Kiss My Knits!

I think I may stop offering the cotton hats. I mainly offer them out of pity to the Browncoats who are allergic to wool. The cotton hats take longer, are more difficult to knit due to the unyielding nature of cottton, and the materials cost more. The yarn is hand-dyed in South America and it’s very difficult to get consistent from dye lot to dye lot, which is troublesome when people understandably expect their hat to look like the picture on the site. I had to rip out three inches of yellow I knitted last night because the variegation was such that it looked more tiger-ish than Jayne-ish. Two half-skeins were available that matched that didn’t have the variegation. What a pain in the keister.

I knitted a test swatch on size 0 needles of the red/copper handspun I made. Feels a bit scratchy, but it looks nice! Although this produced 7 stitches per inch, I think it will be more pleasant to knit on slightly larger needles. I’ll rip it out and swatch it again at some point. Right now I’m nowhere near ready to knit with the yarn, what with it only being about 2/3 spun.

Today, I need to call around for more summer camps for Emily, continue knitting up this final cotton Jayne hat, and then move on to more wool ones. Everyone currently in line should get theirs by the summer Serenity screenings, but I don’t want to leave anything to chance. It’s been a busy morning of writing Jayne notes, boxing up hats, and generally doing the non-knitting tasks that make the hats super-shiny. Back to work!

Pirates of the Caribbean 3 was a good movie, but they certainly didn’t let plot get in the way of a good special effects/action sequence. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed it, but the best review of Pirates of the Caribbean 3 I’ve seen so far has actually been a review of PotC2 from the always funny Ask a Ninja.

“The structure of the movie, the best that I can tell is, they loaded about four or five different screenplays into a shotgun, and then just pulled the trigger, and then just sent somebody around, like a P.A. around to just pick up random words and piece them together, and then hand that to the actors.”

Pretty much! Best just to lie back and enjoy it. Which we did. Thanks for the babysitting, Mom!

I was going to post it later, but someone asked, so this is what the design is. The full-color will be the big issue as far as cost and quality, I think.

I had someone who isn’t familiar with the world of Firefly tell me that they would think “website designer” if they just saw “designer” on there. These are meant to go out to people who are specifically interested in Jayne hats, so I’m not sure whether it’ll be unclear or not. We’re looking at another design for regular use. I think this is fine, but I’ve also been looking at it for a while, so now I’m wondering. Thoughts? Add a “custom knits and knitting kits” line? Add “knits” to the “designer?” A great design is a great design, but it also has to serve its commercial audience.

Li’l Jayne, however, STAYS.

has made me some truly awesome business cards, and I am seeking a good business card printer. Obviously, cheaper is better, but it’s more important for me to have good quality than the lowest price. Ponk’s cards just rock too hard to get screwed up.

Anyone got any tips or sources?

Had a great time at Turtlegirl76’s place today with at an informal spinning session. We continued to spin up what we had on our bobbins, tried out a silk hanky with uneven results, and Illiane was kind enough to share some absolutely gorgeous black alpaca with us. We also used Turtlegirl’s scale to measure out fiber. I really need to get one of those.

There was also, of course, knitting. I swatched the red I’ve been spinning on size 0 needles. It looks like it’s too tight, so I’ll do another piece on size 1’s. A pic will be posted it’s done. I’m feeling good about this as a sock yarn. Down side: I’m getting sick of spinning it.

Emily continues to have adventures in language.

After jumping up and down a lot: “I’m out of my breath! How can I get some more breath?”

An exchange between her dolls. “You’re something else!” “What am I?” “No, I just said that. You’re not really something else.” Interesting because it indicates how literal she generally is, but that she recognizes that sometimes people say things that just don’t make sense, like “You’re something else.”

We’ve had lots of fun playing today, all three of us. Steve and I are looking forward to seeing Pirates tomorrow while Emily has a good time at Grandma’s. Yay!

No, that’s not true. I actually like lavender, but realized a while back that it gives me headaches. So I avoid strong doses of it now. That’s unfortunate, because apparently the laundry detergent I picked up at a local “green” grocer has scads of it. I’m currently rinsing my clothes for the third time, this time with vinegar in the water, in an attempt to get the smell out. So if anyone in the Charlotte area wants a bottle of nearly unused Ecover laundry detergent scented with lavender, let me know. It smells nice, it’s just that I’ve already got a three-day headache going, I don’t need any more help with that.

