we've gone Etsy...

i'll probably add a couple more listings once i can properly edit my photos again!

COME SEE :D

this just cracked me up :D

i get an envelope in the mail today from Cafe Press. hrmmm. strange. i haven't used Cafe Press in YEARS! so i open it and find a cheque for $28.57 US. hrmmm. stranger.

way back in the day when i was selling my art online (via my now dead and gone website PeachKeenJellyBean.com), i opened a little Cafe Press store.

when i stopped selling i guess i forgot to close the Cafe Press account.

some of the links are broken (because the pictures were hosted on PeachyKeenJellyBean) but a few people are still buying! sweeeet! seems the Moon Goddess t-shirts have been popular ;)

i've been using the She Devil tote as my main knitting bag for years. it's holding up very well... it even got caught in the spokes of my bicycle tired while i was riding it one day and the bag survived intact and fine except for a big oily smear across it.

anyway. this just brightened my day.

pictures to go with last night's post...

(i just uploaded them to photobucket and then edited the size to 640x480. smaller than usual, but meh, it'll do for now.)

i turned the heel on the RubySapphire sock last night. lovin' it! i just decided to go with plain stockinette. i thought a pattern might get lost in the colours (Jaywalkers might work though), and i wasn't really sure how the yarn would knit up. i'm really tempted to buy another hank of their "luster sock" (50% merino, 50% tencel).

my sock yarn stash is getting bigger again... i just sold a bunch of it! Red Bird Knit's sock of the month club kit showed up late last week (thanks Sharon!)... it has two balls of yarn in it, enough for 2 pairs of socks OR the pattern that came along with the kit - isn't the sock pretty?!. of course, Juliet has claimed the kit as her own yet again ;) i guess since i'm ripping back the Yorkminster sock i might be able to accommodate her wishes... eventually!

it all makes me wish i could knit faster ;)

tomorrow is a big day... it's my brother's 30th birthday!!! and he still lives at home... mwa hahahahaa!! (i laugh, but he's going to school, so living at home is the only option at the moment) i saw the BEST t-shirt for him, but wouldn't you know it's sold out in his size. ARG. we'll probably head up to see him next weekend to do some celebrating! :)

i can't edit my photos!

i took some of the RubySapphire sock-in-progress (i'm really enjoying knitting with the yarn!), but for some dumb reason the program i'm very used to using to edit my photos will not work. guess i'm going to have to pester John to fix it when he gets home from work tomorrow.

i'm going to rip back the Yorkminster sock. while it fits, it's snug on me, but just a bit too snug on Juliet. i'm considering redoing the pattern, but going up a needle size.

and because this has become the house of one sock wonders, i've started yet another one... for Jake this time. in some funky variegated Regia. i have a photo of that too, but...

and i got a little tired of using scraps of yarn as stitch markers, so i pulled apart a bracelet i had and made 4 cute beaded ones, with small rings, specifically for my sock knitting.

so... the soap thing is going well. she's sold quite a few considering. we've discussed putting some up on Etsy.com along with making 100%, entirely, absolutely handmade soaps. i guess that should read that *i* would be making the 100% handmade soaps because there is no way i'm letting her mess around with lye. tomorrow we're going to check out some local stores for the ingredients needed IF the weather permits. (i have no objections to 100% homemade soaps... i really prefer them over store-bought soaps! :D )

alrighty... since i have no pictures i'm going to end this. abruptly. ;)

the soaps (for now)

picture heavy post ahead.

here are the basic shapes Juliet has available for sale right now (pardon the wrapping, she's planning on buying better wrapping as soon as she makes a little more money):

the cube:



the rectangle:



the circle:



the hexagon:



little heart shaped guest soaps with rose carvings:


and she also has some fun things to embed in her soap:





the regular sized bars are all between 80-100 grams (approx. 3.5 oz)... same size as your every day shower bar.

the little guest soaps are just that... little. only really suitable for sink-side use.

aren't they cute? the batch she did today she's calling her "Party Soaps"... they're drying now. they remind me of tie-dye. i can't wait to see the finished products.

her pricing is pretty straight forward...
- the regular sized bars are $4 each (Canadian funds) OR three for $10.
- the guest sized bars are $2 OR three for $5

there are some bars that didn't quite make the "regular" bar cut... they're still beautiful, just a little smaller than the regular bars... all approximately 3/4 the size of the regular bars. she's selling these for $3.

shipping of these items is a flat rate of $5 (Canada Post is a bitch) no matter how much you order.

she welcomes custom orders. here are the specs:

AVAILABLE SCENTS: pearberry (i love this one... a crisp pear with an undertone of tart berry), vanilla, lavender, honey almond, rose, unscented.

AVAILABLE COLOURS: red, green, blue, purple, yellow, orange, clear. colours can be solid, light or dark, swirled or blocked.

