Holy Late Preview, Batman!

A preview for tomorrow's customs slots is finally up at Hyena Cart.

You'll notice that the 'heavier wetting' option is included in the custom slot description this month. I picked nice, bright colors so that we could all shake off the last of the end-of-winter blues.



Of course my regular 100% merino wool will be available as well.

I can't believe how quickly this month flew by. I can't wrap my brain around the fact that it is already the last day of the month and the craziness is due to start again at midnight tonight. Tomorrow will be a whirlwind of emailing everyone back and starting the process of planning out everyone's April orders. That and hauling all of our gajillion loads of laundry to a laundromat because our washer pooped out mid-cycle the other day. I will bring my knitting and my IPod and it will probably actually end up being a nice chunk of alone time.

Friday we will be packing up the family and heading down to Florida to visit the in laws for Spring Break. We are literally counting down the days. FEAST's summer stocking is going to have a "What I Did on My Summer Vacation" type of a theme, so I will be looking all around for inspiration. I thought I might have trouble fitting in with a theme, but I have a few ideas rolling around in my noggin.

Okay, I am off to start the legs of Ms. Erika's super secret capris. Actually, I have to wind a few 440yd. skeins of yarn into center pull balls before the actual knitting starts, so it may be a while...

Have a good day, everyone. I'll see some of you at midnight. Good luck!

Tale of a Repair Job...

Do you guys remember those monster longies I made for Jennifer that were super cool tropical colors? Lemme see if I can find the picture...



There. Well, unfortunately, Ms. Jennifer opened them all excited to put them on the baby bum when she realized that the package had a huge gash in it. Yup. Fluffymail gone horribly wrong. Somewhere between my post office and her mailbox, some eeeeeeeeeevil (or careless, whatever) person got crazy with a box cutter or something and mangled her monster booty. There was a rip about an inch long in the waistband and a smaller tear in the very tippity top of the waistband a little ways over. I told her to send them back to me and I'd sew them up for her, not realizing the extent of the damage. I got them today and when I took them out of the package, this is what I saw:



Yikes! I decided that there was no way to sew them up without the waistband looking like a big mess. I couldn't bring myself to send them back to Jennifer that way. I decided to try something a little tricky and rip out the waistband, pick up all the stitches and knit backwards to replace the damaged waistband. So I started to frog the little guy. For all of you non-knitters out there, we call it "frogging" because you "rip it, rip it, rip it". When I got to about here:



I started to get a little nervous since I've never done this procedure before. Okay, I wasn't nervous, I was freaking out. I decided to thread a "safety line" into the knitting below the slash in the waistband to ensure that I wouldn't mistakenly drop stitches down to the eye line. Here he is completely frogged. Doesn't he kind of look like a Frankenstein monster receiving some sort of brain surgery?



I love it.

Anyway. I successfully picked up all the stitches and ribbed backwards back up to the top of the waistband. It felt kind of odd, like I imagine driving on the other side of the road overseas must feel at first... but slower and without moving objects to dodge.

So here is what is going in the mail back to Jennifer in the morning:



Ta DA! So I learned something new today and Jennifer can finally get these on the bum before it gets too hot to wear them. WooHoo! I also just finished Teneik's mean green monster machine, but I still have to take pictures, so that will have to wait until tomorrow.

Karin and Britton

After a crazy week, I finally have some new pictures to post. These shorts will go out in tomorrow's AM mail.

Karin's monster:



Britton's dumptruck and goldfish:



I had a lot of fun with that fishy and I love the way he turned out.

Why has this week been so crazy? Well, Henry had his first ever sleepover on Sunday night. He had an allergic reaction to something he ate while at his friend's house and broke out in crazy hives that would not go away for anything. The poor kid was an itchy, blotchy mess for days. It got so bad that we had to put him on steroids for a few days to get them under control. 5 days later they were finally gone. Note to self: when faced with a medical situation as vague as "itchy blotchy rash" NEVER under ANY circumstances use Google. I found all sorts of horrid things that I couldn't rule out absolutely enough to make me feel comfortable until they were all gone. Henry has ingested all manner of things and has never been allergic to a single thing, so the fact that he could have had that crazy of a reaction to something really threw me for a loop.