On the spinning front, I decided that the easiest way to determine whether or not I wanted to ply that red was… well, to ply that red. So I spun up a very small quantity and plied it. I like it. I want to knit it up, but can only find one size 1 DPN. It’s quite mysterious. Maybe I can snag some more needles when I finally take that road trip to Greer for the closing of Yarns Forever. The owner’s dyeing business is going so fantastically that she no longer has time to maintain the store. She had some unusual stuff there last time I visited, so I’m hoping to find something interesting.

I’m looking for a time to see Pirates of the Caribbean with my husband. If we can’t get out to it, we’ll see it on DVD, but this does seem like one that would go well on the big screen. He’s just been working like a madman, so it’s tough to find time to get away. We could both use more sleep, and late night calls from work don’t help. That’s the price you pay for being indispensible, though!

Today, miscellaneous errands and more Jayne hats. Woot!


ETA: My mom’s volunteered to watch the kiddo on Monday so we can go to a movie. Double woot! Thanks Mom!

This was supposed to be the week I didn’t have to do anything for girl scouts because I’d been pulling a lot of extra weight while my co-leader had mono. She was going to handle everything with another mom.

Instead I wound up having to bring half the stuff for the picnic and coordinate various things. My co-leader was going to bring the sandwiches and drinks.

I just got an e-mail from my co-leader saying that she’s been called in to an emergency meeting and will probably be at work until midnight.

The meeting’s in an hour and a half.

You see this? ——> /

That’s the straw that broke the camel’s back.

ETA: I take it back! Another mom has a copy of the Brownie Try-It book and is going to lead them in the Dancercize Try-It. She’s even bringing drinks! Yay! Urge to kill fading… fading…

My mom got Emily some DVDs from Model Me Kids that are designed for kids with autism to help reinforce social skills. She’s actually really enjoying them. It did lead to this humorous exchange, though.

DVD: “So try something new, maybe you’ll like it it.”
Steve: “Did you hear that, Emily? If you try something new, maybe you’ll like it.”
Emily: “Or maybe I won’t.”
Steve: “But did you see the DVD? Maybe you’ll like it.”
Emily: (sighs in a long-suffering way) “I *saw* the DVD. And maybe I *won’t*.”

Heh. Touche.

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Ha! Get it? Spinning yarns? Because this post will be about storytelling AND spinning?

…fine, never mind.

We had a great time at the storytelling festival. The acts were great, including Emily’s grandparents and her fifth-grade cousin, who was storytelling for a crowd for the first time. He’s acted before, but this was his first monologue-type performance. This boy’s got crazy talent. Remember me when you’re rich and famous, kid!

They had a really nice kids’ area put together as well, for when the young’uns got restless from listening to stories. At left, Emily attempts stilts with a little help from her Dad. At right… I don’t know who’s at right. I thought I was taking a picture of my daughter, but I guess this super-hero stepped into the frame. Oh well.


Emily was super-excited to see her cousins, with hugs all around. They had a good time playing all weekend. If you look at them, you will see yet more proof that my daughter gets most of her genes from her Italian father. All she got from my side was some freckles and a propensity for hiccups. Thanks to her Italian genes, even though she spent a fair amount of time in the sun and I spent all my time in the shade, I was the only one to get sunburned. My nose is peeling, but Emily looks great. Go figure.



All this activity did leave my daughter pretty worn out. She had a good time, but it was also overwhelming, in the way that new activities often are to her. Here she is resting with her dad. Aw.

I spun up more of the red stuff I got from Yarns Etc. I think I want to try to make socks from this, so I’m not sure whether I should ply it (twist it with another strand to make it stronger). I’m open to suggestion from spinners, because I’m still quite inexperienced at this.

I haven’t been keeping good track of how much of the original batch I’ve already spun. I thought I’d bought six ounces, so I didn’t want to spin more than three until I could figure out whether to ply it or not. I don’t have a postal scale (I really should, for the business) so I didn’t have an accurate way to measure what was left unspun.

What I wound up doing was attaching the skeinwinder to the top of my wheel and being sure it was balanced. Then I hung the bag of unspun fiber from the left arm and a bag containing something I thought was approximately equal in weight from the right. In this way, I determined that I have between a small juice box and a vienna sausage can’s worth of unspun fiber left. In other words, about 4.5 ounces. That doesn’t seem right – did I buy eight ounces originally? So now I’m stuck as to what to do.

All my charity Jayne knitting is done. I may actually put out a call and see if anybody else wants one – I’m feeling very inspired by Joss Whedon’s recent Equality Now post on Whedonesque. The man’s a good writer, you gotta give him that.

Emily’s been super-engaged lately, which is fantastic but also means I really have to bring my A-game. So I’m off for now!

Hats up for: NJ, CA, CO.