ghost2

Doctor Who cardigan photos

ghost2 — Sat, 21 Nov 2020 12:02:54 GMT

I’m finally posting pictures of one of my hand-knit Doctor Who cardigans, made last year, along with some notes.

This one is double-knit (two layers) and fully reversible. I made it top down, flat. There is no pattern. I cobbled together various free designs from Ravelry, with some modifications. The designs are question mark, TARDIS, Dalek, sonic screwdriver, Torchwood logo.

Double knitting was probably the best way of getting the designs I wanted. It is also really slow, basically like constant 1x1 ribbing. I figured if it would take ages to make anyway, I’d design it to be reversible. And since it’s a cardigan (open front), I can wear Doctor Who shirts under it, and they’re still somewhat visible.

One side:

The other side:

I’ve made more DW cardigans with other designs and will post them eventually, especially if anyone is interested in seeing them.

I’m back, Doctor Who knitting, and scam baiting

ghost2 — Fri, 28 Aug 2020 22:47:22 GMT

Well...I’m around. Been meaning to post for ages and haven’t until now. Who’s still active? Or lurking?

I’m going to post some Doctor Who knitting photos here soon. I can finally make cardigans! Actually have done so for a couple years now. They fit me, so this is a big deal. I’m not a very intuitive knitter at all. Plus I continue to make hats and scarves and so on. Most of my knitting is still Doctor Who-related.

If anyone has interest in seeing the knitting photos, please say so. I won’t be surprised if I get silence, seeing how sadly quiet LJ is these days, but I’ll still post the pictures. You can also see patterns if you’d like and ask questions.

A topic for another day is my “engagement” to a con artist I met on Facebook. He’s trying to get money out of me. Good luck with that! We’re planning an autumn wedding. As soon as I send him $5200 lol.

Seventh Doctor scarf pattern from Chicago TARDIS

ghost2 — Fri, 01 Dec 2017 04:15:16 GMT

I'm posting the info about this Doctor Who scarf a few years after originally doing so. My old post is lacking in detail/photos, and the subject has come up again.

I was just at Chicago TARDIS, where I gave Sylvester McCoy (Seventh Doctor) and Sophie Aldred (Ace) each a Seventh Doctor scarf. I went there with that plan in mind, and I was lucky enough to run into Sylvester in the hotel lobby in the afternoon of Thursday, Nov. 23. I saw Sophie not long after that but didn't want to interrupt a conversation she was engaged in, so I waited until that evening's reception to hand her scarf over. Fortunately, she dropped by my table, and I had the scarf all ready to give away.

One of those scarves made it onstage at the con's closing ceremonies on Sunday (it's currently one of the revolving images on the front page of the Chicago TARDIS site plus can be seen here), another one worn by a friend also got some attention, and yet another one that I wore on and off throughout the weekend was popular. I brought a lot of knitwork with me, which got a lot of questions/comments, and that scarf probably received the most remarks.

I've made a bunch of these scarves over the past several years. All of them are double-knit. Using Fair Isle or intarsia (or a combination of those techniques) is possible but not something I'd probably ever try because the wrong side would not look the greatest. Of course, if anyone out there wants to try those methods, or has another technique in mind, go for it. Here's one scarf, double-knit, with the front side in the photo shown first and then the reverse or wrong side shown second.

Now here's the pattern, which is a straightforward repeat.

If you allow for one plain yellow background stitch on either side of the pattern, you can fit the entire thing into 23 stitches across. But I think I've almost always made this scarf 25 stitches across because you need a pair of edge stitches on each row. And you can of course make it wider than 25 stitches if you want.

As for colors, I usually prefer not to mix yarn brands. But with this scarf, doing so has worked fine. I like Red Heart Cornmeal for the yellow, and I most often use Vanna's Choice Scarlet for the red. Those are both acrylic yarns, which I like just fine. If you don't want to use acrylic, I don't have any brands/color suggestions because I've never looked into any. For the blue/green parts, I have tried so many different brands/shades. Can't remember them all. I say just pick whatever you like that matches the weight of the other two colors.

If you still have questions, I'll try to answer them.

Still around

ghost2 — Thu, 09 Nov 2017 23:41:23 GMT

Well, I'm still here. I've been doing a lot of knitting and have actually made items other than scarves lately. This is major progress for me. I'll have to post photos of some of this year's projects. Maybe this weekend.

My Doctor Who and car nightmares

ghost2 — Wed, 14 Jun 2017 20:15:15 GMT

About a month ago, I had a dream that the brakes failed on the (borrowed) car I'd been driving for several months, and I died in a fiery crash. When I woke up, it took me a few seconds to realize that I was actually still alive.

The following night, I dreamed that when I went to the Chicago TARDIS Doctor Who convention, a suitcase containing all of my hand-knit Who scarves was stolen. All I could think about was how long it took me to make them and how it would be incredibly difficult to even come close to recreating all of that work.