My wonderful parents were also in town this week. Since they live in the Great White North, we only get to see them a handful of times a year. The time whizzed right by. We went hiking and saw some amazing waterfalls.



We most likely won't see them again until the grand road trip in July, so dropping them off at the airport was hard. They were about to fly from sunny NC, where it was 80 degrees and sunny to CT, where it is likely grey and snow still covers the ground... so it was probably even harder for them.

Since I abandoned all housework while they were here, this place looks like a disaster area. I need to do a massive cleaning and then manage to keep it in decent shape until we leave for FL in 2 weeks. We shall see.

There is a bit of other Crankypants news as well. A little while back there was a thread on Diaper Swappers wondering if the original poster was the only one who wasn't into Crankypants. I know some of my more vocal customers weighed in and I'm sure many of you saw the thread. As it went on, a few people expressed the desire for Crankypants in more of an overnight weight yarn. I did listen. Starting next month I'll be offering a limited number of "heavy wetting" slots made with Cascade Eco Plus, which is an awesome HEAVY worsted weight yarn. It is considerably thicker than the merino I usually use and is still pretty dern soft. I think that I might do those slots through HC, but I haven't quite figured it out yet. Stay tuned. I'll be sure to post something solid before ordering time. I can't believe that the first is already creeping up on us so quickly! How does that happen?

I hope everyone is well.

Bridgette's Rainbow-y Monster Shorties

Bridgette's rainbow monster shorts went into the mail this morning. I love them. They are my first pair of black monsters and I think they rock. The dark background really makes the eyes pop.


Don't let this picture fool you, it was cold out today! I am just a wuss, though. My parents got 10" of snow. Yikes! I am afraid my daffodils have been done in. To combat this unwelcome meteorological development, Henry and I planted a little indoor herb garden in a peat pellet tray and set it up on the windowsill in the kitchen.

We didn't get mail today. Pth. My husband tried to convince me that there must not be mail service on St. Patrick's Day. Not only is that just silly, but I went to the post office this morning to mail off those shorties, so I know there was mail service. I think our mail carrier only delivers when she feels like it. This wouldn't be so horrible if I wasn't waiting for 15 skeins of wonderful, wonderful yarn that I ordered from Web's last week. I want my yarn!


I mean, come ON. 10, 000 frolicking Golden Retriever puppies can't out cute this kid.

Jennifer's Monster Booty

Hey mama, I'm sorry I didn't put this up last night. I finished them after it got dark and I was waiting for decent light. Unfortunately, we are gearing up for a thunderstorm so the light is still pretty bad. The colors don't pop in this picture like they do in person. Jennifer, you'll have to take a picture of them on a sunny day for me ;)



I can just picture this monster lounging on a tropical shore somewhere sipping a monster margarita and listening to calypso music.

I actually just got back from a field trip with the third grade I work with. All 5 classes. We went to a play downtown and they were actually all well behaved. Until the bus ride home. Yikes!

Now I am going to settle down to watch last night's LOST and work on Bridgette's funky shorties.

Amy and Melanie's Shorties

Alright, the first two shorties of March are done and will be heading off to their new homes first thing in the morning.

Amy's Monster Booty Shorties:




Melanie's Dead Bear Shorties (I can't wait to see these with the tie dye they were made to match):

The sun is hitting them in a way that is making them look a little more red than they really are.

We had a gorgeous weekend here, so we went out and hiked around in the woods yesterday. Despite getting lost on an old dirt road and taking 2 hours to get home, it was a lovely day. I think that Henry could throw rocks into water for hours and never get bored. He also loved practicing his high wire act on some fallen trees.



Tomorrow it is supposed to be 70 degrees. WooHoo!