AVAILABLE BASE SOAPS: clear glycerin. honey, cocoa butter and goat's milk coming soon!

INSERTS (for bigger bars only):
- Easter themed mini shapes (egg, bunny, duck)
- mini baby ducks (see above)
- large lizards in either yellow, orange, blue or green (see above)
- fabric hearts in pastel colours (see above)
- plastic gems in pastel colours.
- soap chunks in colours of your choice (see above).
WARNING: some inserts may be a choking hazard for smaller children!!

if anyone is interested they can email me at artsyz AT sympatico DOT ca.

and now i think i can sneak in a little sock knitting ;)

Juliet's new "business"

my little girl isn't so little anymore. she's been talking about getting a job (like delivering the newspaper) for a while, but was rather hesitant to actually do it. she said she wants to have a job like her dad... work for herself, be the boss, have her very own business!

she finally came up with something and she is gung-ho about it. she's started her own little soap company. she's planning on selling soaps to begin with and then add lip balms and bath bombs to her line... and then maybe even more. she's made a commitment to at least keep going until she pays back her business loan (ie... my yarn money).

she's calling her little business Victoria's Suds n Soaps (Victoria is her middle name). i know she's my kid and i'm biased and all... but i think so far her soaps are turning out great! she's ordered new ingredients online and plans to make Cocoa Butter, Honey and Goat's Milk soap available in the near future, until then she's got some lovely clear glycerin soaps on hand in a small variety of scents.

of course we're counting this as a homeschooling project on top of everything else. she's keeping her own inventory/money in/money out. but i'm helping her find "clients" (her friends don't have that much extra money to spend, so she's hoping i can help her find some adults with more expendable income LOL).

i'm so proud of her though. even if she decides it's not for her after she pays back her loan, i'm proud she's taken the initiative to give it a go.

so watch this space for some of Victoria's Suds n Soaps in the very near future!

the house of one sock wonders...

one down... one to go. feel like you've heard that here before?

This is the York Minster sock for Juliet. i still have to teach myself crochet so i can add the lovely crochet cuff.



and... ta dum!!! my beeeeyoooooteeeeful RubySapphire yarn arrived today!! it is LOVELY! i think i see another cast on in the *very* near future. Butters was kind enough to have her portrait taken with the yarn. does this count for Project Spectrum? she is white and grey after all ;)

along with the yarn there was a lovely little goodie bag of candies and an adorable little yarn keychain! look at how well it matches my wallet/keychain :) love it!

my shrunken socks

a little tale of caution... here are my lovely Fleece Artist socks BEFORE washing...


and here they are AFTER (notice the placement of the tattoo above... and the 2 little dots of it visible in the after photo to get the full extent of the shrinkage)...


a little felted, shrunken (but still wearable and incredibly soft)... just not the same. granted it took quite a few trips through the washer and dryer to get to this stage, but they got there. so i'll be hand washing my socks from now on, especially the merino ones!

deja vu

one down, one to go ;)

the cuff is a little loose... i increased four stitches to accommodate 3x3 ribbing (i thought it would look better than a 2x2 ribbing). but the sock stays up.

i had the idea of posting a little tutorial on how i start my toe-up socks and then, maybe, how i turn the heel. i might work on that later today if time allows.

we're taking a break from ttc. personal info ahead: i have hpv and it's flared up. UGH UGH UGH! i'm so fucking pissed off. it's been about 3 years since the last trouble i had with hpv... WHY now? wtf?! i seriously thought that after so long and so many normal paps i'd never have to deal with it again.

son of a bitch.

another month down the drain

how in the world do people do this for any amount of time without going absolutely insane?! we're passing month 9 or 10 (lost track) now and i feel like i'm going to lose it.

i am so close to just throwing up my hands in defeat. i've even stopped temping. but dammit, i can't stop noticing the other signs that it's time to get down to business. 'cept, well, John's very out of commission at the moment... after another lovely dentist visit, he's not going to feel like anything but vegging on the sofa for a few days.

what does Etsy mean anyway?

i'm not sure of the origins of the word Etsy. but i DO know it means EVIL. well, in conjunction with insomnia it's evil. what else is a girl to do when she's too tired to actually knit, but can't sleep? ;)

don't believe me? if you're strong and your credit card is far away, here's some proof:

Exhibit One.

Exhibit Two. (but $9.50 shipping? ouch)

Exhibit Three.

Exhibit Four and Five. (not yarn, but still something i think every women should look into, reusable monthly supplies are *so* much better for us, the environment and our wallets!)

need i go on?

