NaNoWrMo and Hobby Update

[willowisp]

I'm not doing NaNoWrMo because I don't have the attention span to write a novel. I am, however, trying to get a short story written by November 30th so I can polish it before submitting it in December. The story length is capped at 30 pages, so I'm going to try, instead, to do a page a day of the short. I started writing the story yesterday and managed a page and a half, which means I'm behind by two and a half days so far. Hopefully I can make that up fairly quickly despite my relatively un-quick typing speed.

In other news, I'm still procrastinating on the whole "Taking up knitting" thing. A friend recommended an ebook for beginners, and I'm thinking of downloading it today so I can figure out what kind/size needles I need. Due to enthusiastic recommendations by friends I want to try knitting in the round, but I need to see if the ebook teaches that first. My ultimate goal is to knit hats for people who have lost their hair.

In other other news, I think I've finally decided not to try to make jewelry any more, except for some easy-to-set birthstone stuff for friends and relatives. My fine motor skills are not so fine, and I never feel confident that the stones I set will stay, except in the snap-settings. I still want to pursue gemology and get a degree from the GIA in gem identification, but due to finances that is going to be a long-term goal.

Comments

[twotone]

Good luck with the writing and the taking-up-knitting! It's wonderful that you're planning on knitting chemo caps, and I hope the e-book covers that. I think knitting in the round is much easier than most people think, and I feel like the traditional "teach them to knit a garter-stitch scarf, then teach them the purl stitch, THEN teach them to knit in the round" is not necessarily the best route.

I'm sure people have already shared this link with you, but if you find videos to be a helpful aid for knitting, this site comes highly recommended:
http://www.knittinghelp.com/

It has videos for the three major types of circular knitting under "Advanced Knitting Techniques".
http://www.knittinghelp.com/videos/advanced-techniques

[callibr8]

Ah! Now that I know what it is that you want to knit, that will guide the choices of yarn and needles that I bring with me in December. It will probably take a few tries to get the best combination(s) of yarn thickness and needle size for the chemo caps, but I'm sure we can come up with such. From what I understand, chemo caps are quick projects to knit, which is nice. Also, such small projects are very portable, too! They're likely to be excellent for the "downtime" moments during tournament judging.

One note about English vs Continental: I can knit English by touch. I think that some people can do Continental by touch, but I'm not one of them.