Kiss My Knits!

Well, that was a blast! We nearly sold out the theater, and the preliminary numbers raised for Equality Now sound very good. I met a Greenville Browncoat who had one of my kits there. She was a fairly new knitter and wanted pointers on picking up stitches for the earflaps. We went through it, and I showed her an alternate method that worked better for her. She picked it up (so to speak) quickly.

I went with Turtlegirl, Amy (whom I don’t think I’d really met), and who had never seen Serenity before. I realized this when at that big surprising moment in the movie – you know the one I mean – she gasped. There were at least 10 gasps in the theater, so that’s a good group of new recruits.

Hearing the gasps reminded me of the time I saw The Empire Strikes Back when it was re-released in theaters. There was a girl sitting near us who, 25 years after the original release, had never seen the movie AND was completely unspoiled. One has to assume she was raised in the Amazon. In a cave. By wolves. During the Middle Ages. Regardless, it was so cool to hear her gasp in amazement at Darth Vader’s big reveal and whisper excitedly to the guy she was with. Really took me back to 1981. This was like that – you can never get back that moment before you knew what was coming, but you can still feel a certain vicarious thrill.


In addition to donating a hat for the silent auction (it went for well above retail, thanks to that Browncoat for her generosity), I also loaned my mannequin for displaying an authentic costume from the movie. This nice young man carried it back to my car. He also gave me back my glass head used for hat display, leading to this exchange between me and .

Illiane: Hey, want to see my new car?
Me: Absolutely! I just got my head from this guy, let me go put it away.
Illiane: A college guy gave you head? All right!
Me: Yep. I’ve still got it.

It went on. You get the gist. We were a little punchy. I imagine the young man would be appalled to learn of this conversation. His mother would, too, since I know her.


Moving on!

A lot of us met up at Fuel Pizza afterward. They very graciously gave our group vouchers indicating that they would donate a portion of profits from our meals to Equality Now. I heard the cashiers talking. They said they’d only been expecting about 20 people. Instead we took over the upstairs. So a good time was had by all, and it was a good haul for Equality Now, too. It was good for Fuel Pizza too, of course, since I know I had a good time and will go back, and I’m sure others will as well.

All in all, it was a very successful evening. Once everybody’s rested up, we can start thinking about next year. Can’t stop the signal!

I don’t know why that frog prince from yesterday’s sandwich bag got stuck in my head, but it did. I made a couple more drawings of it. They might be good for embroidery, they might not. Jayne orders are picking back up so I need to be sure I’m staying ahead of the line again, so embroidery will have to wait.


I’ve been enjoying my carders, having fun blending some garishly bright fibers together to see the results. It’s also good practice to forego the diz and spin from the cloud of fibers the cards produce. The center mini-skein was plied onto a bigger bobbin than the ones I used to spin the singles. I didn’t notice until after it was done and it was a twisted mess. Oh well, live and learn. It was all for practice anyway. I’ll bring these tonight to Books-a-Million four our weekly knitting group.

Off to the grocery store – we’re out of milk, and Tvini want cereal!

Jayne hats up for: NC, CA, NJ.

Hmm. A mysterious package, addressed to my husband. Rather large, too.

He says it’s for me, and that I should open it. I do. It’s filled with old copies of a Bakersfield newspaper and something vaguely head-shaped wrapped in a paper towel. Should I be worried? Knowing my husband, yes.

No way. NO. WAY. YOU MUST CLICK TO BELIEVE!!

Well, it’s official. Drive has been cancelled after only four episodes. I had read that producer Tim Minear had plotted out a 13-episode story arc on the theory that his shows tend to get cancelled so he should probably find a way to wrap it up for the fans, just in case. And then he didn’t even get his 13 episodes. He’s quite talented, he just needs a better outlet for his talent than the FOX network. And of course, I feel for Nathan Fillion, who has the talent, looks, and charisma to be a huge star, but seems to be a genuinely nice guy. I’m still hoping he gets his big mainstream break.

Emily had a dentist appointment yesterday. One cavity. This time it’s not because of poor brushing, but because of weak enamel on a tooth. I choose to view this as a step in the right direction, as it means that we have the brushing under better control now. Emily has a baby tooth in front that could fall out any day, and she was paranoid that the dentist was going to pull it or knock it out. No worries, it’s still hanging in there – barely.

In my last entry, I mentioned I was under the weather. My husband took Emily to school by himself that day (normally we both do). Apparently Emily told him that when she got home, she would also feel sick in her tummy. That afternoon, sure enough, she ran into the bathroom. When she came back out, she said, “Oh no! I have spots!” As you can see in the pic, she had taken a ball point pen and given herself chicken pox. Then she went to bed and made her pouty “sick face” to really sell it. Heh. You’ll be relieved to know that a washcloth and some water cured the chicken pox later that night.


I finally got around to ripping back the heel of the Tofutsies sock and turning it again. It looks much better now. It just needed a few less rows in the body of the foot. For the leg, I’m thinking probably just a simple k2p2 rib. The yarn is so busy that any elaborate stitch pattern would be lost in the color.

Emily was out sick yesterday, so I’m a day behind on kit orders. I’ll be sending those out today. Also up today, hopefully finding out whether my co-leader will be well enough to join us on this Saturday’s Brownie Outdoor Skills Day. Yikes!

