December 16th, 2006
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I finished up an adult dino for a client and mailed it off today. These are always fun to do. I’m always tempted to keep them myself.
I also thought I’d try something new. Since Hancock Fabric was having a big sale, I picked up some fleece remnants from the bargain bin and stitched this up. It was a good learning project. The fit is dead on, but I need to change the way I stitch around the features. Also, the down-hanging teeth were a cute idea, but you can just catch them out of the corner of your vision and it’s freaky. The eyes need to be set down further, and I need to actually create a lining. It was a good first test project, though.
Emily: “What’s this?”
Me: “A hat. I thought it might be nice to try something different. I wanted it to look like a monster was eating my head. I think it’s kind of neat. Do you like it?”
Emily: “NO!”
Okay then. Back to the drawing board.
Hats up for: MN, MN, and CA
December 14th, 2006
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My daughter likes to make up words in her own language, “Emilese” and sometimes string together random syllables and ask if they’re words and what they mean. So earlier this week…
Her: Desayuno means “kitten” in Emilese!
Me: Really? You know, I believe that’s a Spanish word, too.
Her, impatiently: Yes, I know. It means breakfast.
Translation: “duh, Mom.” For the record, I do speak passable Spanish, and did freelance editing work at Canal de Noticias NBC before they went belly up. But to my child, it’s “duh, Mom.”
I love that she’s picking this stuff up at school. I only hope this doesn’t mean she’s eating kittens for breakfast.
December 12th, 2006
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A member of the NC Piedmont Browncoat organization posted up this account of the Firefly non-vention on their Yahoo group.
I know it wasn’t all sunshine and beagle puppies for everyone who went, but I love that so many people took Booster Entertainment’s lemons and made lemonade. Ironically, hearing about this kind of camaraderie has made me actually want to go to a convention – just not a Booster one!
December 11th, 2006
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Everybody else is doing it…
December 10th, 2006
admin
Emily: Mommy, I want you to knit me a sweater.
Me: Okay, do you know what color you want?
Emily: Um… yellow.
Me: All right. Is there any special design you want on it?
Emily: I want two girls. Being chased by a boy.
Me: … Okay, I’ll put you on the list of things to knit.
You’re killing me, kid. You’re killing me.
December 10th, 2006
admin
I have no clue if you’ll know what I’m talking about, but that’s probably par for the course.
There is a kind of whistle. It’s about an inch long, cylindrical, and the one I saw was made of metal. It is open-ended and has a disk inside with holes punched in it. When the user blows through one end, the disk rotates quickly and it makes a Vvvvvvvvvwweeeeee! sound of rising pitch. It’s like what you might hear when a clown slips on a banana peel.
My father had one when I was a kid. It was super-cool. I thought these might make a nice addition to the gifts we’re giving to the nieces and nephews this year. The aunts and uncles may not thank us, but such is life. If they’re not too expensive, I wanted to pick up a few.
The problem is that I have no clue what they’re called. Little help?
ETA: Never mind, I found it! “Clown Whistle” worked!
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!