Dream 2 bothered me more than dream 1 did. But I still went back to sleep promptly after waking from both of them.

Back to real life. The borrowed car mentioned in dream 1 was just diagnosed with massive problems: significant brake-line corrosion, leaking brake fluid, and a broken spring poised to drive a hole in a tire. The mechanic said it could have failed on me at literally any moment.

So you could argue that my first dream warned me about the bad brakes. And when I recently heard a grinding noise on two occasions when I braked, I had the car looked at soon after instead of waiting--even though the car's owner assured me that the brakes were "fine" and to keep driving.

Maybe dream 2 is warning me about something, too. I usually don't remember my dreams, and I don't believe that dreams in general are prophetic or whatever, but I'm giving dream 1 a little credit in spurring me to quit driving that car once I started to have a bad feeling about it. Who knows, doing this might really have kept me from crashing and burning in a ball of fire. I'm going to think some more about dream 2 and what I can take away from that one. At least I didn't die in it!

LJ 18th anniversary

ghost2 — Tue, 25 Apr 2017 19:29:07 GMT

#mylivejournal #lj18 #happybirthday

I made my first post to this journal on April 28, 2004. I actually had another LJ for a while as well, mostly for Buffy fandom. I was beta reading for an author over there who often sent me fic that she wrote while drunk and apologized for the day after. Anyway, one day I heard from an acquaintance that the author had been struck by a car and died. Someone in our online social circle had the author's address, which she shared so we could send cards to the bereaved family. Not long after, the "late" author returned under another LJ name and confessed that she had made up the whole story. I suspect that when her family started to receive sympathy cards, they wormed the truth out of her and made her confess. I don't know what happened to her after this business. Her new LJ account also vanished. Maybe she started over under a different name.

I don't remember why I deleted my other LJ account, but I started this one in order to participate in a Bad Buffy Fic Mockathon. Participants wrote deliberately bad stories, which were then mocked by the requesters. My contribution was the horrid Willow's Special Spell, which was mocked here. That was fun. And also a long time ago.

New Doctor Who scarf

ghost2 — Sat, 15 Apr 2017 21:06:06 GMT

This is the latest Doctor Who scarf I've knit. I finished it on Thursday, April 13. It took what felt like forever to finish, but I'm happy with it.

It's based on the paid "Name of the Doctor" pattern available at Ravelry, but I've knit my own versions four times now and keep changing more and more elements. For instance, the original pattern has some Gallifreyan writing on it. Looks cool, yeah, but it's obscure. So I omitted it this time, along with some of the more subtle design elements, and went my own way.

Yarn: Vanna's Choice colonial blue and Vanna's Choice white.
Needles: size 3. Not typically recommended when knitting with worsted weight, but that was a rule that I knew and broke.

So here is the scarf. It's about 6 feet long, double-knit (two-sided).

The "after David"

ghost2 — Tue, 24 Jan 2017 01:58:56 GMT

The other day, a friend who had recently been in major trouble at work said to me, "I'm so glad I didn't sign that after David when the manager wanted me to."

Thinking I must have heard her wrong, I asked, "Sign the what?"

"The after David," she repeated clearly.

I am totally going to call an affidavit an "after David" from now on.

(BTW, my friend is a native English speaker.)

Snow, ice, and cold still suck.

ghost2 — Sat, 07 Jan 2017 20:45:55 GMT

I really hate winter. I rarely complain about even unpleasantly hot summer weather because it's so much better than this current wave of crap. It's so cold and icy here, three of the four doors on my car froze shut the other day. Just since winter began, I've gotten stuck in snow twice, hydroplaned, skidded numerous times, and stayed home several days when I would have preferred to go out but didn't think the car could make it safely.

Anytime it's summer and I start to whine about the heat, I stop myself with this thought: "It's not winter!" I have never felt that I endanger myself or others by going anywhere in summer, and I do feel that way all too often in winter.

Today is one of those days. It's absolutely disgusting outside, with piles of filthy snow, big patches of nasty ice, horrible roads, and bone-chilling cold. Wish I could hibernate until March or April.

I'm going to watch Netflix and try to knit a hat today. No more shoveling!

Chicago TARDIS: who's going? Plus two new Doctor Who scarves

ghost2 — Mon, 21 Nov 2016 23:49:12 GMT

Is anyone reading this going to Chicago TARDIS this weekend? I'll be there for the eighth (I think) straight year along with a bunch of scarves I've knit. In a final desperate surge of work, I finished two more scarves recently. They're the ones on the left in the photo below.

Those two are based on the scarf on the right. That baby took so long to make that I decided to experiment with larger needles and thicker yarn, which means that the pair on the left took considerably less time to complete--though they weren't quick work, by any means.

I wonder how many scarves I can cram into my luggage. Let's put it this way, they'll probably take up more space than everything else I'm bringing combined.

Halloween

ghost2 — Wed, 02 Nov 2016 02:52:16 GMT

Passed out Halloween candy last night. Ran out for the first time ever.

