Write (a blog)

A few new bags have been added to the shop, and for a short time, everything is 20% off! Bags regularly priced at $30 are now $24.

Cometosilver.etys.com

Small shop update tonight. More bags coming asap!

CLICK HERE!

Oh! My very first professional sock pattern, aka “Dream Socks”, aka Carassius Socks, are now available to the public!

You can purchase them via Three Irish Girls, and I hope you will.

They’ve been available for a couple weeks now, but I forgot to blog it. OMG. How did I *forget* that?

You people rock. Thank you for commenting. It’s good to know someone is out there reading me even if I don’t blog all too often. I will try to post more, I promise. I appreciate your visits.

I admit, Plurking (which I do almost daily) has taken away a lot of the things I would normally blog about. It’s a lot quicker to just write a quick plurk than to write out a whole blog entry. Seriously, if something pops into my head, I can just text it to Plurk! (And I admit I may be a little lazy.)

Anyway, since you’re here,  this is whats up. I’m still making bags! Today I made two prototype bags for a custom order. They’re larger than the regular bags. The regulars are 6″ in diameter, these are 8″. They’re taller too, and have a larger outside pocket and a 4th pocket inside. The matching mini notions bag is a little bit bigger too.

I like how it turned out, but I’m not sure if I’m going to make them regularly or not. With the larger size, you can put more in it obviously. But that poses a potential problem with the usefulness of the strap. If it’s too heavy, it defeats the purpose of the quick snap and go strap, which is intended to go on your wrist, belt loop or purse strap. Plus the whole point of my bags is to be able to take a *small* project with you, like socks or a hat. I never intended to make a bag for a sweater in progress, even if I have lots of feedback from people wanting such a creation. I teach people to knit socks, and my knitting bag is intended for carrying your sock in progress. Knitting socks is good. All you need are socks.

So if the demand is there, why don’t I fulfill it? Simply put, TIME. The small bags alone take several hours to make. On a good productive day, I’ll make 4 bags. On a crazy busy day, with nary a potty break, I can make 6. But that kind of work is not really what I *want* to do day in and day out. I still enjoy making my bags, because I do it on my pace. Two here, two there, sometimes 4. Sometimes I take a week or month off. Or several months off. I don’t want to find myself in a place where I feel like I’m required, pressured, or obligated to make them, because I know me. I would end up hating it.

I’ve even turned down a few wholesale offers. I’m just one person, and I don’t even have a craft room. My “office” is what should be our family dining room. I can’t commit to a certain kind of production. Not yet.. not till I have a real craft space. *eyes the husband*

What about minions? I’d love help, but I’m pretty particular about how they’re made. Maybe even a control freak. I don’t think I could hire someone else to sew for me. And I don’t think they’d appreciate my leaning over their shoulder and the constant nit-picking. And the kids wouldn’t do it for what I’d be willing to pay.

Remember when you could pay a kid a quarter and they’d do almost anything?

*sigh* Good times. Good times.

Til next time… xoxo

How about a show of hands. Who still reads my blog? I need some incentive to start posting again…

Is anyone out there?

Oh, and Happy New Year!

I’m back at it, making my On The Town Knitting Bags in my one woman sweat shop. I have a lot of fabric cut and ready to be sewn. 80% of that is brocade and satin.

Once all the brocade and satin has be used up, the brocade bags will be no more. They’re retiring. All good things must come to an end.

I will try to get them ALL made, or at least a lot of them made, and then open the shop. I anticipate that they will go rather quickly as a lot of people have been waiting for more bags to be available. If you want to be notified when the shop opens, go and get on the list. It will be at least a week before the shop opens. Maybe two. The bags take a fair bit of time to make, so please continue to be patient. But if you’re waiting, get on the list now.

Don’t worry, I will continue to make the casual version, the denim & cotton bags. I will also be working on a new all cotton version as well, and some completely new bags.

And a little sneak preview for you blog readers, there will possibly… maybe… be a PDF pattern (and/or kit) in the future so you crafty people can make your own On The Town Knitting Bags. Maybe. Just maybe. Lots of work to do before that’s a go yet, it looks very likely, but don’t hold your breath.

Unless you can hold it for a verrrrrry. loooooong. time.

My boy is 18 years old today. The baby that I was carrying when I graduated high school in 1991. The little something that scared me more than anything, and made me so happy at the same time.

He is 18. A man. As tall as his dad and all grown up. Where does the time go?

Eighteen years ago, at my baby shower, guests brought a little something to go into a box. A box that would not be opened until the year 2009, Taylor’s Time Capsule. All these years, it’s been tucked away, and never mentioned to the boy. Until now. We let him open it last night.

Inside was a trip back to 1991. The baby shower invitation, with instructions for this very box. Photos of family and friends and notes to baby. Newspapers from 1991, The Wall Street Journal, and memorabilia. Baseball cards, a mint set of 1991 coins. Pictures of mom and dad as teenagers, dad with long hair and the actual ponytail he cut off. Pix of dad’s old motorcycle and a “baby biker” outfit that says “PooPoo Happens”. The shirt Taylor wore home from the hospital and a tiny baby sleeper. Ornaments and a sprig from his first Christmas tree. Taylor’s handprints when he was 8 months old. A drawing I did in high school, and the t-shirt I wore as a member of the school newspaper committee. A family tree with photos from my dad’s mom, Taylor’s only remaining great-grandparent. A postcard written to a man in the future.

Taylor thoroughly enjoyed going through the box. There are things in there he’ll treasure, things he can laugh at, and things he may never touch again. Maybe he’ll place the Christmas ornament that says “Baby’s First Christmas” on his own tree to commemorate his own child’s first Christmas. Maybe he’ll put the pictures in a box marked for his own son. Maybe…

He has his whole life ahead of him. Now as a man, but forever that little blond boy that still scares me, yet makes me so happy at the same time.

I love you boy. Happy Birthday.