Random stuff

I just got the first transcript back from the transcriptionist, and it's great! She's cleaned it up a lot (unless you've tried transcribing tapes before, you have NO idea how scattered and full of ums, ers, and ahs human speech is) and turned it into something I can work with easily. I can scan seven pages of text a LOT faster than an hour of tape, that's for sure.

Now, of course, this leaves me with a new challenge: how to index and file the mounds and mounds of paper she's happily generating.

(Actually, she's generating email after email of Word files, which I translate into mounds and mounds of paper. Someday I really must get that direct-transfer-of-information USB port shunted into my brain.)

Anyway, I'm now thinking about how to keep track of all these phenomenal stories, and haven't really come up with good ideas. I'm fighting the urge to put together a database to contain them...I've been studying how to build Access databases at work, so right now everything looks like an excuse to use my new toy.

I've started knitting up the tiger lily shawl (got bored with swatching it). It's going pretty well, I've got most of the first pattern (a modified lily-of-the-valley pattern) going. I'll need to work out the details of the next pattern soon.

And, I'm very excited--next week I get to meet the guy who wrote The Erotic Mind! This is a great deconstruction of human eroticism that I read about five or ten years ago, and thought was phenomenally brilliant--it's the only work I've read that goes beyond the how-to guide to sex and talks about the mental part (which is, of course, the most important/interesting part). If you get a chance, read it--it's been reprinted recently. The author is Jack Morin. I'd write more about it, except that it's late and I'm getting tired. Maybe tomorrow...

Laughing at myself

I went off yesterday for lunch with a friend, who very patiently listened to my rambling fears about the book, and finally said, "You know, I think most of your fears will be solved by just sitting down and writing." And you know, he was right? All the questions about format and so on are just a matter of writing it one way, and if it doesn't work, writing it another way. Write lots of drafts and throw most of it away! Try it with a first person narrative! Try it in present tense! Try it as a bunch of anecdotes, try it as a thematic structure!

It's so silly since I know this lesson very well in textiles, but had forgotten it completely when it came to writing. The only way to learn something is to give up worrying about doing it wrong, and simply do it--dye lots of samples, and don't worry about the ones that come out blotchy. Start knitting it, and if it doesn't come out as you planned, adapt it or throw it away, but don't kick yourself over it! Keep playing with it until you're satisfied.

So this will be my new approach towards writing the book.

I have gotten quite sick of revising Chapter Three, and have started laying out the foundations for Chapter One (Day One) instead. Most of it is in snatches like [intro Steffi here] and [route description here], but that's OK--it's just the skeleton, it will be filled in later.

I've also been having nightmarish thoughts about, "if I publish this, will anyone want to read this??" Which is apparently another common fear of the aspiring writer. Real writers know that virtually no one will want to read their book--most people don't read anyhow--but that doesn't bother them. They write it for the people who will want to read it.

I haven't reached that level of sophistication, but I figure I'll just keep writing.

Anyway, that is my lesson for the day: write like you knit. Henceforth I shall view chapter drafts as test swatches. :-)

Speaking of knitting, I have been swatching out the tiger shawl, and am not terribly happy with it. The little bobbles are just vanishing into the lace (as I half-expected) but I haven't worked out how to make bigger bobbles just yet. Would anyone care to enlighten me? I have been using (k1,p1,k1,p1) knots, but would like to enlarge that into a real bobble.

Oddly, the same lesson seems to apply in writing as in knitting: I design a lot better when I am designing only for myself, and not thinking about what someone else (a judge, other knitters) might have to say about it. It's hard to maintain that kind of creative focus while worrying about what other people think.

Various crafty bits

Craft-wise, it has been a bit of a busy week:

• An order of fine (30/2) silk yarn finally arrived, and it is gorgeous! I am starting to knit test swatches for my tiger lily shawl. I’m also experimenting with different textural effects that I’ve learned from this Japanese knitting shawl. I’m knitting it up on #2 needles, which produces a fine lace with just enough openness.
  
  I had planned to do the tiger lily using handspun yarn, but finally elected to use a machine-spun yarn. I’m not a sentimental spinner; I spin only when I can’t purchase the yarn I want. For a pure silk yarn, it’s easy to buy it machine spun, and while it’s not quite as nice as handspun (looks less “alive”), I don’t think the difference is enough to worry about. I’d rather use it than spend another 150 hours spinning, especially since the book project is taking up most of my spare time.
  