Hats up for: CA, NC, Ireland.

In which Tvini goes to a concert, dragging along her child, and takes pictures.

Every five or so Jayne hats I have to knit something non-Jayne or else I go insane. I’m sorry, but I defy anyone to make the same hat, no matter how cool, 400 times in a row without getting a little “All work and no beer makes Homer something something.” And so, I turned the heel on my Tofutsies sock. Unfortunately, it looks like I knit it a little too long. It’s doing this weird squared-off thing at the back of my heel that it really shouldn’t be doing. Fortunately, I put in a lifeline just before I started the heel, so it’ll be no trouble to rip it back, un-knit a couple of rows, and do it again. Then I need to bring it in by about eight stitches. That’s because while my feet are 10 inches around, my ankles are more like eight and a half. Thanks for the wide feet, Mom!

I actually am doing Jayne hats and kits while working on the sock, but all work is going more slowly than usual this week due to Spring break. My daughter’s home, and surprisingly, my eight-year-old doesn’t want me to spend all my time knitting. Go figure. Today we went to Discovery Place, a local science museum, and looked at the fish and watched a puppet show. Emily loves puppet shows. And live theater. When the show was over, she immediately said, “let’s hear it again!” Sorry, sweetie, it was the last show of the day. I promised her we’d go again another time.

It was insanely crowded. I had accounted for it being Spring break, but I hadn’t also thought that since it was Good Friday, a lot of parents would be off work, and want something to do with their child. Add to that that the “Candy Unwrapped” exhibit is visiting Discovery Place, and that the weather was a little cool, and all the factors combined into the perfect storm. This is why we usually go to the Charlotte Nature Museum instead. Much less crowded, and they do have puppet shows. Well, we still had fun. Any day that you get to pet an iguana is a good day.

Tomorrow I go with on a road trip to Odd Broads, which is getting out of the yarn business and so has everything on sale for 40% off. I doubt I’ll pick anything up, what with the 50% off sale this coming Tuesday, but you never know. 40% off reasonably priced yarn may be a better deal than 50% off of Stitch’s generally overpriced stock.

I’m up too late again. Signing off and going to bed. G’night!

I heard back from one of the Browncoats who wore her Jayne hat at the Browncoat Backup Bash. She says, in part:

“It was by far one of the superior Jayne hats there last weekend and I was proud to be the owner of it. Nathan Fillion complimented it in the bar when I met him. “That is a very cunning hat!” (ok, so not all that original but hey, he could have NOT said anything!).”

Eeeeeeeeee! Brush with fame! Eeeeeeeee! It was so nice of this person to write and tell me that. I’ve got so much stuff to do today, but my energy level just rose about a thousand percent.

And speaking of Nathan Fillion, looks like he’s got a new show that’s coming out. And Tim Minear is exec producer so that’s another point in its favor. It’s on FOX, so let’s hope that they don’t immediately cancel it as they’re prone to do.

At this point, everybody who I guaranteed a Jayne hat to by Christmas should have received one, and everybody who I said “well, probably, but no guarantees” has theirs in the mail. Woot!

Hats up for: AZ, Canada, and CA

Am seriously considering moving to a flat $40 price including shipping for everyone in the world, as opposed to different tiers for different places, as of 2007. Still thinking it over. I still wouldn’t be making a living wage, so it’s not like it’s an outrageous price from my end, but there’s also the matter of people being used to spending $5 at WalMart for some piece of third-world-country mass-produced gao se and therefore possibly balking at the price.

I’ve finished all the “you’ll definitely get it by Christmas” orders and am working on those which either didn’t mention Christmas or which got a firm “maybe by Christmas.”

Had a great time at the yearly Christmas cookie bake. Am now, as we say in the South, plum tuckered out.

Will make a better post later.

Well, now that it’s too late to get in line for a finished Jayne by Christmas, the kit orders are coming at a rate of several a day. Fortunately, those can go out very quickly.

There are still some non-Jayne orders in the queue, like this Space Invaders hat at left that someone custom ordered in black and blue. Click for larger pics. I actually had to redo it twice. The first time I was flying through it, and as a result got my tension far too tight on the charted portion. I put it on and it was like I had a vise around my head. The second time, it looked fine, but because I’d used more blue yarn I’d spliced two pieces together and it made a noticeable bump in one of the “pixels” of the chart. Maybe he wouldn’t notice, but it was bugging me. The third time’s the charm, though. The inside looks quite even, too, not that the recipient will care. 🙂



This is the Crusoe sock I’ve been working on. I actually put it aside last week to focus on Christmas knitting, but am looking forward to picking it back up since I’m so close to finishing up the first one. Maybe by Spring I’ll have some very festive socks.

Back to work – even with the built in “hit by a bus” time in my estimates, I’m falling a little behind on orders!

My daughter, watching me knit another hat: “Who’s this hat for?”

Me: “You know, I can’t remember their name. It’s not somebody you’ve met, though.”

My daughter: “Is this another hat for your friend Jayne?”

HAHAHAHAAAA! I had no idea she’d picked up on that. Apparently she was hearing “I make Jayne hats” as in “I make hats for Jayne” as opposed to a certain style of hat. About 400 hats I’ve knit, I don’t know what the heck Jayne keeps doing with them all.