Bits & Pieces

"Some prefer carrots while others like cabbage."
- Chinese Proverb

Some things I love right off the bat.

Rowan Purelife Organic Wool - black tea

So I order more.

Rowan Purelife Organic Wool - Ivy

My hand migrates towards them.

Fibre Co. Canopy sport - blue crown

I just can't help myself.

Fibre Co. Canopy sport - river dolphin

And some things have been in my stash so long I forgot I had them.

Artyarns Silk Rhapsody (color isn't quite right. Much more vibrant green)

Until I started cleaning out my stash.

Fibre Co. Terra - dark indigo

They beg me to cast on so they can show me what they can do. They're just dying to come out of the closet.

Fibre Co. Road to China - lapis

There are random discarded balls I got for a different project that didn't work at the time, but really do deserve a second chance at life.

Rowan Felted Tweed - grey mist

There is the yarn I drove myself nuts trying to find something that worked. I loved the color play in this yarn so much, but I just couldn't find a pattern I was happy with.

Manos Silk Blend - olivewood

Until I shipped the other 4 skeins back...sigh...

And then there is the sock yarn. Hoo baby! I have enough to put socks on the entire 5th regiment.

All the big names.
Many small ones.
Some exclusive.
All underutilized.

SOOOOOOO

I am announcing...

Susan's Sunflower Super Saturday Sock Stash Sale!

(otherwise known as S7)

Every Saturday, I will post pictures. All sock yarn is enough for one pair of socks. Prices on line seem to run around $18 to $24. I want to price them reasonably. How does $10 plus shipping sound?

unemployed yarns hanging around the studio steps, getting into trouble

My wretched excess investment is your gain. Please come back tomorrow and give these yarns a good home.

I'll leave you with one little bit I wouldn't sell or trade for all the cashmere in China.

Conner in his sock monkey suit.

See you tomorrow. Y'all come back now, y'hear?

Late Bloomers

"As long as we are persistent in our pursuit of our deepest destiny, we will continue to grow. We cannot choose the day or time when we will fully bloom. It happens in its own time.'
- Denis Waitley

Thank you all for your ongoing interest in Sunflower Designs. Your enthusiasm and passion is inspiring.

The Aperitifs Collection is flying off the shelves out of the laptop (we don't have shelves on the sunflower farm - way too organized for a chronic right-brainer like me.) I have the feeling there will be more than a few of these designs under the Christmas tree this year. Look for another release later this week...

A new friend on Ravelry has reminded me that we probably have a few latecomers who might benefit from a reiteration of the details of the Garden Variety Collection.

The Garden Variety Collection is a series of lace scarves/shawls inspired by the magnificent diversity we can find in our garden flowers,and the gorgeous colors of Handmaiden yarns. The patterns are designed for Sea Silk or Mini Maiden although other yarns of similar gauge can be (and have been) substituted successfully. Designs feature extensive crochet hook beading (optional) to enhance the lines of the patterns.

So far there have been four releases:

Crocus Pocus

Iris

Hydrangea

and
Zinnia

Sunflower was supposed to come out this month.



But factors such as repetitive stress injury, family illness, new grandchild, punishing pace, and size of the finished piece have combined to delay its release. Oh, c'mon now, don't cry; you know how that affects me...

Poinsettia will still come out in November as scheduled, in time for Christmas, and that pattern will be emailed free of charge to all who have purchased the four previously published patterns. Don't worry; Evelyn at Knitty Noddy and I have been keeping track of who orders what.

I have first pictures to share of the sample skeins that Jana at Handmaiden has dyed exclusively for Poinsettia.

Evelyn is shipping one of each to me today so I can decide between them. The main difference seems to be the relative amounts of red, gold, and green and the overall intensity of the colors. I will knit a bit with both and then decide which to use. What do you think? Which one do you like?

(Please keep in mind that this an informal non-binding survey.)

This yummy color of Sea Silk will be available (soon!) exclusively from Knitty Noddy.

So don't throw up your hands in despair.

Don't mope.

Don't cancel your subscriptions, tie up your loose ends, and jump out your window...

(Y'all can detect the heavy irony in my tone, can't you?)

Sunflower

and
Bougainvillea

will be released following Poinsettia.

Not exactly what I had planned, but real life got in the way. I hope that those of you who have been knitting the series will embrace these two "late bloomers" as a welcome break from the winter doldrums, even without the added bribe carrot of the free pattern.

Since the release schedule has changed, I am pushing back the retirement date of these patterns accordingly. They are still limited editions, but I will continue to offer the patterns for sale until March 2009. At that time, all seven patterns will be retired and I will begin production on the 2009 edition.