The trick-or-treating window in my area is just an hour and a half, from 5:30 until 7:00 on Halloween. I started out giving two pieces of chocolate candy, two pieces non-chocolate candy (lollipops, taffy, etc.), and one little game or toy to each trick-or-treater. This is more than I usually hand out, but I loved Halloween as a child and decided to be especially generous this year. After about 35 minutes, I ran out of games and toys. After around 45 minutes, I realized that I was going to run out of candy too at the pace I was going. I cut back to handing out three pieces per kid, then two.

Still not good enough. I wanted to make it until the ending time of 7:00, so I dug through the cupboards in search of anything else I could give out and came up with packs of gum and individually wrapped snack bars. So for the final half hour, each child received one piece of chocolate and a pack of gum or a snack bar.

Note to self for next year: Buy at least ten medium bags of candy and a hundred small toys/games. Anything I don't hand out, I will happily eat or give away at Christmas.

New TV shows

ghost2 — Mon, 17 Oct 2016 00:39:42 GMT

Every fall, I try to watch the first episode (or more) of each new TV show on the major networks (ABC, CBS, CW, Fox, NBC). IMO, this season has been a good one overall, certainly better than the last few.

I'm enjoying this first batch enough to keep watching, at least for now.
LIKE: Designated Survivor, The Good Place, No Tomorrow, Pitch, This Is Us, Timeless
Frequency is borderline. I liked the pilot but lost some interest during episode #2.

I actively dislike this next group of shows because I feel that they're lazy and boring.
DISLIKE: Bull, MacGyver, Notorious

The last group has not grabbed my attention. The Exorcist is probably good enough, just not my kind of show. Kevin Can Wait falls into the "lazy" category, but it doesn't stir enough of a reaction in me to make me place it in the "dislike" column.
INDIFFERENT: Conviction, The Exorcist, Kevin Can Wait, Lethal Weapon, Son of Zorn, Speechless

I guess I'll post full reviews one of these days. I have a fair amount to say about some of these shows.

Two Doctor Who scarves

ghost2 — Thu, 11 Aug 2016 21:24:53 GMT

Ugh, I haven't posted here since March? Not good. I'm going to get more active again, starting with this post that features a couple of my newer Doctor Who scarves. One was knit in January, and the other was finished on July 23.

This first one is a commission. It was requested that I knit the "Ace" logo from the Seventh Doctor era on either end. The recipient plans to fill the long black space by sewing on replica badges similar to those that appear on Ace's leather jacket. I've hunted online and not seen any scarves like this one, so I had to come up with a pattern.

After doing more research, I decided that the best way to make this scarf was to use intarsia. This led to a couple of issues. First, I'd never tried intarsia before. Plus intarsia is usually done in stockinette stitch, and stockinette curls horribly. I've used stockinette in a few previous projects and disliked it a lot because it's always ended up in a tube shape. Which is fine if you actually want to knit a tube, but it's not so good if you're creating a scarf. Frankly, I didn't want to fuss with trying to flatten it. So then I found out that you don't really have to knit intarsia in stockinette. It's also possible to knit it in garter/knit stitch, for instance. And that stitch naturally lies flat.

I went to a local yarn store, presented my idea to (I believe she was) the owner, and was promptly shot down. "You can't knit intarsia that way," she stated. "Intarsia has to be done in stockinette." But I'd seen where other people online had used garter stitch for intarsia, I replied, and I added that I didn't want to do stockinette because it curls so much. "It's supposed to," the woman replied in a condescending tone--really, did she think she was telling me something I didn't know, considering that I had just mentioned that I didn't like how it curls? She also said that the "Ace" design I showed her was "impossible" to knit.

I left the store and haven't been back since. Of course, I promptly went to work learning how to do intarsia in garter stitch and trying to figure out a reasonable pattern for the Ace logo. That took quite a few attempts. Here's what I eventually came up with:

If anyone would like the pattern, let me know and I'll put it together. My paper copy is no longer readable, but I can reconstruct the pattern by looking at the scarf and need to do so soon anyway.

I made two versions of the double-knit scarf below. The design is heavily based on a paid pattern from Ravelry, so I can't share it. I did modify it quite a bit, though. As written, it calls for lace-weight yarn and US size 0 needles. No way was I doing that. I used worsted weight and size 3 needles for scarf #1, then switched to size 6 needles for scarf #2. As for the pattern, I cut out large chunks and changed other parts significantly. I'll probably knit another one soon with still more differences based on what I like best from these first two examples.

Scarf 1 is the left in the first picture, on the right in the second picture, and on the left in the third picture. This design was much easier to knit than the Ace intarsia scarf--took a lot less time/experimentation and was more straightforward. I've done so much double knitting, it feels odd when I use a different method.

