Amy's Toast
"Every year for as long as I can remember, I'd eagerly look across the frozen Lake Menomin as we crossed the bridge to gaze at the Lions clunker. I'd spend hours thinking of what day and time it would finally fall through the ice. I grew up 25 miles north of town, so we would swing through about once a month to run errands. I especially got a kick out of seeing the car perched precariously on the ice with its front end taking a dive into the water. After reading American Gods, it gives the ritual a whole sinister feel but in a good way. I'd like to think of a giant monster, lurking under the pea green water, curled up, and listening to the stories being read aloud in the nearby library. Thank you for giving a childhood memory a fun and mysterious spin." - Amy
Amy and I met on Goodreads through our mutual love of Gilmore Girls, where it didn't take long to learn we have far more in common, including growing up in Wisconsin! Amy is a kick ass acquisitions editor at Llewellyn who spends her spare time doing all her amazing hobbies from knitting to going to Supper Clubs. And yes, those are Dalek ice cubes if you were wondering.
Marissa Doyle was raised in a family of readers, which just might be a prerequisite for becoming a writer, I haven't looked into that. Growing up in Massachusetts, where she still lives, she has an affinity for the ocean and is happiest near or on the water, sailing Cape Cod. Being raised in Massachusetts means being steeped in this countries history, I mean, have you been to Boston? This might have a lot to do with her love of the past. In fact it was history, not writing, that she majored in in college, getting a degree in history and archaeology at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania. Somehow she got distracted after graduation and the history she studied and the non-fiction she stills reads is now to inform her own writing of historical YA and fantasy for all ages. One piece of advice she's learned in her varied career is that "quite often, real life is far stranger and more wondrous than any fiction." It's these little oddities combined with real people and places that makes Marissa's writing stand out among typical Regency Genre fare. 
Question: When did you first discover Jane Austen?
Question: Where do you get your inspiration from?
Question: The world building and system of magic varies greatly in the regency fantasy genre, how did you go about creating yours?
Question: Be honest, have you ever dressed up in Regency clothes just to pretend for a moment you are in the past?
I never really talk about why I started my blog sincerely. I will almost always give the true, though somewhat flippant answer, that it was to get free books, and in particular Lauren Willig's ARCs. So perhaps it's time to tell this story? After my semester from hell, which ended with me getting pneumonia, I was at loose ends. I was supposed to go to Canada for the New Year but was too sick, so I started playing around with the idea of a blog. I thought it would be really cool to have a blog titled "Crazy Random Happenstance" because of the line from Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, though my blog would be entirely free of singing. Per dictates in place banning my vocalizations. Though I couldn't quite remember the quote "Crazy Random Happenstance" and instead used "Strange and Random Happenstance" which, if I'm honest, I like far more because crazy, well, I don't like all the connotations and I'm not pigeonholed as a Whedonverse blog then, despite the first post. I love you Joss, but seriously, not liking your recent work. So I made a blog and then school started and I forgot all about it. Then the semester ended and life was still stressful, just minus school. My cat was really sick, and well, really old if truth be told. I was in denial that he might not be around much longer and I needed a distraction. A blog was the answer. On May 19th one of my friends who had just started doing a knitting blog asked if I had thought of doing my own blog. I immediately wrote back: "sweet, I have blog I set up, just haven't started yet (with hopes of free books!)
mine is called strange and random happenstance." Within the hour I had written my first post. By 10PM the next day my cat would be dead. 
If you are a true Whovian you should have random Who ephemera strewn
about your house. A sonic screwdriver in a drawer, a scarf in with
your winter weather gear that is like the one Tom Baker wore... a Dalek on the windowsill, you get the idea. By creating this Doctor Who themed Christmas Tree you now have an excuse to pile all these together to add to the overall theme and give the tree and your Christmas a little something extra.
Thinking about tree skirts, well, sure you could go that extra mile and buy some Doctor Who fabric online and run up a skirt... or, if you have awesome friends like mine who knit you a 4th Doctor scarf one year for your birthday, you can artfully drape it around the base of the tree. If you sadly do not have awesome friends, do not worry, the pattern is an easy one and can be found on multiple sites all over the internet.
But, if you are a person like me with an extreme attention to detail, who wants integration between tree skirt and tree, there's an easy thing to do. Make a mini garland with the same yarn as the 4th Doctor's scarf! What I did was pick up the recommended yarn and just knitted an I-cord (ie, an idiot cord because it's that easy to make). Instead of having to count stitches, because I had the scarf, every so often I'd hold it up to the scarf to see if I needed to switch colors. This way I got some color into my predominately blue/white/silver tree and united the style from tree skirt to garland. It also gave the 4th Doctor a bit of a nod on the tree itself, like I did with 10 and 11.
Here's me just playing with the garland, but as you can see, it's like a mini-Tom Baker scarf.
As for those sonic screwdrivers you have laying around... artfully arrange them on the tree skirt! Psst... the top one is a real screwdriver!
And those old skool toys? Have K-9 thwarting a Dalek under the bows of the tree. Pretty spiffy Dalek eh? He's one of the Millennium Daleks from 1999, sadly he recently had an accident and his eye stalk no longer moves.
