The Blog to Nowhere

Whoo, parade day! Perfect weather today. I wish I had a group shot of the Doctor Who cosplayers, but I didn't think to grab one. There were these cute kids (twin siblings) dressed up as Twelve and Thirteen. Oh my god, they had so many people taking their picture. The parents are big Whovians themselves and they've been dressing up their kids since they were born.

( Friday details behind the cut )

Saturday is going to be a little more packed schedule wise. I need to grab Wil Wheaton's autograph and potentially give him a knitted Wesley Crusher doll that I made him. Here's hoping he's accepting gifts.

- I get a lot of good books from my book club, but there aren't a lot of books I rave about. I recently finished The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers and it was so good. I had wanted to read this book for a while now and I finally had some time to get it out of the library. If you love Firefly and Mass Effect, this is a book series for you. It has a rag tag crew of a cargo ship just trying to make a living set against the backdrop of this galactic community that includes a lot of neat aliens. The book is a bit info dump-y at times, but you just plough through it to get back to the good stuff, which is scenes with the crew. The plot is basically a series of vignettes as the crew makes the trip to the small angry planet of the title, but they're great character moments. There's no big political conspiracy, well, there is, but the crew isn't involved with it for most of the story, so that's a nice change from these sprawling and complicated space operas.

And I totally pictured Nathan Fillion as the captain of the ship. He probably doesn't match the actual description of the character, but when I think of gruff but lovable captains in charge of a oft repaired cargo ship, I can't picture anyone else.

There's a second book in the series, but I'm annoyed that it doesn't follow the crew. It's still set in the same universe and it picks up on a plot thread from the first book, but I'd rather the author spend more time with these characters she has crafted. Oh well. I'll still read the second book, but the third book better be about the crew or at least feature them in some capacity.

- After watching The Defenders, I wanted to upgrade my Jessica Jones cosplay to include her black hoodie and somehow that led me back to looking at pictures of her infinity scarf. Now, when Jessica Jones first came out, no one had identified the screen used scarf, so I had winged a pattern when knitting my own scarf. Well, to my great delight I saw that fans had identified the scarf in the interim and I was finally able to track down some reference pictures of the SA scarf. Needless to say, my scarf was a decent attempt, but it's not a good match.

Now, I'd usually be content to just leave the scarf as is, I'm a "good enough" cosplayer at heart, but this is knitting. This is a skill I'm actually good at. If I can knit a better scarf, then dang it, I want to knit a better scarf. So I've been looking at stitch patterns that will closely resemble the actual stitch pattern of the SA scarf. It's some weird stockinette seed pattern that also creates a honeycomb look on the wrong side. I think I've found a stitch pattern that would recreate most of the elements, but I still want to see if I can refine it a bit further before I start looking for wool.

(I really should be focused on my Christmas knitting, but I just can't help myself.)

- Alex Kingston and Charlie Cox are guests at Edmonton Expo this year. I keep meaning to head up to Edmonton to check out their comic expo, but the time and money factors always get in the way. Alex is the last person I need to finish off the autographs for November, aka Eleven's month, on my Doctor Who calendar, so that's part of the reason I'd like to meet her. With Charlie Cox, I just want to ask him if he's still knitting. :-D Though, perhaps this means they will come back to the province next year for CCEE since the expos sometimes carry over guests from one city to the next.

- And damn we've been busy at work. Can't wait for the long weekend.

- Aw yeah. The Doctor Who Experience is offering TARDIS set tours for the summer. I did the tour last time when I was there in 2013, but hey, why not do it again. I'm going for my birthday, dang it! I'm going to treat myself. Maybe this time I'll remember to look at more of the details than just generally gawk at the whole set.

- So my supervisor asked me this week if I needed April 28 off since that's the first full day of the comic book expo. I kind of laughed in the back of my mind. See, that's a supervisor who cares. She's also a geek, too, so that helps as well. Another co-worker, the other big geek at work, is also going so that's probably what prompted my supervisor to ask. Good thing it's kind of slow right now. I'm not going to miss much (beyond a pay day) if I'm away for a day.