Chicago TARDIS 2015 recap

ghost2 — Tue, 15 Dec 2015 01:38:19 GMT

So it was my seventh straight year attending Chicago TARDIS over Thanksgiving weekend (November 27-29, with a reception on the 26th). I planned to post this recap sooner, but better late than never. Last year I did NOT post a recap, and I regret skipping it.

Anyway, this year's con again saw a nice mix of Classic and New Who guests with Big Finish, Torchwood, and Sarah Jane Adventures also represented. Unfortunately, Jenna Coleman (Clara) had to cancel her appearance about two weeks prior to the con, and Eve Myles (Gwen) pulled out several days after that. That was disappointing, but obviously they hadn't wanted to cancel and it was just something that couldn't be helped. The con organizers then obtained Ingrid Oliver (Osgood) as a replacement guest. She was a very popular choice with fans.

The other guests were Alex Kingston (River Song), Samuel Anderson (Danny), Burn Gorman (Owen), Richard Franklin (Yates), Paul McGann (Eighth Doctor), Dan Starkey (Strax), John Levene (Benton), Christopher Jones (comic books), Tom Spilsbury (editor, Doctor Who magazine), Ross Mullan (the Silence and the Teller), Ian McNeice (Churchill), Katy Manning (Jo and Iris Wildthyme), Finn Jones (Santiago Jones), Sarah Louise Madison (Weeping Angel), Andrew Cartmel (script editor), Jason Haigh-Ellery (Big Finish), Nicholas Briggs (Big Finish), Sean Carlsen (Big Finish), Chase Masterson (Big Finish), and writers Tony Lee, David J. Howe, Sam Stone, Robert Smith?, and Graeme Burk. Hope I didn't leave anyone out.

RECEPTION: This was supposed to run from about 8-10pm on Thursday night. In previous years, most of the guests who are already at the con show up at the reception and circulate around the tables. This year? Not so much. Richard Franklin (Mike Yates) was there doing his best, and I saw a couple of the writers/editors--though they basically stayed in one place instead of moving around. But by well after 9pm, not a single guest had stopped by my table. Then, suddenly, John Levene (Benton) was sitting next to me!

He is one of the funniest people I have ever met. I love him. He immediately launched into a bunch of stories and kept the whole table entertained. From medical bills (a five-day hospital stay in the US once resulted in a $68,000 charge) to his singing career to how guests should dress at conventions, he covered a lot of material. His visit was the highlight of the reception for me.

Well, after he left my table, it got to be around 10 with no one else stopping by. Most of the attendees left, including everyone else at my table. I nearly followed them out, but then I saw that Richard Franklin was still gamely working the room. I switched to a new seat and waited to see if he'd make it over.

At around 20 past 10, there was a commotion at the door. Numerous guests who had clearly just come in from outdoors streamed in, including Tony Lee (writer), Paul McGann (Eighth Doctor), Katy Manning (Jo Grant and Iris Wildthyme), Nicholas Briggs (Big Finish), Ian McNeice (Churchill), Jason Haigh-Ellery (Big Finish), Sam Stone (writer), and David J. Howe (writer). They explained that they had been out somewhere (eating, I believe), and their driver got lost on the way back to the hotel. I don't know that any guests are told they must attend the reception--I'm guessing it's more like a "it would be nice if you did" sort of thing--but it's disappointing that for an event starting at 8, hardly any guests turned up there until well after 10. This did not happen with any reception I attended in previous years.

Since I stuck around so long, though, I got to meet a few of the guests who eventually showed up, writers David J. Howe and Sam Stone among them. They had recently gotten married to each other. I also fit in a Big Finish question about the new Torchwood audios, which I like but which so far have featured just one or two major Torchwood actors per episode. So my question pertained to that issue, and I was told that in series 2, out next year, those audios are moving more toward being full-cast.

AUTOGRAPH/PHOTO LINES: On to Friday morning. Even if you pre-bought autograph and photo sessions online, you had to collect the tickets at the con. This meant waiting in line. It turned out to be an infernally slow line. I was there pretty early, and it still took me over two hours of waiting to get my materials. It took so long that I missed the very first panel I wanted to attend. I don't know exactly what went wrong, but it was pretty bad. I believe some corrective measures were taken to speed up Saturday and Sunday lines, though I'm not sure. This is a definite area needing improvement for next year.

CHARITY AUCTION: I contributed a scarf (which I knit) and a hat (which I did not knit) to the charity auction, so I headed to their table on Friday morning to drop off my offerings. When I arrived at the table, Richard Franklin was talking to Gordon, who runs the auction. He said he wished he had something to donate. The items up for auction at that point included photos, artwork, books, and videotapes. This was a silent auction, where people write their bids on sheets of paper. It was also held in one of the main hallways, so I frequently passed it. Every once in a while, I'd pause to see where the bidding stood for the scarf and hat. During one of these stops, I noticed that a book called Operation H.A.T.E. had joined the offerings. It had been donated by its author: Richard Franklin, with a notation that he would autograph it for the winning bidder. He didn't merely say that he wanted to contribute an item; he followed through.