(Yeah. I know. I'm a glutton for punishment.)

I trust that all of my fans (Gosh, do i really have fans?) will understand the slight delay and accept my heartfelt apologies.

Blessings & happy knitting always!

Return to Sender

Hello everybody!

For some unknown reason (at least unknown to me) my server is letting me receive email up here in the great North.

But it is NOT allowing me to send...

DIDDLEY SQUAT!!!

So...

I cannot send out pattern orders.

But...

I can watch them pile up in my in box.

I can read your plaintive missals asking where your patterns are.

I can grind my teeth.

I can feel your pain.

I just can't make it go away.

Not until Tuesday, when I return home.

Serves me right for taking some time off...

Sorry, y'all!!!

Really...

Truly...

Sorry.

My server and I are gonna have a "discussion" when I get home...

Grrr...

With a Little Help From My Friends

"What would you think if I sang out of tune?
Would you stand up and walk out on me?
Lend me your ears and I'll sing you a song,
And I'll try not to sing out of key.
Oh I get by with a little help from my friends,
I get high with a little help from my friends,
Oh I'm gonna try with a little help from my friends."
- Beatles

Disclaimer: The only drug being used in this household to "get high" is yarn fumes.

Do you remember back around the middle of October, when I bemoaned the fact that I had lost a subscriber? Do you remember I ran a contest to predict when I would again reach 25? Did you think I had forgotten?

Oh no, my friends! It just took W-A-A-A-Y longer than most of you optimists thought it would. In fact, I lost ANOTHER reader to bottom out at 23. WAAAAAAAH!

(I think I should get a commission for every A in this posting. Don't you? To whom would I apply for such preferential treatment hard earned reward?)

I didn't hit 25 again until Thanksgiving day, when I ran my little check and discovered I had something new to be thankful for.

With Kim's able assistance (through her blog and web store, The Woolen Rabbit) and her gushing over Morocco (including a link) I surged right past 25 to 35. YAAAAAAAAAY!!!

(That's nine more commissions by my count!)

Ah yes, the power of word of mouth!

So the winner is...

Drum roll, please...

Tiennie, with her guess of October 31st (the latest in the bunch with the exception of one pessimist who guessed sometime in December. Oh ye of little faith...)

All of this is by way of making a heinous request. I understand it is considered bad "netiquette" to ask others to link to your blog, or mention you, or otherwise give you free publicity of any kind, but I am trying to make a living eke out enough money to bribe the postman into overnight delivery of all yarn purchases!

In return, I promise to laud you to the skies, brag about your exploits, remember you in my prayers, and name my next cat after you (What? You were expecting my first born son? Sorry, he already has a name. And I'm too old to have any more like him. See entries on perimenopause.)

I would never ask anyone else to do what I wouldn't do, or anything I didn't believe in. But, I assume you guys aren't hanging around all the time because I give away these absurd prizes (like 25 items) periodically. If you didn't like what you read, you wouldn't come visiting.

When I was Executive Director of the Indianapolis Arts Chorale, I coined the term "friendraising." I told my organization we were not looking for donations; we were looking for investment. We were inviting people to join our family, and if they felt like sharing the family story, or hauling out the brag book, so much the better.

So, that's what I'm asking you to do for me today. Not because I'm trying to use you. But because I believe that together we are stronger than we are apart.

All you have to do is look around the blogosphere at all the charity events and fundraisers to know the truth and power of this community.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch (or the Indian Bazaar, if you will) things are perking right along. Life is good on the road to Morocco (or is it the Marrakesh Express?) One inch in and NO frogging. No sir!

Latest pics:

































Now, in case you've never paid attention to that little list on my blog, entitled "Blogs I Read," hie thee to a nunnery the right hand side and do your best to support the cult collective.

We are knitters. Hear us roar.

Eye Candy Friday

What does one do when it is eye candy Friday and she has no digital camera?

Program her avatar to strip naked in the sidebar? (Wait. That sounds harder than the thermostat.)

Revert to childhood memories of that game where they tried to turn matching squares of a larger puzzle over and then solve it. No. Not Wheel of Fortune. This predates that by a bunch and the puzzle revealed would be pictures and occasionally letters that would be connected by plus and minus symbols. I am informed that the game's name was Concentration. Thanks Donna Lee!

I + picture of Hershey bar = eye candy

See how much fun we're having?

Or does one just email a copy of this post to her husband as a gentle reminder that people like pictures and you can't take pictures without a camera?

Yeah, that's the ticket!

Camera-less in Indianapo-less, signing off.