Ravelry - I'm in!

I received my Ravelry invite last week. I am Bluehairknits there too. As of today, 51,283 knitters have signed up to be a aprt of the Ravelry community (about 13,000 are still waiting for their registration to become active). A very telling show of the size and power of women with sticks. The Yarn Harlot has received over 1,300 comments to a single post. What blogs have you read that receive 1,300 comments????

Preparing my Ravelry "notebook" (all the projects finished and on the needles, with images, links to pattern, links to yarn used, etc) made me realize that I've done a poor job of taking pictures of my projects. It took about 8 months to knit Marta McCall's Weekend Getaway Satchel, and all all there is to post is the picture of Marta's own bag. I'll bring my camera to my sister in laws this weekend and take a snap.

Vintage Barbie Clothes

Blue Hair Knits herself put together these creations for Barbie and I think my Marie Osmond doll, who still wears the outfits very well. In addition to accessories and dresses and skirts with trimmings, my grandma made *pockets* for the coats and a couple of the dresses.

Place your orders here

I am now a little distracted by the idea of making up our house debt (a.k.a. red dawn) by selling crafts. Please go to my etsy shop and assess my shipping rates. Am I charging too much for multiple purhcases? Should I add shipping to Europe, Africa or Mexico? I only have to sell a little over 700 warshrags to cover the cost of last fall's excavation. A few hundred more and we can buy sod to fill in the mud left behind. SOooooo here's my next project, at what will be around $2.00 a pop, or a set of 12 for $15.00 + shipping -- invitations for kids by kids.These are your standard "Come to My (3, 4, 5, 6, 7-year old) Party" birthday invitations. I'll let you know how much it costs to make them. As it stands, I've spent close to $70 to make my vintage wallpaper postcards. I only have to sell 23 to break even, and then it'll be like Demi Moore and Woody Harelson, on that bed, rolling in all that cash...

Blue Hair Knits ON SALE

It's official. Blue Hair Knits has its own ETSY.com shop. I have knitted dishrags for sale that my Grandma (a.k.a. Blue Hair) and I have been working on since last summer. I'll be adding bibs and vintage stationary. Go to www.etsy.com and search for my username: jayteedoubleyou (get it?).

New Kicks

I've been telling people about my recent shopping experience in-world (SecondLife.com) and how I spent an entire day and only $3.00. Now that's a cheap day at the mall. So I thought I'd show you my newest outfit - my own gosh darn design.

Before I am condemned for being superficial enough to care what I look like in a virtual world, be very clear that this kind of attention is required for any kind of higher level interaction with others. If you are wearing the "newbie" white Tshirt and jeans, you stand out like a sore thumb in a crowd. Check out this newbie scene:

Imagine this: people have been living in-world for at least a couple of years - I don't know how many - but for awhile, and suddenly the number of new users increases at an exponential rate - from Nov 06 to March 07 alone, the number of people in this world rose from 800,000 to 4.6 million. Now the system lags, there are people who all look alike running around bumping into you as they learn how to walk in a crowd, every schmo is walking up to you wanting to chat. Imagine New York when the Italians arrived. I can say that (maiden name Turri), but can only imagine. There's got to be some truth in it. So I had to change my clothes fast to distinguish myself from the newly arriving multitude. If I really want to get my game on, then I'll start to buy some more realistic skin.

Speaking of realistic skin, its a very human phenomenon to see a stranger and be reminded of someone you know. I guess it's not any less human to find an avatar who looks like someone you know. Any guesses on this spitting image...?

Someone Else's Words

If you have ever worried about what's around the next corner, read this blog entry honoring the ninth anniversary of an awful accident by the best craft blogger ever.

She writes: "I don't remember many, many things about the hospital, but I remember that moment, when we laughed. I had a vision about the world when I was there. It came to me one night as if a little door opened and I looked through and eavesdropped on the truth. I saw that the world was constantly falling apart, it was always in a state of little things always falling apart, and then there were these brigades of individual human angels, with kind eyes, apples and stitches, repairing, fixing, mending, patting, bandaging the wounds of the world, and putting it back together, piece by tiny piece."

Here words are worth a 1000 pics.