A live auction was scheduled to take place on Friday night, but it was cancelled since the convention schedule was so packed. Anyway, my scarf ultimately went for $300. The last I saw, bidding for the hat stood at $35. The proceeds go to an Illinois food bank. I think the entire auction took in $2700.

My auction scarf, which featured a two-sided Cyberman design:

KNITTING: I brought as many scarves as I could cram into my luggage, considering that most of my trip took place by train and I wanted to lug around only so much stuff. I guess the total was around twelve, but most were duplicates so I think I had only about five different designs total. I donated one scarf to the charity auction, as detailed above, and three others found new homes with friends from the con. In fact, all three of them were Torchwood scarves. I'm happy that the design was so popular, and I have almost finished knitting a new one for myself to wear this winter. Because, the good thing about knitting? Is that I can make more of something.

The Torchwood scarves, now in new homes:

PHOTO SESSIONS: I got just three professional photos taken this year. The first one was with John Levene on Friday. Initially I was not going to get this picture, but I decided to do it after meeting him at the Thursday reception. I was wearing my hand-knit Big Finish scarf, and he took one end and flipped it over himself when we posed. So that made the photo a little more special. I also got a group photo with (nearly) all of the guests on Friday night, and on Saturday I got the one photo I wanted the most: a group shot with Katy Manning, Richard Franklin, and John Levene (who again posed with my scarf). I would have loved to buy more pics, but my budget was tight. I'm really happy with the three I did get.

AUTOGRAPH SESSIONS: I held to a limit on these as well. Among the several I collected, Chase Masterson (Vienna from the Big Finish audios) signed a photo in the dealers' room. She charged a fee, but all proceeds go to an anti-bullying foundation she started. My big three actors' autographs were, once more, the Classic Who actors. I purchased one photo of each of them in the dealers' room before heading to their joint signing session. First up was Richard Franklin. Someone had told me that he was selling copies of his book Operation H.A.T.E. during the autograph sessions, but I saw only one copy and no price on it when I went up to the table. So I told the woman sitting next to Mr. Franklin that I was interested in buying the book. She said they were sold out, but if I paid and put my name on a list, a copy would be mailed to me. I did this, then got my photo autographed.

Next was Katy Manning, and I got a minute to tell her I love the Iris Wildthyme audios. With John Levene, I asked what he thought of the dialogue in Mawdryn Undead that said Benton had left UNIT and become a used-car salesman. I told him I wasn't sure if culturally, that occupation is considered to be fairly respectable in the UK as opposed to its not-good standing in the US. He said it was not well regarded in the UK either, and he thought it was a "cheap" line: "I hated it," he added. I asked how he would have liked Benton to have been written out of the show, and he said Benton should have become a secret agent.

PANELS: I attended quite a few panels in the Main Programming room. Most of them were the typical mix of a moderator guiding the conversation and audience members asking questions. So there were the usual "What was your favorite episode?" questions and the like, then the occasional unique question. Ingrid Oliver (Osgood) had two panels, but I was able to attend just the Saturday one. She offered a shirt as a prize to the audience member who asked the best question. The winner: "What's your favorite font to type in?" The whole room cracked up when the guy asked that one. Ingrid said it was the first time she'd ever been asked that question! She also received a question from a young boy, whose name she asked. "Hello, David," she responded after he spoke into the microphone. The little guy indignantly corrected, "My name's Aedan!" Which got us all laughing again. (I saw the boy's nametag later, and I think it had the "Aedan" spelling on it.)

Ingrid Oliver:

Katy Manning had one solo panel, and she was a lot of fun. She took her microphone and went walking out among the audience. The Classic panel with her, John Levene, and Richard Franklin was the absolute highlight. Just seeing those three onstage together was a joy. They each related how their acting careers started, how much fun they had working on the show, how much they all loved Jon Pertwee and Roger Delgado, etc. They related some great anecdotes, such as how Roger Delgado (the Master) was playing the villain during The Sea Devils but was horribly seasick during the shoot. Richard Franklin spoke of getting cast on the show after his agent sat next to producer Barry Letts at an event and struck up a conversation. All of them really liked being in The Daemons.

A shot from that wonderful panel:

Katy Manning and Finn Jones (he was Jo's grandson, Santiago) did commentary for episode 1 of Death of the Doctor from The Sarah Jane Adventures. To do this, they were seated so close to me that I could practically reach out and touch them. Katy talked about how she literally fell on top of Elisabeth Sladen during a scene; Finn said he hated the blue shirt he wore on the show because it was thin and flimsy. He actually wore two of the same shirt layered together, which you can see if you look at his shirtline in the episode. Although he had a mop of curly hair at the time he appeared on SJA, his hair is now close cropped and looks very different.

At her Friday panel, Alex Kingston (River Song) wore a set of giant cat ears that ostensibly mirrored her emotions. She talked about her time on ER, where she made her debut on the show's live episode. She wasn't concerned about it being live as she had done a lot of theater work. She said the episode doesn't hold up well now, though, since it was shot on videotape and wasn't lit like a normal episode was. The DW Christmas episode will feature River Song, but she did not let slip anything major about the plot.

