Kiss My Knits!

I’m considering discontinuing the kits for a week or so. I want to be sure as many of my existing hat orders as possible are knit up in time for Christmas. It looks like there’ll be no problem getting everybody who should get one by Christmas theirs, but I’d like to get more people done. I find I can either spend my time in the mornings winding yarn or I can spend it knitting.

And speaking of knitting Jayne hats, here are two more in the Berroco Ultra Alpaca. The orange one isn’t as bright as this picture makes it look. In doing these, I have come to love Berroco Ultra Alpaca. There’s a broad color range at a reasonable price, it’s easy on the hands, and it works up smooth and neat. Definitely a winner. Down side: when I hold it doubled, there’s not quite enough for a 23 and 24 inch size from one skein. I’m waiting for delivery of more olive green and more dijon yellow. I paid out the wazoo for expedited delivery, so it should be here in the next day or so. It better. This is one of those “get there by Christmas” orders I was talking about.

For those who had expressed interest in the Superman/other big name trade paperback graphic novels, I wound up sending many of them as part of a care package to a platoon in Afghanistan via Books For Soldiers. Sorry, guys, they need them more than you or I do. I get the impression that most of the volunteers who send stuff aren’t into comics and sci-fi and so I see a lot of requests for comics go unfilled. I’ve had some good experiences with www.booksforsoldiers.com so it’s something I’m happy to do.

And speaking of happy, my friend Laura is in town! Yay! I’m going to see her today! Double yay! I got, like, five hours sleep last night but I’m still perky and excited about this. I may crash by noon, but for now… yay!

Oh! Let me clarify something. Apparently I worded something badly on my “giving thanks” post a while back. Several people have asked me if my friend is recently divorced and moving to start a new life. I think this is because of the “moving alone under difficult circumstances” wording. No. She’s married and happy, it’s just that her husband moved down first to start his new job. I may have mentioned this before, but they met through us, as she was maid of honor and he was best man at our wedding. Tvini wedding mojo cannot be overcome! These two are locked in! No escape! Mwahahahaaaaa!

Don’t look at me like that. I’m allowed to cackle maniacally on my own blog if I want.

Jayne hats up next for: Dubuque, Chicago, and Cincinnati. Go Midwest Browncoats!

Several of you very generously lent me the foreign currency you had jangling around in your drawers. I wanted to let you know what happened to it. No, not “happened to it” like that, it’s fine, I’ve got it and you’ll get it back!

I took pictures of all the bundles that each person individually gave me so that I could remember exactly who gave me what when it was time to return it. The down side to this, I didn’t realize until later, is that about half of these coins from various nations are of similar size and have Queen Elizabeth on the front. Soo… I’ll do my best upon returning these, and if I get something of yours wrong, please let me know.


On Monday I got in the final bit I’d been expecting, a bunch of Australian currency from a Browncoat Down Under. By the way, Aussies, your money is very cool. I spent that evening doing some research on the internet and parceling the coins out into individual baggies by country, labeling them and writing a little fact about each. A Parisian Browncoat very kindly answered my questions about the 10 centimes coin that my mother lent me. The up side of being one of “Those Moms” as my husband puts it, who includes wheat germ in chocolate chip cookie recipes is that you also go all out for this kind of thing too. Emily didn’t show much interest in this while I was doing it, but I got this note from her teacher today:

“Emily was a big hit yesterday with the “money from around the world.” You would be so proud of her. She stood in the front of the room and shared each bag of currency and told the class where each one was from. She did a great job! All of the other students were like “Wowwww!! Where did you get those from???” She responded to their comments and questions very appropriately. I, of course, was beaming from the back of the classroom, enjoying the positive interaction.”

So a huge THANK YOU to everyone who so generously donated. It turned into a learning experience for 18 third graders and an especially positive experience for my daughter. I owe you all – big!

Thanks to everybody who responded. I want to reassure you that I know that the holidays are a busy time, and that I’m not telling Emily that she’s getting anything, so it will be a surprise when she does. This means that if you flake or have to drop out, you won’t be crushing the hopes and dreams of an eight-year-old child.

Today I sent all the foreign money people have passed along to Emily’s school. I’ll post about that later. But as I was going through my top drawer looking for the Spanish peseta from my high school trip to Spain, I ran across some items which are pertinent to the “mailing stuff to kids” conversation.

This is a letter that my mom wrote me. I was four years old, and she had been sent by the newspaper she worked for to a workshop at Columbia. She was the first woman editor at the newspaper, and she really did have to go. I was staying with family friends, and she very sweetly wrote me several letters. As you can see, they meant a lot to me and I kept them.