  The tiger lily shawl is going to be a six-petaled shawl with three themes in each “petal”: strength/courage, power, and joy. For strength I’m using a braided cable (though I may change my mind on that), for power a set of crowns, and for joy a string of lilies of the valley on either side. In the center of each petal will be a heart with a crown in it. At least, that’s the current plan. I have been designing motifs for it and playing around quite a bit; I expect to spend almost as much time swatching as knitting.

• I’ve started a batch of sun-cooked nectarine preserves. I’m not as impressed with this as I am with the strawberry—partly because I think strawberries taste better in jams—but it’s still coming out quite well. It’s in its second day of drying; I may take it in this afternoon if it’s thick enough. I’m really thinking of it more as a sauce to eat over ice cream than a jam/jelly; I don’t eat jams but I do like vanilla ice cream with fruit toppings.

• I did a first-run batch of dye samples. It’s very hard to get even coloration on fabric dye samples, especially raw silk, and the dye isn’t fully exhausting (I’m dyeing at a 2% depth of shade). But I have a set of very nice samples using yellow, turquoise, and Washfast magenta. I’ll probably do the second half of the set this evening.

• I finished the first piece of the pentagonal shawl, and have been analyzing it to see how they got the pentagon. There are five other identical portions to go—I’m already knitting up the second one—and I plan to use them as a learning/study tool, so I understand exactly how the shaping is working at any given point. This pattern has really been a godsend, both in learning a totally different knitting style and in understanding shaping of geometric patterns.

Really amazing rider story...

I just got done interviewing this really amazing AIDS Lifecycle rider—she was the last rider of the day on Days 3 and 6. She didn’t have time to train—she didn’t know she was going to do the ride until the week before, so she didn’t do any training until the week before the ride. She bought a bike and went straight into the ride.

Anyway, the first day she managed 40 miles, including one very long hill (which she walked up). At lunch, she went in and told them she was done for the day—completely exhausted—and slept the entire bus ride back into camp. Second day, same thing. But the third day…the third day she rode every single one of the 70.2 miles (including the nastiest hill in the entire ride) and came in to a standing ovation, escorted by the entire motorcycle safety crew, as the very last rider of the day.

I don’t know about you, but when I started riding, 25 miles was about the best I could do. To do 40 miles the first day, 40 miles the second day, and SEVENTY miles the third day is just amazing. To do it in long sleeves and long pants (to avoid sunburn) in the middle of summer…well, wow.

In total she rode 375 miles in one week, which is damn impressive for someone who did no training at all. And no injuries and no soreness. I wonder if she’s really human(!)

Oh, and did I mention she’s diabetic?

So, now I’m convinced I can finish this book. If a diabetic, 37-year-old woman with no training can ride 375 miles in one week, I can write this book. Anything is possible!

(Which is exactly what she said…she kept thinking about quitting and joining the Medical team (she had volunteered in previous years), but she had committed to herself to ride, and just kept going…and she did it!!)

Book-wise, I’m excited to say that I have found a collaborator…another friend of mine is working on a novel, and has offered to help me read over/edit the drafts, discuss structural issues, and so on. He and I are meeting tomorrow for the first time. I’m really excited at the prospect—this is something I have needed for quite some time, and the book has been suffering for lack of a reader. I’m ecstatic.

Turkish spindle, dye experiments

First, I have a Turkish spindle! I mean a real one, from Turkey and everything. Well-used, entirely handmade, with elaborately carved crosspieces, and carefully carved so the two interlocking arms of the "whorl" fit precisely together. A friend of mine went to Turkey and spotted it in a bazaar, along with a bunch of other junk--but he knew immediately what it was, and grabbed it for me. I am one happy camper.

The only downside to this spindle--which would be perfect for spinning the heavier yarns I want to try--is that the hole in the center isn't circular; it's more of a lopsided oval. This leaves me with a dilemma: either I hand-carve a shaft to fit the spindle (which may be beyond my carving skills--in addition to fitting through the hole, it also has to be well-balanced) or I re-drill the holes to make it align, thus mutilating a lovely piece of handwork. I'm much more inclined to carve my own shaft, personally. If I really need a Turkish-style spindle, I can buy one; but I can't re-make the spindle.

