scordatura (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
scordatura) wrote2020-09-11 03:44 pm
scordatura) wrote2020-09-11 03:44 pm
Entry tags:
August Update
Hello, friends, it's... almost halfway through September, lmao sob, but I AM DOING MY BEST UNDER THE DIFFICULT CIRCUMSTANCES OF LIFE IN 2020. We're getting there!! Maybe one day I'll actually get this right!! sobbbb
I'm going to aim to shake up the format of these a bit -- I'm trimming down a couple things to focus on what I really care about, and moving forward I might put a little life-update blurb at the beginning, just to satisfy my desire for a personal-life newsletter, which definitely won't be happening anytime soon, lmao sob again. And that way I can just stick academic and/or work updates in there as they happen! So-- let's see how this goes for now and what that might look like next time around. ♥ And in the meantime, UPDATES!
Writing
Gay Werewolves: 131,569 words (+1k), 128 pages into draft #1, about two-thirds through Chapter 13.
CMRN #2: 77,902 (+1k), almost done with Chapter 11.
Further projects. I'm tossing around some organizational/outlining ideas for Urbomancers to kickstart it a bit more, and I'm already starting to think about NaNo a little -- I thought I had decided on writing 50k of Yuletide treats, but then I had a breakthrough on the CMRN spinoff lighthouse witch/sailor story idea I came up with last winter, and now I am DESPERATE to write that one, ha. So I'm really looking forward to that!!
Knitting
Friend projects: I haven't made any new progress on these, and I actually ended up ripping back project #1 entirely; it had a bunch of small mistakes and I ended up not liking the way it looked overall. On the bright side, I've found a couple new options to use the yarn for -- and I've decided to make some OTHER new friend projects, hopefully starting soon, so stay tuned!!
Mystery shawl: Done!! It's done!! And it is SO BEAUTIFUL, Y'ALL, please behold!!! It was such an adventure working through the endless rows of the last sections, but it's been beautiful and the cashmere yarn is so soft and luxurious, and the finished product just looks like a work of art. I'm almost scared to wear it, but BOY WILL I, BECAUSE IT IS SO GORGEOUS. It is definitely among the top three favorite things I've made thus far!!
Work trip shawl: So this is a project that uses all of the yarn I've bought either on work trips or from dyers local to the places I traveled -- I wanted to do it after my first year, to commemorate all of that travel, and obviously COVID has complicated that entire situation, but -- I'm done with my first year, I'm probably not traveling again for quite a while, so off we go! (I also had the idea, a bit ago, about starting a tradition of purchasing a kit for a shawl on my birthday and knitting it -- and this year, since I've already treated myself to a LOT of new yarn, I figured this would serve as a good proxy! So I cast this on on my birthday, HECK YEAH.) And it's been pretty fun so far! I'm using this pattern, because I liked it best and thought the name was appropriate, and splitting it across six yarns instead of three, so each trip leads into the next. I'm done with two sections so far, and about to start in on the two yarns that I liked best, so I'm quite excited about it!! (You can see my progress here, though it doesn't look like too much so far, ha.)
Socks: I took ANOTHER class to learn how to make ANOTHER pair of socks -- see my progress on them here! And I'm now about 8" into sock #2 of my first pair of socks, just getting into the heel! (And I've just started the toe of sock #2 on the other pair, HOORAY.)
Upcoming projects: This month, I'm going to be starting this sweater (my first!!) with the help of a yarn store class, as well as hopefully some holiday presents for family and Boyfriend, STAY TUNED.
Cooking/Baking
Ugh, sadly I did not do ANYTHING new and creative with food last month!! It just hasn't been a priority for me in between a bunch of other things; I've had a lot of desserts already around, so I didn't want to experience there, and a lot of meals were old favorites I was craving (egg and chicken salad and chicken chili !!). Also nothing new yeastwise; I really hope to experiment more with that this month, though, especially creating a new starter!! Or at least poking at some different bread recipes, SIGH.
Languages
I'm omitting Serbian for now; I'd really like to make some kind of commitment to it, if I'm able, but the problem is that I just... do not have access to books in Serbian that I want to read right now, sob. I'm going to make an effort to find something online that might be enjoyable, and I'll update if I manage to do so!
Meanwhile, DUOLINGO. I'm currently at 24,990 XP, 435 crowns, and level 23 for French (40% complete; not much progress except around 100 new XP); 10,145 XP, 112 crowns, and level 16 for Italian (52% complete; ~300 new XP and one new crown); 789 XP, 19 crowns, and level 7 for German (4% complete; ~200 new XP, 5 new crowns, one new level, and 1% more!); and 630 XP, 9 crowns, and level 6 for Russian (6% complete; ~200 new XP and one new crown!). Maybe I will try to find a more organized way to format these updates next month! I've been trying to schedule 15-20-minute "classes" for myself for certain languages on certain days (loosely: French on Monday, Russian on Wednesday, Italian on Thursday, German on Friday), and while I've missed a couple, it's been a solid system and a good way to get me into a routine. Hope I can keep it up!!
