splityarn

gone fishin'

Well, not fishing exactly. More like 'gone to Vegas.' The Husband and I are heading off to Nevada for some sunshine and gambling to celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary. And lemme tell you, this weekend can't get here fast enough. It's been raining in Boston for what seems like forever. Vancouver winter amounts of rain. It's redonk.

While we're away (actually starting today,) the fine boys at Stalelife are going to help me revamp things around splityarn.com. There may be a little downtime and a glitch here and there, but by the time the holiday is over, things will be looking mighty mighty spiffy around here and in the shop. You may not even recognize the place!

So until then, happy Canada Day,

happy 4th of July,

and happy anniversary to us!

we have a winner!

And many many thanks from me for all the lovely comments on my 5th blogiversary post. I'll be sending a boxbag to super cutie Whistlepea! Thanks again everybody! I'll have an update with last month's Brain Tumour Foundation donation totals too, I'm just tallying up the numbers.

 

I don't tend to post as regularly as I like here, but I'm hoping to work on that over the next year. I'm trying to set a semi-regular(ish) schedule for myself. In the meantime though, if you're ever wanting to know what I'm up to, there's a few other places to find me. I'm not saying I'm posting with any regularity in any of these other places, (other than flickr) but I usually pop up every now and then.

I've dressed up a fancypants little page on Facebook for Splityarn (you have to login and search for "Splityarn" They don't let you link directly.) I'm Tweeting occasionally. And my new favourite is trolling flickr for photos to add to the Splityarn in the Wild photo pool. If you have a photo of something splityarn-y out in the world, join the group and add the photo! I'm LOVING seeing all the goodies out in their new homes.

All the above photos courtesy of Bertha, Knancy and JulieFrick from the Splityarn in the Wild group on flickr.

jumpity theme and variations

Sometimes in the 365 Days project inspiration can be lacking (did I forget to mention I'm doing year 2?) Occasionally on one of those days, a throw-away shot can inspire an entire week. So you just never know when or where that inspiration will come. You just keep plugging away and kabam! There it is.

Sometimes your Mum gets in on things:

Sometimes Stitchy McYarnpants drops in to play too:

And then at the end of the week, you can sum up all the different footwear

(Click on that photo for all the details)

I lean heavily towards Fluevogs with a touch of Sugar thrown in. (And always a pair of Vans. Always.)

life saver

I know this happens to everybody. You turn around and suddenly there are babies everywhere. We've had two new ones in the Vancouver family this year and one of my best pals from my Whistler days had a wee babe last month. (Wait, that was two months ago. Oh crap, I'm further behind than I thought.) I had the best of intentions to make goodies for all these lil' chickens, I really did. I wanted to knit a Baby Surprise Jacket. I wanted to knit a second Saartje bootee. I wanted to finish up that quilt I started 80 million years ago.

Eh, what can I say. I didn't get any of those things done. Instead, I capitalized on my friend's genius and bought from Soto Softies. If you're not familiar with Maritza's work, you should really check it out. Impeccable detailing, great colour choices and dood, teh supercute!

If you're so inclined, she also just listed the pattern for a penguin softie. You can make your own adorable Soto Softie original.

See? She's genius. I want to start making one right the eff now, but I'm flying to Vancouver tomorrow, my sewing machine is in for a tune up and hello!? Would I really get it finished before Christmas? No. No, I would not. But look out Penguin, you're first on my list of stuff to make as soon as I get home because I know I'm going to turn around again and someone else will be having a baby.

*Penguin photo used with permission from Soto Softies

365 (366, really) finished

Aaaaand I'm done.

365:

and 366:

(If you're looking for a clone tutorial, jumpergirl on flickr put together an easy to follow 3 parter.)

I can't begin to tell you how exciting it was that I didn't have to prepare for a photo yesterday. Woohoo! Truth be told, I'll probably do a second year of 365, I just want to take a couple days (or weeks) off.

colour? me?

