Knit Night

Sorry I missed a few posts but I have been out and about in Portland. I went to the Tuesday night knit night at Yarn Garden and just like their pub knit night it was fantastic. The only drawback is it is only two hours, from six to eight pm. Everyone is great and it's fun to see all the projects.

I walked home from the knit night and found out it's just not a good idea to walk over the Hawthorne Bridge to home in ballet flats. Ouch. Maybe I should have entitled this Ouch 2.0!

Have remedied the situation by buying a pair of sneakers. Go ahead and laugh, but I didn't have a pair. Now I do.

The using up of the stash is coming along nicely, three, no four sweaters are in the pipeline and I'm working on learning how to get the pictures onto the computer. They and the first patterns will be here soon!

Regrets, Had a Few?

I love Regretsy, not afraid to say it. I know it seems a little mean, all that snarking and such, but remember these are crafts gone bad. Real bad. So bad, if it ain't actually the mess, it'll do until the mess gets here. I had heard about the site, and like many others I've met, thought it was a little mean. Well, until I looked at the regretsys on it.

Last winter I started making armwarmers and such and selling them at various places around town. I tend to be hyper-critical of my work, it's on of my many faults, along with sarcasm, sardonic remarks, forgetting to eat, (yes dear reader, I am one of those who actually forgets to eat. I only remember when I start feeling dizzy and light-headed.), occasional tardiness, (any potential employers reading this post disregard the last), and lack of finishing my knitting projects. (I'm working on the finishing of the knitting projects. The rest, I'm afraid, are here to stay.) Putting stuff I had made out there into the public domain is a hard one for me. I have to have things perfect when it comes to my knitting and that's just for me. Imagine what I'm like when I make stuff to sell. Well, it didn't work out too well. I don't know if it was the economy or the stores I was selling in but it just didn't go as well as I thought.

I don't know if it was the economy or the stores I was selling in but I just didn't sell as much as I thought I would. It's tricky when you're designing items to sell. What you like may not be what the public wants. Your pricing, while it is fair for you, may be too much for the public. The colours you choose may not be the colours the public wants. It's a sticky wicket, this crafting for the public. I'm not sure I'll do it again this coming winter. Kind of like dating. (Ego bruise after ego bruise.)

I'm not sure is more ego bruising, dating or selling your work. Probably dating. I tend to believe in my work and will readily admit when it's below par. The dating is a little more tricky. After as many years as I've been dating I still don't understand the whole thing. Please gentlemen, what exactly do you want?

After my divorce in 2008 I decided not to date. (Hey, if you'd been married to my ex you wouldn't want anything to do with the opposite sex either.) I took a year and ignored everything that was male and not gay or related to me. It was a good year. Then, I took another. I decided to keep it going. Things were just easier that way. You don't have to dress for anyone but yourself, you don't have to worry about making someone else happy, and you don't have to fight with anyone over stupid piddly things.

Also, I have never ever been able to figure out what men want. Every friend of mine who is a guy tells me they don't want the high maintenance, overly made up, always going shopping girl. (Eyebrow raises quizzically.) So when they do meet a girl/woman who is the exact opposite of that they don't choose her. Maybe she's not as pretty as those women you see in movies but, then, you gentlemen are not as handsome as some of the men we see in the movies. Hmmmmmmm. I'm sensing a bit of a quandry here people. Just like some of the crafts on Regretsy. People say they want well made, well designed crafts but then they buy something that resembles, well, to put it kindly, something Cindy Lou Who rejected. If a Dr. Seuss character wouldn't wear it, neither should you.

What all this is leading to is my very red faced admission that I dipped my toe into the dating pool this week and was immediately rejected. By the sensitive guy, his description, not mine. I'm still on the fence as to whether this is laughable or pitiful. Ummmmm, yeah. I sent out an e-mail, he responded, asked me to send him a picture, I did, and I'm still waiting. (crickets chirp) I didn't even rate a polite rejection e-mail. How very sensitive of him.

I have been told by random people that I'm cute. Some have said adorable. Some have even said pretty. Evidently the artistic sensitive guy did not think so. I had no emotional investment, just interest. A polite e-mail saying something to the effect of sorry, you're not my type would have been fine. But silence, well, that's just insulting. Kind of like seeing your stuff sitting there on the shelf while the bad stuff, or the badly made stuff, sells. Ouch.

So much for dating for this year. I've put a moratorium on it. I think I'd rather give the crafting another chance. Somewhere out there has to be the perfect fit for my knits.

Almost Done!

Ok, I've almost come to the end of the organizing and am I glad! (Took some time out today to do some job hunting which, in this economy, seems like a sisyphian task.) I've got boxes of yarn, divided into: enough for single yarn project, odds and ends, and colour families. (There will be a box count and run-down of potential projects on Wednesday.) Did manage to get a lot done on my pillow and should be ready to post pictures this week. It's fun to do something little like this and have it done in a day or two, instant gratification!

This Friday I'll be going to the Yarn Garden's knit pub night. I haven't been before but I've heard a lot of good things about it. Check back in for a review!

Littles is enjoying the new apartment configuration as only a cat having more places to perch can. I'm enjoying having more room and the prospect of having to buy a new piece of furniture, I'm woefully lacking in seating in my little place! Well, comfortable seating. Sigh, trip to Ikea I guess.

Stash Slimdown Con't.....

Am almost done with the reorganization of my stash, don't worry, I'll be posting pictures of the extent of it when I'm done. And after my friend G. shows me how to post pictures online. (This is my first computer and I'm still learning how everything works. I tend to be a bit behind the times on the technology.) I've found more UFO's than I thought I had. (Hangs head in shame.)

I did come up with a nifty way to use up all the little odds and ends and pretty up my apartment while doing it. Since the furniture shift around my bed now sits lengthwise along left hand wall of my studio and during the day it can double as a couch. (Seating is woefully lacking in the studio, as of now I have two chairs, count 'em, two. Although you can take the stereo off of the small table and use that as a chair. So, three!) As I've said before I've made lots of afghans, all but one of them using the Crocheted Throw pattern by Lauren Lindeman and available at somuchyarn.com. It's made to use up those odd balls of yarn you have lying around the house but after making five of them I'm a little burnt out on them and the odds and ends I have are really small amounts, not enough for a throw. Hmmmm, wish I had some throw pillows for the bed/couch. Ding dong! Brainstorm!

So I took some time out of the re-organization today to start on a pillow based on the afghan pattern and it seems to be going well. (The first one is going to be 12 x 12. I'm no the world's best of fastest crocheter so I won't push my luck.) Will post pictures once it's done, I promise! I also started on a scrap sweater using all my rust, orange, and reddish yarns and it's coming along great and I'm on track for this month's goal. Tune in tomorrow to see how it's going!

Happy pride Portland! You all looked fabulous!