Patience

"Who ever is out of patience is out of possession of their soul."
-Francis Bacon

"If I'm not back in five minutes... just wait longer!"
-Jim Carrey

Well, life is never dull on the sunflower farm, especially when I pack it up and move it to Michigan.

Every time I visit the Northwoods, my email/internet goes wonky. In April I could receive email at the local coffee house, but not send. Now THAT was frustrating.

(Of course, last October, nobody missed me. I had just published my first pattern and the demand was...

null and void.)

Knowing that was no longer the case, I took steps before returning in July. I changed internet providers and glommed onto the next door neighbor's wireless feed (with their permission. Thanks Jerry & Jeannie! Only cost me a plate of chocolate chip cookies.) I had connectivity from the cottage (ooh! revelation by typo - cootage - what you get when the individual inhabiting said dwelling is no long in the , ahem, shall we say, FULL bloom of youth) I was in sunflower heaven.

And now, I have a brand new laptop with built in wifi and everything. I was good to go.

Until I got here last night and discovered no feed from the neighbors. Either they have changed their provider and password, or I am back to checking messages and filling orders once a day from the homely confines of the local watering hole coffee house.

So, patience my friends. I WILL get back with you. I WILL fill orders on a daily basis.

I will NOT, however, live 24/7 at Stone House Bread.

They aren't open 24/7 for one thing...

I'm just glad I don't have to travel to Traverse City to pick up my mail.

Nanook Susan of the North, signing off...

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!

When It's Good, It's Very, Very Good and When It's Bad, It's Horrid...

Experiencing outbound email difficulties. DH is working on the problem. Will send out orders ASAP.
Sorry!

Disgustions

Ravelry is a terrific resource. And a comfort in times of great need.

Some days you go to the boards and discuss.

Some days you need a little bit more.

Some days, you need to "disgust."

Today is that day.

To whit:

OK. Enough uplifting. I need to vent…

First my wi-fi failed; we got a new card.

Then my email server changed, causing all kinds of disruptions, including:

• PayPal sending payments to never-never land because the address on the “pay now” button was different
  
• Only being able to send one outgoing message, before dying on me.

I finally got everything changed over.

Then my computer ran slower and slower and s-l-o-w-e-r; we quadrupled my memory.

Next, my power cord got pinched and began cutting in and out before giving out totally; we found a replacement.

Over the weekend, I began having problems again with programs locking up; we replaced my disc drive (which meant I was without access most of the day, yesterday.

But finally, we had replaced just about everything. I had a souped up chassis - ready to burn up the virtual world. I could leap tall buildings with a single bound…

Well, at least I could design lace, print patterns, email buyers, and surf the web.

then today…

the final straw…

I opened outlook to discover my entire personal folder is AWOL. Zip. Nada. Zilch.

No contacts; no appointments; no messages; no mailing list; no task list.

Nothing. Clean slate. Fresh start.

When I try to repair file, it tells me the file doesn’t exist. Even though a search turns it right up.

I can see it, but somehow it isn’t there anymore.

You know how they say you can’t believe your own eyes?

Yeah. Tell me about it.

DH tells me he can recover the data tonight when he gets home. He tells me to chill out. He tells me to go do something else for the afternoon.

I feel like someone just erased me. So I came here, because here?

I have a past. I have a list of friends. I have…

me.

I feel like the "Who"s, yelling out:

I am here.

I am here.

I AM HERE.

I AM HERE!

I want love...

I want tea and sympathy..

Scratch that...

I want CHOCOLATE!

Or ALCOHOL!

(whatever gets you through the night day)

Where You Been?

I was going to post yesterday.

Honest!

But I got sucked into a black hole.

There I was, minding my own business, knitting along on Hydrangea, not bothering anybody, planning to post as soon as I worked my way through the first repeat of the center motif...

And the ground opened up before me and swallowed me whole.

Really!

It all began innocently enough. I noticed that the places in the pattern where the lattice crossed were a little....

wonky.

Well, I could fix that...

And while I was fixing that, I could tweak the pattern to make the lattice work line up with the leafy edging better...

And that involved taking two rows out of each repeat...

Which solved that problem but meant the floral motif at the center of the lattice no longer lined up vertically in the center of the lattice...

Which led to the lace knitter's equivelent of that age old question:

Which came first: the chicken or the egg?

Which do you line up with: the holes on the right side rows or the beads on the wrong side rows?

And then...

It was 6:00 PM, my husband was asking, "What's for dinner?", I was ordering pizza...

And ripping out rows.

Those black holes will get you every time.

Sneaky little suckers...

BTW, I still need one test knitter for Hydrangea during the month of June. You don't have to knit the whole scarf, just the first twelve inches or so...

Have your people call my people; we'll talk...

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...

Orcs (of all kinds)

TNT is running The Lord of the Rings today. You know,, the one with the R-E-A-L-L-Y ugly monster army of Orcs.

I am doing taxes today.

Not as violent as Orcs, but twice as ugly...