Growing Up Together

It's nice to watch two kids grow up together, get along and like each other. Kyra painted this picture on the computer of she and John. Little royals with boogers.

Still No Camera

So if anyone wants to send me any photos, I'm up for it.

My First Love

This is an official Valentine's Day post. Cue sweeping theme from 'Endless Love'. Dim the lights. Breathe deeply, starting at your feet, up through your center chi (?), and out the very top of your head. Exhale. Ahhhhhh......I have loved Harrison Ford since the beginning of time. And, in spite of his queer little earring, his rash of bad interviews on Letterman, and his decision *gasp* to couple with Ally McBeal, I love him still. Indiana Jones IV, here I come. If only I could spend sweetheart day with you....

Elvis, is that you?

They say Patience is a Virtue

Our house is very cold. Frigid drafts creep in through the light switches and pour out of the cabinets every time a cupboard door is opened. I sewed a draft dodger early in the winter, but it does little to stop the cold from somehow coming in through the floorboards, even though we have a basement. I don't know how this is happening. I only know that I sit my son down to breakfast in the morning in a stunning kitchen made all of windows, and he consistently asks for a jacket before finishing his peanut butter panda puffs or gorilla munch or cheetah chompers or whatever it is he is eating. Putting on layers is now part of our daily bread.

These drafts are a reminder of more tangible elements of our new home that remain incomplete, pending time and money, will and the necessary build-up of general complaint. Excepting of course the unusual drafts, such complaint is not immediately forthcoming. I haven't forgotten what it was like to live amidst construction. A little mess and a lack of color doesn't bother me yet. But have patience. I'm sure it will bother me soon.

In a Sudafed fog

When I was getting read to leave Philadelphia and move to a smaller, slower town, I about had a nervous breakdown. While packing up my house and trying to find a new place to live, I had to hire someone new in my office to do my job. I brought her in from out of town, introduced her to my staff (who didn't really like her), to my supervisors (who really did) and then showed her around an apartment complex in an area I certainly wouldn't have ever lived. All the while I had been nursing an ear infection with a 24-hour antihistamine - taken accidentally twice a day - for the previous 72 hours. Needless to say I was foggy. I almost got run over, in front of this woman I didn't know, twice in a single morning. That's how I feel today. I'm going to go make myself a pick-me-up. (By the way, our camera is still in the shop, so we will have to be content with these vintage repro posters, found, where else, on ebay at mainposters.

A Latin Proverb

"Keep adding little by little and soon you will have a big hoard." That about sums up the last week or so. I have literally been so busy watching items on ebay that I have not had time to post. (Also very busy at work, which may have something to do with it.) I could have an entry entitled "The purses I have lost" which would be a catalog of awesome bags that I just couldn't bring myself to bid high enough on, even after watching them daily, multiple times a day for up to a week. What's great about ebay is that you can shop anywhere. I haven't tried the tub, but I'm sure I could shop there too. You can bid, but end up not buying. For this now very full month-long new year's binge, my grand ebay total is just over $100. Not bad, so long as you don't count the ebay-inspired real life shopping. Which is an actual phenomenon.

Warning: Kid with Camera

For Christmas this year my inlaws bought our son a FisherPrice Digital Camera. It's awesome. John is three and a half and his perspective is so telling. Lots of butts and chests and mouths and feet. Toys, people's backs. The most interesting thing is what happened when our friends visited and their son took the camera instead. Not only is their little boy younger and obviously from the pictures (not shown here) a better aim, but the content of his photos was completely different. All of his mom and dad and sister, dog, his dad's guitar, and a few of our son and us which is nice.

A Little ReDecorating

There's nothing I can say about this. Just glad that it's over. And that I kept the receipts for the taxman. Have you ever seen anything so awful, yet so awe-inspiring? This was not the plan. "Knock down this wall and cut this wall in half." That was the plan. Don't ask me how the ceiling came down in two rooms or how 750 square feet of lathe and plaster was revealed. I was't home when it happened.

