In which I distract myself with yarn

Yes, just like a cat.

This week mostly revolved around getting the boiler replaced, less than a month after getting the hot water tank replaced. Turns out it's been dripping for some time and completely soaked the carpet in the room it's in. So now that room is a sauna while we try to dry it out. Sigh.

The trouble with having stuff go wrong around the house is it leaves me anxious right where I should be most able to relax. Every little noise has me convinced that something else is broken. But rather than talk about that, I'm going to focus on the cheerful and share the baby blanket I made for my nephew for Christmas. It's...

SPACE INVADERS!

It's entirely built out of small granny squares in two different colours, as you can see. We've established in the past that I like making geeky things out of granny squares so this was really a no-brainer. I used a blanket I already owned as a size guide, because it's easy to make a blanket that's far too big to be useful for a newborn. Smaller can be better.

And then it was just a matter of churning out the squares and stitching them together. It was originally meant to be done in time for the birth, but he came two weeks early and I missed it entirely. So instead it was finished on Christmas Eve, with me frantically weaving in the loose ends before we could drive off to the family. I hit deadlines. I just don't always hit them with much time to spare.

Next up is the similarly geeky Manic Miner filet crochet, for which I have finished the design and just need to do the actual work. And I've finished the first draft of Liquid Gravity, so I'm going to get started on the second draft of Words of Power later this week. Yay!

In which I remember to come back

Hey! I'm posting again!

Exciting things that happened this week include the boiler breaking less than a month after we had to replace the hot water (I love having no central heating in the middle of winter! It's the best!) and finally getting back out running thanks to a good friend (if we run together then neither of us can back out, because we both have a mortal fear of Letting People Down).

As for the list of goals I made last week, I'm making good progress on the horror novella, Liquid Gravity. I should have that finished by the end of the week, and then I can start looking at Words of Power.

I've also started plotting out the sprites for the Manic Miner filet crochet, having decided that it needs more than just a repeating border of Miner Willy (or a row of Willys, if you will). This shawl will have beautifully crocheted barrels and telephones and toilets(!) because who doesn't want to wear a beautifully crocheted toilet?

And because I never need an excuse to read more books, I thought I'd sign up for this SFF-themed bingo challenge. I'll be starting by reading the books that are already in my TBR pile and seeing which squares I can assign them to. Then, if I ever reach that magical place where I've actually read everything in the pile, I'll look at what I can pick up to specifically hit the squares I haven't already managed. I elected not to count the book I was already reading when I heard about the challenge (Throne of Jade by Naomi Novik, which I absolutely loved) but I finished that last night so everything from here counts. I may even try to post reviews here, at least for the ones I enjoy.

In which I look forward...

*blows away the cobwebs*

Apparently I neglected this place for the whole of 2017. That's quite impressive, even by my standards. Still, this is me attempting to get things going again with a quick spring-clean, a bit of a redesign and a tie across to my Twitter handle so that everything works together in perfect harmony. Or something.

It's not like I did nothing at all last year. I had Iron and Gold rejected by a number of agents, some of whom went so far as to read the whole thing before deciding it wasn't for them. I wrote a couple of new drafts based on their feedback, so it's now officially on version 7. I wrote the first draft of something new in November (currently titled Words of Power) and was quite pleased with how it came out. I started writing a horror novella when I had a couple of spare days at the end of November, though it stalled a little as soon as NaNoWriMo was over. I crocheted a Space Invaders themed blanket for my newborn nephew and finished it just in time for Christmas. All in all, things were pretty busy.

But that was last year. It's time to make some rash declarations for this year and see if I stick to them. So what's on the cards?

• Keep plugging away with Iron and Gold. There are still agents who haven't seen it, and others who maybe need prodding to get it out of the slush pile.
• Finish the horror novella and see about editing it into something worthwhile.
• Edit Words of Power and throw it at beta readers to see what happens.
• Keep collecting short story rejections.
• Pick up the Manic Miner-themed filet crochet that I set down in order to make the baby blanket.
• Finally get around to taking some measurements and having a go at drafting sewing patterns from scratch.
• Remember to update this blog more often (hahaha, yeah, we'll see...)

That seems like enough to be getting on with for the year. There are other things in there that don't need to be rash declarations, like finally going to see Hamilton in the West End next month (so excited!), but from a creative standpoint if I can hit all those goals I'll be happy.

Why not check back here from time to time to find out I've not bothered to update again?

Time And Relative Dimension In Blanket

I'm... not exactly unambitious when it comes to my projects.  Or at least, once I get an idea in my head I won't talk myself out of it for flimsy reasons like the amount of work involved.  Like, say, crocheting 264 granny squares and assembling them into a blanket that looks like the TARDIS:

It's actually longer than the bed

As crochet practice goes, it's actually been quite a good method.  Plenty to focus on, it breaks down into manageable chunks, and the pattern for a granny square is extremely simple.  The repetition is excellent for getting the hang of crochet.  It took me an hour to make a single square at the start, but by the end it was more like twenty minutes.

Apart from those awkward two-tone ones at the edge of the information panel

The writing across the top is just chains, made to length and then stitched on top of the blanket.  Granny squares being full of holes, there's a limit to how small the writing can go.  Which is why I didn't make all the writing for the door - "Pull to Open" and all that.  I considered it, but it simply wasn't feasible.  The white panel breaks up the front, though, which is why I made it rather than just crocheting a different side of the TARDIS.

Yes, I took this picture just so I could make a 'P please, Bob' joke

This wound up being about six months of work from first conception to finished product, though there was a certain amount of getting distracted by other things along the way.  But I had it done just in time for the first episode of the new series, and now the whole family gets to snuggle under it while we watch.  That's really all I made it for, so I'm calling this a success.