Kiss My Knits!

My yellow yarn finally came. I ordered it in April, so yes, I am incredibly happy to see it. Now if we can just get the orange and the red to arrive.

The good news/bad news is that Brown Sheep is raising their rates again, meaning my costs for yarn are going up. I know I said this last year, but this year I really may have to raise prices. I hate to do it, so I’ll crunch some numbers and see how everything shakes out. On the up side, because this batch of yarn was ordered before the price went up, they’re honoring the old price. Yay!

Do you see anything in that picture that might give a hint as to a new Firefly-type product? Maybe something related to the keychain I made for myself so I won’t lose my freakin’ keys all the time? I need to finish up the item in question so I can show y’all properly.

In other news, my calves ache and it hasn’t even been 12 hours yet. I’m glad the “couch to 5k” program is only every other day. I’m gonna feel this in the morning.

Long, long post about fat, false starts, and fitness.

Cribbed from , who made it five whole seasons.

Your Score: 3 Episodes
( 53 Costs, 36 Reception, and 46 Cult Appeal )

Everything seemed to go wrong with you. You had high hopes and high expectations, and you poured the money into making sure it happened. But something along the way went wrong. People just didn’t tune in. And because you tried to go for the bigger mainstream audience, you didn’t inject enough innovative material to make the experts take notice. An failure in every sense of the word, FOX lets you go after a meager three episodes.

Wow. I didn’t think I’d do as well as short-lived FOX show The Tick but I didn’t even make it as far as short-lived FOX show Drive. Yikes.

Haven’t updated in a few days, so I reckon I oughtta. Unfortunately, while I do have a new knitted object, I can’t display pics of it yet because it hasn’t reached its recipient. And no, it’s not the Charlie Brown sweater. I don’t knit that fast.

Hat orders have plateaued. I’m unsurprised. The wait is currently up to eight weeks. That seems to be the point at which people decide to either wait to order or look elsewhere. Can’t say as I blame anyone; that’s a long time to wait without receiving something you’ve paid for. I predict the wait will probably stay eight weeks until after Christmas. I’m being very faithful in my Jayne hat knitting to try to get that wait down.

This morning, I’m finishing up the second of two charity hats for some Aussie Browncoats, who are using proceeds from their booth at Armageddon Expo to benefit the Motor Neurone Disease Foundation of Australia. It’s an organization focused on support and care. I’m glad that I’m in a position to help.

Brownies haven’t started up yet this year. We have a bit of a dilemma. There’s a new space we can use that’s much closer to our homes, but we have to be out by 5:45. This is actually more convenient for all of us moms, but our co-leader, who doesn’t have a girl in our troop, works uptown in a fairly demanding job. This would be a longer drive for her and she’d probably have to take off early. So, do we move to a place and time that’s more convenient for the parents and probably lose our co-leader? Or do we stay where we were last year and keep her? I’ve got an e-mail in to the co-leader to see how she feels about this, and then I’ll check with the other moms. I don’t want to throw anyone to the wolves. I’m on the fence about what’s best for the troop.

I got an e-mail from my mother last night mentioning that a little girl I used to babysit when I was a teen is now a knitter (among other things). She gave me a link to the young woman’s site. I left a comment on her blog, and she found me on ravelry. Looking at her FOs, she’s quite good! I wish I could take some credit for that, but I wasn’t knitting when I was babysitting her. It reminds me of how The Fabulous Jane Prater was my eighth grade English teacher, and now we both go to knitting guild together. Small, small world.

Finally, good news! A dear, dear friend will be moving from Maryland to Charlotte later this year. That’s her on the left in the white shirt. I am beyond excited about this. She was a college roommate and the maid of honor in my wedding. As an added bonus, her husband is a good friend of my husband, so they’re also pleased. I’m totally psyched to have another friend down here.

Wait, does this mean I have to clean the house? Yikes, I better start now.

Anyway. It’s a good morning, hopefully leading to a good day. I hope you all have the same!

I don’t know what the heck I did to my upper back, but it ain’t getting any better today.

This blows.

I finally figured out how to do spirals in Photoshop. Do either of these make you think remotely of Kaylee’s umbrella? What do you think should be changed? If you have a preference, which do you like better?

Thanks, guys!

ETA: The wearwithstyle.com will not be on the finished version.

Sweater pic, finished Regia bamboo socks, and all-too-typical story that happened to me last night.

So I had heard that Futurama would be coming to Comedy Central in 2008, but I had no idea it was coming in this format – and in November! New Futurama in November? Why was I not informed!? It’s like there’s some secret nerd mailing list that I neglected to sign up for.

This news is fantastic. It’s a good note to end on as I get ready for bed. I quote Hermes: “I’m gonna go home and relax, the traditional, Jamaican way – a glass of warm milk and a good night’s sleep.”

I posted this on Ravelry and in , but didn’t want to put it up here until it got to its recipient.

I made Samantha’s Baby Trek Washcloth as a little thank you for , who kindly shared her hotel room with me for the final night of Simucon so I didn’t have to leave early. Yay!

Left is the washcloth head-on. Lightly blocked, it came out to 9″x9″ almost exactly. Lily Sugar ‘n’ Cream, size 6 needles, per the pattern. In the slant-wise pic to the right, you can see the garter stitch pattern even better. Because it’s garter stitch, it shows up against the reverse purl side as well.


The written instructions were perfect, but the author mentioned that she’d used a chart, and I thought this could do with one, so I had a go at it. It ain’t professional looking, but it’ll do. I ran it past Samantha, who says it’s fine to distribute, so there you have it. Her blog is http://milotis.wordpress.com/ . Obviously, clicking on the little picture will bring up a larger one. Set phasers to “purl!”

If you’re playing along with http://www.dundermifflininfinity.com/ , I apparently got 15 people to sign up with me, but I wasn’t the first to get 15 people to sign up. At least, that’s what I think the message I got means. So before I settle for employee status, I’m going to try again to be a regional manager. If you haven’t joined up yet, or if you want to reapply to my branch, here are the details.

I’ve applied for regional manager of the Canton, OH branch. Because really, don’t we all want to be the hero of Canton?

My code is qnq20b0h55 .

Fact: in 2001, Ohio had 128 sightings of black bears.
Fact: Ohio is a major growing area for beets.

Question: Where do you belong?
Answer: Canton!

“Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica. Buckeyes.”