SnB at my house tonight gals... pass it on. i found the source of the mysterious yucky odor, so it is once again safe to enter my house. now if i only i could figure out the source of the two strange alien monkeys who keep pestering me the minute i sit down and pick up some knitting ;)

one down, one to go.

so far, so good, if i do say so myself. they are definitely a brighter red than the last pair i made for my dad. they're going to be later than they already are, since i spent a good chunk of my paypal on the "Zehava" sock yarn at RubySapphire, it's gonna take a week to upload more $ into my paypal, and another 2 weeks or so for the extra ball of red Regia i need to arrive.

good thing my father is a patient man.

and now i have to run... i keep smelling some awful mysterious smell that must be found out and eradicated NOW. gawd, how i hate mysterious smells in my house. okay... not as much as the source of them usually. it just makes no sense, really. i mean, i clean every single freakin' day and yet every once in a while there's a terrible mysterious odor and the source of it ends up being gross, unsightly and dirty. how is it that i can clean every day and miss something for long enough that it'll start emitting an odoriferous form of an evil laugh that's saying "mwa ha ha haaa! you missed me!"

i'd so much rather be knitting socks than searching out mysterious odors.

a yarn... with MY NAME on it

so, here i am, can't sleep as per usual and decide to take a quick peek over at RubySapphire's Etsy shop to see if they have anything new.

ermm... yeah, they do. and it's got my name on it. literally.

you have NO idea how much this thrills me. i mean, i grew up with the name Erica... nothing ever had my name on it. Erica was never an option on those racks of pre-personalized pencils/erasers/etc. i couldn't even go with a middle name either... Wilhelmina or Maria just weren't popular enough to make it to any of the my-name's-on-it racks. and then when i became Zehava... ha! just try finding that anywhere ;)

those ladies over at RubySapphire are two slick women, i tell you. who can resist buying a yarn with their name on it?!

where i talk solely about sock yarns...

i'm knitting red socks for my dad, but i didn't order enough yarn. i emailed Woolly's in Shelburne to see if they happen to have the colour i need in stock, but if they don't, i'll just order from TheKnitter.com, where i got the first two balls of Regia.

the issue? Judy at TheKnitter.com doesn't charge shipping (awesome in and of itself). but i only need one ball of $6 yarn and i'd feel like a heel ordering just one stinkin ball when Judy doesn't ask for shipping.

i just got an email from RubySapphire yarns that they're having a 10% off, free shipping sale for their mailing list.

and FunKnits has new Opal yarns for CHEAP compared to every other online source i've seen.

... i want it all, but if i have to order the Regia from TheKnitter, i'm not going to order just one ball, i'll spend the entire $26 in my paypal there.

no matter what i do, i'll end up with more sock yarn than i could possibly knit up in a timely fashion and yet somehow there's always more that i want to try!

there's Socks that Rock... if i don't have to spend my paypal on Regia, i was thinking of ordering a skein of STR to see what all the fuss is about. and of course, there's also Lisa Souza's "Violet's Pink Ribbon" sock yarn which goes to helping out Violet (of Lime and Violet) with her insurance deductible so she can get medical attention for the lump she found. and have you seen the colours available over at Mystical Creations yarns?! and i won't go on about all of the sock yarn Pick Up Sticks carries that i've been coveting.

and the kicker, really, is that Sharon and i joined a Red Bird Knit's sock-of-the-month club... so i'll be getting new sock yarn each and every month no matter what... and yet i'm still tempted by all these other lovelies.

is there a 12-step program for this problem? ;)

so much lovely sock yarn, so little time and money, such hard decisions ;)

The Knitting Wounded: Rate of Exchange

just wanted to share this post from The Knitting Wounded. i found it entertaining and thought you might too :)

an FO that isn't socks!

what could it possibly be if not socks!?






MITTENS! whee!




specs:
yarn: Twilley's of Stamford Freedom Spirit in colour 504, 1 full ball and a tiny little bit of a second ball (if i had made the cuffs a little shorter i could have made the pair from just one ball)
pattern: my own "fingers down" creation... very much like toe-up socks, but with a thumb rather than a heel!
needles: size US 4, 3.5 mm dpns i inherited from my mum's stash.
model: my lovely patient daughter ;)

some more York Minster sock progress

i was a little worried they were turning out rather skinny, long... too tight. but the pattern is uber stretchy and they fit just great :D they are going to Juliet, her feet are just about the same size as mine (and she's only 10... ack!!)

i'm just in a fun mood tonight...

go on, abuse the monkey...

adopt your own virtual pet!

seriously, he stretches, go on... grab him by the noggin and give him a spin... i know you wanna.