I have been taking a break from knitting and sojourning into dyeing and sewing. Exotic Silks, which is a silk importer in my area, had a 25% off sale on all fabrics, so I went in and bought three pieces of heavy silk crepe remnants for about $25. It was enough to make myself the jacket I wanted--barely--so I dyed it gold in my kitchen stockpot, cut it out, and sewed the jacket. (It's almost done, I just have to hem the sleeves.)

That, of course, was not nearly enough, so I went back to Exotic Silks and bought fifteen yards of heavy China silk (heavy enough for lightweight garments), and twelve and a half yards of white raw silk. I'm planning to make another set of dye samples, and since I mostly seem to be dyeing silk fabric/yarn these days, I figured I'd do it on silk fabric rather than winding endless skeins of wool yarn. A 7x7 swatch of this raw silk is almost exactly 5 grams, making the calculations easy. I intend to dye several batches at a time, in a big Dutch oven filled with canning-jars.

I'm also going to try using a different set of dye colors. Dyes, in theory, work just like printing, so the base colors are yellow, cyan, and magenta, rather than red, yellow, and blue (which are more for pigments). I've done dye triangles (which represent nearly all the shades you can get by mixing three colors) with the standard primaries, but haven't been able to get some colors I want, like a good mixed purple. So now I want to try a set with yellow, cyan, and magenta. And maybe other colors. Dyes don't have "ideal" primaries, so working with multiple mixes is necessary if you want to get the colors you want.

Me, I'm just playing. Mostly.

The book is continuing to crank along; I've strengthened the chapter considerably and am impatiently waiting for my transcriber to deliver more tapes so I can add in several more stories. It's going well, very well.

I have almost extricated myself from hell at work: after the latest reorg, it was looking like I was going to wind up as a sustaining engineering project manager--which would have been excruciatingly boring--but there are signs now that I'll get something significantly more challenging, like designing and implementing processes and metrics for the entire division. That would be interesting, and would likely involve traveling to the UK, Japan, and quite probably Russia and India, none of which would suck. :-) Another fine alternative would be going back into engineering project management, and trying to build an engineering project management group in the platforms division--but I don't know if that's likely to happen.

I do, however, now have the prospect of something more useful to do than sit there and stare at the wall, which makes me very excited.

Book excerpt

This is a first draft, but not too bad for a first try. I intend to go back and refine it further.

Legalities: copyright Tien Chiu, 2005. Duplication not permitted except with written permission of author.
---------------------------

The road that leads to Quadbuster is long, and deceptively flat-looking. Cyclists climb the first few miles with ease, loping along, rising out of the saddle from time to time to take pressure off the sit-bones, enjoying the shade of the small junipers and dwarf pines. But just past the creek, the woodland gives way to rock and scrubby brush, and the grade abruptly steepens. The sound of shifting gears clacks as riders round the steepening bends. Four cyclists pull off the road, clipping loose from their pedals, swinging black-Spandex thighs over the burgundy, aqua, black tops of their bike frames. A passing vehicle watches carefully—trouble?—but they give the thumbs-up signal as they reach into their saddlebags and start munching. A woman in a U.S. Postal jersey slings her Camelback off her back, fills it from a water bottle, and takes a long, slow sip to make sure it’s OK: halfway up Quadbuster is no time to discover a pinched water tube.

The road steepens again. Cyclists labor up the curve, gripping the handlebars, raising themselves out of their seats for added power, rocking the bike back and forth with their pedal strokes. The burst of energy passes; they sit down again. One rider in black helmet and brilliant polka-dot Wonder Bread jersey pulls off suddenly and bends partway over, clutching at his knee. Three other riders immediately pull over to help; one holds his bike, the other two help him ease to a sitting position. He rubs at the sore knee. The Webcast team comes by in a minivan; spotting the cluster and the thumbs-down signal, they pull over to see if they can help. But there’s not much they can do for a knee problem, so they call for help on their walkie-talkie, and move on. Minutes later, a sweep vehicle arrives. The injured rider climbs into the cool, air-conditioned cab and is immediately offered water, icepacks, trail bars, and red licorice candy. The other riders get back on their bikes, and move on.

One more corner, and the road straightens into a wall. Gears click again and again, the chain slipping steadily down the front and rear cogs, until they enter “granny gear”. This is it; there are no lower gears.

