Things I need to be doing instead of napping

If I have to pick up the arcs for my double wedding ring destash project one more time, I'm going to kill the two-year-old. You wouldn't believe the distance she can get on these suckers ...

Oh, and here's the official "thank you" to both adult Wendlings and LazyHusband, who all helped me finish turning and pressing the arcs this weekend over a game of Munchkin. You guys rock (especially the guys, who owe me for not posting the incriminating photo I took of them Crafting - oh, the horror!).

Looking for a Valentine's Day gift?

I've got you covered:

Might have a sock problem

Not even finished Jason's pair yet, and I've already purchased this:

http://www.etsy.com/view_transaction.php?transaction_id=7267708

But I might have his second sock finished by the time this gets to my house, so it's okay, right? Right?

Bad sign

Any time that little blue-handled seam ripper comes out, bad things are afoot at Lazy Mama HQ. Good thing my #1 Sewing Buddy was there to help keep up my spirits.

I'm so excited!

1. One of Jason's birthday socks was finished on his birthday! So he can hop proudly, at least for a week or so until I finish the other one.

2. I came up with a realllllly cool new idea for a series of quilts. I need to let it stew a little more and do some planning, but the concept has definitely got promise. Want a hint? One of the titles in the series may be "2D6."

3. I did some reorganization in my studio, and I now have all of my yarn stash in two plastic totes ... and a plastic shoebox ... and a couple bags that house yarn for my WIP pile. But that's it! Of course, I only did that by switching the yarn out of three small totes and into two large ones, while taking the contents of the large totes (upholstery fabric and silk), pitching about 1/3 of it, setting 1/3 of it aside to see if I can foist it off on fellow Cleveys, and packing the rest back up in the smaller totes. But still - two totes! That means I can go buy more yarn, right?

Memory Lane

I was just rereading some of my early posts, and I'm kind of wishing I had gone with my alternate slogan for the company:
http://lazymamadesigns.blogspot.com/2006/11/tagline-development.html

Sort of feeling like I wimped out on this one. Oh, well - benign is good, I guess.

2008 Goals

Okay, I've been brainstorming and stewing over this for almost a month, and I think I've got it narrowed down to five key goals for the year. In no particular order, Lazy Mama's professional goals for the year are:

1. Develop (and sell) at least 10 new patterns.
2. Track how my resources are spent (time and money) so I can become more productive in the limited time I work each day.
3. Present a more unified, businesslike appearance to the public (which includes making sure that all of my branding is consistent and professional, as well as making sure that my new products fit in with an overall "style" of design for the company).
4. Sell my patterns to at least five new shops.
5. Investigate ways to promote my business while earning money, such as teaching classes based on my patterns or writing articles for special interest magazines.

I'm also going to try to establish a schedule of posting in the blog on similar topics on a schedule - you know, Monday is "My Favorites," Wednesday is "WIP Day," etc. Either that, or maybe grouping my posts so that I have a theme for the week.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go be exceedingly productive and professional ... while wrapping my husband's birthday presents. Sheesh, isn't writing down the goals enough work for today?

Because I haven't hawked my stuff here for a while

New SWAK blankets are up in the shop, including one I love so much I'm tempted to keep it, even though I have no earthly need for another baby blanket ...

Oh, and can we stop for a moment and savor the wonderful light I managed to catch this morning while LazyToddler was parked in front of a DVD from the library? Light like this in January in Cleveland is a godsend ... and I'm loving how the new color in my living room photographs. Shame that once the renovation is done, I'm going to have to move the couch in order to get to this wall.

Thanks for the free press, Valerie!

ValerieTyler has a blog she uses to promote local artists, and she decided to send some love our way:

http://artaddict.wordpress.com/2008/01/23/valentines-day-was-not-invented-by-hallmark/

Thanks for the mention, Valerie!

Trying something new

When I busted out my new sock yarn I was pleased to find that it was already split into two skeins, each of which was nicely twisted into a standard hank. Rather than start off by turning both of the skeins into center-pull balls (booooring), I decided to try out a method I read about on the Yarn Harlot's blog back in November.

Basically, I just untwist the skein and let it sit in a large loop on my lap (or around my neck like a necklace, which is what I've been doing so far) and knit it straight off the skein. There's a much greater chance that I'll end up tangling the whole thing into a giant Gordian knot, but so far it seems to be working well. When I want to get up, either the knitting (and yarn) come with me (as it did for a stand-around-and-make-decisions-about-my-new-kitchen-counter meeting this morning), or else I pick up the yarn, retwist it into a skein, and tuck it away with the knitting in a place where LazyToddler can't reach it.

One benefit I've seen to doing it this way is that every time I unwind one loop from my skein, I can knit for a long time, much longer than I can with one pull out of a center-pull ball. Instead of knit,knit,knit,pull,knit, it's more like unwrap,knitknitknitknitknitknitknitknitknitknitknitknit,unwrap. I don't think it actually saves me much time, as it takes less time to pull from the ball than it does to unwrap a loop from the skein, but at least I look a little less spastic when knitting.

Hah!

My first ever pair of toe-up socks are complete! I can't imagine why they took so long to finish ...

Oh, yeah. I don't know how to stop when I'm ahead - that's why. Silly ridiculously long socks. At least they (mostly) fit!

