Kiss My Knits!

I drew up a doc with tips on designing items and rooms, and sources of inspiration. Then I printed it out and realized it’s six pages. That’s way too long for a Simucon handout. Nobody wants to read a freakin’ book at Simucon.

Le sigh. Well, maybe I can put it up somewhere and link to it.

Leika, you got me thinking again!

Anyone who knits who comes to Simucon is welcome to come and sit with me, either at my table or else in the lobby or bar, and we can knit and gossip. Likewise, anyone who DOESN’T knit who would like to learn, I will be glad to teach.

Hopefully that didn’t sound like I’m some sort of self-appointed knitting goddess – I’m not! – but I do like the company of other crafty folks. 🙂

I took someone’s advice and decided to make one more thing for Simucon. Besides, I wanted a hat break.

A felted pouch, suitable for dice or whatever.

Here it is before felting when it is roughly the size of a tall hat. Here it is after felting. CD and homemade 8-sided die earring for scale (yes, I’m that geeky). Suitable for dice or cards or whatever your little heart desires.

Costwise, it should really go for $20, but I can probably drop to $18. We’ll see if it sells. If not, I like it, so maybe I’ll use it myself. 🙂

An invasion from the other side, or ‘how things get out of hand.’

I decided the felted flowers weren’t conservative enough for the teachers, so I wound up making knit flowers. These are made out of Paton’s Grace, except for the leaves, which I think is Dalegarn Stork ’cause I didn’t have any green Paton’s Grace. I used #2 needles, and put a 4mm bicone Swarovski crystal in the center of the purple flower. Paton’s Grace is a fairly inexpensive thin cotton with a nice sheen, usually used in baby garments. I had to use a small yarn if I didn’t want the flowers to be huge.

I was originally going to do several very different kinds of flowers, and got as far as halfway finishing a large red poppy in Crystal Palace Cotton Chenille. Last night, I realized that it looked a little odd to have them all so different, especially when it looked like less effort went into the felted flower. That wasn’t the message I wanted to send. So I had to quickly whip up another two flowers. I got to bed after 1am and I’m about to fall over.

However, the teachers loved them, and one even teared up a bit, so it was worth it.

Last day of school today – I have a million things to do while I have a free morning, but all I want to do is crawl back into bed!

On May 15th, just before I got the Big Hat Order, a guy e-mailed me asking for info on Jayne hats. I gave him info, he was very psyched, and said he’d be paypalling me the next morning. But he didn’t paypal me, and he didn’t write me, so I figured he changed his mind.

Nope! I just checked my e-mail, and he just paypalled me.

Dude! It’s been 20 days since you wrote me! Could you not have shot me a mail to see how things stood? I have to make 14.5 more hats for a guy in England! Plus I charge $5 more now, because I’m way busier than I thought I’d be and I have to kind of slow down demand.

Ugh. I’ve been turning down other Jayne hat orders, but he’s already paid me, so now I feel like I have to finish the hat I’m on and send it to this guy instead of UK guy. I’m mildly cheesed.

If you order something from an individual who does custom work, drop that person a line first!

Hats finished: 5.5 – and holding!

Sorry, secret pal, that this was so late in coming! For those not in the knitting know, Secret Pal 5 has a questionnaire up so that

Secret Pal 5 questionnaire

I am contemplating bringing Zombies!, a board game or “Kill Dr. Lucky” to Simucon. Zombies would probably be a better fit, what with the rearranging board tiles and all. It’s pretty fun, but I think there’s so much going on already that it might not be worth it. Plus there’s always fun to be had playing Scruples. I’m not sure whether that lives at Simutronics HQ or whether someone brings it each year. I kind of think it might have been Sashera’s, and I don’t think she’s coming this year.

I still may bring Zombies. You know that any game that comes with 100 plastic zombies has to be fun.

I decided to go ahead and do little gifts for my daughter’s “dream team” of experts at her school.

Here’s one. Cat for scale.

I’ll put a pin back on it and include a note reading, “Thank you for helping my daughter to bloom.” I’m making more, but not as large and not as vibrant, since I’m not sure just how staid the teachers may be.

Hm. These might be good for Simucon. Whaddya think?