Alex Kingston and the cat ears (yes, they did move around somewhat during the panel):

A Sunday panel consisted of several editors/writers talking about their careers and giving advice to writers. This one had an awkward moment as a member of the audience said that he had written a script for the show. He had apparently talked about this with Noel Clarke (Mickey), who was a guest at last year's con, and Noel had offered to look at it for him? Or possibly pass it along to the BBC for him? The panelists shot down the latter possibility, saying that Noel would not have done that and had probably simply said he would look over the script and maybe provide some feedback. The audience member said that he had submitted the script through Noel's website but wasn't sure if he ever received it since the site crashed at around that time. And he still hadn't heard anything back. The panelists basically told him that many established writers hadn't had their work used on the show lately, and he needed to build up a reputation through getting published elsewhere before he could expect anyone at the BBC to seriously consider his scripts. So, yeah, that bit of the panel was a bit uncomfortable because I felt sorry for the guy who asked the question, but the answers he got were realistic.

The panelists:

Big Finish got its time on the main stage, talking about upcoming releases, playing trailers, and addressing audience questions. I wasn't able to attend all of their panels, so unfortunately I don't know if Katy Manning's Iris Wildthyme series, which I love, got discussed.

From the biggest Big Finish panel:

These are just some examples of what went on.

This is some of the big, beautiful dealers' room:

THE JOHN LEVENE HAPPENING: This was a Friday event where John Levene had the stage to himself for about half an hour. He mostly told jokes and also read a piece from a book. Plus he discussed his CD, The Ballads of Sergeant Benton, and asked audience members to buy even just one track using their credit cards to trigger something in sales that might lead to him getting to make another CD. Again I found him to be very amusing and entertaining.

MASQUERADE: On Friday night, I ran into two masquerade entrants who told me they had something special planned for the event itself, which was held on Saturday night. I said I would especially watch for them, and it turned out they had not been joking. During the masquerade, they dressed as the young Doctor and young Master on Gallifrey and acted out a scene that was genuinely good. Not only did their costumes look terrific, their acting was smooth and believable. They won the top prize. This year, the masquerade drew about 28 entries, which seemed a low number to me. This may have been related to the fact that part of the masquerade took place at the same time as some of the Ingrid Oliver reception. Or maybe there was no connection, and it was just a bit of a slow year for entries. Anyway, while the judges were deliberating, the Match Game played out onstage to keep the audience entertained. That was fun as always.

BRUNCH: This event, held on Sunday morning, was a highlight. It was much better run than it was last year, when my table had two long gaps with no guest to speak to. This year, no such gap occurred! My table got several guests one right after the other. I asked Richard Franklin about the plays he has written, and he talked about The Cage, which is about homelessness. He gave the name of Charles Smith to a character yet felt it lacked a little something. At that point, his cat Tyrone, who was nearby, nudged him and said, "Name him Tyrone!" So the character's name became Charles Tyrone Smith. Did those of us sitting around the brunch table believe the cat did this? we were asked. I said I believed it because I have a cat and know the way he acts. Richard also promised that he would send me his book Operation H.A.T.E., which I had ordered after it sold out at the con, though it might take a couple of weeks. I said that was fine; it would be welcome whenever it arrived.

I think Ian McNeice was the next guest to move to my table. He brought an American actor friend, Kevin J. O'Connor, who also chatted with us. I researched him after the brunch and realized that he's a character actor who has appeared in some notable movies (There Will Be Blood, Peggy Sue Got Married). After hearing how long it took me to travel to the con (waking up at 4 am, going from car to train to walking to
commuter train to hotel shuttle), Ian advised me to make easier arrangements for next year. Which I certainly hope to do! Paul McGann soon rotated over; the first thing he said upon sitting down was, "This is like speed dating!" Jason Haigh-
Ellery made it over to discuss Big Finish, and Sarah Louise Madison (who portrayed a Weeping Angel) talked about her experiences on the show.

I could go on for quite a while longer, but I'll stop soon. The con was great fun again. It had a few issues that were not so good, yeah, but I hope to see them ironed out for next year.

MY FAVORITE GUESTS: Each year, one or two guests stand out to me. This was the first time I had met John Levene, and I found him to be really likeable. He circulated a lot and seemed to very much enjoy meeting us fans. I had also never met Richard Franklin before. Well, he was an absolute gentleman who was extremely active at the con and went out of his way to chat. I hope they're both invited back soon.

NEXT YEAR: It was announced that the planned theme for next year's con is the 1960s, where all surviving actors who played companions during that decade will be invited. I am very excited about this possibility and hope it works out.

