Kiss My Knits!

I have GOT to order up and then sell some Dharma patches. The trouble is… where to market?

Charlotte Yarn is going to offer me a 20% discount on needles and stitch markers for the kits. That means I can drop my prices on the needles. Not so much on the kits, though, since the stitch marker packets were already such a tiny expense. Still, it’s good news, and I’m very happy! Charlotte Yarn is a fabulous yarn store that deserves wider recognition than to be Charlotte’s best kept fiber-arts secret. The lovely ladies of Charlotte Yarn rock!

The more I investigate sole propietorship, registering under an assumed name, SE tax, county licenses, etc., the more I come to come to one inescapable conclusion:

Jesus Christ, this shit is complicated.

Wellp, looks like it’s time to get that business license. I just got an e-mail from the Charlotte Observer wanting to do a very short sidebar in the Style section about me.

I have it on good authority from a friend who used to own a bookstore that the city business office reads the paper and looks for these things soo… time to go legit.

I’m gonna be a star, baby, a star!

Cribbed from

You scored as Hoban ‘Wash’ Washburne. The Pilot. You are a leaf on the wind, see how you soar. You have a good job, and a stunning wife who loves you (and can kill people). Life is good, which is why you can’t help smiling. Now if you can just get people to actually listen to your opinion things would be perfect. Hoban 'Wash' Washburne 81% The Operative 69% Shepherd Derrial Book 50% River Tam 50% Kaylee Frye 50% Capt. Mal Reynolds 44% Zoe Alleyne Washburne 44% Inara Serra 44% Jayne Cobb 44% Simon Tam 38% Which Serenity character are you? created with QuizFarm.com

NOTE: Please avoid any spoilers if responding to this post – poor in Malaysia doesn’t have a prayer of seeing Serenity anytime soon, and I want her to stay unspoiled as long as possible!

…and that’s when I realized it might be time to get a wholesaler’s license. I mean, I’ve run through a good 8000 yards since May, and there are times when I have a hard time laying hands on bulk quantities of some colors and have to go to my local yarn store, which is always a crap shoot in terms of availability.

I’m running low on orange cotton for cotton Jayne hats. There’s enough to take care of current orders, but beyond that I wouldn’t feel comfortable telling someone I could get them their hat or kit in a timely fashion. A local yarn store has the cotton in stock, but the dye lot is different and it looks a little more melon than I’d like. So now I have to choose whether to go with the more melony shade or maybe find somebody to dye some orange for me. If I go with ‘dye’ then it’d be a hell of a lot cheaper if I could buy my yarn wholesale.

I guess I just have to figure out if the fees are worth it. And really, I’d prefer to have someone dye it – I’m a stickler for accuracy. So I guess I need someone who can dye some cotton “Jayne-hat orange!” I’ll pay!

http://thesneeze.com/

Mark it down, folks, it’s a red letter day.

My daughter entered her first chat room.

At http://www.GroovyGirls.com you can create an avatar of yourself that looks like a Groovy Girl, then do stuff like dance, change clothes, etc. You can also go into a room with other kids’ (I’m hoping kids’) Groovy Girl avatars. You can ask preset questions from a list, answer questions with a preset list, create sentences with individual preset words, and so forth. It’s pretty kid-friendly and I don’t see a way someone could inflict harm on the kids, since they can’t actually say anything that isn’t already in the computer in some form.

So far my daughter has said “Tell me about the boy you like” and “Do you like parties?” and told people that she likes to dance. She can also invite the other Groovy Girls to dance, and take photos with them (little screen captures of your Groovy Girl and theirs making funny faces). She has done both of these things, as well as answered another kid who asked “How ya doing?” with “I’m feeling okay.” (She picked ‘okay” over “awesome” and “really good” so she is choosing her own answers).

I’m right there beside her for all this, of course.

It’s a bold new age, and I didn’t think we’d be in it for another eight years, at least. Shows what I know.

Well, the Wearwithstyle Donors Choose yarn contest is over, which means you won’t have to hear me yammering about it anymore. It looks like we raised about $300. I picture a lot of happy kids with pencils, paper, scissors, and so forth. I picture a teacher excitedly opening UPS boxes, renewing her enthusiasm. I picture an entire Katrina classroom in Houston outfitted because of the generosity of knitters.

Believe it or not, every single person who donated won a prize, and some people won more than one. Right now, I’m debating whether to let people know in advance what they won, or just have a surprise package of yarny goodness show up on their doorstep. Opinions?

Whose Secret Pal rocks from across the globe? Why, mine does!

Yep, direct from South Australia, I got a package of goodies!

My God, it’s full of chocolate.