And LazyHusband's socks are already on the needles. I'm going to try the toe-up approach again and see if it goes any faster when I'm not trying to do a seed stitch and use two different yarns to make stripes. Um, yeah - I'd say it's a good bet that it will go faster - I finished the first four inches while "watching" the second Fantastic Four movie tonight, and that was only 90 minutes long.

Latest custom order

Yet another adult size zombie bunny hat, this time with funky spiral eyes, which I think is even cuter than the previous versions. Like what you see and want one for yourself? Email me or convo me through etsy.com, and I'll hook you up.

Could one of the steampunk folks please explain ...

... why you visit my blog? I've noticed quite a few visitors coming over from a LiveJournal steampunk fashion community (http://community.livejournal.com/steamfashion/?skip=80 ) and I can't for the life of me figure out why.

I love the look of steampunk, but nothing I make is remotely related to it, as far as I can tell.

Do I know one of you in real life or via etsy?

I'm not trying to get rid of you or anything - heck, we love the company, don't we, folks? - but I AM curious about how you ended up here, and what keeps you coming back. Any feedback would be appreciated! Thanks, punks!

Might be time to whittle down the to-do list a little

• Finish the toe-up socks (about 3" to go on the final sock).
• Finish the crocheted top to a dress for Liza (all finished except for one mercifully short sleeve)
• Make socks for Jason's birthday using the custom-dyed yarn I got on etsy at Whimzy Pinzy (not even cast on yet).
• Finish alpaca sweater for myself (about 2" finished of a top-down sweater in the round).
• Finish quilting and binding on the kimono quilt.
• Finish quilting and binding on the Heart Attack quilt.
• Figure out what I'm going to do with the double wedding ring pieces I'm trying to use, which are currently scattered in three rooms of the house.
• Figure out what I'm going to do with the dozen white cotton crocheted flowers that are supposed to be turning into accents for a quilt, which isn't designed yet and I don't even have an inkling of what it's going to look like.
• Start writing out the directions for the Whatisit Tote pattern.

And this is just stuff that's actually started or has a deadline. Don't even get me started on the pile of "maybe I'll work on this next" projects next to my cutting table. I try not to walk to heavily near it, lest it collapse and crush me.

Some days I'm focused, some days I'm not. Can you tell what kind of days I had last week?

Stylin'

Outfit by Beneath the Rowan Tree; styling by LazyToddler.

WIP Thursday

Tentative name: Heart Attack

Heart fabric was bought during a trip to Lancaster (PA) this summer, and the red strips are leftover from a scrappy bearpaw quilt I made years ago. And the white is leftover from ... something, I don't remember what. So this is another attempt to use up some pre-cut stash fabrics, and given the size of the sucker (35x70 ish), it's going to take me long enough to quilt it that I STILL won't be able to make any money off the thing, even with my supplies for free. Oh, well - at least it's brightening up my studio this week.

Brrrrrrrr

Knitters beware - read if you dare

http://www.yarnharlot.ca/blog/archives/2008/01/15/i_dont_want_to_talk_right_now.html

You really have to have read the lead-up posts about knitting the leaves and the sock to get the full impact of this post. Let's just say I hit the climax of the story and threw up a little in my mouth, it's that distressing. At least to a knitter with a bit of a perfectionism problem ... my husband would probably be like, "oh, that's a shame." No, this is a tragedy for which there is not enough alcohol or chocolate in the world to aid recovery. The type of tragedy that makes you want to bang your head on the desk and ask, "why me? WHY ME????" and then possibly flush the project down the toilet, just to spite it.

WIP Monday - Look familiar, Kylie-Ann?

When we lived in Japan I stocked up on used kimono fabric in a variety of colors, including some very nice silks. This wasn't an easy purchase, since it involved buying used kimonos, then ripping out all the seams, washing the fabric, ironing it, and sticking all the fabric in a plastic tote for eight years. No, not kidding about the length of time.

Before it went into hibernation, though, I made a couple quilts out of the silk, including one for our friend Kylie-Ann. I only made two quilts with it, primarily because while the silk drapes beautifully and looks great when it's done, it stretches like a rubberband and will not stay where I want it to. You know when you crack an egg and get a piece of shell in the egg white, and every time you try to grab it it squirts out between your fingers? Yeah, that's pretty close to what it's like.

While I was working on K-A's quilt, I made an extra block that's been sitting in my UFO* drawer for, you guessed it, eight years. Well, in my effort to come up with projects I can finish quickly to sell on etsy without investing a lot in materials, I dug a bunch of UFOs out to work on. This one is first, and it will be going on for some time, since I decided to hand-quilt portions of it, which is going to take me forever. So much for making something that will give me a good return for the amount of time I invest in it ... but I couldn't stand to let it sit in the drawer any longer, and it's going to look so good when I get it done.

Likely next project - using up the leftover pieces from a double wedding ring quilt I made for Jason's friend's wedding like five years ago. I seem to remember there was a high curse-to-sewing ratio on that project, so if you see a blue cloud drifting over from Ohio, you'll know I've started.

Stupid UFO drawer. Somebody hand me a big chunk of uncut flannel so I can go make a baby blanket or something.

*UFO - UnFinished Object

Please explain

Would someone please explain to me what it is, exactly, that compels me to have my next knitting project on the needles before I've even sewed up the seams on the previous one? Because I've got an earless zombie bunny hat custom etsy order sitting in my sewing bag, but an inch of an alpaca sweater for myself already finished. And don't even get me started on the toe-up socks that would not die. Gahhhhh.