A Week in Progress: The ides of March - 6/26/24
Oh wow. I really fell off the wagon this month, BUT I have a good excuse. I had surgery last month and I am still recovering from it. I won't be sharing details, but I will say this: I'm am healthy and recovering well, and I wish it would go faster because wow am I tired of not being able to do much!
So what have I been up to since the Ides of March:
Lots of sleeping
Crochet projects
Coordinating Dryads and planning my own dryad costume
So much reading
Lots of Sleeping:
This is typically what happens after surgery. Healing takes a lot of energy. This is mostly why I did not do much posting, I was far too exhausted to even think about writing anything!
Crochet Projects:
I have a crochet cardigan project that I have been working on for about a year and a half. The yarn was originally purchased to make a baby blanket for a friend, HOWEVER this friend got so many baby blankets she was sick of getting them, so I just used the yarn for my own projects.
Past me also had the grand idea of trying out a VERY complicated Afghan square pattern, which is why this cardigan has taken so long. Every single row for 30+ rows was a different design. Well I finally finished the design! It took me 2 of my recovery weeks, working on it every day, but I got through it! …and then ran out of yarn to complete the shawl… I have been trying to decide if I wanted to buy more of the yarn for it, and I think I will. But it's kinda expensive ($10 per skein, and I need at least 3 more, potentially up to 5 more…), so I'm going to hold off on this project for a little while.
I then decided I wanted to crochet something else. I have a lot of pretty yarn that I have purchased over the past couple of years, and haven't allowed myself to use (in an attempt to force myself to finish the Afghan square). I chose a pretty blue yarn, and started a granny square shirt. I used most of the yarn for the design on the front of the shirt, and what was left I used to make a net-like backing. Ok, when I say I "used the rest of the yarn" what actually happened was I started the back of the shirt before I finished the front of the shirt, and traded off working on both of them to ensure I hand enough yarn to make the back the same side as the front. After that silliness, I had just a little bit of the yarn left over. I used that to attach the front of the shirt to the back. Originally I was not sure If I liked the look of the shirt. However, I wore it to my doctor's appointment, and the PA and surgeon both complemented my shirt and were VERY impressed when I said I made it. With that level of validation, I feel very good about how this shirt came out!
I then started a little purple Queen Ann's Lace belt, just to have a fun easy little pattern to keep my hands busy. This is still in progress, but I think it will be a fun edition to my belt collection!
Coordinating Dryads:
I have been volunteering for a small but very fun Renaissance festival run by a friend of mine. It leans more in the fantasy direction, with a fairy court and fairy queen who protects the Glen. This year there will also be dryads for a new quest game that my friend created for patrons! She asked me to design the costuming and help the other dryads with their characters. So for the past 3 weeks I have been helping our dryads work on their characters and make costuming decisions.
Before my surgery I had started on my costume, however I have not looked at in 5 weeks… my craft office is in the basement, and I haven't tried going down, or up, stairs yet… Hoping to get over that hurdle this week!
My costuming vision is for the dryads to have some form of Greek Chiton as a base for their costume. Then add as much dryad-y embellishments as they want over that.
For my costume I found a lovely brown woven rayon fabric from my favorite second hand online craft store, Swanson's fabric. My plan is to make a modified Doric chiton, and accessorize it with lots of leaf, vine, and flower details.
This will likely be what I focus on for a while, since it needs to be done by the end of July.
So Much Reading:
Reading was the easiest thing for me to do while recovering from surgery. I was not able to sit in a chair for a few weeks, so lying in bed reading was about all I could do! I read 13 books… so I'm going to organize this by book series rather than individual books…
First series I started was the Incrypted series by Seanan McGuire. The main character for the first book is a dancer and crytozoologist… If that doesn't SCREAM "dewfeathers" I don't know what does! Thank you @Itsembyrrose for the suggestion, you hit the nail directly on the head. I am currently finishing the 4th book, and it continues to be delightful!
Second series is The Burning Kingdom by Tasha Suri. This was a recommendation from a book club I am a part of. Books 1 and 2 (The Jasmine Throne and the Oleander Sword) were SO GOOD. It's a fantasy based on South Asian mythology with very feminist and sapphic themes within the story. I loved it. Book 3 comes out later this year and I am sad that I have to wait for the conclusion of the story! T_T
Third "series" is really a novel and a couple of short stories that are fun little epilogues. Master of Crows by Grace Draven is a darker fantasy romance with some spice. I like almost all of the books I've read by Grace Draven, so I knew this would be a book with a formula that I enjoy. I read the novel and one of the short stories, and just got the last short story through my public library on Libby, so once I finish my current book, I'll read it to wrap up that series.
The one-off novels I read were The Cat Who Saved Books by Sōsuke Natsukawa, Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik, and Girl, Serpent, Thorn by Melissa Bashardoust. The Cat Who Saved Books was a slow and dreamy story that was VERY Japanese. I enjoyed it, but because I was not medicated, it was a bit difficult to push through the slow pacing. Despite that I thought it was a beautiful story, and I bet it's even more meaningful for folks more familiar with the culture because of the subtle reveal at the very end. Spinning Silver was not what I was expecting at all, but I loved that because it kept me guessing the entire time! The multiple viewpoints were woven together in a way that kept the story moving and cleverly obfuscated information that may have allowed me to guess the ending. Girl, Serpent, Thorn is one of my favorites from this year. I found it while looking for books to read during Pride Month and was NOT disappointed! It's a fantasy based on Persian mythology with a bisexual (but not polyamorous) romantic subplot. I loved it. I had somehow never read a bisexual romance story before, and it felt really affirming. (Nothing wrong with polyamory! I just noticed that almost all the other bi stories I read this month were also poly).
The final type of book I read this month were anthologies. I read 3! The Unicorn Anthology, Other Ever After, and Add Magic to Taste. The Unicorn Anthology was curated by Peter S. Beagle, so I was very excited for this one because I LOVE The Last Unicorn… some of the stories were very good, including Peter S. Beagle's contribution, but far too many of these stories were FAR TOO FOCUSED on unicorns being attracted to virgins… It was too much. I have never thought about unicorns in that way and I just… It was just not great. Those stories did not resonate with me. Also it was 50/50 hilarious and upsetting that Peter S. Beagle has slightly resented being "the unicorn guy" for much of his life, but has apparently come to terms with it? Anyway that anthology was an * experience * and poorly rated on Goodreads XD
I found Other Ever After in a little free library in my neighborhood and snagged it to enjoy during pride month. It ended up being a queer graphic novel in a kinda children's story book style. It was really beautiful, and I loved the ephemeral nature of the stories! Add Magic to Taste was another book that I found while looking up books to read during Pride month. It was a really lovely collection of queer short stories that have their setting (at least partially) in a coffee shop. It was an excellent feel good read!
Ok time to keep trying to get back in the saddle again! The goal is to have weekly Week in Progress blogs again, and to finally post a bunch of other posts that are done but have not been uploaded to my website yet… Wish me luck!
