Knitting projects, tv, rat pictures

Haven't been blogging lately (and by "lately," I mean "in the past two days"), largely because I am still mainlining Avatar and knitting like mad. Actually, the latter is inspiring the former, rather than the other way around. I've sort of been watching Avatar out of the corner of my eye while I attempt to work out assorted knitting problems; I wasn't very impressed with the first season at all.

Either the writing has gotten better, or I've gotten more used to the voice actors (non-Japanese voice actors sound SO WEIRD now!), because I'm actually paying attention to the second season. It also helps that more cool female characters have been introduced.

Knitting-wise, I have finished two pairs of fingerless gloves and am nearly done with a third. I think I've memorized the entire pattern now, which is a little scary. I actually knit some Christmas presents, which I swore not to do, largely because the fingerless gloves take about a day to complete (that is... if I knit through ten episodes of Avatar...). And now, I'm starting yet another scarf!

I spent ages and ages looking for a nice, reversible scarf pattern that would look good with self-striping yarn, which ruled out pretty much all cables. And I didn't want ot do seed stitch, because it bores me. After driving myself insane, I ended up going to the local yarn store to look for a stitch dictionary, only to find they were sold out on everything that wasn't Vogue Knitting's stitch dictionaries of cables or colorwork, neither of which I wanted. Borders also only had two, neither that I wanted for my personal library. So I am now just sucking it up and doing mistake rib, which will mean I will have enough brainpower to actually pay attention to whatever I'm watching at the moment.

And... the rats continue to be cute, albeit naughty! For a period, since they can easily jump off the couch, I was sticking them in the bathtub when I cleaned their cage.

Unfortunately, but really not that unsurprisingly, Ruki has already discovered that he can jump out of the bathtub, despite it being about ten times as tall as him. I stand there and glare at him, while he happily chitters to himself and tries time after time after time, no matter how often I dump him back into the tub.

I think he thinks it's a game.

( Giant pictures of rats )

Jones, Diana Wynne - Deep Secret

This book has got to be the best description of a sf/fantasy con ever.

Rupert Venables is the youngest Magid, tasked with overseeing the affairs of Earth, the Koryfonic Empire, and other worlds in the infinite worlds that no one else really likes to oversee. Unfortunately for him, his mentor has just died, he needs to find a new Magid, all the candidates are horrible, the Koryfonic Empire is falling apart, he needs to find an heir but has no clue how to, and somehow his bumbling neighbor Andrew keeps tangling up his workings. And when his mentor returns, it's as a ghost who puts classical music CDs on endless repeat.

Rupert isn't really having the best month by any means. So he decides to get all the Magid candidates in one place. As assorted fatelines and whatnot would have it, that place ends up being a major magic node and the site of Phantasmacon.

In the meantime, Maree Mallory, one of his Magid candidates, is off having dreams of a threatening thornlady while also attempting to live with her wretched aunt Janine, her less-wretched uncle Ted, and her not-at-all-wretched-but-occasionally-selfish cousin Nick.

Sometimes Diana Wynne Jones doesn't quite sweep me up in her zany plots, but this time, it worked. The hotel of Phantasmacon may be strange because it's caught up in assorted magic-workings, but the experience of having the furthest room from the elevator, having to take eight right turns to get anywhere, assorted room mixups, assorted panels, overpriced hotel food, crowded hotel bars, and general mayhem feels exactly like my own con experiences. Granted, I haven't had many, but Jones gets the energy of the con completely right, as well as the slightly baffling effect it can have on first- (or second-) time congoers.

Added to that, Maree Mallory and her cousin Nick are really wonderful characters, particularly Maree. I grew to really love Rupert as well, and Jones proves to be very good at infusing all the characters with stripes of selfishness, cowardliness or other such qualities while also making them very human at the same time, a la Howl's Moving Castle.

Actually, I wouldn't like the characters half as much if they didn't have their faults.

I had an incredible amount of fun reading this, which was precisely what I needed.

Links:
- pocketgarden's review