Some of my favorite shots:

Chicago TARDIS

ghost2 — Thu, 26 Nov 2015 19:19:15 GMT

Well, I'm at the hotel now for Chicago TARDIS. Seeing that it's barely 1pm local time, no con activities have started yet. I hope that next year I come up with a reasonable way of getting here that does not involve arriving so early and also leaving so late--I don't catch my train home until Monday evening, and the con ends on Sunday. Last year I never wrote up a con recap post, but I'll do one this year.

Torchwood and Big Finish scarves

ghost2 — Sat, 14 Nov 2015 17:27:36 GMT

I posted photos of my Torchwood scarves on Nov. 1, but I forgot until now to link from here to who_at_50, where the post is, in case anyone wants to go look.

Bonus: Two of the scarves are also Big Finish. I knit a Torchwood design on one side and a Big Finish design on the other. I got this idea from Lars Pearson, a guest at Chicago TARDIS last year who saw me wearing a Torchwood scarf and then about ten minutes saw me wearing a Big Finish scarf. Both had red backgrounds in the same shade, and he thought the Big Finish scarf might have a Torchwood design on the other side rather being a different scarf. Well, it wasn't, but it gave me the idea to create one like that. I ended up making two. They were interesting experiments.

Any questions, let me know. I don't pretend to be an expert at any of this, but I can provide notes or some sort of pattern/advice if anyone wants to try knitting one of these babies or whatever.

Cyberman scarf

ghost2 — Wed, 28 Oct 2015 04:16:36 GMT

Here is one of my recently completed scarves. It's double-knit, which means it has two layers. Usually with double knitting, side 2 is the reverse of side 1. That is, images and letters read correctly on side 1 but are backwards on side 2. This annoys me, so I learned how to fix that issue. Basically, I modified the letters to make them read properly no matter which side of the scarf is facing upward. The Cyberman heads required no modifications since they very conveniently look the same on both sides (except for one being white and the other being gray) with no extra work.

This scarf can be worn with white background facing up, gray background facing up, or with a twist--as in the photo below--so that one side white and one side gray are facing up.

I didn't work off of a written pattern. I've done Cyberman heads before, so I just used an old one as a model, counted my stitches as I went along with this new scarf, and changed colors where needed. The letters, fortunately, are easy ones to shape, and I figured those all in my head. Plus I've done so much double knitting over the last few years that the basics have become pretty familiar to me.

The scarf might be my contribution to the Chicago TARDIS charity auction next month. I'm going to donate something, anyway, even if not this.

Torchwood scarf pics will be posted on November 1.

Still around

ghost2 — Sat, 24 Oct 2015 02:35:12 GMT

This is not a post of much substance. I'm still around and have been knitting like a demon since August, making scarf after scarf, all Doctor Who-related. I'll gather them up and take a group picture within a few days. My latest few are in the washing machine as I type, going through the gentle cycle to make them softer. I also hope that this washing will stretch the newest one (which I finished about half an hour ago) several inches and even out some of the clumsier stitches.

Summer movies

ghost2 — Wed, 22 Jul 2015 02:08:16 GMT

I haven't posted much in ages, but I'm still around and don't plan to leave LJ.

Quick post just to get me started: I've seen exactly two movies this summer, both way after they opened and had moved to the discount theater not too far from my house. Ticket prices are $4 most days, $2 on Mondays. I may be the only person in the world who didn't much care for Avengers: Age of Ultron. I was so bored, I felt asleep and missed most of the first half hour. Then I spent the rest of the movie playing catch-up and not really knowing why some things were happening. A lot was thrown at the screen; relatively little stuck with me.

OTOH, I kind of liked Mad Max: Fury Road. Yeah, it was pretty much one big chase scene with the occasional interruption, but it was reasonably entertaining. And it didn't make me fall asleep!

I may see Spy and Max within the next week, since they're scheduled to start playing at the local theater later this week and probably won't be around for very long.

Cat picspam

ghost2 — Fri, 13 Mar 2015 00:31:43 GMT

Since I've had Jack for five years today, I'm posting a few fairly recent pictures. He's around eight now; I gave him a January birthday so I'll have a reason to celebrate something during my least favorite month.

Jack is a cat of many talents.

Giving me attitude:

Solving a jigsaw puzzle:

Taking a break from knitting:

Snacking:

Napping:

I'm still around

ghost2 — Fri, 09 Jan 2015 01:57:06 GMT

Haven't posted since late November, but that's actually not bad compared to some, I think. I was checking my flist and saw one friend who hasn't posted in three years. She's not the only one who hasn't been around in ages. Honestly, I wonder if something bad has happened to a few people. I have no way of knowing what's up. Maybe they dropped LJ and moved to Twitter or Tumblr or wherever, but none of them give any indication of this on their journals.

Anyway, I was particularly inspired to post today because apparently some people are weeding their flists at the start of the year. And I just got weeded by someone. So I weeded back, since I really don't want a non-friend to have access to my friends-only posts.

