I just joined this great bunch of ladies who work from home. Check out my featured bio! Whoopee!

My Sisters Petal FunRings:

Off to get the kiddos ready for school.

Oh, and I have 13 days to finish knitting that sweater I posted about earlier. Fronts done. Back taking LOOOOONG time. Not. Good.

I missed my knit group last night preparing the kids for camping today. I yelled so loud at them to go sleep my mouth hurt afta and I was very grumpy. And now we're off to CAMP. I'll be less grumpy after coffee...and chocolate. Lots of chocolate.

Big one lost another tooth this week. That's two gaps in her mouth. She's thrilled to pieces.

And been making bookmarks. Lots of bookmarks.

I just found this blog, I think i was reading posts in my creators of crochet daily digest on yahoo. And this thing this girl made is AMAZING:


Those are KNIT lemmings. Jumping off a KNIT cliff. And swimming in the KNIT ocean!!! Is that KNIT-F'ing cool or what??!! There are more detail shots on her blog and they will leave you speechless.

By the way, she also has patterns for sale that are very kawai'i.

Trying to get this last pair of Soldier Socks off my back. Making good progress on the foot of one, what with the thicker yarn.


Also trying to complete my first sweater in a long time and the first sweater for my husband. Mid-August deadline. The location of his business trip is said to be chill. From Interweave Knits summer 2006. I have the worst luck substituting yarns and getting gauge so I just used what the pattern calls for, cascade 220, in a lovely deep shade of brown. Oh, ya, it didn't hurt that the model was totally yummy. The simple lines of the piece are really what made me think my guy would wear it. (and, yes, i do just keep telling myself that, sort of. Hey, i need some kind of incentive to keep working madly at that sheer volume of back and forth stockinette.)

I'm reading various etsy threads about pricing and pricing formulas and valuing your time, and omg, i'm getting a headache. Considering how much time it took to change my prices the last time, I'm reluctant to go through THAT again. Maybe if there were a quick and easy way to adjust prices on etsy...

In any case, I price for what I would and could spend - on things for kids, my main target. Because kids use things, and abuse things, and LOSE things, I make and price items that I or the buyer wouldn't be overly distraught if something HAPPENED to them. Cuz you know it will. If the item is loved and used, something will happen to it. I'd like my craft to be liked and loved and USED. And because of that last word, and the kid target, I try to make things washable, durable, for multiple uses, and that took limited time creating. I am a very practical gal, and I want that thing I toiled over to be used so much it literally falls apart from love and wear, thus my kid recipients. So I price so that a busy parent can say "Oh, I like that!" and if another or more are needed, wanted, she won't think twice about ordering a bunch more.

Also, it is not really fair to devalue "non-professional" (hobbyist) because they cannot drop everything else to pursue their dream. Buyers will buy what they like and not what they don't. How one makes her living should have nothing to do with the value of a particular item. It should stand on its own merit.

I'm a full-time mom and a crafter. You bet your ass I value my time.

And that's my take on the whole pricing fiasco. (as posted on the pricing thread in the etsy forum)

In trying to promote my etsy shop I am trying to do some advertising, crafter style. I tried to make these iron-ons with my site name but had a little trouble getting the iron to be hot enough. Results after washing are abysmal, but now I know why screen printing is better. Your site on a shirt is a good idea, though. We wear brand names all the time, that we've paid for! So why not our own. Also, I got decals for my car off etsy from monster promos. They're cute.

And also working on other ideas for incorporating neato buttons into cute wearables. Unfortunately, I only remember to adorn myself with these things I've made when my body is the only one leaving the house. When kids are involved, I'm lucky to have my teeth brushed, bra on, food packed, and phone in pocket.

CRAFTY!
Keiki Gifts purchased some of my crocheted flowers and she did the most amazing things with them! I am so stoked! Will post link to her actual blog entry if I get her permission.

This was the "potion" created by older. It included some pretty expensive essential oils and some foam alphabets that accidentally got dumped in the toilet afterwards, but creative, and documented by older one, all the same. She and younger she collaborated on this effort.

