The Inappropriate Sweater Story

Last Wednesday night the Husboy and I were reminiscing about our past Christmases together and what we had gotten for each other each year. At some point the conversation went like so:

Me: "What about your sweater I knit you?"
Him: "Oh yeah! I love that sweater!"
Me: "You've never worn it."
Him: "But the weather is perfect for it now."
Me: "Ha, you don't even know where it is."
Him: "What?"
Me: "You don't know where it is."
Him: "Yes I do, I think it's in the closet somewhere."
Me: "I'll tell you what. It's 7:02. If you can find it by 7:05 I will give you $50 dollars and (insert special marital activity here).

Poor thing didn't find it until 7:15, but he wore it out afterward and received many compliments. Little consolation for him, lots of giggling for me.

CrafTea & Coffee Too

This semester I took marketing communications and small business entrepreneurship at LBCC. One of the best things about taking these classes at once is that I needed to build a dummy company for the small business class and I needed to build a dummy advertising campaign for the marketing class, so a lot of my research was utilized twice. Holy efficient use of time and energy, Batman!

The company I set up (academically, not IRL) was called CrafTea & Coffee Too, a crafting studio with an indie cafe attached to it. Think of a place where you can get a great cup of coffee, a cranberry-oatmeal cookie, AND try out spinning wheels or take a scrapbooking class. Yeah, I got a little warm and fuzzy too.

I wanted to share the ads that I made up for the campaign. I stole fairly used for academic purposes without permission all of the images in the ads (remember, the store doesn't really exist) and will give credit where I am able:

Picture Copyright 2008 Stephanie Pearl-McPhee: http://www.yarnharlot.ca/blog/archives/2008_01.html

Here's where it gets tricky; I snagged a lot of these images from Google image search and did not think enough to keep track of the original sources. I know at least the star candles are from Better Homes and Gardens: http://www.bhg.com/holidays/christmas/crafts/quick-and-easy-holiday-crafts/?page=1

Same thing here. I am ashamed of my academic malfeasance, so if you can identify any of these images please let me know so I can correctly identify the source.

Next time, the best color wheel ever.

Knitting on Medication

I am home recovering from last weekend's reconstructive surgery, which went splendidly! Between the stress and the pain medications and the simple fact that, when giving something small and knitted, colorwork is always impressive, I am happy to report that I had the foresight to start a few felted bags before the big day. Why felted bags?

1. Felted bags are usually pretty small projects that use mondo needles.
2. Felting projects are an easy, fast way to burn through some of those half-skeins of wool lazing around the stash.
3. Felting is very forgiving in times when your gauge may be, well, less than perfect.

I have not uploaded any pictures lately, but I've been loving the Ballband Bag Recipe from Monica Knits and the Mini Skull Tote from Hello Yarn. Of course, my tried-and-true staple pattern is the Booga Bag from Black Sheep Bags.

I've been trying not to buy any more yarn until I can fit the yarn I have back in to the storage I have, but I was thwarted three times recently; once by the Loopy Ewe (free Romney Ridge 2010 Calendar for Loopy Groupies snagged me, but not in time to get a Swedish Fish mitten pattern before they sold out).

Another shop that pinched me was up by my cardiologist's office (don't even get me started on the cardiologist) was Ursula's Yarn Boutique in Santa Ana. The shop is a crowded mess and Ursula, the proprietress, was not too happy to see me coming in twenty minutes before closing, but she warmed up to me once we found out we were both breast cancer survivors. I can't leave a local yarn shop without buying something, so I picked up a few skeins from the ample 40% off section.

Before that I ran into Daily Fiber Yarn in Murrieta on my way up to see my father before I spent the weekend in the hospital. The store layout was impressive and easy to navigate, the owner Debbie was an absolute joy to talk with, and she also had a very impressive clearance section where I picked up Wendy Keele's Poems of Color for 50% off, score!

I'm hoping to post more now that school is over and I am laid up. Next time I'll talk about my phony craft cafe and show off some ads.