thing but a muscle thing, and the muscles ache like leg cramps that wake you up in the middle of the night. (if you haven't had those, they are tearfully painful. eat a banana.) from the heel of my hand to my elbow. as soon as i finish my two current edits, i'm headed to natural stitches to buy one of those wrist support thingies. a brace, i guess it's called, to compress? i have no idea how they work, but i'm really hoping that they do. :(

that said, pain aside, the weekend has been really fun. i finished these socks, which is more gratifying than i remember finishing a project being (yes, anna, *you are right*), and i'm wearing them, which is also more gratifying than i remember wearing my handknits (again: *you are right*).

the funnest parts were hanging out with anna, as usual. saturday afternoon, i went over to the yarn shop to see (and hear) franklin habit read from his book, speak, and sign copies. he is so full of win that i can't believe that he fits it all in such a compact package. i love the book, too.

after the signing, anna and i went off to a little going-away party for our friend tobi, who is moving to nashville. so sad :( it was fun, though, held at the floral design shop that our friend april owns, which is just gorgeous, catered by our friend michelle, and attended by lots of people i haven't seen in a few years. and i met a few new people, too. punch, mini cheesecakes, lemon-filled cupcakes, spanakopita, crudites, and lots of other things i can't remember, all yummy.

then this morning, we took a class on the history and techniques of lace knitting and knitted lace. i had to escape to the car to sleep off a migraine for a bit in the middle, but it was really a wonderful class. i learned a lot and had fun; a day doesn't get much better than that. oh—and one thing that has made the day even better: i cast on a pair of socks using a merino-cashmere blend that is positively decadent. i am in love.

funny editor tricks

(yes, the book continues to get lots of press, including, most thrillingly for me, having excerpts read aloud by keith olbermann and rachel maddow. but that's not what i'm going to write about today.)

in the comments to the last post, katy (a friend from ravelry who lives wayyyy too far away) noted that i probably don't have certain kinds of errors in my books. she is right. i look for bad breaks in lines (e.g.,

...arse-
nic...

...ass-
anything [of course, i can't think of a word that my layout program would break that way]

and, more importantly, any time i edit anything with the word "public" in it, i search the entire document for "pubic." not surprisingly, i save us that embarrassment probably every six weeks or so. whew!

my biggest peeve of late, of course, isn't in my books but in the msnbc crawl. i have complained about this before, i know, but really. "antrax"? really? that's the level of quality we get? all those shiny graphics and beautifully groomed talking heads, and you can't get a chyron that puts a little red squiggly under misspelled words? or at least catch typos after they've run across the screen *once*?

a bit more coverage

and no, i'm not talking bathing suits.

today, boingboing has a post about the book i mentioned yesterday. so do the washington post, the new york times, upi, talk radio news service, asian news international, counterterrorism blog, the washington examiner, and islam online. a couple of tv stations had pieces on it as well, but the only clips i have are on a site i don't know, so i won't post them here.

but this stuff is exciting to me; if i can't do newsworthy things myself, at least i can help someone else do them :)

well, y'all *know* i love my work.

the associated press is carrying a story today about a book i edited. so are bbc news and press tv in iran. it's an interesting read; the point is basically that a military approach to fighting terrorism is not a winner, calling it a war on terrorism is inaccurate and counterproductive, and that police and intelligence work do more to make terrorist groups end than do military or political efforts. (and there's a big fat table in the back that lists virtually every terrorist group, its location, its goals, its dates of existence, and its numbers. interesting stuff.)

if you find a typo, don't tell me. :)

squee!!

