Kiss My Knits!

I thought I’d snap a couple more pictures before returning the camera for repair.

To the left is Emily’s new doll. Obviously, it’s not quite finished. She picked out some green and pink embroidery floss for the eyes and mouth today. They look nice together. My kid’s got good color sense. Of course, how it will look with the hot pink hair remains to be seen.

The color quality on this photo is terrible. It’s actually an identical yarn to these two dolls. I’ll be glad to send the camera back, since clearly it’s not working properly now. I just need to pick up some paper to use to print out the shipping label. All I’ve got is cardstock, suitable for printing Jayne hat patterns.

Second non-hat project: slippers for myself. I tend to get cold feet. I’ve made at least six pairs of these for other people, mostly in solid colors. These are a very quick knit, so it’s an easy project to squeeze in among Jayne hats. By the way, wearwithstyle.com queue size is currently down to 31, so it’s looking really good for people hoping for one in time for Serenity Complete in the UK.

The yarns are Lamb’s Pride worsted in Onyx and Noro Kureyon colorway 52 dye lot P2. The Lamb’s Pride felts beautifully, but the Kureyon takes longer to lose stitch definition. I think it’ll be interesting to see how their textures blend into the final product.

I’m also really pleased with the combination of the black Lamb’s Pride and the dark Kureyon. Someone mentioned that these look like Carolina Panthers colors, but that wasn’t my intention. I just like blue. I’d been thinking of a scarf or hat in this combo, and I may still do that.

Normally on Thursday night I’d knit while watching LOST, but my husband is still under the weather and is probably going to turn in at the same time as my daughter. We’ll record LOST and I’ll wait to watch with him. I still want to knit, though, so I’ll dig through the movies and see what strikes my fancy. Hats are up next for orders placed from Dec 12th through the 14th. I’m looking forward to hitting 2008 orders – and also to casting on for that second slipper. I don’t like cold feet!

Writer’s Strike Over!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080213/ap_en_bu/hollywood_labor

Emily’s feeling really good, but she’s sneezing like crazy today. She’s got a bit of runny nose, too. Not sure what’s going on there, since it’s not really allergy season. I suggested she have more healthy snacks than usual. She chose strawberries. (At right: the only strawberry pic I have on my server. Go Kaylee!)

This is kind of weird. She’s never wanted strawberries before, when they’d be samples at the grocery store, or when I’d offer them when I was making smoothies for myself, but all of a sudden, she’s asking for them. I don’t know why, but fine. If she’ll eat them, then that’s one more thing in her diet, and that’s cause for celebration. As my mother would note, strawberries are packed with antioxidants. And the vitamin C has to help, even if she’s got high energy with her sniffles.

Mr. Tvini, on the other hand, is definitely not well. He came home early, feeling sick. This is fairly unheard of. He crashed on the couch and stayed there, watching old Thin Man movies and dozing in and out. When it came time to put Emily to bed, he joined us for her story and stayed collapsed on our bed, fully dressed. I turned out the lights and left him there. He slept until just now, when he stumbled into the den, grabbed his pajamas from the dryer, and shuffled back to bed. Poor guy. I’m glad I took a short nap today so that I’m fully charged to take care of everybody.

As for me, I’m washing my hands and taking lots of vitamins. I do NOT want to get whatever he’s got, and possibly whatever she has. The rule is that one person in the household has to be functional. I guess right now that’s me. Tonight I’m watching African American Lives 2 and knitting like the wind. The orders I’m working on are from Dec 10-12, and they got an “eight to nine week” delivery estimate, but I’d like to pull ahead on the line a little bit. Tomorrow, if everyone’s well, I’ll be out at knit night and I can generally crank at least one out there, so that’ll help.

Also tomorrow night: Girl Scout cookie delivery. Knitters need their Thin Mints!

Hats up for: FL, NV, WI.

ETA: There’s a little scurrying scratching sound coming from the attic. Could be mice. Or possibly gnomes. Note to self: get gnome traps.

Last night I came back from the store, and as I came through the back door, I found the yarn in my purse had snagged on the doorknob. This isn’t that unusual. However, this time the yarn was running through the doorjamb, past the closed door. Uh-oh.
Pics and more under cut.

