Lovely — a bunch of folks from the Science Fiction Writers of America proved that a vanity publisher wasn’t really vetting their manuscripts.
28 January 2005
26 January 2005
Moderately illustrated craft update
Counted work: The Lunar Santa is done, and I have refrained from starting another cross-stitch project. The main stitches are almost done on the crane; most of what’s left is the gold thread couching, which will take a while. I did a little work on the Just Nan piece; everything else is untouched.
Yarns: I finished the socks (no photo yet). Haven’t touched the afghan; instead, I’ve started a black lace overblouse; I’ve gotten four squares done. That’s another big project that’ll take a while, but since I’d bought thread specifically for this project several months back, I’m happy to be getting it moving, and it’ll clear some space on the supplies shelf.
Sewing: I finished my ex’s dress. (I’m not entirely sure that I want to put up a picture….) I’ve finished my church friend’s dress except for the hems, which are waiting until I can meet with her for a fitting. Next is finishing my brother-in-law’s and nephew’s shirts, and then I can cut something out for myself. I really need to work on that cat quilt too.
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Burnett and Home Decorating
Recently I’ve read several less well-known works by Frances Hogdson Burnett: Little Lord Fauntleroy (cute, somewhat treacly, but fun), A Lady of Quality (the adventures of a decidedly dramatic woman; this is not the Frances Hodgson Burnett you read as a child), T. Tembarom (it’s obvious where the thing’s going by halfway through, but I liked it enough to keep reading; a beautiful bit of self-referentiality:
“Who’s this Fauntleroy in the lace collar?”), and a shorter work, The Dawn of Tomorrow.
I find Burnett’s work very interesting. Yes, it’s very sweet, often treacly; her protagonists tend to be a little too good (The Secret Garden is probably popular because Mary Lennox is an exception, and Clorinda in Lady of Quality is another). There’s definitely a theme of “your thoughts make your world” running through the works that I’m still pondering — I buy the weak form of this philosophy but not the strong form. But the characters are often entertaining, and the observations on social class and American-British contrasts are quite interesting.
Other reading — I’m obviously in a home decoration mode; I’ve recently reread Alexandra Stoddard’s Creating a Beautiful Home and Duvie Clark’s The Not So Terrible Move, both books about interior decorating — and for more immediate improvement of my home environment, Don Aslett’s Lose 200 Pounds in One Weekend.
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18 January 2005
A Brief Public Service Announcement
When a publisher’s website says,
The below editions are out of print and are no longer available from this publisher.
that does not mean “they really are available if you just harrass the customer service manager long enough”.
[exeunt, muttering "why can't people READ?"]
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13 January 2005
Building Democracy, One Book at a Time
There’s a really interesting article in the January 14, 2005 issue of Chronicle of Higher Education (subscription only, alas) about DarEmar, a new publishing house in Syria that wants to make translations of important books in Western philosophy and political & social science available in Arabic translation for the first time. Their long term hope is to spread these ideas and lay the groundwork for less oppressive government and stronger civil society in Syria and elsewhere in the Middle East.
They’re doing this in the face of a dictatorship that requires them to submit all their publications for approval, and that could decide to haul them all off to prison any time it felt like it. I wish them survival and success.
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7 January 2005
2004 Craft Statistics
2004 Craft Report
Compared to 2003, 2004 was a lousy year for finishing crafts. I finished fourteen projects, barely passing my standard goal of one a month. (In 2003, I finished thirty-eight.) My two months of Angband addiction last spring were a large part of that; far too much of my free time was spent chasing letters across a screen.
Random boring statistics:
- Four of the projects were cross-stitch or embroidery, two were knit, one was crochet, one was patchwork, and six were other sewing.
- Eight of the fourteen projects were finished during July.
- The first finished project of 2004 was a bib for my nephew, that wasn’t finished until the end of March.
- The last finished project was a Santa ornament, cross-stitched on perforated paper, finished on December 20.
- Although I didn’t finish many projects, I did start sixteen new ones, seven of which still need finishing.
- As of January 1 I have fifteen UFOs:
- the Flanders map (unlikely to be finished this year)
- the Mucha Ruby piece (ditto)
- the Just Nan Golden Hearts sampler (quite likely; it’s over half done)
- the Sunflowers needlepoint pillow (only if I get in a ravening needlepoint phase)
- the Harbor needlepoint picture (only if I get majorly inspired)
- the Elemental Cosmos pentacle (possible, but depends on whether I make a regular time to work on it)
- the Crane needlepoint (very likely)
- the cat quilt (if I ever sit down with it, extremely likely)
- the blue jay on silk gauze (maybe, but don’t hold your breath)
- the Granny Square sampler afghan (I’m getting bored with it and debating whether I really want to finish it — I’d wanted to make this one for a long time, but now that I’m in it, I’m less enthusiastic, and I don’t need another afghan)
- my ex’s dress (just needs a few hours of butt-in-sewing-chair)
- a dress for a woman at church (ditto)
- matching shirts for my brother-in-law and nephew (ditto)
- One of the sewing projects is likely to be the first finished project of 2005, unless I start a quickie project, which I really shouldn’t do before those are done.
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6 January 2005
Purging Magazines
So, as you may recall, in December I was looking up at the shelves where my craft magazines roost. And lo, an angel of the Dumpster appeared unto me, saying,
Remember, you really don’t have to keep the whole run of a craft magazine; you can just keep the ones that have projects you want to make, or that you otherwise enjoy browsing.
In the case of the old Workbasket magazines, a lot of them do have at least one project I’d like to make, but because the magazines are so advertising-heavy, they’re unpleasant to browse; scanning and OCRing ripping out the project pages and trashing the rest of the magazine is more appealing. The copyright violation purging is taking a while, though.
Meanwhile, I’ve done the McCalls Needlearts and the Country Handcrafts issues. The McCalls are ad-ridden but not as obnxiously as the Workbaskets; I can look at a project photo and read the instructions without being subjected to fifteen ads. The CHs are more pleasant to browse, but because country-themed isn’t my style, there’s few issues that actually have projects I’d want to do. I’ve whittled these down by about half.
And then there’s Country Stitch, of which I’ve kept exactly one issue. As I said, country isn’t my style.
I don’t expect to do this kind of purge with Just Cross-Stitch; most of the issues have at least one item I’d like to make, plus there’s numerous articles I enjoy. And I probably won’t purge Needlecraft for Today and Needle and Thread any time soon, although I have to admit I’m starting to think about it…. (I might feel differently if issues were selling on eBay, but having checked and seen way too many listed at $1.99 with no bids at all, I won’t bother.)
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