Last-Minute NaNo jitters.

So, two and a half hours to go until I can start writing my....gay musical steampunk buddy road adventure supernatural novel, and I'm feeling antsy. I don't feel like I've prepared enough, and at the same time I've made a concerted effort to keep my mind open and allow the characters to take on a life of their own, etc. I have the vaguest idea of an outline, but the idea for this story has been in my head for a couple years, so it's fairly defined. I'm a little worried that because I already know these characters and their situations well, I'm going to run out of story. All the pep talks on the NaNo site, and all the forums I've read talk about just continuing to plug away until inspiration comes back, and at some magical point the story will just start to GO, and go in unexpected directions, and I'm getting neurotic about that and trying to make sure that happens, and oh god I'm a such a perfectionist control freak.

I really don't know if I'm going to make it past...three days. I can barely write 500 words in one sitting, how the heck am I supposed to do 1667 a day?
But! I've got a loose sort of reward system. If I reach my wordcount I can work on one of my knitting projects. And if I do EXTRA well on my wordcount for the day I can watch an episode of Deadwood, since I didn't get a chance to watch the discs I have from netflix before today. And hopefully that will work?
In any case, I don't expect that I'll get much sleep tonight. I will spend my last hours of freedom watching anime. As it should be!

What. WHAT.

I have gone off the deep end. I am going to go completely insane. This is now absolutely certain.

I have signed up for NaNoWriMo. Every year I think about it, like "oh, wouldn't that be crazy/great if I could do that" but every year I talk myself out of it. No more! I am going to try to write 50,000 words of awful unorganized nonsense in a month, and I will do my level best to turn off my inner perfectionist that normally keeps me from writing anything longer than three pages.

....This is going to be really, really difficult. Oh god, WHAT HAVE I DONE?

Drop-Stitch Scarf Pattern

While I'm busting my stash, I decided to try my hand at making-it-up-as-I-go-along knitting and see if I could get a pattern out of it. And lo! something easy, fast, and really pretty, and I've found a great use for this random bargain bin yarn. It alternates large and small drop rows with large and small garter bands to produce a nice drapey, stretchy fabric with just the right amount of sparkle for an evening accessory. :)

Yarn: 1 ball Crystal Palace Yarns "Shimmer" 85% acrylic 14% nylon 90yrds/50gr in Indigo
Needles: US 10 1/2
Gauge: 16 sts/21 rows = 4" in stockinette st, but let's be honest here, it's a scarf. This isn't terribly important.
Finished size: 55" long, 3 1/2" wide

Cast on 14 sts: I prefer long-tail for a stretchy edge

Knit 2 rows in garter stitch
Row 3: *K1, YO, YO*, repeat until last st, K1
Row 4: *K1, drop YO loops*, repeat until last st, K1
Knit 4 rows garter stitch
Row 9: *K1, YO*, repeat until last st, K1
Row 10: *K1, drop YO loop*, repeat until last st, K1

Repeat Rows 1-10 until scarf is desired length, BO loosely. Add fringe if desired.


And I made it in about 3 hours. It probably would have gone faster if my fingers weren't freezing off. XD
Note: I used acrylic needles for this project since the yarn is fairly slippery tape-style, and this helped keep everything in place while dropping stitches.


Enjoy!