Also, don't forget those adorable little Adipose! They don't want to be left out with their adorable little fang. This one seems to be strongly in favor of the 10th Doctor...
And for this coming Christmas... I was recently at my local comic book shop and look what I found! TARDIS Christmas lights! This Christmas is going to be even more Doctor Who awesome then last Christmas! Also, I say Christmas... but really, this tree could conceivably stay up all year... or at least, like I did this year, till Easter, when the new season began. Truly, I wasn't lazy, it was all for Matt Smith. And now for the final unveiling! 
And here is the final tree!
Mr. Smith... your close up! (You too Eccleston and Tennant.)
The tree at night!
And a close up at night. Whew! I hope you have had as much fun as I have had making this tree. Have a very Whovian holiday season one and all!
What I would like to say before beginning my final Sartorial Sundays post is, that while I am slightly above the novice in costuming, being that I don't just buy off the rack and do do customization, I am still only starting. If you have ever seen the work of a true maker, then you know how much people take this lifestyle to heart. They are amazing and their work reflects that. While I too am a maker at heart, I sadly don't have the time or the skills to reach their level of awesomeness... YET! So take these posts as from a person continuing the journey into Steampunk, who will probably not be a master, but who gives a shout out to and tip of the top hat to those amazing people who are.
So, I actually changed out to a more Victorian skirt, because I found it online and just fell in love with it. As for the basket, I actually found that at Teslacon and it was perfect. Reminds me of something a bee keeper would use... don't ask me why, but it does. Sadly, despite knitting up to the very last minute, I kid you not, it was 5AM of the day I was going to wear this costume, it still didn't fit as a wrap. The reason? Because the lady who designed this pattern is a freakin' midget. I'm not the only one to think so. My friend Amy did one of her patterns and also said it was way short on her too. Amy and I are of similar heights (I'm just shy of 5' 10") and when I tied this on, the back should still rest about your wait/tailbone, and it was seriously the middle of my back. Those who know me well enough know that even though I "finished" it for the con... it's not "finished." I will frog that last line and make this pattern work gosh darn it!
As for the underskirt I spent all that time on, I used two corset clips to layer the back so you could see it underneath, and it was also REALLY comfy to sit on, like your own ass pillow. Sadly, one of the clips died at the ball, which pissed me off, because they weren't exactly cheap, so I couldn't wear this outfit again for the con and went with costume two for the final day.
Ok, first I tried the 10... and it was too small, by 3/4 of an inch, so up a size. Note, I usually just frog this and start over to not waste yarn, but for your pictorial benefit, I saved my gauging.
Ok, now 10.5... and still too small, closer though at 3 3/4 inches. Damn, this is taking longer than I thought it would...
Ok, final try, fingers crossed. 11 and... yes! Finally, it's right on 4" as you can see, and as for what you can't see because of the ruler, a stitch I dropped, hey, it's only a test after all. Whew, was worried there. I've never worked with needles as bulking as 11s, so this should be interesting.
As you can see, I can't really get a striking and lovely picture, the circular needles make it all bunched up, but you can see there's a mass of yarn there!
Here you can see the detail of what goes down my spine. Because that is where the majority of the increases happen, it's not only expanding the pattern, I mean there's over 300 stitches by the time I'm near the end, but it creates a nice detail too.
So you can see my copious notes and how I'm keeping track. As you can see from the bold "x's" that's where I inadvertently messed up (added and stitch and when fixing lost two stitches, but frogged it out in the end). Quite a few more rows to go, but now that I'm at 200 stitches, it's taking awhile for me to get through a row. I'm hoping the Emmy's next weekend will be a good chance to finish! That and re-watching all of last season's Community. Man, I love that show!
Here is Emma Timmins. What I love about her look is the blouse, minus the stiff collar and the earthy cream color of it with the voluminous skirts. 
Here is what I have always wanted when watching period dramas! Until recently I always referred to it as the knitted wrappy thingy that farm women wear. Yeah, as you can tell, real technical. So after about an hour online once I decided I wanted to make one, I found out it's called a Sontag. It's basically a shawl that is designed to wrap around the body and then connect. The one pictured here is the pattern I plan on using. So here's hoping it doesn't take too long. But of course, I must establish my color palette before going yarn shopping, and here's hoping I might have something in the house that will work... I do have a yarn hording habit...
Now this right here is THE DRESS that always makes me associate Lark Rise with Steampunk. How much more Steampunk could Dorcas's outfit be? While, yes, in a magical ideal world, this right her would be my costume, what I am taking to use is what I call the "cloth gauntlets." Women who where working and doing menial chores, like cleaning out fireplaces, would wear these so that they wouldn't get their shirts dirty. While here it is more fashion versus function, I felt that I would incorporate that into my look.
Yet, of course, I would go knitted, same yarn as the Sontag, with a little Steampunky design.
Finally for the skirt, I wanted something a little more modern, a little more space agey, but could still be mistaken for Victorian in the right setting, so an over skirt similar in style to this one.
While, I was originally thinking a split layering, the over skirt above wouldn't work so well, but I do want the layering with a lacier underskirt, preferably tea-stained, and the over skirt a little shorter, so as to see the two layers clearly.