- I think I have my cosplays sorted out. I'm not going to bother with Thursday night this year. I'm going straight to the grounds from work, and while the dress code is fairly laid back, I don't have anything that would double for both work and the expo. So:

• Friday: Femme!Four from Doctor Who. A repeat from last year. It's parade day and my photo op day with Peter Capaldi. I settled on a Classic Who Doctor because I thought Capaldi might notice it more. There will be an endless amount of Tens and Elevens and Twelves and Claras, but there probably won't be too many Fours. If anything, Capaldi will notice the scarf and maybe that will spark a conversation. Fingers crossed that he's involved in the parade. Hey, last year our Doctor Who cosplay group ended up walking behind John Barrowman's car. It could happen, right?


• Saturday: Jessica Jones from Jessica Jones. I considered breaking out my Melinda May cosplay for Saturday, since that's the day of my Jeremy Renner photo op, but then I remembered that I had another Marvel cosplay. Melinda would make more sense, since she's S.H.I.E.L.D. and Clint was S.H.I.E.L.D., but my gosh, my Jessica Jones outfit is so comfy. I'm also considering bringing a toy bow for Renner to hold. He seems like a chill guy so hopefully he's not going to mind holding a cheap prop for laughs.


• Sunday: Ace from Doctor Who. This might be subject to change. My Seven cosplayer mentioned he might be doing Seven on Sunday so this would be a great opportunity to match him and snap some photos. If he changes his mind, maybe I can break out my Kaylee cosplay in honour of Nathan Fillion.

- Still pounding away at Mass Effect: Andromeda. There are just so many side missions to do; I don't know when to stop. I should probably focus on the main storyline and finish up the game that way, but I'm so easily distracted.

- And I thought I would mention that I do have a Dreamwidth account under the same username. I'm not using it right now, but it's there if needed.

My god, it's only Friday and I'm already wiped. I'm getting old.

( Parade details and photos behind the cut )

I'm hopeful it'll be a shorter day tomorrow. I have to get Billie Piper's autograph and photo-op, but the rest of the day I could spend in the big panel room. A day of sitting would be awesome.

- Three weeks out from the comic book expo and now is the time that I decide to start working on my cosplays? Okay, so it's not like I'm starting costumes from scratch with only 21 days to go, but you think I would have done this sooner. Good thing it's only minor additions to cosplays that are pretty much done anyway, but the pieces still need to ship from their various locations. I do have about a week wiggle room if things do arrive later than the estimate, but it'll be close.

( Boring details behind the cut )

I suppose that's the nice thing about cosplays. They're never just "done". You can always change them and update them as your skill level and your budget improve.

- Well, after all of that teasing, Arrow finally answered the mystery that's been hanging over the entire season.

( Spoilers for Arrow 4x18, "Eleven-Fifty-Nine" )

I assume the mystery is solved, unless this entire thing is a red herring, but that seems kind of cruel.

- The trailer for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story dropped today. I had completely forgot that the movie was coming out in December. Maybe I'm just in denial that there's going to be new Star Wars content like every year. *in crotchety old person voice* In my day, all we had to look forward to were the special editions and the prequels.

Kidding aside, it does look interesting and there's another new female lead we can admire. :-)

- My friend, the one I'm knitting the season 16/17 Doctor Who scarf for, recommended a really good book last year and I only got around to reading it a couple of weeks ago. I just finished it and I wish I had read it sooner. It was so good. Jackaby, by William Ritter. It was described to me as Doctor Who meets Sherlock Holmes, and yup, that was a totally accurate summation. Jackaby is a consulting detective who is brilliant and observant but completely oblivious at times, but he is always about helping people. Just imagine a younger Benedict Cumberbatch with the coordination and voice of Eleven. So much of the dialogue sounded like things Eleven would say. I don't know if it's an intended homage by the author or if he was subconsciously channelling Eleven while he was writing, but I had Eleven's voice in my head the entire time. Basically, Jackaby is the love child of Sherlock and the Eleventh Doctor, but he investigates paranormal and supernatural cases.