In looking back through some of the self portraits, I've noticed a colour theme. I gravitate toward brown and black but two colours keep popping through. The first is blue:

three hundred and some odd

It's hard to believe, but I'm coming close to finishing the 365 days self-portrait project. When I first started it, I had doubts that I'd be able to complete a whole year without missing a single photo. I'm an excellent starter of projects, but not always such a great finisher. I have to say, I've completely surprised myself. I'm at day 361 today and on Friday, I'll be finished. An entire year in photos. If you've ever considered trying to keep a diary? This is the easiest way to do it.

In anticipation of the last day (and because I have no other knitting or sewing finished) I'm going to post a few of my favourites over the next couple days. Some are pretty, some are unshowered, some are goofy, few are serious, so I think overall it's a well-rounded representation of me.

a little afternoon shoegazing

When Etsy opened its doors a few years back, I was one of the first to give it a try (I joined in July of 2005.) Not only was I an early adopter, I was a champion for the site. It was an innovative marketplace. It was easy to find new shops, indie crafters and track down great handmade items. As cool as it was, they had problems keeping up with their own success. As the site grew bigger, new listings were harder to find. The fun features for discovering new talent became less and less useful and more just showy coding. As more sellers join, it's harder to get noticed and more challenging to find quality products. The pure volume of sellers means an item listed right now will be buried fifty pages back within hours.

As a buyer, I find myself repeatedly going to the same shops that I found when I first joined. Unless it's a direct link from someone's blog, a Ravelry ad or a mention somewhere online, I don't go looking for new sellers. I tried searching for hair barrettes the other day and other than the frustration with spelling errors and out of focus pictures in shops, I came away with nothing.

Now that I'm making and selling full-time, I've been thinking about hosting my own shop as a subdomain of splityarn.com. The challenges are finding someone to design the shop for me and then selecting a suitable shopping cart that won’t drive me batty. It’s a giant headache. During an email conversation with Ms. Soto Softies this afternoon, she mentioned bigcartel. I had never heard of it before, but it might just be the solution I'm looking for.

I poked around the shop setup and it's incredibly easy to use. There are a few features that are deliciously tempting, like 'coming soon' listings, stats for the shop and of course, the ability to assign my own domain. The only thing keeping me from moving everything over rightthisverysecond is the fear of losing folks who have me in their faves over on Etsy. I'm certain the number of ‘walk-in’ customers for the Splityarn Etsy shop are few, so here are my questions: As a buyer, how do you find Etsy shops? Is there security for you in buying from a shop with feedback ratings and Etsy arbitration if something goes wrong? How are you finding new shops on Etsy? Finally, if you’re a seller, have you jumped from the Etsy ship? Have you tried bigcartel or another site?

I have to order some new business cards this week and it's time for me to make a decision. I’d love to hear your opinions and suggestions.

(photo is unrelated, but I'm completely unable to post without one.)

call your mother

Happy Mother's Day Mum!

(Sorry, I didn't have a 70's photo with all of us. Your eldest son always seemed to be the one taking the picture.)

And your grandkitties love you too.

a marathon weekend

One of the bonuses of having family fly into town is getting to take some time to see the city as a tourist. Boston has hosts the world's oldest marathon and is a major prestige event. My mum and my aunt flew in last Thursday ahead of the crowds here for the marathon. My aunt had qualified to run and Mum was coming in to offer some support. Conditions on Monday were sunny with a nice breeze so it didn't get too hot. Mum, my cousin-in-law and I set up about a half mile from the finish line and waited until my aunt ran past.

I didn't expect to get as emotional as I did, but the enormity of running 26.2 miles and the amount of people running toward the finish line quite often brought tears to my eyes. We cheered everyone who had their name written on their bib and encouraged the few that were faltering so close to the end.

My Aunt kicked some serious marathon ass and finished in 4:02:18. She placed 20th out of 154 in her division (60-69 year olds) and resolved to do even better next year. I'll be there supporting her again for sure.