I'm going to aim to shake up the format of these a bit -- I'm trimming down a couple things to focus on what I really care about, and moving forward I might put a little life-update blurb at the beginning, just to satisfy my desire for a personal-life newsletter, which definitely won't be happening anytime soon, lmao sob again. And that way I can just stick academic and/or work updates in there as they happen! So-- let's see how this goes for now and what that might look like next time around. ♥ And in the meantime, UPDATES!
Writing
Gay Werewolves: 131,569 words (+1k), 128 pages into draft #1, about two-thirds through Chapter 13.
CMRN #2: 77,902 (+1k), almost done with Chapter 11.
Further projects. I'm tossing around some organizational/outlining ideas for Urbomancers to kickstart it a bit more, and I'm already starting to think about NaNo a little -- I thought I had decided on writing 50k of Yuletide treats, but then I had a breakthrough on the CMRN spinoff lighthouse witch/sailor story idea I came up with last winter, and now I am DESPERATE to write that one, ha. So I'm really looking forward to that!!
Knitting
Friend projects: I haven't made any new progress on these, and I actually ended up ripping back project #1 entirely; it had a bunch of small mistakes and I ended up not liking the way it looked overall. On the bright side, I've found a couple new options to use the yarn for -- and I've decided to make some OTHER new friend projects, hopefully starting soon, so stay tuned!!
Mystery shawl: Done!! It's done!! And it is SO BEAUTIFUL, Y'ALL, please behold!!! It was such an adventure working through the endless rows of the last sections, but it's been beautiful and the cashmere yarn is so soft and luxurious, and the finished product just looks like a work of art. I'm almost scared to wear it, but BOY WILL I, BECAUSE IT IS SO GORGEOUS. It is definitely among the top three favorite things I've made thus far!!
Work trip shawl: So this is a project that uses all of the yarn I've bought either on work trips or from dyers local to the places I traveled -- I wanted to do it after my first year, to commemorate all of that travel, and obviously COVID has complicated that entire situation, but -- I'm done with my first year, I'm probably not traveling again for quite a while, so off we go! (I also had the idea, a bit ago, about starting a tradition of purchasing a kit for a shawl on my birthday and knitting it -- and this year, since I've already treated myself to a LOT of new yarn, I figured this would serve as a good proxy! So I cast this on on my birthday, HECK YEAH.) And it's been pretty fun so far! I'm using this pattern, because I liked it best and thought the name was appropriate, and splitting it across six yarns instead of three, so each trip leads into the next. I'm done with two sections so far, and about to start in on the two yarns that I liked best, so I'm quite excited about it!! (You can see my progress here, though it doesn't look like too much so far, ha.)
Socks: I took ANOTHER class to learn how to make ANOTHER pair of socks -- see my progress on them here! And I'm now about 8" into sock #2 of my first pair of socks, just getting into the heel! (And I've just started the toe of sock #2 on the other pair, HOORAY.)
Upcoming projects: This month, I'm going to be starting this sweater (my first!!) with the help of a yarn store class, as well as hopefully some holiday presents for family and Boyfriend, STAY TUNED.
Cooking/Baking
Ugh, sadly I did not do ANYTHING new and creative with food last month!! It just hasn't been a priority for me in between a bunch of other things; I've had a lot of desserts already around, so I didn't want to experience there, and a lot of meals were old favorites I was craving (egg and chicken salad and chicken chili !!). Also nothing new yeastwise; I really hope to experiment more with that this month, though, especially creating a new starter!! Or at least poking at some different bread recipes, SIGH.
Languages
I'm omitting Serbian for now; I'd really like to make some kind of commitment to it, if I'm able, but the problem is that I just... do not have access to books in Serbian that I want to read right now, sob. I'm going to make an effort to find something online that might be enjoyable, and I'll update if I manage to do so!
Meanwhile, DUOLINGO. I'm currently at 24,990 XP, 435 crowns, and level 23 for French (40% complete; not much progress except around 100 new XP); 10,145 XP, 112 crowns, and level 16 for Italian (52% complete; ~300 new XP and one new crown); 789 XP, 19 crowns, and level 7 for German (4% complete; ~200 new XP, 5 new crowns, one new level, and 1% more!); and 630 XP, 9 crowns, and level 6 for Russian (6% complete; ~200 new XP and one new crown!). Maybe I will try to find a more organized way to format these updates next month! I've been trying to schedule 15-20-minute "classes" for myself for certain languages on certain days (loosely: French on Monday, Russian on Wednesday, Italian on Thursday, German on Friday), and while I've missed a couple, it's been a solid system and a good way to get me into a routine. Hope I can keep it up!!