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Report on golden acorn book from the original junebug, on reading the book to her grandson:

“Read the story to Josh… right away he he got the connection to June & Skipper .. After the story was finished he ran upstairs to rummage through a box of old do-dads I have kept for years. I asked what he was looking for & he replied.. *that acorn necklace..you keep all that old stuff in here *.. He was very impressed by the story..”

Am so lovin that he thought the acorn necklace was a real artifact!

March Break!

Well I'm slightly saddened to read today that the maple syrup season may have started early and end early as well. Temps are supposed to be glorious this week. But apparently once the buds come out on the maples, the saps goes bitter, and doesn't make for good syrup any more. Oh well, Aunt Jemima with 15% real syrup will have to do. I'm dying to get out into the garden this week.

Have so many expansion plans for the garden. I think after 10+ yrs in this house I have finally figured out a good spot for the veg garden. Other half may not be as enamoured of it, but i missed my zucchini harvest last year, and i'm not going thru that again...!

Currently on the needles - we are getting ready for a sales table in the mall to promote our Golden Acorn fundraising book. I've had a notion that i would include knit mini squirrels - basically a ball with a fluffy fun fur tail, embroidered face - with the book to entice buyers. Ok, here's a pic of the prototype - altho in the interest of pseudo mass production, i'm moving to a ball body, no arms, ears or acorn. Will also have available diy acorn necklace kits in a baggie. And heck, it's a bonding moment with the team and a chance to promote WICM - complete win-win.

My childhood friend Kelly of Boston Terrier Rescue ordered a book online yesterday - felt good to transfer that directly to Norval PC thru Canada Helps as a donation to the trip. Thanks Kelly! There's some momentum happening again here people!

So kinda busy around here. Gotta get my normal time adjusting act into gear. Happy spring break everyone!!!

Triumph over toe up socks

Have been poking away this weekend at toe up socks.

I mean i kind of like the old way. It's like driving a standard transmission, there's more action on the journey.

But it's true, they go a lot faster.

Am not real happy with my turkish cast on. it should look more seamless. I may have to revert to sock monkey mouth, or the tried and true 2-3 stitches per 3 needles.

Wasn't happy with the holes along short row heel. But i think i like the finish on the wrap and turn on 2nd half of heel. Still fooling with the rejoin at the instep - make one before the new needle, then kn st 1 plus mo together helps on one side. Need to keep fiddling with the other. Getting close anyway.

Motivated enough to order some new sock yarn colours from mm.

Currently on the pins - Cabin Fever's Jane Austen shawl. My niece has a bd in late Feb, and is prez of the Jane Austen fan club. She's not a college kid any more, but might appreciate a cozy alpaca shoulder wrap in JA style. It's going pretty quickly in chunky on 10 mm needles. My soon to be 18 yr old is the vp of the JA fan club. Here's hoping she doesn't claim it first!

Herdsy

Well, the first rant of 2012 is long overdue. Topic - the herd mentality on the front page of Etsy.

Don't get me wrong - there are many things i respect and admire about the hand craft/artisan site.

But I am really board by the grey love on the home page. And spare me - this stupid funny glasses case in grey felt. Running stitch in a glasses shape on a boring grey rectangle stuck on a hand in front of your eyes. My 6 year old could come up with that. I've seen this un-funny glasses case at least twice in the last 24 hrs. For 24 bucks no less.

And how many times do i have to look at that fargin rip off coffee bean coffee cosy in its plethora of colours. Ok, so you know how to knit a 4 inch strip with a cable in the middle and garter stitch edges, and stitch on a 'super cute' button. Big whip. My all thumbs 15 yr old daughter can do that. Worth 17 frickin 50. That scrap of yarn might be the equivalent of 50 cents. She was looking for some winter income to supplement busking in the summer. I'll tell her to stock up on grey. It goes with everything.

I mean, there's so much actual good stuff on there - can't we do better?!

And why grey. It's winter, the sky is grey. I don't want to look at bloody boring grey. I've seen 2 grey treasuries in the last 24 hours.

And what's with the geometrics. All the angry triangles are aggravating my vertigo. Yeah, i want a whole houseful of what the cuss geometrics.

And i'm sorry that video on cat hair crafts - i had to take a double antihistimine after that one.

Somebody, please, anyone, come up with something creative, skillful, interesting and pleasant to look at.

Come on Etsy. It's enough to turn people off artisan work right at the front door.

Mid Dec Revu

Well friends, this year is showing signs of a degree of fiscal harshness that i don't think we felt as keenly around these parts last yr.

Recent discussion with a family member about how to support my enterprising soul during the pre-Christmas season led me to urge her to buy our books rather than knitwear. Summary - I would rather plunk 10 done deal books in the mail than stay up late knitting pairs of socks.

I've known for a while I have to let my ss curric website go. I've tried to keep that service free for several years. But it becomes more viable to post the lessons as pdfs to Createspace or Lulu than wait til the day i can't carry the site.

I'm okay with that. I have Adsense on the site, and just am not comfortable with how junky the ads make a page look. Better to have content and aesthetic control and offer at an affordable rate than lose the whole shootin match. Shame to lose my site with more than 100,000 hits. But these are the times we live in.

Signs are that Goodyarns will be going more the way of tales than fibre, and that's okay. I've been backing away from this inevitability all my life. Time to stare it down now.

Obvs will still work with sticks and string for friends fam and personal decompression. But time is going to have to be spent on the ink of goodyarnsink. Just so you know.

So here we sit in the eye of the storm for now, waiting for the blustery days of Jan to send us careering into our future... Wish us well!

Yay - local media story about our book launch!

Well, out at Beavers last nite - and sometimes in the hubbub I don't bring the Thurs paper in til Friday. Skimming thru this am, I found a sweet little release about our book launch, with thumbnail of book cover even, inside. Seriously, 6 column inches when there's so much Christmas bumpf going on, is pretty darn good! Just the shot in the arm I needed to get going on prep for the launch.

Continuing to work on stuff for our Occupy Christmas trunk sale. One of my vendor pals made me feel a bit self conscious about the name - until Stan brought home the news that Ad Age last week - so a good couple of weeks after me, i'm just saying - had adopted the slogan for this xmas season of 'Occupy Christmas.' Sometimes I scare myself with how ahead of the curve I am !!! ; ) !!!

And one more thing while i'm all avant garde and everything - just for the record, I don't think Black Friday sales mesh with handmades. Like what, I'm going to crank out Weasley sweaters then try to mass produce the billions people will buy off me?!? I mean isn't the meaning of hand made how much TLC gets put into a few well wrought pieces? So sorry folks, if you're looking for Black Friday deals, you won't find them in my shop. I'm slowly and steadily at work on a few nice pieces for loved ones. Occupy Christmas - oh yeah!

Test Driving an Etsy Mini

Saw a reference to this. Why not give it a whirl...Noice!