Jackaby also has an assistant, who very much fills the Companion/Watson role. Abigail writes up the cases and asks the questions and gets into trouble so Jackaby can come up with a solution, but she also humanizes Jackaby. I pretty much pictured Victorian!Clara in the role. You'd think the similarities would stop there, but Jackaby also lives in a house with strange inner dimensions and the land lady type character is like a cross between Mrs. Hudson and the TARDIS.

Heh, it's almost like this book started life as a Sherlock/Doctor Who crossover fic. ;-) I do recommend it, though, if you're a fan of either show. It's not without its flaws, but it is a fun read.

- Rose's wrist warmers from "Doomsday" are done! I finished blocking them last night:

( Picture behind the cut )

- So there was that new trailer for Captain America: Civil War and they had a certain someone appear at the end.

( Spoilers for the latest Captain America: Civil War trailer )

I also hope that Steve doesn't come out looking like a jerk in the movie. The same goes for Tony. Someone has to be the "bad guy" in the plot, but please don't compromise the integrity of the characters.

- I didn't have to go into work today, earned day off, but if I had, I totally would have dressed up. A lot of my Doctor Who cosplays don't look like costumes, so I could not stand out but still be geeky. Not that I'm complaining that I had the day off. ;-) Instead, I got to visit my niece and saw her in the Yoda costume I made for her. So cute! I wish I had pictures to show you guys. Words cannot describe how adorable she is. Hopefully this is the first of many costumes she will wear in her lifetime. Might also give me an excuse to sew more. Baby sized costumes are much easier to make than adult sized costumes, at least for a novice sewer like me.

- I will be attending a Halloween party tomorrow. I decided to go with my Melinda May costume from the comic book expo this year. It's comfy and has very few accessories. I don't know if my friends watch Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., so I may have to explain my costume, but that's kind of the norm with my friends. I suppose I will settle for generic ass kicking super spy if no one gets it.

- I'm slowly assembling a Twelfth Doctor cosplay. I don't know why I need another Doctor Who costume, but I just couldn't help myself. I'm loving Twelve more and more as I watch more of his episodes. So I have a pair of screen accurate Ray-Ban Wayfarers on the way and I've purchased a knockoff of the t-shirt he wears in "The Magician's Apprentice" / "The Witch's Familiar" since the SA ones are all gone. I also bought a black sweater today that's a decent stand-in for the one Twelve wears in "Listen", "In the Forest of the Night" and other episodes. All I need to do now is cut a ton of holes in the front and hack away some of the collar and cuffs. My god, this is a weird sweater. Thing is, the sweater looks so nice on its own; I'd hate to ruin it. Maybe I need to buy another sweater and just use that one for cosplay purposes.

Of course, what I really need is the coat. I looked at the Elope one, but it's unisex sizing, so that won't work for me. I've also looked at the options available through the usual cosplay sites and while you can tailor the product to your body measurements, I'm not really feeling it. The one I'm currently eyeing is through a website that does James Bond suits. Yeah, it's a weird place to get a Doctor Who item, but the reviews are good for their products and the coat is actually cheaper than the cosplay sites, which is a huge plus. I have some time to decide. I'm secretly hoping the Canadian dollar will get better, but I don't see that happening any time soon.

- Supergirl premiered this week. I watched the pilot months ago, so next week will prove whether this show is another worthy entry into the DC television verse. It's produced by the same guys who do Arrow and The Flash, so I have faith that they won't screw it up. Even if the beginning is a bit rocky, that's okay. The Flash was the exact same. It started out okay and it was amazing by the end of the first season.

- Oh, and I finally joined who_contest. I haven't been able to write much lately, so hopefully writing some drabbles will help with the creativity.

Or thank god it's done and I don't have to think about it again. Or post about it again. Truly, I'm sorry about all of the posts, guys.