Project Spectrum...

white and blue:

switched over to the "new" blogger...

if anyone sees anything weird, funky or generally out of place, please let me know :)

the kids and i are going to the library again. i'm going to try to finally take some photos for Project Spectrum! perfect day for it... the sky is grey, the snow is white... and Jake's winter coat is blue ;)

"Architect Frank Lloyd Wright told how a lecture he received at the age of nine helped set his philosophy of life: An uncle, a stolid no-nonsense type, had taken him for a long walk across a snow-covered field. At the far side, his uncle told him to look back at their two sets of tracks. "See, my boy," he said, "how your foot prints go aimlessly back and forth from those trees, to the cattle back to the fence and then over there where you where throwing sticks? But notice how MY path comes straight across, directly to my goal. You should never forget this lesson!" And I never did, "Wright said, grinning. "I determined right then not to miss most things in life, as my uncle had." - Frank Lloyd Wright

I learned most, not from those who taught me but from those who talked with me. - St. Augustine

I suppose it is because nearly all children go to school nowadays, and have things arranged for them, that they seem so forlornly unable to produce their own ideas. - Agatha Christie

Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world. - Albert Einstein

It is a very grave mistake to think that the enjoyment of seeing and searching can be promoted by means of coercion and a sense of duty. To the contrary, I believe it would be possible to rob even a healthy beast of prey of its voraciousness, if it were possible, with the aid of a whip, to force the beast to devour continuously, even when not hungry, especially if the food handed out under such coercion were to be selected accordingly. - Albert Einstein

York Minster sock-in-progress

without flash:


with flash:



can you see the dirt on the toe?

i'm past the heel on the first sock for my dad. woot! i didn't take any photos of the progress on that sock... no point, it still looks the same, just longer and with a heel now ;)

the kids are both home safe and sound. and, Tracy, you were right... he did bring someone home. we're calling his new friend Dr. Scholl. (click the link... that's the wart treatment the kid came home with from my parents' house. it's all they had available for warts and poor Jake thought it would spread far and wide if we didn't do something about it right away. thank goodness it's a one-time-type treatment cuz having warts frozen kind of stings in a weird electric shock kind of way - very unpleasant. if, in two weeks, Dr. Scholl is still hanging around Jake's toe we'll get a salicylic acid liquid instead of refreezing.)

bad dreams and dirty needles

last night i had the worst dream... i can't sleep tonight because it's still on my mind.

the kids left Friday afternoon to spend the weekend at my parents' house. Friday night i awoke quite shaken after a vivid dream that Jake had been kidnapped. in my dream he went shopping with my mom and Juliet, they were in some clothing department or another. and it was busy. my mom and Juliet looked away from him to check out something on the rack and that was it. he was gone.

i tried to tell John about it, but just the thought of one of the kids going missing made him upset and he said he didn't want to hear anymore of it.

i can't wait to pick them up tomorrow (erg... later today really).

i turned to my knitting to help keep my mind off the terrible dream. Sharon and i joined Red Bird Knits monthly sock club, so i started yet another sock. the yarn is a lovely 100% wool, but it's got a sheen to it like i haven't seen in other 100% wools. it's called Wensleydale wool - i got colour 626 - a lovely soft pink. the pattern is beeeyoooteeeful!

but i'm a dork. i'm doing the pattern toe-up, so i cast on and increased up to the number of stitches i figured i'd need (because i couldn't leave well enough alone, i altered the pattern just a little by adding a repeat of the cable to keep it symmetrical along the top of the foot). well, i was wrong. in my crazy post bad dream can't-stop-thinking-about-awful-things-happening-to-the-kids state of mind, i counted wrong.

but before ripping back to fix the problem i noticed that the lovely soft pinkness of the wool i'd knit up wasn't as lovely as the wool still on the ball. hrmm. it was looking rather... i dunno... dirty.

weird. i mean, i wash my hands, a lot. and i do the dishes by hand, without rubber gloves. a lot.

after some thought i figured it must be the dpns. seriously. they are a pair of my trusty size US 1's and get used. a lot. and when they're not in use by me, i catch the kids playing with them. lol.

so i just ripped back the entire toe and washed the needles. and when the socks are complete i'll just have to give them a gentle wash and hope the needle-induced dirt doesn't stain ;)

and that, my friends, is how this weekend has been for me. bad dreams and dirty needles.

UGH!!!

i go into my Sitemeter account tonight to see what's been up on my blog... and i'm taken aback. Visitors today: 105. 105!?

hello. i'm not that popular. i'm not a big blog. i don't even think anyone links to me. usually the Visitors Today count is around 15.

so... 105!?

i go into the details. hrmmm... loads and loads and loads of hits from China with unknown origins (they weren't clicking here from a link on some other site). seems even odder.

i sign into blogger to check my comments... yep... 64 spam comments. i'm *so* glad i have it set so i have to moderate the comments before they publish.

mee krob on a popsicle stick, i hate spammers.

a little progress...

...on the pink Fleece Artist sock. i worked on it last night during SnB and this afternoon during John's dentist appointment. i'll get a better photo to share sooner or later.