I’m 39 today! Really 39, not like “I’m turning 39 for the twentieth year running” like Jack Benny or my dad. (Love you, Dad!) So far, the bestest gift I’ve gotten is to sleep in until 10am and then wake up to the smell of frying bacon. My loving husband had gone out for my favorite kind of bagel and a cup of coffee and then fried up a little cholesterol for me. Mmmm.

He also got me Spike. Back off, ladies, he’s mine! My husband, that is, not Spike. What a guy. Again, referring to my husband.

Ooookay! Moving on!



My daughter decided, on her own, to make me a sweater. I made one for her, so she decided to return the favor. That’s what this is, it’s the sweater she made me. My camera is doing that thing it does, so you can’t really see it, but trust me. It’s a sporty little number that says “Here is a sweater” above it. It fits me perfectly.

This camera is giving me too many headaches, and I’m missing too many pictures. After running some experiments, we believe the problem is coming when the camera tries to white balance. We think it’s got a dead chip somewhere. It’s six years old and had been through the mill, it’s hardly surprising that it’s having some problems.

For this reason, today I’m using my dad’s birthday gift, the traditional big wad o’ cash (thanks again, Dad!), to get myself a new digital camera. Consumer Reports likes the newer models of the same one we’ve got (Canon Elph), and it looks like we can get one for a couple of hundred bucks. Heaven forfend you, the reader, be without a single blurry picture of my child’s artwork!

Shortly we’ll be going over to my mother’s house to help fix a computer problem. Not coincidentally, she also has a birthday cake. Nothing tastes better than cake from my mom. Tastes like childhood. Emily, still fearful of fire, has asked that we have no candles on it, so I guess we’ll just sing and then eat. That’s fine with me.

Tomorrow, the Jayne hat line reopens. I wanted to get the line down below 40 before it started rising again, and it’s down to 37 now, so mission accomplished! I may finish up the one I’ve got on the needles today. Then again, I may decide to knit something solely for my own or my family’s pleasure today. We’ll see.

One more possible gift to me – and everyone – an end to the Writer’s Strike? Dare we hope? I’m feeling optimistic, but then again, that’s what sleeping until 10am can do for you.

I’m having a great day, and I hope you all have one too!

Em: How can I be a zookeeper and a ringmaster?
Me: Maybe you can be a zookeeper in the Winter and a ringmaster in the Summer.
Em: Yes! And I can be a rock star in the Spring and an astronaut in the Fall.

Talk about living life to its fullest. I want to party with Emily!

Girl Scouts, art, and time-wasting links.

I just got six 4-lb cones of my yarn. 2000 yards a cone, that’s 12000 yards of yellow. It had better last for more than a couple of months or I’ll be really, really irritated.

I’m getting a lot of inquiries this week from Browncoats wondering how long the wait will be when the list reopens. It’ll still be about eight weeks, most likely. Many of the people asking are from the United Kingdom. Apparently there’s a big convention in early April and people are wanting to wear Jayne hats for Adam Baldwin. All I can say is I’ll do my best. I love the image of a room full of Brits showing their Firefly colors!

You’ve gotta be kidding me.

Which reminds me, I’ve got a couple of books to return.

So late last week, I ran completely out of yellow Jayne yarn. Yikes! I ordered some skeins on Friday through my favorite quickie supplier, and it arrived today, so I’m back in business until my gigantic cone order comes from Brown Sheep. Currently, I’m working on orders from December 5th-6th. Those people got an estimate of 8-9 weeks, so this is still in line with what they were told. I was hoping to really pull ahead, but whatcha gonna do, eh?

On the up side, I got a good head of steam up on my dad’s Charlie Brown sweater. When judging the color on that picture, please remember that my camera is currently equipped with a Powerpuff filter. It photographs everything hot pink, which I correct for as best I can.

This sweater is not a very portable project, since I’m ready to start the stripe and that’s going to involve about a million separate balls of yellow and black yarn, all being held double-stranded. It’s definitely a house project.

I was going to start on some slippers for myself as a portable project, but now that I can knit more Jayne hats, that’s what’ll be in my purse instead. Just call me Sisyphus, pushing a giant ball of Jayne yarn up the mountain.