my brother's latest book is out--i just received my very own copy straight from the publisher! squee! it's called the pixar touch and has gotten RAVE reviews: the marginal revolution, entertainment weekly, the pixar blog (and updated here), the orlando sentinel, renderosity, 800-CEO-read blog, jim hill media, books on board, business week, cartoon brew (a favorite), valleywag...you get the idea :)

truth is, i'd have been excited about this book even if my brother hadn't been the one who wrote it; i'm a HUGE animation fan and LOVE pixar. one of our dogs is named luxo, after the pixar short (and the lamp). but i'm even gladder that he wrote it, because i loved his last book and because i know how much work and care he put into this one. he's a great writer (seriously! that's my editor hat talking, not my sister hat), so this promises to be a fabulous read. can't wait to get started! (plus, for the design junkies here, it has a cool cover.) :)

little harriet homeowner

what a great weekend! friday was the six-year anniversary of the night on which smartboy proposed. such a romantic night, and we continue to celebrate it every year. we also celebrate a lot of the first week of november, since that's when we met eight years ago. so saturday night, we went to legume for a *delicious* dinner; i had a mixed-green salad with bistro vinaigrette--a traditional french vinaigrette atop crisp, peppery greens, the kind of salad i could eat every day and still be wowed by its simple deliciousness--followed by a braised, browned chicken leg (the crispest i've ever had, though i FAR prefer breast to leg) atop a squash puree and fried polenta. SO GOOD. the portions are not huge, so i finished everything. clean plate club for both of us. smartboy had mussels as his appetizer, which he said were great--whole garlic cloves in the sauce and garnished with thyme sprigs--followed by scallops with a little pork. they were beautifully browned and he said that they were really good. he LOVES the scallops at eleven, and he said that these were almost as good. but we both love the fact that this is within walking distance of our house, and we agreed that the service is every bit as good as that at eleven, plus dinner was far less expensive. we shared a FABULOUS chocolate-truffle cake with fresh whipped cream (omg so good!), and he brought his own beer. i wish they took reservations, but we got there early enough that we didn't have to wait long, and it was a beautiful night to wait outside. for people who do have to wait, they'll take your number and call you, which is brilliant--you can go for a walk or go to one of the bars on the block. oh, and my drink was fizzy lemonade, in which they bring you a glass of fizzy water (san pellegrino, i think), a little glass of lemon juice, and a little container of superfine sugar for you to mix it to your own taste. i love things made at table :)

so that was our yummy saturday night. but we'd also spent a great day down at the waterfront, seeing bee movie, which we loved--it's no pixar movie, but it was good--in the late morning, followed by errands a-go-go. it was a gorgeous day, clear and cool, so i didn't even mind that some of my errands were foiled (victoria's secret wouldn't take the bra back that i'd bought online in exchange for one that fit, and i didn't even find one that i liked in my size; macy's found only the sale price of the skirt i wanted to exchange, and i didn't have the order paperwork or tags with me to prove that i'd paid more, so i had to bring it home, where i fortunately found the paperwork today; and i found no knitting books or magazines that i wanted to buy at barnes and noble). but i did unexpectedly find some adorable black rain boots with white polka dots! we went to dsw to find shoelaces, which i also found, along with some nifty gel inserts for my new heels and boots. little victories :)

and we went to lowe's, where i got some great advice for planting the little fall-planting perennials i'd bought from white flower farm (thanks, jen!!) and we looked at xmas decorations. i am SO getting into being the owner of this big old victorian! i have visions of christmas decorations in our beautiful living room, greens spread out on the white victorian mantle reflected in the mercury mirror above it, and candles glowing in every window. we found some nifty little ornaments (the characters from the rankin-bass "rudolph the red-nosed reindeer"), but not the candles or aluminum tree we're seeking :).

today, we planted the perennials, which was much more fun and soothing than i thought it would be. i am NOT a grower of things. i kill plants--not intentionally--this isn't murder, but plantslaughter. so i don't plant things often. but i've had this gift certificate for a long time, and i wanted to buy something pretty to plant. i'm really hoping that these do well, or at least some of them do. right now, they look like sweet little tiny plants surrounded by huge wreaths of cypress mulch keeping our young dogwood tree company.

edited to update stitch count: and now i'm knitting and browsing, the perfect way to stay cozy :) today: 2,253 stitches/50,000 for the month; 3 blog posts/30 for the month; still at the same number of words as before, though. too busy to write yesterday, and i might be too tired today.

