Kiss My Knits!

So today, my daughter’s home sick with a little cold (emphasis on little), and she doesn’t want to go anywhere, including the post office. This is bad, because I have three kits and some yarn for swap that need to go out. Fortunately, the hubby is coming home for lunch, so I can go out then. This is par for the course for him, good guy that he is.

I’m stewing a little, but trying to keep the proper spirit of “this is why I stay home in the first place, to take care of my daughter, and that’s most important” but still sometimes thinking of all the stuff I need to do.

I’m also thinking about how I have exactly enough yellow yarn to start ONE new Jayne hat, and my mondo shipment of yellow yarn isn’t due to arrive until Wednesday, and kind of mentally pacing.

Last night, I started thinking, “I could use a nice pick-me-up, but I haven’t got a lot of extra dough. Maybe I’ll trade some of my yarn stash for stuff on my Amazon wishlist. I’ll just go update that.”

I updated it some last night, then realized that the one thing I wanted MOST had mysteriously dropped off my wish list. Stupid Amazon! I tried to re-add it three times, with my husband looking over my shoulder, but the site kept telling me that the item was already on my wish list, although I clearly couldn’t see it. Stupid STUPID Amazon! Hubby agreed, quite the mystery.

So that’s the picture. Frustrated, plans up in smoke, irritated. And here’s where the eternal optimist in me wins again.

What do you think arrived today? Ding ding ding! You’re right. The mystery item, my #1 wish list want. The Complete Thin Man Collection! Man, I love those movies! I guess the site wasn’t updating because it had been ordered and was en route.

The hubby got it for me, which means the whole time he was looking over my shoulder, he knew what the heck was going on, he just couldn’t say. What a sweetie. Now I have something we’ll both enjoy, and man, is my day better.

Life’s good.

Big-ass scarf, 3/4 done.

Kureyon pouch, knitted. I’m about to toss it in the washing machine to felt. I had to scavenge a little Kureyon from scraps (which fortunately matched) to finish up the i-cord drawstring, but I think if I omit one plain round in the decreases, I’ll have the perfect little 1-skein Kureyon dice bag pattern. I’ll post pics when it’s done.

Jayne hat to accompany said dice bag, knitted save for earflaps and pompom. I’ll finish that up while the bag felts, although I won’t be able to mail the package until the bag dries.

Kindergarten teacher’s bag, body is finished, still needs straps. I think I’ll add a little pocket on the side for a cell phone or whatever strikes her fancy. She wanted pink, and man, is it PINK. That’s being put on hold while I work on more hats, though.

Next up: finish big-ass scarf, then on to hats for LF, MS, MA, ML, and LC.

The color joins on the Jayne scarf are working out much better now. Every morning I knit another section on the scarf, then work on a hat so I don’t fall too far behind on other orders. I offered this one for $60, because I didn’t want to charge too much without knowing exactly how much yarn and time it would take. Next time, I’ll charge more.

The end is flipped up so you can see it’s stockinette on both sides. Ah, the magic of double-knitting. It’s a great technique for reversible fabrics. In this case, I’m using it because she wanted it to be little v-stitches all the way around, and I a) didn’t want to tie up my circular needle for as long as it would take to knit the scarf, and b) knew that by the time I had knit all those rows on a circular needle, I would have strangled myself with orange yarn from sheer boredom.

Actually, there’s really not much of a reason to post this, since it’s not done and I’ll probably post pics again once it’s done and has fringe attached. However, I’m feeling pretty satisfied with it and what’s the point of a ‘blog if you can’t preen a little?

Side note: I think I want a mannequin/dressform display for showing off scarves. Sadie’s great and all, but she doesn’t exactly scream “class.” Especially since she was used as a dartboard by a bunch of college boys in the 90’s. My husband, ladies and gentlemen.

So. Aussie guy wants to order a hat, but he’s a starving student and is trying to figure out how to cut costs.

I, meanwhile, really want to help this guy, because I always enjoy the idea of someone in a different hemisphere wearing the hat. And c’mon, Jayne hats are just cool.

Aha! I love TimTams, having been introduced to them by my knitting Secret Pal from Secret Pal 6, the fabulous Margie! However, I can’t find them here!

