Ouuuuph. Head hurt. Brain dirty.

[camwyn]

Well, no, probably more like 'head hurt, sinuses clogged', but a) 'brain dirty' sounds better and b) got too many ideas in my head so brain probably dirty anyway:

- the world-transplanted Buddhist's brother, a Federal judge, confronting the fact that his brother is still alive and has somehow brought home a real live mermaid;
- said Buddhist back in the world to which he got transplanted, scaring the living hell out of fishermen who're after his son;
- the last part of Iron Dog trying to form itself;
- a plan for reducing population growth in the world of my science-fiction novel, some 30-50 years from now, beginning with 'no tax deductions for children after the first two';
- a plan for making flag-burning unpalatable by introducing a bureaucracy-heavy flag burning permit system;
- Poor Bastard the Abbot slapping $21 down on a territorial official's desk and announcing, "I homestead now, yes?"
- the cataclysmic aftermath of the battle that broke Sun Bear Clan;
- the sheer amount of reworking I have to do on the VicMage.Asia.Ainu now that I have actually got hold of a volume of their folklore, and how careful I am going to have to be since they are heavily intertwined with images and stories from our world's Japan;
- preparations for my sister's wedding shower;
- the way my damn Slytherin scarf curls up at the bottom into a near-perfect tubular C even though I have knitted sixteen and a half rows so far;
- the fact that Alaskans apparently refer to snowmobiles as 'iron dogs', much the way Natives in the lower 48 once referred to railroad engines as 'iron horses';
- the fact that I am probably going to miss dean's list at Kean by .02 of a grade point, oh well;
- yesterday's movie gangsters and trying to fit them into the world of Feng Shui for use with the Monastery of the Midnight Sun adventure;
- mental listings of different strains of basil since we're getting mighty close to last frost and for once I should like to plant more basil than tomatoes;
- the urge to get up and practice seizan kata so that I can test for orange before I turn 29 next Friday (ya, right, like that'll happen); and
- the fact that I managed to make my friend from Hubei Province understand that Enya is not British by asking her if she was Korean, and whether or not I can use her response (an 'I can't believe you just said that - oh, you did that on purpose, didn't you?' look) somehow in one of my games.

Like I said. Head hurt. Brain dirty. Something has to come out.

Comments

[jerusha.livejournal.com]

- the way my damn Slytherin scarf curls up at the bottom into a near-perfect tubular C even though I have knitted sixteen and a half rows so far;


Are you knitting in plain stockinette? (Knit one direction, purl the other, so all your purl bumps end up on the wrong side of the fabric). Stockinette is known for doing that. The knitting pattern I read for the Hogwarts Scarves (OK, yes, it was a pattern for a Gryffindor scarf, but knit the same scarf in different colors and it works for any of the other houses) solved this problem by having you knit it double-wide (i.e. for a scarf 8 inches across, knit a "scarf" 16 inches wide), sewing together along the long edge, and *then* blocking agressively.

Depending on your textile and how tightly you knit, you may be able to keep what you've knit already and just block the hell out of it when you're done. [gloss: block: soak with water, stretch out to final size/shape, pin to board, leave there to dry. Lather, rinse, repeat until it behaves. May need to re-block some garments after routine laundering. No, will not solve "washed hand-knit person-sweater and got doll clothes out of machine".] You may also be pulling your knitting too tightly (says the Crown Princess of Knitting Too Tightly). If you can, try knitting it more loosely (some people can, I can't. If you can't, and want it looser, try bigger needles).

Caveat: I have only little knit-fu. Check with almeda, who has significantly more advanced knit-fu than I do. She knits whole *sweaters*. Without even a pattern or *anything*!

[camwyn]

It's on circular needles. knitting says that knitting in plain stockinette does exactly that and that the only cure is to sew the end of the scarf up. I can deal with that, it's just frustrating at the moment. It'll get better eventually, once I finish the work.

[dormouse-in-tea.livejournal.com]

- the sheer amount of reworking I have to do on the VicMage.Asia.Ainu now that I have actually got hold of a volume of their folklore, and how careful I am going to have to be since they are heavily intertwined with images and stories from our world's Japan;

You've found a decent source of info about the Ainu? Please please please share bibliographic information!

Have I mentioned this week that I want to live in your brain? With popcorn?

*mumble*

[camwyn]

Found it on eBay. Also available on abebooks.com. This was written up from other sources, but the other sources were primary - that missionary fellow, first name of John, wrote in 1902... crap, I can't remember his name. Anyway:

Frances Carpenter, Illustrated by Betty Fraser
People From the Sky : Ainu Tales From Northern Japan
Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Co. 1972 Hard Cover.
http://dogbert.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=201143120
http://dogbert.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=201120500
http://dogbert.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=76635998
http://dogbert.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=78977517

Take your pick.

Have I mentioned this week that I want to live in your brain? With popcorn?

Fine. Just bring some ibuprofen to go with it. Oh, and go visit 10000bullets, as I've been reposting my movie reccs to that community and the hardcore fans are starting to come out of the woodwork and make suggestions of their own.

*pauses to consider mental image of DVD rack*
*recalls Blockbuster rental history since last year*
*starts counting on fingers*

Um. I may count as hardcore fairly soon now that I think about it, but you know what I mean.

Re: *mumble*

[dormouse-in-tea.livejournal.com]

Wheeeeee! Book is ordered, and community will be perused, after I lay down for a while. I've been up for an hour, getting all wobbly.

*giggles* Hardcore J!