This is a card that my dad wrote me. I was fourteen years old and at music camp at Pfeiffer college. Like all of junior high school, it wasn’t exactly the time of my life. The music part was great, but my roommate was a holy terror. One day she stole my room key and claimed she didn’t have it. I stuck to her like glue, silently, not accusing, until she finally gave it back. My folks didn’t know all that – I imagine my parents would have been kicking some butt if they had known – but Dad knew I was away from home and not happy, and he very sweetly sent me this card. As you can see, it meant a lot to me and I kept it.


This is a return envelope that my mother sent with me so that I could write home while I was away at Girl Scout camp. Camp wasn’t awful, but it wasn’t choirs of angels singing either. It probably made me a better person, so I’m glad I went. As you can see, the stamp is uncancelled. That’s right. My parents went to all this trouble, and then I never wrote. Bad daughter, bad!

Anyway, sorry about that, Mom and Dad.

Point is, we all flake out from time to time, so don’t stress to much if you’ve overcommitted yourself this holiday season.

Today, finishing up a Jayne hat for Rochester, NY, then stamping boxes and other assorted Jaynework. My life is all about mail now!

Wow, what a thoughtful group you all are! Many thanks! I’m going to respond in a few and get a couple of swaps going. I don’t think too many, though, since that’s a lotta packages for me to send out right at Christmas.

Emily likes dolls, fairies, mythical creatures (including dragons, skeletons, ghosts and such, contrary to her usual pink tendencies), things from the gummi food group, pencils, word search/maze type games, things that rhyme, and things that are silly or the opposite of the way they should be. Also, Christmas. Christmas Christmas Christmas. Wow does she love Christmas. Really, though, she’s all over the map. She wants those Ty Girlz for Christmas, but also tells us she wants a can of snakes for her birthday. You can’t really go wrong.

Emily doesn’t have any dietary restrictions, although she doesn’t care for chocolate bars. I know, how can this be a child of mine?

We got our tree this past weekend. As you can see, we went with our usual mini-tree. We don’t have very many ornaments, and this size tree is about as big as we can get without having a lot of bare spots.

We might go a little bigger next year, though. Because this year, our old friend the Enterprise was joined by another high-tech ornament… Serenity! Woot! Ho ruttin’ ho! Of course, contrary to the way it would be in real life… okay, not real life, but you know what I mean… Serenity completely dwarfs the Enterprise. Eh, good enough.

I actually ordered this last November, but backorders meant it didn’t come in until February. It’s been sealed up in its box until now. Of course, when I opened it I saw that it comes with a display base, meaning I could have had it out all year. Live and learn.

Okay, almost Heroes time. Back later!

Anybody want to do a swap? The catch is that while I would be your swapper, your swappee would be my daughter.

She keeps talking about getting a package in the mail. Further discussion shows that she doesn’t really care what’s in it, she just wants a package. She’s not a very demanding child when it comes to mail.

Woke up this morning with a raging headache. I don’t know why.

To make myself feel better, I’m breaking out the holiday icon. Yay!

ETA: “I want to get a Christmas pinata to put Santa’s cookies in!” Leave it to my girl to make me feel better. Hee hee!

Emily was in the kitchen, leaping up to try to reach the gummis that are on top of the fridge. The box was just a little bit too far back for her to reach, so I moved it closer to the edge so she could still jump and get it herself.

Emily, wistfully: “I wish I had superpowers, so I could get the gummis myself.”

Heh.

Today was a jam-packed day. Up early and out to get bagels for the family, then I helped a family member out at the bank, which turned into a theater of the absurd culminating in the ATM keeping my card. Apparently I can get it back on Monday. Next stop, occupational therapy. We stopped by Mom’s on the way hom. She had a fantastic pea coat that was too big for her but fit me perfectly. I didn’t have a dressy jacket, so I was thrilled! Mom had gotten her Christmas tree but not decorated it yet. Emily was really excited by the thought of decorating it, so we wound up staying.

Home again in the afternoon, where Emily went off with her father to the mall. I got a call from a friend who needed help moving, so I wound up doing that, then returning some things to Target, then finally home again by about 6pm. Hopefully tomorrow there’ll be less running around.

Our local comic book store, Heroes Aren’t Hard to Find, is having a big two-day sale today and Sunday. One of the items on sale? This utterly ridiculous tumbler for which I have no practical need, yet which I have been wanting for some time. I loved Richie Rich comics as a kid. I used to get them at the local book store next door to the Moon Garden, the Chinese restaurant we’d get takeout from about once a week. They were great for reading in the car on the way up to Pennsylvania. I guess I still won’t get it – Christmas is coming up, so I’m trying to watch the budget better. Besides, it’s not like these are exactly flying off the shelves; I’m sure it’ll be there for a good long time to come.

Tomorrow: Mo’ Jayne hats.