Doing the happy dance!

I have been waiting in suspense for the last two months or so to receive this in the mail:

Why is that you may ask? Because I have an article in it! I have been published, and not just in some 'zine that was photocopied at Kinko's, but an actual glossy mag, for which I will receive actual money (the sum of which will remain undisclosed, as it doesn't sound nearly so impressive then). It also means a lot to me that this is a magazine that I subscribe to and read.


I didn't chose or take the picture, but believe me, it's perfect.

I've been published before, but always in webzines or very small press magazines that I had never heard of until I decided to submit to them, and they never paid over $5.

My Secret Revealed

I found this thing online called the Gender Genie that purports to be able to tell by the words used in a piece of writing what gender the author is. I entered in a piece of my novel and then a piece of my blog (the entry about the tie). Both times the Genie read me as male, which I find interesting. It bases its assessment on words that you wouldn't think would be gender indicators, such as should, we, with, not (female) and the, below, at, and it (male).

I'm going to be cutting and pasting random things in there for the ten minutes or so, trying to figure out if it's just a bunch of hooey or if I really have a "masculine" style.

I have no pictures today. I'm working on a dress, but Brandon took the digital camera with him in the truck.

*** AN UPDATE ***

After fiddling with the Gender Genie awhile, I think it more or less consistently identifies certain blog authors as male or female, but it has very little do do with the actual gender of the author. Some females are consistently predicted as male, and some male authors are consistently predicted as female, and a slight majority of people's gender is predicted correctly and consistently.

Sewing with Knits, Part 3 - Trials, Tribulations, and Triumph

I sewed the sleeve seams and hemmed them, no problems. Then I went to put the sleeves on, and in the instructions, either they don't expect that you will need to sew gathering stitches across the top of the sleeve cap, or they just left that part out. So I tried it without gathering stitches, and just stretched the knit to fit. It worked okay, but the sleeves are a little funky. I'm not sure if it was sewing them up that way, or the fact that the material is not cut on the grain.

When I went to try the shirt on, the neck hole is very small. I can barely get it over my head.

As I was sewing the hem, over halfway through with it, I ran over one of the pins. I've done this before, and bent pins and broke needles, but never quite so spectacularly. The pin was jammed way down in the plate of the machine. When I pulled it out, it left a big hole in the fabric. Well, big is a relative term. I could probably fit my pinky through it. I put a little patch over it and called it good, though. If it had been on a project that had gone perfectly up until that point, I would have been more upset, but this shirt has so many other issues that it is low on my scale of concern.

Basically, as the shirt turned out, I will wear it, but if I am going to make the pattern again there will have to be some major changes. For one, the neck hole is too small and needs enlarged. For two, although I cut the pattern to my size given my measurements according to the chart on the back, the shoulders are about a half inch too narrow on each side, making the shirt pull and stretch oddly around the shoulders and neck. And people, my shoulders are not that broad. This is not a normal problem for me. I have had fit issues with New Look patterns in the past, only in the other direction - the pattern was way too huge for me, even on the smallest size.

I like the idea of making my own tee shirts. Tee shirts are truly a wardrobe staple for me, and I love this sort of long sleeved close fitting tee in the winter for layering. So I'm disappointed that this pattern will take so much tweaking to work (since I cut on the smallest size and can't now cut out the next size up, which might fit better). I know, I could just go out and buy a pattern from a more reliable pattern company, and eventually I might, but I will probably first try to tweak this one to work, since I'm (A) cheap and (B) get a perverse enjoyment out of making patterns work that originally did not work for me.

In case anyone is wondering, I am going along quite well with my writing, keeping up my daily page counts. :)

Eek!

I didn't realize it had been so long since I blogged. And it's not like I've been overwhelmingly busy, I just let it slip. So easy to do.

This is November, and I sort of wish I were doing NaNoWriMo. I thought about it, back a couple of months ago, when I thought that the novel I am working on would be done (at least, the 1st draft would be done) by now. But I stalled out on that novel-in-progress for a month and more, and I'm not going to start something new, or I'll never finish it. Instead, I am devoting November to finishing my novel-in-progress (which doesn't even have a working title). I'm on page 163. That is way longer than anything I've written before. I'm quite proud of myself, actually. I set myself a goal of two pages a day (except Sundays. I give myself Sundays off.)

Yesterday, I started a top-secret knitting project. Well, I'm going to post pics here, but my husband is under strict orders not to check this blog until after his birthday. I got out the knitting books (yup, that's pretty much my whole knitting library right there) and looked at patterns and tried some swatches, and cast on stitches for a hat. A black hat, how boring, but at least it isn't ALL going to be in k2, p2 rib, as many of my hats end up being. I tried the brioche stitch from Knitting Without Tears, and it didn't work out for me, so I'm going to use a variation of a pattern from the Vogue Stitchionary. You know, everyone raves about Knitting Without Tears, and its one of the big knitting classics, but I have barely used it. I just don't like the patterns much. I don't knit many sweaters, anyway. Actually, I've knit only one sweater, and have another in progress, delayed since last winter.

This is the first thing I've knit for Brandon. While we were dating, I thought about it, but I have experienced the Curse (albeit with a hat, and not a sweater) firsthand, so I didn't risk it.

The yarn is a Caron acrylic I've had leftover from a project my sophmore year of college (when I still crocheted, and hadn't learned to knit). It's very soft. I'm using a two strands held together, for warmth and so it knits up more quickly.

While I was looking at hat patterns online (I don't have a very large knitting library because so much can be found online) I found this blog, Kody May Knits. She knits A LOT of hats, and posts the patterns for free online (personal use only). If you're into funky hats (and some are very classic and pretty, as well) you might check it out.