Today we took it easy, again, because just yesterday morning the big one says "my throat REALLY hurts!" Today she says "It...doesn't. Can I have some candy? How about some ice cream?" So in the spirit of she's already sick, and the little one is asking me for all kinds of forms of sugar, I gave in and let them have one mochi ice cream each. They preferred chocolate but settled for strawberry.

That and they requested outside naked baths. Ya, that's exactly what it sounds like. So, obviously no pictures. This time. We did it in the front yard as it was sunnier, but only off and on. The big one got shivery in the breeze and the little one just ran around with her towel afterwards refusing to get dressed. And after both were clean and dry, both ran around sky-clad, refusing to get dressed. Fortunately, they remembered they had a video to finish (Night at the Museum) before too long and finally came in before Child Protective Services was called.

On the crafting side, my self-designed surfboard knit shape is not coming along too well. Looking like a Zulu warrior shield so I ripped it all out and will try different frequency of increases. I should have snapped a pic but changed to working on a girl's version of the keiki kane lei. Maybe an anklet.

Nya nya, I swooped in and scooped up all keikigifts' fairy tiara stash last week! Okay, I shouldn't gloat. Sorry. But I so happy I now have some more wondeful, original, handmade gifts. Yippee! Now if I could just get organized so I don't panic at last minute because I forgot I already have the presents.

We celebrated July 4th by dying yarn using Kool Aid. I turned one skein of Cascade 220 into six and the girls had three chances each to hand-dye, single color in the microwave, and single color on the stove. Boy, that was easy AND fun! We need to find more colors of Kool Aid. Only three available in Times Supermarket in packets. I wonder if other brand drink mixes work. I would like to dry a green and a blue. I'd also like to try REAL yarn dyes like those offered by Knit Picks.

Just finished photographin the keiki kane lei and new Ringos. I had especially good time taking the lei pictures. See!!!

Looking at it now, the picture seems a little dark to me. Maybe I'll make a light box like Kai's.
And most exciting: I met up with the Aloha Knitters last night! Whooooeeeeeee! That was FUN! I got to meet real people whose blogs I read and who are also a little loony about the yarn. We looked at each others' knitting magazines, yarn, projects, stitch markers, and dog! Everybody was really nice and I was just so happy to be there. So many came out to knit! That was awesome!

Being in Hawaii my family and i use words like boob or cheechee. I think cheechee is a kid or guy word. In any case, did you know...there is no such word on the net as chee chee or chi chi or cheechee or chichi referring to boobs? My hubby just looked on google with zero accurate results. Like that was worth spending time on. But he did. And now we know. Okay then.

I wanted to share, my really nice older lady knitting/crocheting/crafting group with whom I meet on Thursday evenings, share no crazy yarn lust kinship with myself. SIGH....I think they just see it as a tool but not an ends!!! I brought the green stuff I had recently purchased and only one person actually touched it (nobody's fingers itched to just grab the stuff) and the only comment was "Ho, expensive, eh!" So. so. I so sad. I like them really, but they just don't understand! That must be why so many knitters have online communities and frenz. Because no one they actually know in the flesh understands this color and fiber craze that has us gripped so tightly it is our drug. Before when I thought about drugs, I imagined the high from cough syrup. Now I just imagine YARN, LOTS AND LOTS of yarn. I think if I ever made it to Mocha Java one of these days I would never leave. I would be there til closing and nobody in my family would be happy about the bather/teeth brusher/flosser/story reader/go to sleep body not being there for ONE whole evening a week. That does it. I'm gonna try it. Maybe tomorrow!!!

I tried to find a decent image of yarn and boobs together but couldn't.

Do you think sitting and knitting/crocheting/crafting can make fat stay on your butt, despite frequent exercise and plenty of veges? That and the pooch on your tummy? Or my tummy, rather. It just sits there comfortably, stubbornly refusing to leave, no matter how many angled crunches i do (the ones where your feet are hooked over this thing and your body is at an angle, either downward or upward). I'll take picto next time i'm at the Y.

I thought i was ready to start the heels on both soldier socks but i just reread the instructions and apparently i have to knit 2 more inches of legs.