Give me Something to Sing About - The Music(als) Pitch for NW2016

The whole idea for running a Musicals track came from a conversation with friends at last year's Nine Worlds, about how many shows had musical episodes now, which led to a wider conversation abut Musicals (not that I ever need an excuse) so I mentioned the idea to one of the Nine Worlds staff and they told me to submit a pitch. 

Once I got home and started having about Musicals, and running a Musicals track, I cam up with some things I thought it would be interesting to discuss that were not related to musicals strictly, so much as were music related, so I widened the pitch a bit! 

So, this is the pitch I submitted to Nine Worlds last year, and have sent off again this year:

Panel ideas: 

1. Feminism in Musicals. So looking at everything from Calamity Jane to Disney.

2. Do villains get the best music? (Ursula, Oogie Boogie, Darth Vader!)
3. Celebrate Disney (join with Kids track, prizes for costumes, sing a long to Disney songs, coloring in, pick you favorite hero/ heroine/ villain ?)
4. An analysis of musical episodes   (Lexx, Fringe, Xena x 2, Buffy, Scrubs, Community) 
5. Driver picks the music- How important is music in genre? (Supernatural, Buffy, GotG etc)

6. Films that straddle the border - Is it a Musical or just a film with music? 

7. When the Soundtrack is as famous as the film (A celebration of Queen)
8. Songs in literature (GoT, Tolkien, Hunger Games etc)
9. Songs as parody and homage (Not Literally, taking the hobbits to Isengard, weird Al Yankovich, filk etc...) 
10. Guilty pleasures (songs you sing in the shower) 
11. Representation of LGBTQIA+ in musicals. (Hedwig and the angry inch/ Cabaret/ Rocky Horror etc) ((Join with LGBTQAI+ track))

16. New Hollywood vs Old Hollywood  (Rogers & Hammerstein vs Hairspray etc)

17. Use of classical music in Sci- Fi (although this would probably need people with actual music knowledge/ actual musicians involved!)

18. Williams vs Elfman (pick a side and defend your choice!) 

Other things to do:

1. Showings/ Sing along's: (Lots to choose from- Repo/ Rocky Horror/ Little Shop etc as well as Buffy / Dr Horrible) 
2. Create the soundtrack of your life (nominate songs to create the ultimate soundtrack)    ((This could be a white board outside the room that people can write on, similar to the cookbook idea this year))

3. Musicals quiz

4. Parody Party (dance along to the parody songs)

Guests:

Well if we could get Anthony Stewart Head that would be amazing! ;)

Other than that I'd suggest we just ask if any of the authors other guests etc like musicals and want to join in?

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So what do you think? What am I missing? What more could we do if given the chance? 

Obviously there's been some great comments on Twitter, but I thought if I put the blog up we could discuss it here, which might be a bit easier (certainly easier for me to look back on if this actually goes ahead!) 

Busy Busy Bsy

Well this year has certainly started with a bang.

I started a new project at work, and then got a promotion. I've spent the last few weeks dual running roles which has been a bit hectic to say the least.

My other half has also got a new job, and then on the day before he was meant to start he got kidney stones and was rushed into hospital. He's mostly all better now thank goodness but still, as I said, busy, busy, busy.

Certainly hasn't left much time for blogging or knitting that's for sure!

Let it go, let it go....

So Christmas has been and gone,

Happy new year everybody!

I got three of my four projects finished on time, and the fourth is still on-going as there was a hitch with the pattern I was using so I ended up having to frog it and start again with a different pattern. I've got to admit when I realised I wouldn't get it finished on time I may have got a bit lax. *slaps hand* Easter presents are a thing right?

I'm not one for resolutions really, I think people tend to not stick to them, they're a bit clichéd, but this year I have one clear resolution, stop over thinking things and let them go. Stop dwelling. Look for the positive.

I'm one of those people that hates bottling things up, if there's an issue I would rather tell someone so that it can be dealt with. But I know I also tend to over think or over analyse things, I look for issues where there may be none, I worry. A lot. And you know what? I need to stop.