366

My father was our family's official photographer. Everywhere we went, at every age, Dad was there capturing the moments on film. Mum has boxes and boxes of slides at home documenting our family from the day they met(!) until well past the day the baby of the house moved out (that's me.) The only drawback to all these photos though, is that we don't have very many of the photographer.

At the end of November, I decided to take part in the Flickr 365 Days project. In a nutshell, it's one self-portrait a day, for an entire year. At the very least, I'll document how much I change over the course of the year and get some fun pics while I'm at it. The best part of the project so far though, is that it's forcing me to use my camera every day and really pushing my photography skills forward.

The entire set is here. I've been doing it for more than 100 days, which is way further along than I ever thought I'd get. If you've thought about doing the project too, we have a smaller, supportive knitterly group to play with. I know at first glance it seems narcissistic, but trust me, once you get going, you'll find it's almost the opposite.

it's snowing!

Scratch that, it's DUMPING out there. In what can only be fortuitous timing, on the exact day that my new boots arrived, one hour before I had an appointment to get snowtires put on the car, the first big snow storm of the season hit.

I immediately cancelled the car appointment, put on my new boots and walked down to Mind's Eye Yarns to grab 2 skeins of Cascade 220; a dark tweedy purple and a creamy white for the Bird in Hand mittens. Tonight's schedule is a little shovelling, a little soup and a whack of knitting. Hey Mum, want some new mittens? The purple is for you!

New boots, an LYS within walking distance and snow. I think I've died and gone to heaven.

no means no

Husband Sweater Numero Dos is coming along. The sleeves have been attached and I'm working my way up the raglan decreases. Along the way I've found this sweater's nemesis though; an 8.5 pound kitten named The Keymaster. Teek is still learning what he can and can't play with in the house. Knitting WIPs are definitely on our No list. Night before last he ate one of mum's scarf projects so I've endeavoured to secure every last piece of yarn in the house before the situation gets out of hand. While getting some sweater progress photos this morning, he zeroed in on the excitement. The spray bottle seen with the sweater is not for blocking, it's for cat discipline. I left the scene for one minute to refill the bottle and returned to find him INSIDE my project bag, paws around the yarn ball.

He's learning slowly but at least with all the water spritzing, he'll be clean.

a giant list

...as a weak attempt to get back in the swing of things and catch up at the same time. This once a week posting thing is a touch on the lazy side.

- Page 7 of the Interweave Knits Holiday Gifts issue. See my needlecases!? I'm stoked beyond words to have been included.

- The kitties are all in Boston and for the most part settled in. Indy and Teek are getting along fabulously. Bicoe is still somewhat out of sorts, but it's the first time she's ever moved, so it's to be expected.

- I was supposed to go to Rhinebeck with an amazing group of gals, but I was levelled by a sore throat and cold. I didn't want to be the new girl that got everyone sick, so I took a raincheque for next year. I've been jealously trolling flickr for photos since Friday night.

- I have started another Zimmermann sweater for The Husband.  Sleeves are finished, body has been started. Hopefully I'll get this done in time for Thanksgiving.

- Tuesday I fly back to Austin to meet up with Mum so we can drive the car up. Mum and I haven't travelled together since our trip to Russia in 2001, so I'm looking forward to it.

the many phases of moving

I have a few general guidelines to moving that I've tried to follow. In your college years and early twenties when you move, you do it all yourself. 80 million trips back and forth in a car is really nothing. You give your pals beer and pizza and they'll help. When you get to late twenties/early thirties, you hire a truck. You still pack everything yourself, but you're better off hiring a couple guys to schlep all the boxes in and out. (Funny how your late twenties friends are usually busy when you call for help.) Mid-thirties is time to start hiring folks to pack for you. That's where I am right now. I packed 95% of the house in the last 5 days, but I'm letting the moving company pack all the breakables. It's a huge relief not to worry if dishes get broken along the way. Ideally the next time we move I'll be well into the next phase of moving. The much-glorified "hire someone else to do the whole lot of it" phase.

One can only hope.