Postcards, Paste and the XYRON 500

Ahhh, there is so much to learn. I received as a new year's gift vintage postcards and buttons from SmittenKitten. (Beware: try to avoid accidentally going to smittenkitten.com as this is a far cry from crafts.) Of course, as with most crafts, the following thought bubble appeared: I can do that! Sooo after immediately finding this marvelous roll of vintage wallpaper on ebay, the next challenge was to find proper postcard backing with adhesive. The only adhesive backing I have found for postcards has the postcard backing people's company contact information on the backing itself. This is no good, for many reasons. But the only one I can think of is that I would prefer my own Blue Hair Knits to be featured instead. So after ordering, calling to pay for my order, calling to cancel my order, and brainstorming on the phone with a really wonderful woman at Stamp on This! I learned about the XYRON 500.

No. The Xyron 500 is not an automotive refinisher, a hairdryer, or a microchip. As many of you (who?) may already know the Xyron 500 is a sticker maker. It makes stickers out of anything (probably that means anything flat). So I will probably be picking up a Xyron 500 because one is on-sale at Joann's for half-price.

Then of course there is the question: where do I find the postcard backing to make sticky. ie: what do I turn into a sticker? So I then found some rubber stamps that could be used to stamp a postcard back on standard cardstock, which in turn could be stickered onto my lovely vintage wallpaper. (Without, of course, any reference to Blue Hair Knits.)

Total project cost: $60.00. MUCH much more than simply buying a whole lot of Smitten Kitten cards. But then I would never have learned about the Xyron 500.

Needling

I am commited to learn to sew. I have spent the last year learning to knit and have been spending countless hours knitting patterns far beyond my ability or means. But. Have. Prevailed. So the question is, what about sewing?

I don't know if I'm alone -- and I don't think I am -- among the general global community of needlers -- that two hands is not enough. Two days of weekending is not enough. Two weeks of vacation a year is not enough. And the two hours before falling exhaused into bed after the little boy's bath and storytime is simply NOT ENOUGH to finish all the projects I wish I could start. There are just too many. SOO my equivalent of a yarn stash is really a larger, more comprehensive PROJECT STASH. It includes magazines of every ilk, yarn, knitting patterns, and now sewing patterns and stichery books. What am I up to? My ears in needle projects, needling me, all day. It's an ok problem to have. Better than needing someone to pay for health insurance if I were to quit my job and just learn to sew.

Did I say I want these outfits? I don't care that I would never have the guts to wear them.

Simulating Design

This is Pen Tuni, my avatar in Second Life. He's much bigger than I am. He reminds me in some ways of my husband. I am learning to live simulatively (I have just coined this word) through Pen. From time to time I force myself to perform as a man for example. What's real, what's not anyway? See one discussion here at Second Soul.

I also have designed his outfits -- two to be exact. I spent an entire day shopping in-world for a necklace and earrings and cowboys boots. Spent about US$3. I am working and researching a bit in-world so I do have to look good.

Gotta be startin' something.

I used to be a writer. I used to write in a journal. I have a large suitcase full of old diaries (journals) all of which are written through. Starting a new journal felt really great. The first page seemed important -- it had to look good. The act of writing was a craft; the actual print itself. I had a friend who was older than I was and I worked hard to emulate her writing style. Long, elegant, looping letters -- printed loops. No one I know but my grandparents still write cursive well. I can write like my husband, like my friends. I don't really know what my print looks like anymore. It was always about simulating other people's styles. That's ok. I follow patterns. That's how it plays out now. Now I knit. If I find a sweater I must knit, then by god it's even going to be knit in the same color. I was never good an improvising. I played music for a long time in elementary and high school, but never learned to jam. I had opportunity, but felt best just playing the notes. So how I am here is how I am there etc. Starting this blog is my reinvention of an audience. It's very disconcerting to have an audience. Ask Gertrude Stein. I've never known what it's like to have an audience as a writer. I have reams of words but no readers. That's what I like about knitting, and now sewing and maybe if I can learn to improvise, design. People see what you do. You don't have to beg them to read anything. You don't have to sob at the injustice when your brothers read your diaries with their friends. You can adjust your hat, and it's really your hat.

Missing: Big Blue Hair

Crafty ladies
ever crafty
with yarn and
crochet hooks
crocheting.

They eye one another
through their needles
sneak looks sidelong
across tables
littered with quilt.

These ladies
all silver-haired, or black
make reports on their patterns
craft their persuasions
with scissors and glue.