Friday, March 27, 2009

I'm leavin' on a jet plane...

Today DH and I are leaving to France to visit my parents for 2 weeks. It's a surprise for my dad, truthfully, since it's going to be his 60th birthday next week. I'm super excited to go, and to see packed suitcases in the living room for the last 2 days makes leaving a little more exciting.

I'm hoping that airport security will allow me to bring knitting needles on the plane - I've purposely bought wooden circular needles to knit up a pair of socks. So, this flight, I'm in truth teaching myself how to not only knit socks on circulars, but from the toe up as well. I've heard from a few peope that as long as I'm not bringing dpn's on the plane then I'm fine, and as long as they're wood (to avoid sounding off the metal detectors) then that's preferable too. Here's hoping.

For the next 2 weeks I'll have no internet service, so no blogging for me! But I'll be sure to update on whether or not the circ's made it on the plane, and also posting photos of my trip! woo hoo!

Friday, March 20, 2009

a sad/bad end to a mediocre week

Eesh, I'm not having a good day today. Hopefully the weekend will find me productive and more positive.

Firstly, I've had to leave my first negative on etsy. I hate leaving negives on etsy or ebay. I've only had to leave one other negative before, and that was on ebay. I know that we live now in trying times with the recession, and it'll result in unpaid items, but why on earth would you put the effort into buying something that you know you're not going to pay for? :P I guess I just find it a little frustrating, especially since this person and I have been convo'ing for at least a week about what she wanted to buy. She had the choice to not buy it whatsoever... but then to not only to buy it and not pay for it, but then getting upset with me for leaving negative feedback? Puh-leeze. o_O

Secondly, I've gotten another publication rejection. I've sent in what must be my 10th submission to knitty.com to try to get something published, with no luck. I'm starting to get the feeling that I need to somehow master the skill of lace or sock knitting and to come up with a pattern using either of those, to have something worthy of publication.

I suppose I can always try to get my current pattern published somewhere else... but it's still depressing a little, to be consistantly rejected by the same place over and over. Getting published just isn't all that easy.

Friday, March 13, 2009

gettin' jiggy with my first power tool!

I recently got the idea that I want to make some mitten and sock forms for my etsy store... but despite all the tools that DH has, a jigsaw is not one of them.
So, I decided to not only go out and buy a jigsaw, but also to blog about it using a bad joke as a blog post title. Bear with me, in my mind it's hilarious. Get it? Jiggy with it? Jigsaw? Isn't that so unfunny, it's hilarious?
Ok, maybe/maybe not. What's done is done. Let's see if I can use a power tool on my own without lopping off limbs.

Monday, March 9, 2009

PIF- paying it forward

I will rarely post items I have for sale in my etsy shop, so this is an exception.

I've got this afghan, which is hand crocheted - it's been marked down, and I've also marked down the shipping by at least 2/3's so it'll hopefully move faster.

If it sells during this current listing, I'll be donating $75 of the sale to www.kiva.org, and as that loan gets repaid, I'll continue circulating that $75 into the site as a lone over and over. It's a way of my paying forward some of the kindness that others have shown me, and I want to be able to contribute to others as well in a random act of kindness.

And, the bonus for the person who buys it is that they both have the satisfaction of knowing they're helping, as well as being able to snorgle into a good comfy blanket!

If you've a chance, please check it out.

Friday, March 6, 2009

Today, I blog about laundry

Laundry's knitting related, right?

:P Well, it sort of is, today. A while back I bought some Soak wash, and with it I got 2 mini free samples of Soak in different scents than my bottle. I finally got around to using one of the mini free samples today, and I'm soaking 2 handknit pairs of socks, a handknit pair of slippers I made for DH way back when, and a bra. In my sink.

And, if it's not enough that I've made a sink-full of soaking laundry a blogworthy event, I've even made it picture-worthy:
So there.

I'm going to spend the rest of my day whipping up some granny squares that'll go towards a blanket that I hope to finish - well, let's be realistic - by the end of the year!

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

treasuries on etsy

I've become newly obsessed with doing treasuries on etsy. I've already managed to put together 3 last month, which were so fun to do! Two of them were knit and crochet themed, but I think this month I want to focus on other things.

After spending a lot of time in etsy's chat rooms, I've come to realize that there are people who want to buy, but don't have the funds to necessarily go on a spending spree. So, what I want to focus my treasuries this month is finding items $20 or less... still with a theme for each.

Also, the goal is to put together at least 5 treasuries this month. I really need to get myself more involved in the inner workings of etsy, and doing a bunch of treasuries, I think, may be a good start.