Back to work

I've been waiting for some advice and guidance on the latest version of the MG Fantasy, which arrived yesterday. The suggestions, from pros in the business, whose opinions I trust totally, were all spot on- a change of POV, more action, and more background, with less *modern* (I tried to weed the anachronisms out, but a few snuck into the pre-industrial setting anyway). All this means that I'm going back to work. Though the skeleton of the story and action are in place, this is still a major rewrite. I have two festivals yet to attend, but I am mostly free until July, when we're going on a Big Family Trip With A Much Anticipated Wedding On The Beach. I'd very much like this draft (the 3rd, a record for me) to be finished before July, which means: I'm going back to work.

My evenings will still be free (I do try to make writing the Day Job), and I'm not abandoning American Idol (as if that was even possible), and I'll still be knitting and yakking, and taking pictures, and trying new crafts, but there may be days here and there without blog posts. And in order to make my days as productive as possible, I might even... gasp... turn the internet off while I work... (which sounds awfully drastic- I'll reserve that option as a last resort- a sort of threat to myself to Be Productive Or Else). I hope you hang in there with  me- it's an adventure, fer shure.

In the meantime, here are the latest cotton skeins. All are organic and, undyed, all plied with a commercial cotton strand. The brown measures out at 194 yds, the green is 166 yds, and the oatmeal (which, in real life, is darker than the scan shows- more like Roman Meal than oatmeal) is 123 yds. I have sort of relaxed into the rhythm of cotton spinning and I am really enjoying it. I still don't know what I'm going to do with the yarn, but it will tell me what it wants to be eventually.

In my never-ending quest to find fun, crafty things to do with the Grandgirls, I ran across a mention of paper beads. Of course, I had to give it a try. Here is a magazine page (specifically Hillary Rodham Clinton, from a recent People), and some of the beads made from cut triangles. I used my paper cutter, and sort of eyeballed the triangles (which means that they aren't uniform), and I rolled the beads on a Size 1 metal dpn. The finished beads are about 1" long. Cool, no?

In order to make the beads durable, and mildly water-proof, the rolled, glued and dried beads are then sprayed with an acrylic varnish. These were strung for that purpose and will be taken off when The Girls come. I'm sure they'll end up in some fantastic necklaces and bracelets.

Okay enough yammering, it's time to buckle down. I'll catch all y'all on the flip.