Kiss My Knits!

I put this hank of Araucania Nature Cotton on the swift to wind it. It was going to be earflaps for a customer’s cotton Jayne hat. Looks like the folks at Araucania tied the hank a little too tightly and the dye didn’t take. I can’t send out a hat with white spots in the earflaps.

And with that, my friends, I am done with cotton Jayne hats. They’re unpleasant to knit. They’re not cost effective to sell. The materials are inconsistent from batch to batch. And the texture isn’t really suitable for hats. So this is the last one. From now on, clients who are allergic to wool can go with acrylic.

Bonus: it’s cheaper for the customer. Jayne would get behind that.

I am going to the Browncoat Ball in October. It’s a weekend-long event for fans of the late great science fiction TV show Firefly. The centerpiece is a fancy dress ball. Costumes and outfits appropriate to the Firefly show are encouraged. For ladies, appropriate dress usually consists of something incredibly frilly, often with a hoop skirt, or something Asian.

I’ve never gone to a Con. I’d like to, it just hasn’t been in the cards. But this event is about two miles from my house, and I’m a respected member of the fan community. I’ll be teaching a Jayne hat knitting class and I’m helping out on the steering committee. I’m definitely going.

Because I haven’t gone to a Con, it follows that I haven’t dressed up for one, either. Even for this event, I wasn’t inclined to spend money on an outfit that I would wear exactly once. But in July, that changed.
The Tale Of The Dress.

By now you’ve all heard about Steven Slater, the Jetblue flight attendant who quit his job in spectacular style.

One of my Facebook buddies, Browncoat Brandon Green, pointed out that this guy needed his own Hero of Canton style ballad and wrote the chorus.

Well, I couldn’t resist that. So here, with some rather NSFW language, is…

Slater…. the man they call Slater…

Last week I started the scarf for which I’d dyed the alpaca/silk. It was going to be a gift for one of Em’s special area teachers at her school. I realized a few rows in that the lace pattern was going to be too time-consuming to do before school ended, so I unraveled it. Instead, I’m doing bookmarks for her teachers, and will figure out something else to add to the gift. Perhaps Borders gift cards, to continue the book theme. Em picked out the colors of wool/silk embroidery thread for each teacher, so they’re personalized by Em.

Even though I only need to make four of them, it’s still going to be close. It’s Can’t Stop The Serenity season and I want to be sure everyone gets a Jayne hat in time. Astonishingly, only ONE screening asked for a charity hat this year, and that was our local one here in Charlotte. Usually between five and ten venues ask.

I think because the events are volunteer run, organizers are sometimes shy about asking. I say you never know until you ask. I know it gets old having doors slammed in your face, but some of us will say yes.

Anyway. Bookmark #1 is blocking, as you can see. Bookmarks 2-4 will have different patterns. And I’ll be sending out a couple more Jayne hats once the post office opens again tomorrow.

Behold! This 1962 McCall’s Needlework Magazine bring us proof positive that time travel is possible!

Clearly the lady on the right in the cunning Jayne hat sweater is a Browncoat who has gone back to the past. My theory: she’s going to knock off a future FOX executive or two and prevent one of television’s greatest tragedies from occurring. And I am not talking about Cop Rock.

Keep flying, you amazing time-skipper. Keep flying.

HOLY MOSES, PEOPLE!!

The 2010 Browncoat Ball site is finally LIVE and they are selling tickets! Bear in mind that there are 150 tickets available and more than 500 fans on Facebook, so you might want to sign up early.

This is going to be amazing, folks. There are three “tracks” that should have something for everyone. “Tour the Core” will take the trolley and do a historic tour of uptown. “Hard Burn” will head off to the NASCAR museum for some local flavor. And “Thrilling Heroics” will go out to the National Whitewater Center for kayaking, ziplining, climbing and rapelling and various other activities that will get your heart pumping.

In between there will be a midnight pajama party Firefly showing, the Wash-o-saurus luau, an auction, drink, food, more drink, local music, and yet still more drink.

Oh, and of course the main event: the Ball. With costumes. And waltzing. Swoon.

Also, there’ll be some seminars and workshops on the first day, including a “how to knit a Jayne hat seminar” led by yours truly with able help from the world famous Turtlegirl. I will forgive you if you choose to go to the concurrent taekwondo demonstration instead, as long as you be sure to say hi at some point.

This is going to be so awesome. Seriously, get your tickets now.

Oh, man, I gotta get a dress.

There is now a LJ community for the 2010 Browncoat Ball. The official site for the event should be up and running soon, but until then, it’s a good resource for getting answers.

http://community.livejournal.com/bc_ball_2010/

There’s also a Facebook group you can join for the 2010 Browncoat Ball in Charlotte.

In crafty news, baby wipes work great for cleaning rubber stamps after stamping up Jayne hat boxes. I love those stamps, and want them to last as long as possible.

Gotta go – many, many kits and hats to send out.

The list as it stands:

1) IL (going out today)
2) Cumbria, UK (going out today)

3) MD
4) UK
5) Sweden
6) ON, Canada
7) VA
8) UK
9) CA
10) WI
11) CA
12) MO
13) OH
14) NC
15) Sweden
16) FL
17) KS
18) OH
19) GA

Just to let folks know where they stand for the holidays. Best wishes!

Em finally asked me for a Jayne hat. Soon she’ll be smoking stogies and brandishing guns. My baby’s growing up.