A large woman, breath puffing out, stands and pedals briefly, then sinks back down, grimacing. Mountain-climbing cyclists are small and light for a reason: every extra pound is that much harder to drag uphill. She slows. Her speedometer reads 3.5 miles per hour. Then 3.2. Walking pace. At 2.9, the front wheel starts to wobble sideways; she speeds up briefly. Her breath comes in gasps. Finally, she unclips her leg, swings it over the bike, and gets off. The road is too narrow to stop and catch her breath; she’d be blocking other riders. So she walks up the hill instead, wearing a grim look of determination. It doesn’t matter how she gets up the hill…but she will get there. Other riders, passing on the narrow shoulder, wave at her—fingers barely rising from the handlebar—and say “Keep going,” or “Left,” or nothing at all, saving breath for climbing.

A man in a bright jersey comes up beside her, riding easily. “Hey there…want a push?”

She takes her eyes off the road for a moment, and glares at him. “What are you thinking?? Look at me.” She whips a hand up and down her body. Big thighs, big butt. “There’s no way I’m riding up that hill.”

“Come on,” he says, slowing even further. “I’ll push you. We can do it together.”

“Well, maybe.” She swings her right leg, clad in universal black Spandex, over the top tube. She stands on the right pedal; the bike begins to move. The handlebars wobble. He puts a hand in the middle of her back, over her red Camelbak, braces himself on his bike, and PUSHES. He pedals; she pedals; together they begin to move. Both of them are breathing hard, his bike is waving back and forth as he tries to steer one-handed, but his hand stays solid, firm against her back as he pushes her along. They are a hundred feet up the hill, two hundred…almost level with the roadies standing by the side of the road and cheering. She looks up and sees a line of supporters standing in a row, grinning and hauling on an invisible line, “towing” riders up the hill. One of them waves at the pair. “GO RIDERS!!” She laughs, then squinches her face up and pushes again.

A hundred feet more. Doug, her helper, is wobbling and panting now too, struggling to keep them both moving; but they are moving at a good rate now, coming up on Mom and Dad, cheering riders on and waving a pennant. Mom beats her drum and yells, “GO RIDERS!!” She looks up and ahead. Two or three hundred feet away, a crowd of riders marks the top, and Ginger, the fabulous transvestite, is handing out candy.

Doug is spent; he’s gasping for air, his thighs are burning, and he’s leaning back and forth, trying to keep his balance. With one final push, he SHOVES her ahead, yells, “Go for it!” and turns his bike around, plunging down to help another rider. She leaps up the hill, riding strong; she’s gonna make it. She’s grinning fiercely as she grinds the pedals.

Book, fabrics/dyeing, dating

I've started working on the book again!! I had been "blocked" for over a year, so this is major cause for celebration. I think it was a combination of being unable to work on it (since I spent most of last year dealing with some very vicious episodes of bipolar disorder) and then feeling guilty about it. Having finally acknowledged that the bipolar disorder exists and affects my life, it's finally dawned on me that perhaps there was a reason (besides laziness) that I couldn't work on the book...which in turn frees me up to work on it without wincing over the "lost" year.

At any rate, not only am I writing away, I have FINALLY done the sensible thing, and hired someone to transcribe my hours and hours of interviews. I had been trying to do it myself, and putting it off and putting it off...eventually it dawned on me that I simply wasn't going to do it. So I've hired someone. She's a tech writer (out of work due to increased outsourcing to India) who was a reporter briefly, so has a pretty good idea what I'm after...we'll see how it works. If that doesn't work out, I'll go to a professional transcription service.

I have also been reading over my sample chapter and am pretty darn psyched about it...it has a lot of rough spots, and is clearly a first draft, but parts of it are really damn good--if I can write the entire book to that standard, I think it will be a good book. Whether it will sell I'm not sure, but it will be worthwhile, which is the point.

I was going to provide a plot summary of Chapter 3 (my sample chapter), but realized that it flattens like toothpaste when you try summarizing. I think I'll post a page or two (or one of the vignettes) in a separate post, just to give you an idea of what it's like.

I have also been on a fabrics kick of late. Exotic Silks, in Los Altos, had a 25% off sale, and since their prices on silk are fabulously low to begin with, I went a little nuts and bought 15 yards of heavy china silk (heavy enough for clothing), 12 yards of raw silk, 3 yards of silk jacquard, and 3 yards of heavy silk crepe. All this is white, which gets me to my next project: dyeing fabric samples. I already have set of dye samples using Sabraset dyes, which gives me a good idea of how to mix up quite a few colors. But I want to do another set using magenta, yellow, and cyan, which should give me "truer" colors than red, yellow, and blue. So I've ordered a catalog from Prochemical (makers of Procion MX and Sabraset dyes, among other things). Once I have the right dyes, I plan to make another dye triangle or three, so I'll know exactly how to mix any color I care to. The raw silk should be perfect for dyeing swatches.