While I still firmly believer that bottling things up doesn't help anyone or anything, and there is a need to talk things out. I also think I (and many people) just need to stop worrying what others think about me, and stop looking for issues or insults where there are none.

I think, if there really is an issue in your life it'll become obvious. If it's not obvious, then it's probably not a thing you need to be worrying about. If someone forgot to mention something to you or was a bit off last time you talked to them, stop assuming you've done something wrong. Maybe they were busy, maybe they have a lot on, maybe they're stressed. If they do have an issue with you, they'll talk to you about it, and if they don't, then they're probably not the friend you thought they were anyway, so does it matter?

Move on, let it go.

That's my resolution.

And do more knitting. Obviously.

*wanders off singing "Let it Go"* Damn Frozen soundtrack.

Cowling in fear...

OK, that last blog got a bit more attention on twitter than I expected!

I'm glad so many people found it helpful/ interesting, but I might just huddle down here for a minute while I process the fact so many people read what I wrote! So please forgive me while I distract myself by going back to the subject of this blog... Knitting!

A few weeks ago I made the 'Treads' fingerless gloves (see a few blogs ago for the pattern). I had a skein of the lovely yarn left after I finished, and as such decided to try and make a matching cowl. I'm quite pleased with the result, as such I thought I'd jot the pattern down here for others to find.


Complimentary Treads Cowl.

Materials: 
75 meters of worsted weight yarn.(I used Mirasol Miski)
size 5.5mm needles.
Stitch marker and tapestry needle.

Pattern: 
c/o 100 stitches in long tail cast on,
Join in the round and place stitch marker to note the start of the round
Rib K2, P2 for 1.5 inches,

Knit 1 round of Lateral Braid. (instructions on how in italic if you need them)

To begin, m1r and then replace this newly made st onto the lh needle.   
* Bring yarn to back. From the back, knit into the back of the 2nd st (the one to the left of the newly made st), and then, keeping that st on the needle and yarn at back of work, bring needle around to front, and knit into the front of the first st.  
Slip both of these first and second sts off the lh needle.  You should have 2 newly made sts on your rh needle, replace the leftmost st back onto the lh needle. 
Repeat from * for the rest of rnd. When rnd is complete, slip the first st of the next rnd back onto the rh needle point ** and pass the last st of the rnd over that st (as you would do a bind off).    
Replace the first st of the rnd onto the lh needle point.  

Knit 4 rnds,

Begin Linen Ridge stitch:

Row 1: purl
Row 2: *(wyib sl1, p1), repeat from *
Row 3: purl
Row 4: *(p1, wyib sl1), repeat from *
Knit 2 repeats of rows 1 to 4 of the Linen Ridge Stitch,  then repeat rows 1 to 3 of the Linen Ridge Stitch, ending with a purl row.

Knit 4 rounds,

Knit 1 round of Lateral Braid,

Rib K2, P2 for 1.5 inches,

Bind off.

The finished cowl comes to 5.5 inches. If you've got more yarn to play with than me, then I would suggest ribbing for 2 inches.

You could also make the cowl longer by adding more knit rounds in, or having two bands of linen stitch separated by 2 rows of knit stitch.

But it's that simple, matches the gloves nicely and looks great.

Here's the cowl.










Here's the cowl with the gloves

And here's the Other Half modelling them to check the fit, the cowl does also work as a headband, but he won't let me take a photo of that! ;)

Looking for the positive...

Recently I've been thinking a lot about mental health, the work/ life balance and how to get the most out of my life.

I've realised that I'm very blessed in that I am generally a positive person. I'm also a planner, and a do-er, these are all great attributes at work and have helped me do well in my career, but they are also things that can help me at home. 

At the moment, whilst I love my job, I have a horrid commute. A while ago this was really getting me down, and left me feeling drained, and pretty cranky at home.

I'm lucky enough to be on a career development programme at work, and so I discussed how I was feeling with my peer group and got given some ideas on how to make things better.

The first solution was 'Stop doing the commute, find another job'. Simple in theory, not in practice. So there were some other suggestions for the meantime, until another job comes along. The first two were both eminently obvious and practical...