I'm not deleting anyone else unless they delete me first. Doesn't matter if you haven't been active in a while. I hope to see more of you posting this year, and I'm going to try to post/comment more myself. I didn't do too well with that this past year, for sure, but I'll work on it.

On my way to Chicago TARDIS

ghost2 — Thu, 27 Nov 2014 11:50:54 GMT

I can't remember the last time I had to get up at 5:30 am. I am NOT a morning person. But I have to catch the only train in the area that goes to Chicago, and it goes there just once a day.

Anyway, I hope to see some familiar faces at the convention. I'll post a full report when I get home.

Big Finish: Evelyn Smythe post

ghost2 — Tue, 30 Sep 2014 14:07:53 GMT

For those of you who don't know, Maggie Stables (Evelyn from the Doctor Who Big Finish audios) died on Sept. 26. Evelyn is possibly my favorite original BF companion (it comes down to her and Charley). I haven't listened to all of her audios yet, but of the ones I've heard, I most strongly recommend The Marian Conspiracy and Doctor Who and the Pirates. Big Finish's Evelyn Audios: I used the Big Finish filter to come up with this list of the audios she's been in. All are available for downloading, and most are available on CD as well.

Anyway, I went looking online for Evelyn-related posts and found some for artwork, audio reviews, fanfic, icons, and more. Did you know that someone crocheted an Evelyn doll? Now I kind of want to learn to crochet just so I can make that doll. And even though I don't drink tea, I kind of want to buy Evelyn-inspired tea (at least two blends are available!).

This is by no means a comprehensive list of Evelyn-related items. I'm sure I missed a lot of great material; feel free to add links in the comments section.

ARTWORK
6th and Evelyn: wallpaper, Evelyn with the Sixth Doctor in his blue coat.
Always Go For the Cliche: Evelyn's motto.
Companion Sketch: Evelyn
Doctor Smythe and Doctor Who
Evelyn and Six: #1.
Evelyn and Six: #2.
Evelyn and Six dancing
Evelyn for the Win: a stamp.
Evelyn the Pirate Queen: with Mermaid!Six.
An Excellent Solution To Many Of Life's Problems: Six and Evelyn making a chocolate cake.
Five Minutes: Six and Evelyn.
Pony!Evelyn
Possibility: Seven and Evelyn.
Sixie, Evelyn and Cocoa
Songs to fill the air: Six/Evelyn dancing.

BACKGROUND INFO
TARDIS Data Core
Wikipedia entry

BIG FINISH RECS/REVIEWS
Audio Recs: a little discussion of Evelyn audios with recommendations.
The Complete Sixth Doctor Adventures (so far...): reviews.
Reviews: covers the earlier Evelyn audios.

ESSAYS/TRIBUTES
All About Evelyn
Evelyn Companion Love Thread
Evelyn Smythe: A History of Awesome
Evelyn Smythe and Whippersnappers
Why I Love Evelyn Smythe...

FAN FICTION
Calufrax Evelyn Fanfic Recs: recommendations of fic posted at A Teaspoon and an Open Mind that includes Evelyn.
Evelyn-Tagged Fic at An Archive of Our Own
Whoniverse Random Pairing Generator: fanfic inspiration if you want to write your own stories. Refresh until you get Evelyn as part of the random pairing. Examples: "Fey Truscott-Sade / Evelyn Smythe / a swimming pool" and "Adam Mitchell / Evelyn Smythe / Japan."

ICONS
Colin Baker/Maggie Stables Icon: one of a number of Big Finish icons on this page.
Evelyn Icon: #41.
Evelyn Icons: from Real Time, various Big Finish audios, fanart.
Six Evelyn Icons
Three Evelyn Icons: scroll down the page. They're also on this page as icons #26, 27, and 28.
Two Evelyn Icons: they were made as gifts for me; scroll down to the "ghost2" section to find them, along with several other BF icons.

OTHER
Crocheted Evelyn Doll and her handbag with contents
Evelyn clothing and accessories suggestions: or, how to dress like Evelyn. Items are available for purchase.
Evelyn-inspired tea blend #1: available for purchase.
Evelyn-inspired tea blend #2: also available for purchase.
Real Time webcast: featuring Evelyn.

I'd love a recipe for Evelyn's chocolate cake, if anyone has one.

Free Spoonflower swatch for next 23 hours

ghost2 — Tue, 19 Aug 2014 16:53:23 GMT

Spoonflower is offering a free 8-inch-square swatch of a material they call Eco Canvas. It's available for free for a 24-hour period only. At the time I'm posting, the first hour is almost up. This promotion ends at noon Eastern on Wed., Aug. 20. Shipping is free, and the offer is available worldwide. I thought maybe someone on my flist might be interested. I ordered a swatch with a Torchwood design on it.

Knitting is NOT relaxing

ghost2 — Mon, 18 Aug 2014 01:40:53 GMT

I feel my blood pressure shoot through the roof most of the time when I pick up knitting needles.

Also, how the HELL do you increase in double knitting? The videos I've found so far are impossible to follow.