It is going to be a big day for me tomorrow. The third and fourth graders I have been tutoring have their end of grade writing test. Yikes! I am nervous for all of them. For the past year I have been volunteering with Leaf in Schools and Streets, which is the outreach program of a local music and arts festival. With the tutoring after my regular work hours I had to put it on hold for a bit. I get to go back tomorrow, so that will be exciting. I also just got a grant approved to have Billy Jonas come into one of my third grade classrooms and do a workshop with the kids. Yay! He will come and do a 2 hour workshop with them and then they get to perform in front of the whole school. In May, they then get to go to the LEAF festival and perform with Billy in front of the whole festival! How exciting is that? The permission slips go home tomorrow and I have to say that I am a little nervous about the parental response. We'll just have to wait and see.

Jennifer, your monster longies are up next m'dear.

Sickies!

I am taking a break from weaving in ends on a stripey pair of monster longies and listening to my new favorite podcast Stash and Burn. It is two young knitting friends podcasting out of San Fransico. They are awesome and it makes it easy to cut down on my bad daytime TV intake while I knit during the day.

My house is , once again, a den of sickies. Henry was out of school all week last week with a mysterious fever. The fever finally went away last weekend, but has now been replaced by a mysterious cough. This is not your average cough, it is SO persistent and awful. One of the assistants at the elementary school I work at told me that her son had a similar cough and she finally found out it was walking pneumonia. Awesome. When Henry got home from school yesterday my husband told me that his teacher had mentioned that he had been coughing all day. Of course I was now convinced that Henry had pneumonia and immediately made him a doctor's appointment. My husband brought him in today so I didn't have to take any more days off of work. Ugh! I miss being a stay at home mom! Anyway. He does not have pneumonia, thankfully, but the doc did think that he had some sort of bacterial thing. I am waiting for him to wake up from his nap so we can go fill his prescription and get some treats.

As I type this I have switched from Stash and Burn to This American Life. The topic is "kid logic". I love it.

It may be a little bit before I can post new pictures. I am working on a few super secret projects before the regular list knitting resumes. A few exciting thing are bubbling over here, I can't wait to share them with you.

Here's a picture. My friend Bam (who just got tenure at the University of Michigan- go Bam!!!) came to visit us from the Great White North this past weekend. I love this picture of her and Henry walking down Wall Street with the little doggie, Willow. So sweet.



Back to weaving in ends...

Mahar, Mahar and Sam...

Talk about a flurry of activity! Not only have I been hammering down all of my March orders and finishing up the last of the February Mahar Dry Goods orders, but I have also been invited to join the wonderful Hyena Cart congo FEAST. It was an invitation I had to accept, of course. What a great group of super talented mamas! I will be doing my first stocking with them in the Summer, so keep your eyes peeled.

On to the pictures...

Mahar Jolly Rogers:



A FABULOUS picture that Ms. Janine sent to me (and gave me permission to post, of course) of her little Crankypants trying to get into the fish bowl:




Here is another customer picture, Jessica's little man who got last month's LOVE/HATE longies. I love the tiger shirt she has them paired with:



And my brother, J, with my nephew Sam, who doesn't look so brand new anymore. He is sporting some Crankypants I did for them in Hokie colors. My brother and my sister in law are both Virginia Tech alums, so the poor kid had better get used to orange and burgundy!



You really have to love a man who isn't afraid to wear the baby!

Monster Sisters for Nicole

Nicole scored a couple of monster slots on Mahar and was the first and only person to be able to choose her own colors. She chose to have a couple of bright and funky monster sisters sized to keep her little one's monster booty covered for a year!

Li'l Sis:


Big Sis:




From now on, though all orders through Mahar should be treated just like a regular retail order. They are knit to order, but that is so Robert doesn't have to keep every size and design in stock, not so they can be customized.

I will be back later to post the March customs list so far :) Right now my own little Crankypants is in need of some attention.