The First *dun dun dun*

Well, once again the first of the month has snuck up on me like a 3 year old trying to steal a cookie. No matter how prepared I try to be it always comes up and catches me unaware. This month was particularly difficult because I waited until the last few weeks to prepare for the FEAST stocking only 3 days after Crankypants goes up. Not a great idea.

I am *thisclose* to finishing Kristin's super surprise longies and bright yellow Monsterlyn shorties will be dine by the end of the weekend. Kelly (who dyed me up some wonderfully girly organic BFL recently, look for her shop "New Wool Order" to open soon) has agreed to let me slide on the longies I am knitting up for the little dancing man (aka Aiden) until after FEAST stocks. Phew!

I did finish 2 new things for the upcoming stockings, though:





That skull and bones on the pink skater shorts is made out of 220 tiny beads (too tiny to choke on should they come loose, but if they DO come loose it means your shorties are in serious trouble) that I hand knit into the leg of the shorts. The shirt was made by my favorite sewin' mama, Jess from Quilt Baby.

It looks like I might be a little pirate obsessed lately, no?

I know tonight is the big midnight dash for a custom slot and I look forward to hearing from everyone. I think I am going to take 5-6 orders tonight, depending on if people are ordering longies or shorties. We actually lucked out and I couldn't find anyone to watch Henry tomorrow- since he is out of school and I'm not- so I have to take the day off. Poor me. I will be using the time to get back to everyone before the Crankypants stocking at Hyena Cart so you know whether or not you have to go for one of those slots. You also might have noticed I threw and auction in there. It was kind of just to mix it up a little bit and see what would happen, and it is a way to give those with dial up or a slow trigger finger a shot at a custom. There will be some auctions at FEAST as well.

Now for the good news and bad news.

Good news:
I never know if anyone actually reads this thing, so I think I am going to do a giveaway. All you have to do is leave a comment on this post telling me what your absolute dream Crankypants would be-sky's the limit. I'll keep it open until after the FEAST stocking (let's say Tuesday morning at 10) and then I'll put all of the names into a hat and let Henry pick a name for me to send a little something out to. No, it won't be your dream Crankypants. But it will be cool. Pinky swear.

Bad news:
Part of this whole bussiness dealio is growing and expanding and whatnot. I do believe that July will be a month of growth for Crankypants. It will also be a month of traveling like crazy. We won't even be here on the first. And so I will not be accepting any midnight email orders on July first. Depending on my schedule and energy level, I might have a belated stocking at HC mid-month. We'll have to wait and see.

That's all from Crankypants Headquarters right now. Good luck to everyone trying for a spot tonight!

Lots O' Stuff...

Well, hasn't it just been the busiest week!

I finished Ms. Mandy's baggy hipped Rainbow Monster Booty shorties:




Robin's yellow yarn is almost done.

I am to the bottom of the bum of Kristin's super secret surprise longies, so hopefully we'll have a picture of those soon.

I also put the finishing touches on 2 more pairs of Monster Booty shorties for the upcoming Crankypants and FEAST stockings.



Another exciting development is that I got in a small line of custom pirate-y gear from Jess at Quilt Baby ! Here is a sneak peek for all of my faithful blog readers:







There will be more, but I'm not sure where and when it will be available. I am working on some super fancy girly pirate board shorts for my next stocking. Let's see if I can finish them in time. I am excited about them because I am using a technique I've never ever tried before. I hope you guys like it.

Kyle and I also got to leave Henry with our friend Tommy and go see the Pirates of the Carribean movie on Saturday night. Johnny was genius as always, but I could have shaved 45 minutes and about 10 million dollars worth of special effects and been perfectly fine with it. Also, am I the only one that thinks Kiera Knightly looks like if she purses her lips any harder her cheekbones might implode? It bugged me the whole movie. Anyway...

Schoooooool's Out For Summer...

...for Henry anyway. His last day is today, so I am trying to revel in the last few hours I have in an empty house before these 4 uninterrupted work hours disappear forevermore. Don't get me wrong, I love hanging out with my wee beastie. It just isn't very conducive to productivity. His preschool had "graduation" on Tuesday. There is only one graduate going on to Kindy next year, the rest of them are "underclassmen" and will be back for one more year in August.

Here is Henry picking up his Superlative Certificate:



He was voted "Most Likely to Be a World Traveler" because he excels at Spanish and gets along with everyone on the playground. Go Henry!

Speaking of productivity...

I finished Keitha's super grump monster shorts. Grrrrrr! Unibrow Power!




I also finished the first set I will be stocking at FEAST on June 4th.



The alligator tee was made by one of my favorite mama-friends, Jessie from Quilt Baby . It is size 18 months and is lap style for easy on and off over big ole baby melons.


The shorties were hand knit with luuuurve using BFL hand dyed by Lindsay of Ky Baby Knits in the "Bluegrass" colorway. They are so soft it is ridiculous and the colors are amazing. They are a pretty solid Medium.