so life is good. :) hope yours is, too.

nano*mo

i did national novel-writing month (nanowrimo) in 2002. i didn't find it particularly fruitful--i didn't turn out anything like a cohesive story. but there is something satisfying about meeting a measurable goal (plus i love my t-shirt).

there's a group on ravelry (knittingcrack) that's all about national sweater-knitting month (nanoswemo) (i know: it should really be naswiknimo, but--oddly--they didn't ask me). this intrigued me.

now, i can whip out a sweater in a couple of weeks--witness juliet. (i know: you can't really witness mine, since i haven't taken any photos in forever. but trust me--it's finished.) but a deadline? interesting.

so i looked at my ravelry queue. i have some great sweaters in there, but i don't think that any of them take priority over holiday knitting or finishing my wips. (that's works in process, for you nonknitters out there.) (which makes me a little sad for you, btw.) so i figured out how many stitches per day i'd have to knit to make the 50,000 for the month, and 50,000 stitches divided by 30 days equals 1,667 stitches per day, and i'm going to apply that goal to my wips. if i finish them, then i'll let myself cast on something else. but i'm really, really going to try to finish my wips this month.

so today i knitted 30 rounds of the 56-stitch sleeve i'm making for my current wip, an empire-waist sweater. that's the wip that's closest to completion; if i continue at this pace, i should have this--the second--sleeve (that would make it the last one, for those of you playing at home) finished in a week or so. then i can seam up this sweater and that's one wip down. i even have the ribbon trim for it already. whew!

the next one should be the second sock for lisa (yes, the lisa whose birthday was in *july*), followed by the robot for smartboy (whose anniversary with me was in *september*), embossed leaves socks for jean (whose birthday was in *may*), and the bauhaus fair-isle sweater for nate (whose birthday was in september). (are you spotting a pattern here?)

if i were cleverer, i could estimate whether that's 50,000 stitches right now. but i'm not, sadly, so i'll just have to surprise myself.

i'm also thinking about trying to write 1,667 words tonight. we'll see how that goes :)

talk of the nation

if you get npr, have a listen to talk of the nation today. todd helmus will be on to speak about a book that my friend lauren edited and i proofread: enlisting madison avenue: the marketing approach to earning popular support in theaters of operation. lauren also took one of the two cover photos (one is in theater in iraq; the other is on madison avenue. guess which one she took on a long weekend trip?). you can download a copy for free or read it online (or even just a summary of it), or you can buy a copy inexpensively and support the nonprofit, nonpartisan thinktank for which i work.

thank the world, part 2

though i missed her book signing last week (migraine--what else is new?), i did finally make it to joseph-beth booksellers this week to pick up my copy of stephanie pearl-mcphee's latest. i've been reading her blog for several years now, but have now missed two book signings in pittsburgh. that's out of two i've known about. yeah. pretty poor record.
i did manage to get a signed copy, and i'm reading it in little bits. today, i read a particularly great bit, which i can even illustrate with my own photos--that's how much it's timely and appropriate to my life :) knitting is magic, she writes. there is a thrilling moment wen you finish an object and you look around for someone to whom you can explain your magic. you hold your project out to him or her and wait for the accolades to pour in. when he or she isn't as impressed as you think he or she should be, this is the ugliness that spews forth, on your insides if not on your outsides:

look! look at this! this is what i have now! socks! socks are nothing like yarn! you can't wear yarn! yarn isn't socks! i made something you can wear out of yarn! look at this, praise me, and know the wonder that is a knitter!

these are the falling leaves socks from knitty, on size 1 addi turbos in the magic loop method, using a hand-dyed washable merino yarn bought at the last pittsburgh knitting festival. i love the colors and they were really easy to make.

i've been treehugged!

the renewable energy report that i edited (about three times, after it had been edited by an outsourced editor) has been featured on treehugger today! it's gotten lots of mainstream and trade press as well, but i heart treehugger and read it daily, so this is kind of an extra thrill. yay!