1. Have a proper breakfast, and eat lunch. I was skipping breakfast or eating a cereal bar on the go, and quite often working through my lunch. Not good, it was making me feel more drained as my body was burning up my energy reserves instead of food. So yes, I've stopped doing that. (Ok I'm still working through lunch sometimes, but not ALL the time, and I am at least making sure I eat my lunch while I work). And I definitely have more energy during the day, and am usually in a better mood once I get home.

2. Relax on my day off. I don’t work Fridays, I tend to do about 40 hours + on my 4 days in, so originally this was my day with The Boy, but now he's at school I was tending to work even on my days off, checking emails, taking phone calls or analysing the next weeks work to try and get a head start on it. This meant I was never properly relaxed. 
Stopped that. Unless it’s an emergency I've stopped working on my days off, I now try and exercise or relax by knitting etc. on my day off. Much better. 

But the third thing a peer suggested really made me stop and think.

Cut out negativity in your life.

Now as I said I'm a positive person, and on face value I wouldn't say there are many negative things in my life. But actually the more I thought about it, the more I realised how draining things around us can be. Especially the media; both main stream and social.

So much on TV at the moment is negative or depressing, and I don't just mean the news. So many TV shows are just depressing, fantasy shows about people disappearing, or the apocalypse happening; crime shows about kidnappings and death. Gotham is a great example of this for me, now obviously given the source material it was never going to be the most uplifting show, but it was just so 'grim'. It was just getting me down.

Social media is also really good at surrounding us with negative, depressing stories. There are some people out there who only seem to post negative things. I realised that on twitter especially I tended to be more negative than I naturally am (especially when it comes to complaining about my commute!)

So actually this suggestion to cut out 'negative things' had merit.

As such I've cut out ALL depressing TV shows. No more Gotham, no more the Walking Dead etc.... 
I've also started checking ng social media less, not stopping, but stepping back. I've also unfollowed or muted people who ONLY seemed to post negative things. Perhaps that sounds harsh, but hey, sometimes we have to be selfish especially when it comes to our health! 
I've also stopped checking the news several times a day, no more reading stories on Facebook that are obviously going depress me, and no more constantly checking my emails etc...

Now obviously I can't cut out every negative thing. Friends go through bad times and I'm certainly not going to mute them just because they're down! Nor can I ignore all the news out there. World events are important; Negative things will still happen; things will still go wrong every day.  But I can look for the little things more.

One tip I got told was to try and find 5 little things (or big things) that made you happy, or were positive a day. And it really does help. It helps you start to see the good things, and stops you dwelling on the bad.

So please, people of the internet, try to find 5 good things a day, and cut out as much negative stuff as you can. It won't solve all your problems, or banish your black dog, but it might just help you cope a little bit.

And knit more, it's relaxing (most of the time)...  ;)

3 down, 1 to go...

So its now December, which means Christmas is edging ever closer. 

We stuck on some festive music and put our Christmas tree up yesterday. Which means I have officially declared it Christmas in our house!

Unfortunately the Boy is now asking daily if today is Christmas Night (I'm guessing he means Eve) so I keep having to disappoint him. Tonight after he goes to bed, we're planning on getting our wrapping done. At the moment our house looks a bit like an Amazon warehouse.

Anyway, I now have 3 of my knitted presents done, and only one to go. Phew! Present number 3 was definitely the trickiest of the lot, as the gloves featured a new stitch for me, but I'm rather pleased with them.

Here's the pattern if anyone fancies having a go! 

http://oftherain.wordpress.com/2010/04/05/treads-a-tipless-gloves-pattern/

ALL THE KNITTING

Today I've had the day off, the Boy has been at school and the other half has been being domestic. As such I have used the day to knit.

I finally got the Neverending shawl finished and it's now blocking on the board.

I've now cast on some fingerless gloves for my mum's boyfriend, he's currently repairing a boat and it tends to get cold, so I thought some fingerless gloves would be useful.

The pattern I'm using is lovely and features a stitch I've never used before, the lateral braid which is cool and I'm really happy with how it turned out for my first attempt!