Okay, back to the list. Mandy-you can expect (hopefully) pictures of your rainbow monster by the end of the weekend.

Shhhhh...

I'm supposed to be cleaning the house right now. I needed a little time in the house by myself so I told Kyle that if he took Henry out for a long hike I'd clean. But first... a little procrastination.

The weather has been beautiful this weekend (after a weird frost that made me pull my tomato, pepper and herb plants in on Friday night) so we have been trying to stay out in the sunshine.

Friday night we went over to a friend's house for dinner. Henry had a blast running around with his buddy Noah, I talked with my friend Anthony about a website revamp and got to have a beer and some quality chat time with one of my favorite mamas, Jessie of Quilt Baby. Henry even gave me the special treat of falling asleep in the car on the way home and staying asleep during the carseat-to-bed transfer. Unfortunately, when I went to close the van door, I realized why an almost-4 year-old + van + gravel driveway+ love of drawing = baaaaaaaaaad news. One whole side of the van- passenger door, sliding door and back quarter panel- are completely covered with scribbles that Henry used a rock from the driveway to carve into the paint. Saturday morning when he woke up I took him out there to ask if he did it.

Me: Let me show you something, sweetie.
Henry: What?
Me: See all of these scribbles here on the van?
Henry: Yeah, that's my picture for you!
Me: You drew a picture on the side of the car with a rock?
Henry: Yup, it's for you! It's a scary picture of a flying teddy bear!

Ugh. I had to explain that I love it when he draws me pictures on paper and if he ever wants to draw to ask for some paper or a chalkboard but that he can never draw on the car again. He said he was sorry and he seemed to get it, but who knows. His crazy little brain is a mystery to me the majority of the time.

After that little talk we went for a 3 mile or so hike up off the Blue Ridge Parkway. It was woooonderful to be outside away from the computer and yarn and business and end of grade testing and everything else.





I also finished Megan's winky monster longies:



Okay. Apples in Stereo just came on my ITunes. I think that is a sign that I should get off my bum and get a cleanin'. I need to finish setting up my dungeon...er...I mean, basement office. Impeccable organization here I come!

May, May, May...

Finally! My first batch of May orders is going out today.

We have Samantha's crazy monster shorties:



Her daughter designed them for her little brother. I was going to post a side by side of the shorties and the hand drawn picture she sent me, but I was waiting for her permission to post her drawing first.

Next up is Angelika's pair of monster longies. I love the colors she picked out and I rolled the cuff for her instead of doing my usual seed stitch.




And a fabulous, mysterious, super duper Abracadabra Magic Yarn ball. Who knows what could be inside...a set of stitch markers? A fuzzy new puppy? We shall have to wait and see...



I am about halfway through the booty of Megan's bright green and pink longies, so I hope to be able to post pictures of them sometime this week. YeeeHaaaaaaw!

*yaaaaaaaaaaaaaawn*

Henry fell asleep in the car at 6 this evening. He was out before we even hit the highway. I am likely to join him before too long. What a fun, tiring weekend. I wish I wasn't being thrown right into end of grade testing this coming week. But... 3 weeks of school left, woo!

The rock building guy really inspired people to create little rock sculptures and thing in the creek. This is how it looked mid-afternoon today:



Henry as Spiderman :



The usual suspects (McKai, Garrett and Henry):



Billy Jonas went smashingly. I had 3 kids show up, which was a good number for me. They had the instruments they made and they were so proud to play them on stage with Billy. They did a great job. It was something that was so far out of their comfort zone and they did it with grace and humor. I was really proud of them.

I am too tired to write anything more. Hopefully I will have some fluffy pictures for you soon. Night night.

Happy Mothers' Day!!!

Happy Mothers' Day, mamas!

Yesterday was a bit of a stressful one. I brought all of the recyclables to LEAF for the workshop, but we couldn't get a hold of a golf cart to bring them in to the site so we ended up being late. That meant that the sign up sheet that was supposed to be there wasn't. By the time got there a workshop for 20 had turned into a performance and workshop for about 50. Oops. Billy Jonas was amazing. He got on stage and performed a few songs to give us time to regroup and then gracefully led more than twice the number of children he had expected in making and playing their own instruments. Amazing. Here is Henry playing along with Billy on his "drum set".

And proudly holding it up with all the other kids to show the adults and late comers.





Henry and his friend Sam, now dubbed "big Sam" since the arrival of his cousin "baby Sam".

The woman who I work for at LEAF is married to Artimus Pyle, who some of you might recognize as the drummer of Leonard Skynard. He played at the festival yesterday with a group of homeschool kids and I had the surreal experience of rocking Henry to sleep while listening to him play Freebird. Those kids must have had a blast. Their parents must have a had a blast, seeing their kids play on stage with the drummer of such an iconic band. Shhhh, don't wake Spiderman...



Mid afternoon, someone climbed into the creek and started balancing rocks. A crowd gathered and it became kind of a performance piece and before we knew it all of these kids had hopped in the creek right along side this artist and started making their own rock sculptures. It was pretty awesome.