I have found, in general, that I prefer buying and dyeing white silk to buying solid color fabric in the shop. Exotic Silks sells silk jacquards for $7.20 a yard, which isn't that far off from what I'd pay for polyester--and since I can dye it, I can make it whatever color I want, rather than having to pick from what's in the store. It winds up being cheaper and more fun to use home-dyed silks than to buy synthetics from the shop. I don't get perfectly even coloration that way, but I find the subtle variation adds to the beauty of the finished product--it comes out as a slightly textured color, rather than a flat single color. I love the gold color in the jacket I'm working on.

So that project should keep me busy for awhile.

Finally, I've now been on three dates with Ed and Rico, and am very happy about the whole thing...they are a lot of fun and are both incredibly attractive (to me anyway), and we enjoy spending time together. So I think I'm going stick with them for awhile, and see what happens. I don't think it'll ever be a serious relationship, but it's a lot of fun. And, to quote the greatest sage of the 20th century:

If you never did, you should--
These things are fun, and fun is good.

--Dr. Seuss

Chocolate foot saga

After a very long hiatus, may I present the story of the Chocolate Feet?

http://www.travelingtiger.com/crafts/chocolate_feet.htm

Tien

jam recipe

12 pints strawberries
5 cups sugar
1-2 tbsp lemon juice

Wash and hull strawberries. Toss whole berries with sugar and set aside for 4-5 hours (the sugar will draw juice from the berries). Bring to boil and boil 5 minutes.

Spread into two jelly roll pans, cover with mosquito screening, and set out in sun. Baste berries every few hours to keep them moist. Bring in at night, or cover tightly.

After three days the syrup should just start to wrinkle in the corners when a clean finger is drawn through. Bring jam to simmer and bottle as usual.

I liked the first batch although I think it got a bit overcooked at the end; the second batch I accidentally burned, so it tastes a bit caramelly (but very good). I want to make a second and third batch to see if I can do better.

And Jill, if you're in town, come by and get some! (If there's any left by that point, that is.) I don't eat jam much myself, so I'd love to donate some to someone who does.

Tien

Whew!

I have just finished making two batches of strawberry jam and one of blueberry jam. Neat stuff, this: it's boiled briefly on the stove, then spread out on trays to dry in the sun for three days. At the end, you get the most amazing, intense, wonderful strawberry preserves. And it's fun, too. I think I'm going to make another batch. (Heaven only knows what I'm going to do with all those preserves, but that's where friends can help. I'm sure they will suffer.) It would be interesting to try the same technique with raspberry and boysenberry preserves, too. Every year I make a batch of raspberry jam just to put into chocolate truffles...if I can get that intensity in a sun-dried raspberry jam, it will make hella fantastic raspberry truffles. I'm already eagerly anticipating strawberry truffles. I haven't in the past because I never really felt strawberries were "strong" enough to stand up to chocolate, but maybe this year...

The preserves also go great with yogurt. I made a batch of yogurt yesterday (which is less "creative" than you might think: I'm lactose-intolerant and have to make my own yogurt if I want any), and a few tablespoons mixed in gave a great blueberry yogurt. Still not as good as yogurt over fresh blueberries, but maybe in the wintertime.

I've also tied/sewn a bunch of pieces of white muslin in preparation for tie-dyeing. I want to make mandala patterns--which I've tried unsuccessfully in the past--and they do best if stitched tightly, so I ran them through my sewing machine. Unfortunately I can't seem to find urea today, so it will have to wait until I can get to an (open) art store. I have soda ash and everything else. I'm really looking forward to that experiment.

I'm also nearly done with the first pentagonal piece of the pentagonal shawl from the book on knitting Japanese lace. It's lovely, but until I manage to stretch it out I won't know for sure what it looks like. I do plan to analyze it to see exactly how they're making it a pentagon. For the second "tile", I plan to concentrate on understanding the structure and the different textures they're using--after that, I may (?) design my own.

I have one other project right now which is taking up much of my time/energy, but I can't discuss it yet. Maybe in a week or two, when I finish.