Ah, summer

Time for lace and cotton and linen.

Finished my niece's socks! Got the buttons sewn onto my coworker's booties! I picked up Branching Out again - finally - but couldn't figure out what row I knit last. I ended up frogging it and restarting, and I'm so pleased with how it looks already. I made it through about six pattern repeats.

My friend SP finished her Sylvi and posted pictures of it today. I am amazed and in awe of that accomplishment! I know I can do it too - it's a pattern, a set of directions, and I'm good at following directions. That seems like such a mammoth project though... After I finish Branching Out and a few more socks, I think I'll work on my Sonnet. Maybe I'll be able to finish it in time for the chilly season ;)

In house news... the A/C will be replaced tomorrow. We requested several estimates, and the winner will charge us around $3,800. I'm so grateful for savings accounts and for both of us having stable, well-paying jobs. The pool is looking better and better - the chemicals we keep dumping in are working! This weekend, Bradley was brushing crud off the sides, and the brush fell off the end of the pole. It was clear enough that he put on a scuba mask and dove in to get it off the bottom. I was pretty grossed out and made him shower as soon as I realized what he'd done.

We've been considering adding two new ani-pals to our little family - two dogs. Originally, Bradley wanted an English Bulldog. Being from Athens and UGA, I LOVED the idea. My only demand was that my beast would be a boxer. One of my earliest memories is of standing on the driveway outside my childhood home, looking up at the boxer my family owned - that's how I small I was at the time. I adore boxers! Well - Bradley saw a picture on IHasAHotdog.com of a mastiff and has now changed his mind - no more bulldog; he wants a mastiff. HA. My major primary concern is controlling the animal - those dogs grow to be twice my weight. A bulldog would be strong and stubborn, but it wouldn't weigh more than I do, and I could SIT on it if all else failed. A female boxer wouldn't be bigger than me, either. But a mastiff?? Those boys grow to be as big as Bradley!!! We'll see what happens. Right now, we have some immediate house expenses that prevent us from acquiring new beasts. We'll have to get puppies so that the cats can deal with them... there's no way we could introduce adult dogs (such as rescues) into the house with Skye the Amazing Attack Cat and Pax the Stupid Prey Cat. Puppies mean we will have to find quality breeders. I have a bit of a hard time reconciling that with my values; I feel so strongly about adopting pound puppies... but I just can't risk the history that some rescues have when bringing a big dog into the house. Maybe I can ease my conscience by making a big donation to the local shelters when we bring home the pups.

Anyways, I gotta get off the keyboard; my left pinky is being weird and painful when I type.

Booked, again.

Foiled, again! Crap. My two officemates both want baby booties. I need to find a new pattern or mod one up enough to be my own... I don't feel comfortable continuing with the pattern I have now. I was feeling grumpy about my personal knitting time being taken away, but with the recent discovery that we will have to replace our entire HVAC system by the end of the summer, I really am not in a position to complain about something that will bring in some cash. To that end, I have created a price list in my Google Docs to help myself stay in a business frame of mind. Making some cash was one of the reasons I picked up knitting to start with - so I need to remember that, as well.

Finished niece's first sock and am about halfway done with the cuff on the second one. Spent a few hours knitting last night and made serious progress.

I have a lot of random ends in my stash that I need to use up. I sense some baby hats, booties, maybe some mittens coming soon!

Orders

Well, I've been working on Lisalou's scarves for a little while and was nearly finished with the last of her order. I was thinking about what to do next, and one of my co-workers came to my desk to ask about the scarf I sold to another coworker. It ended up with her commissioning six scarves! Two or three for herself and three for Christmas gifts. The original co-worker decided that Christmas gifts sounded like a great idea and ordered two more herself. Then one of my friends saw the signature pointing to my Etsy shop, and is figuring out what colors she wants out of a FunFur scarf.

Score!

So 6-scarf coworker is getting a decent discount for such a bulk purchase. The other two - not so much.

My previous quandary has come back up again. Since I'm new to all of this - I'm not sure what the rules are for selling scarves knit from patterns. I understand that a pattern published in a book or that has to be paid for shouldn't be knit and sold. It should be gifted or kept. I have no problem with that at all. But what about free patterns? Specifically, the My So-Called Scarf pattern? I made three before I knew about rules like this, and have sold them, and they are very popular. I don't try to claim the pattern as my own and gladly point people to the website where I've found the pattern. Also, the person who posted it says that the people who came up with it don't care about the distribution. When I have sold these - I take the position that I'm charging for the materials and my time. I don't want to take credit for the pattern at all. So is this okay? To absolve my concern - I think I'm going to donate part of my profit.

I just want to make sure I'm not stepping on anyone's toes just because I'm new to this. Hm.

So, here's what they ordered:

GC: (by 12/15)
1 Seed-stitch scarf
1 Boucle garter-stitch scarf
1 FunFur scarf
3 MSCS scarves

LG: (by 11/30)
1 Boucle garter-stitch scarf
1 Seed-stitch scarf

I have one of the boucle scarves done, so I think I'll go ahead and do the seed-stitch scarf to finish LG's order. GC knows that LG's order is due sooner so I think she'll understand. I really like the yarn I've picked for this one but jesus does it shed.

Other things to figure out:
Exact pricing structure so I know how to negotiate in the case of more wholesale orders
Business cards (anyone have any recommendations for relatively inexpensive suppliers?) - went with V!staprint
Care instruction cards (I'll just print these on cardstock but I need to figure out the details) - found several websites with legends for care labels; will just prep them for each scarf as they are finished.
When to make this official as far as legal & tax issues