And my favorite picture of yesterday:


Well, it is time for me to get my act together and get us dressed and ready to go back out there for our last day. My kids are supposed to come and perform with Billy Jonas today. I am crossing my fingers that at least a few show up.

I hope that all of you have an amazingly wonderful Mothers' Day. I hope that you are showered with appreciation. And if for some reason you aren't, I want you to know that I appreciate all of you as mothers. You are raising the children that will make up the members of the world community my son will inherit when I'm gone. Thank you. And to my own mama. Well, you know I love you. And appreciate you. And cannot wait until the day you finally convince Daddy to quit his job so you can move down here and open up our yarn store/ yoga studio for people who only wish they did yoga/ knitting for world domination headquarters. Someday...

Pictures Please & LEAF Part 1

Before I get into telling you about my day, I wanted to let you know that I will be closing the website in the next week or so. I will be doing a complete overhaul and reopening with a bunch of new and awesome stuff. Part of the revamp is going to be having Crankypants in action! If you have a great picture of your wee beastie in a pair of Crankypants and you don't mind them being shown off, please email me the picture at info @ crankypantshome.com (no spaces). Even if you have already sent me the picture, do it again! That way I can have them all in one place and I will know that you don't mind me using it on the site. Thanks!

Well, today was the first day of this Spring's Lake Eden Arts Festival (LEAF). I headed out at about 3 and met Kyle and Henry out there. I was worried that we were going to fry in the sun all day, but it actually sprinkled a bit when we first got there and that cooled everything down. We even got a pretty amazing rainbow, though Henry wasn't sure it was "bright enough". Kyle is a photographer for the festival so he took a ton of amazing pictures. Unfortunately, most of them are of the kids performing with the artists, not of Henry- a departure from the norm for us. I don't have a single picture of him to post! There are some amazing shots of the kids, but I don't feel comfortable posting them without permission. Tomorrow I'll have to remind Kyle to get Henry, too! Tomorrow is the big instrument building workshop with Billy Jonas. I have been collecting recyclable materials for this workshop for months, so it will be a nice payoff to see the kids having fun and creating instruments with them. They are always so proud of their creations.

I finished Samantha's pair of monster shorts. Her daughter drew a picture and she asked me to tone down the colors a bit and knit them up. I want to wait until I have some sunlight to get a picture. This means that I am officially into the May list.

1. Angelika
2. Megan
3. Keitha
4. Mandy
5. Robin
6. Kelly
7. Kristin

Early Morning' Posting...

I just wanted to post quickly before Henry wakes up and the morning shuffle begins. From here on out, this week is a madhouse. Billy Jonas is coming to do a workshop at my school today and then the big music festival starts this weekend. Rest assured that I will be working at night after Henry goes to bed and Kyle is still out camping in a field somewhere listening to Arlo Guthrie or The Be Good Tanyas.

I am *thisclose* to beginning my May list in earnest.

Nicole's (aka the bravest mama on Earth) WHITE octolongies:




Jen's Monster Longies for her little man's first birthday party:



And while I was waiting for the yarn for the last pair of April pants, I managed to squeek out
Tonya's pink girly monsters. These were made with the "heavy wetting" Cascade Eco Plus:


Well, the wee beastie is up and about and it is time for me to get ready to run. I hope everyone is well and I look forward to deluging you with pictures from my weekend.

The Dust is STarting to Settle...

... and my May customs list is coming together. Thank you to all of the mamas who have already gotten all of their information and payments in to me! So far we have:

1. Tonya
2. Angelika
3. Megan
4. Keitha
5. Mandy

Everyone else has until tomorrow night to get me their info so I can finish sending out invoices over the weekend. Do it or I'll send Henry out to lick you. Trust me. It's not pretty.


I still have a couple of lingering April things to do, but I am looking forward to jumping into May with both feet.

I also just gave Robert from Mahar the okay to open for May orders, so keep an eye out for those emails. I'm not sure when he is going to put them up, but it should be in the next few days.

May Customs List

I thought I was going to kick back and relax in May. I was going to take 3 custom orders, plus the 2 HC customs, plus my 3 Mahar slots and I was going to give myself time to knit some cool in stock ideas that I've been kicking around. I was just going to saaaaiiiiil through May (especially since I am still scrambling to finish my April orders, lol).

When my alarm went off at 6 this morning, I stumbled out to the computer to find 54 emails waiting for me. 5. 4. emails. I spent the last hour going through them and ended taking 6 instead of the 3 I had planned on. Emails have been sent out to the folks who made the May list, so hopefully that will mean a little less competition for the HC slots later this morning. I won't have time to send out the wait list email before I leave for work (in a half hour and I am still in my pjs, lol) so if you didn't get an email from me this morning and you want a slot-go for the HC ones. I have a wait list going, with Billi at the top, but I can't say that I expect to get to it this month. It is the last month of school and things are about to get crazy around here again.

I'll be at work until about 12:30 this afternoon, so I won't be returning any emails until then. Good luck everyone!