Whoo, just under two months to complete this thing. I think that's rather good. It's not a week (Yarn Harlot, a knitting blogger, did it in a week, but she's a speed knitter), but it's not six months, either. Giving myself a deadline certainly helped.

( Blocked scarf behind the cut )

So, in the end, this project took:

- 57 days total
- 14 balls of yarn (some were completely used up, others were not)
- re-watches of season 8 of New Who and seasons 12 and 13 of Classic Who to keep my sanity while knitting (with the odd episode of The Avengers thrown in)

These scarves are oddly addiciting, despite how much work it takes to make one. Would I knit another one? Maybe. Depends on the circumstances. But it was an interesting experience and I learned a few things about colour changes.

Up next: Who knows. I started to learn how to knit socks before I started this project. Maybe I should get back to that.

The Scarf is so close to being done:



Well, I say close, but really, I'm probably another week or more away from being done. And then I have to add the tassels. And wash/block the Scarf. Okay, it's too early to celebrate just yet.

But the Scarf is over five feet now. It's taller than Jenna Coleman. ;-) It'll probably be taller than me pretty soon. It's kind of hard to measure it, though. My tape measure only goes up to five feet so I guess I'll need to use a more heavy duty one.

I am so ready to finish this project and take a break from knitting for a bit, but the funny thing is, I'd totally be willing to make another scarf. They are so easy to make; you just need a lot of time to complete one. Of course, I'm not a fast knitter, so maybe it doesn't take as long. I think the next one I would make would be done in acrylic yarn. Stuff made from acrylic can be thrown into the wash, which is a great, especially if you're wearing the scarf to a con.

I did start to put together my femme!Four cosplay, but man, I am going to be warm in this costume. I'll be wearing a long sleeve shirt, then an argyle sweater, then a corduroy jacket, and then a scarf on top of that. How was Tom Baker not roasting under the studio lights? I'm opting for shorts instead of trousers, so that may help with any overheating, but I just hope that the weather is cool when I wear the costume.

- Yay, it's the weekend! I'm still recovering from my comic book expo weekend, in that, I'm catching up on sleep and my TV shows. I'm behind on iZombie, but I'm caught up on Orphan Black. Oh, and I still have the rest of Daredevil to watch, too. Plus there's all of my regular shows that I watch on the day. Hmm, maybe I watch too much television...

- Working on the philosophy that it's never too early to start a new cosplay, I have started assembling a Tenth Doctor suit. Initially, I was looking at the replica suits, and some looked really good, but boy, they were expensive. I'm doing my best to keep costs down on this costume. The suits were also suits, i.e.: with trousers, and I want to do a femme!Ten costume, so I've abandoned the replica suits for now. Instead, I'm attempting to piece together something from off-the-rack items, but I don't know how that will go. I did find an awesome skirt on eBay; brown with blue pinstripes. Blue pinstripes! The second I saw it, I knew I had to buy it. The only downside is, there's no matching jacket. So I either have to buy a jacket that doesn't match or hope that I can find a fabric that matches the skirt and make a matching top myself. The ultimate dream would be to find the same skirt and use that material to make a vest or something. Then I'd have a matching top and the suit would be in the spirit of Ten's actually suit, since it was pieced together from numerous pairs of trousers from the Gap. We'll see when the skirt arrives. I have a feeling that the spacing between the pinstripes is going to be narrower than what's on the actual suit, so the replica fabrics I have been looking at won't do me any good.

- I'm so behind on my reading, too. I missed out on two weeks of reading at lunch due to my stupid all-day meetings. Need to get cracking so I can return the books to my book club and get some new books in exchange. I'm going to need some reading material while flying to Venice next month.

- And my fanfics have been saved! I visited the guys at Geek Squad at the local Best Buy and they were able to transfer the data from my old hard drive from my broken computer to a new external hard drive. All is not lost! Now I just need to buy a new computer because I can't see myself doing everything on my little netbook.