Solution! Aussie guy is going to send me several packs of TimTams (we’re thinking six) and I’m going to send him a hat. It’s significantly cheaper for him, and I’m getting something that I really want but otherwise cannot easily obtain.

Yay! The barter system wins again!

After much trial and error, I got the colors to pool in a knitted object juuuust right. I’ll post pics when it’s done and gone to its destination.

In thinking of more nifty things I can do for the fest, I remembered something from long ago that will help. I hope to work on it a little tonight.

Mailed off two Jayne kits and two hats, although there’s plenty more to go.

Unhappy with the quality of the color joins on the 6 foot Jayne scarf, I unravelled what I’d done re-knitted the first part using a different method. The color joins look noticeably better now.

All in all, I am overworked and very tired, but the results are showing. A good day.

made my night by posting up pics of her Jayne hat kit. It’s the first time I’ve seen pics of the kit after arriving at its destination. Really nifty to see! Also, I hadn’t realized that the “quality mud” stamp made such a good icon!

http://www.livejournal.com/community/bigdamnknitters/24730.html?style=mine#cutid1

I think someone else must have posted up info recently, because five orders for kits came in on the 11th, and I had to turn a sixth away because I’m so very low on cotton right now. I’m working on rectifying that. Two kits shipped out today, by the way, and three will ship out tomorrow.

Unless there’s a knitalong going on somewhere that I don’t know about, I figure someone must have let out an internet “SQUEEEEE!”

Because, c’mon. Jayne is very SQUEEEEE-worthy.

I don’t feel so great tonight. My head is pounding, I have some kind of stomach ick going on… but you know what? Who cares. Because of ‘s excitement, I have a big grin plastered across my face. I love seeing happy people. 🙂

Well, it’s official. Jayne hat orders are now coming in just a hair faster than I can fill them. I thought it would let up after Christmas, but it’s January and I’m still getting roughly an order a day for finished hats. About an order a day per kit, too. I can knit a wool hat a day and still have a little free time for myself, but the cotton ones take longer, so that slows me down. And of course, some orders are for other things which may take longer, like dice bags or friggin’ huge scarves, and believe me, that scarf is thick and big, it’s not a project I can jam into my bag and take with me wherever I go. Also, I’m screwed should I have to slow down due to illness or injury, something I thought about yesterday when my daughter accidentally caught my fingers in the door at Starbucks. Ouch!

Add to that that I’m so overwhelmed that I’m not able to help with the Merelew event in Dragonrealms as much as I’d like to, and you get back to the whole “free time” issue. I coordinated alterers for the first Merelew festival back in ’99, and wish I could have a bigger hand in this one, but there’s just not the time. (And people, this is gonna be cool. Really.)

I can’t hire someone on at any kind of living wage, so my options are either raise the price and see if that slows demand, or temporarily stop taking finished hat orders. I’m certainly open to suggestion.

As problems go, this is a good one to have, but it’s still a problem!

I’m making a show row rib scarf, as seen in MagKnits. There are issues therewith. Pics below.

Yarn, yarn, and nothin’ but more yarn.

So I’m on line at Borders at 10:30 at night BECAUSE AMAZON SCREWED UP MY ORDER and the checkout guy looks at my chest and goes, “No way.”

Now, I’ve had a lot of reactions from men toward my chest, but “no way” is probably the most deflating, no pun intended.

Then I realize I’m wearing my Blue Sun shirt. Aha! So I was able to say, “Yes, and not only that, but I’m knitting a Jayne hat!” So I had to pull it out and show it to him, and we gushed over Firefly for a few minutes, and tried to get nearby people to watch the show – you know, all the stuff that Browncoats do when we meet. Converting someone is our version of a secret handshake.

He seemed totally psyched about the hat, so I gave him my card. He was even more psyched about the shirt. I couldn’t remember at the time where I got it, but now I recall it was http://www.bluesunshirts.com/

It was a nice little interaction that made the evening better.

Browncoats is the nicest peoples.

just called. She told me she just got off of a plane where she met a guy on the Jayne hat waiting list. Sure enough, his name and location match someone marked with a big red PENDING. This all came up in conversation because they were both reading Serenity stuff. What are the odds?