Month: August 2021

books · crafty things · writing

4th Doctor Scarf Done, and it went to SiliCon 2021

Kara HartzLeave a comment
Doctor Who, 4th Doctor scarf made by Kara

I’m not sure I remember exactly when I started working on this scarf, but it was at least 3 to 4 years ago. I taught myself to knit specifically so I could make this scarf. I used the pattern labeled as ‘original’ from http://www.doctorwhoscarf.com/s12.html , although I just used the yarn that I could easily find that seemed close-ish to the right colors. I can’t share what exactly I used because most of the labels are long gone and I just don’t know. I know it was nothing fancy: Red Heart, Lion Brand, and that sort of thing.

The scarf and I went to SiliCon with Adam Savage this past weekend. Despite the fact that my ‘costume’ if it could be called that consisted only of the scarf, and the hat, I got lots of nice complements. Got lots of head nods and waves from the other versions of The Doctor when we came across one another. In retrospect, I maybe should have asked for some photos with them, but I was so happy to be out having nerdy fun with masks and without crowds. They severely limited attendance. I read somewhere it is usually 30,000, but was 5,000 this year. For example, here I stand outside a main hall, and just look at all those people nowhere near me. It was great.

Kara in her completed 4th Doctor Who scarf.

We attended both days but I only wore the scarf on Sat because, even indoor with air conditioning, this scarf is heavy and HOT.

Other weekend highlights, was getting signed books from Andy Weir and David Gerrold. I also went to the writer panel with was fun and interesting. I saw so many other cool books in Artist Alley and it was painful not to buy something from each, but we have a very pricey car repair we are trying to navigate at the moment. I have notes and will get to them one day. We collectively did cave in a buy a cute game though. It’s called Gosh Darn Bubbles . We played it at length back in the hotel, and much fun was had. All the cards are fun, but ‘Slappa da Bass’ was the family favorite because it was fun to say.

garden

The Frist Successful Avocado Sprout

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Successful Avocado Sprout (please ignore the dead plant in the window behind it)

For probably more than 6 months I had an avocado seed that had sort-of-kind-of sprouted sitting in this window. The stem part of the sprout had withered and even gone a little white, like maybe with mold? But the root just kept growing and getting more branches, so I thought it might still make a comeback. I finally gave up on it though, and cleaned everything out to try again with a new avocado pit.

One thing I think I did wrong with all the previous pits was let them sit around awhile first. I don’t know where I got the idea I needed to do that? Maybe I read they should be washed and dried, so I let them sit out. I thin I also read that you need to peel that dark brown skin off, and that was way easier to do if it was dried out a little so the skin popped away from the meat inside somewhat.

But that was all hooey, I think now. I looked up the process again, and this new article said that freshness is very important to success. So my next pit, I gave a brief rinse to, didn’t even gat all the avocado off of it, and put it in my little floaty avocado sprouting boat (I like it better than the toothpick method because I would always break the toothpicks and nothing ever grew for me. That seed sprouted within days. It had a good stem of a few inches ling and two tiny leaves when we left for a 4 day road trip. When we came home, it looked like this. I was floored. I have it propped up against the vase in the photo because it was too tall and heavy and kept falling over.

I had to look up what to do next because I never made it this far before. I found several recipes that agreed with each other about the right types of soil to combine to move it into a pot. I took the lazy route and just bought a packed soil that said it was for avocados and the ingredients matched the recipes I’d found. My proud sprout is now in soil outside just below this kitchen window where it can get a little more sun but still be fairly sheltered. And I have a new seed in the boat.

Here’s hoping everything keeps on growing!

P.S. I read a bunch of avocado growing articles and didn’t save them all, but this is a good intro one, and has many other helpful links: https://californiaavocado.com/how-to/how-to-grow-your-own-avocado-tree/

writing

Writing Update

Kara Hartz1 Comment

I don’t have anything new to report, but I think including regular writing updates here keeps me on track, or at least makes me think about things on the regular. I just haven’t been writing much. We had a little road trip to the beach, where I expected to get some relaxation and writing time, but we invited too many people along and scheduled too many outings, or I just didn’t put the effort in (I was supposed to be relaxing!) and I didn’t write a word. It was nice to stare at the ocean awhile though.

I did work on my novel last night, and that felt good. I felt like I was wandering a bit with it though, so I need to review my notes since I haven’t stayed in good close connection with it.

The day job writing is staying on schedule, so I guess that’s going well for me, but, as always, I feel like I’m still not doing enough anyway.

I got a short story rejection and was a good litter submitter, and got it sent back out to another market the next day. It is so tempting to just scroll down the list to the token markets but I’m trying to keep the faith and sending it to all the dream markets before moving on to lower paying opportunities. Having more than one story out on submission does help my emotional stress on this front, as does having a story acceptance waiting to come out later in the year. (I will definitely be sharing that here once it goes live.)

I keep thinking I need to look at some of my older stuff to possibly revise and send out. I’m finding that I hate almost everything I finish, but that when I stumble onto it later, I think, “This isn’t so bad.” I might just be one of those writers who needs to let things set awhile before finial revisions. But thinking I need to do this, and finding the time to do it are not the same thing.