A short explanation, or Why I do not knit for money....

My sister-in-law asked me to make booties for my niece and I was happy to do so because they will go to someone I love who will appreciate them. But in the process of knitting, I'm regularly asked if I sell my knitted items.

I don't, and I'm going to use this sweet little bootie to tell you why: booties don't take a lot of yarn but you do have to have it and the smallest increment you can buy is a skein. A fairly inexpensive skein will cost $5.99 but it may not have the soft feel you want next to your baby's skin. Still, let's go with that and assume you had to buy a specific skein because of a customer request. This one precious little toe cover took me six hours to make. I might be able to do it faster as I became familiar with the pattern but we'll use this number, for now. At my job, I get paid $24/hour. That's what the university thinks my time is worth. So if we multiply six hours by two to get a pair of booties and multiply it by $24. The booties would have to cost $288 just to cover my time. Now I know that most people don't make $24/hour so let's take that down to $9/hour, which is below the state minimum wage. The cost for a pair of booties is still $108. How many people are willing to pay that? And we didn't include material costs, cost for knowledge, or a pattern. So let's say I was able to do it in half the time. That is still $54. And these are about the smallest project I can make. So....what the general public is willing to pay, most of the time doesn't cover materials, let alone my time.

I knit for love not gain!

Oops how did a month slip by?

Somehow a month slipped by without my noticing over much and certainly without my posting much.

I'm settling into my demoted position at work, which means, I've resigned myself to the position and everyone, including myself, is pretending nothing happened.  I clock in and out every day which reminds me like a sharp pinch, but I try to let it go.  I also am making sure that I do not stay one minute longer than my shift since I'm not allowed to work overtime.  My new boss has worked out ok so far.  She did try to move me from my current office but only because she knows the proximity to the dean's makes me a little anxious.  However, there is nothing available from which I could do my work successfully.  This month has been full of data requests which have taken a lot of time but I've learned a lot of Excel tricks which make it all much easier.  I have a large project in mind that I want to take on but I'm trying to get organized.  Job applications have lead to zero results and there is currently nothing I'm interested in applying for so I'll make my own challenges.

Early in October, I went to the coast with my parents and spent four days making cards and being quiet.  It was nice to have some creative time, as that has been lacking in my life for a while. I got 17 cards done, including ones that I needed to mail in October.  You might have noticed my journal has been rather devoid of knitting lately, it seems like I just haven't been able to make the time with all the work that needs done around my house.  I have finished a baby dress, which Lillyana is wearing below.  I've got a second, 6-12 month dress done except for one sleeve and assembly.  And I've been working on baby booties and a pair of socks.  I'm not getting much accomplished.

After the tramatic birth, my SIL and niece are both recovering well.  Lillyana seems to be normal in every way and is growing and progressing on target.  They were well enough to come up last Thursday for a visit while my brother is hunting in Colorado.  Lillyana suffers from seperation anxiety right now, which the doctor says is somewhat normal after a stay in the NICU.  Mostly, she wanted nothing do do with me and, since she basically eats, sleeps, and eliminates with regular screaching between, she isn't all that exciting to be around just yet. This is one of the few times she was happy AND I was holding her (always standing, never sitting or laying down, Thankyouverymuch!)


My friend Robert has been diagnosed with cancer this month too.  It's aggressive, invasive, and early stages. We are all hoping and praying that surgery on 12th will be able to remove the entire mass and be done with it.  However, no one will know much of anything until the testing is done after the surgery. I am, of course, concerned and worried but I can't do anything at this point, other than offer love and support.

While I had some time off last week, I went to the bank to see about getting a home equity line of credit.  I wanted a modest amount~ $5000.  I need to redo the floors in the livingroom and hallway and I wanted to evict the pest (possum) living under the house and install a vapor barrier.  A calculation from Home Depot indicated I'd need $2400-3200 to redo the floors and I was figuring about $1200 to take care of the possum.  I was hoping to use the rest to pay off the high interest credit card which has a very modest balance.  So while the bank was processing the loan, I went ahead and had pest control come out and evict the unwanted occupant and then give me an estimate of decontaminating and repairing the damage the possum had done and installing a vapor barrier.  Well, they came out and set a trap, which hasn't yielded results yet and gave me an estimate of $2395 to do the repair and put down the vapor barrier. Eep!  So I'm not sure what I'm going to do just yet.  The floors have to be done because a cat peed and I cannot get the odor out and it's bad enough that I don't want to have any company over until the floors have been cared for. (I don't know which cat or why but with laminate flooring I'll be able to see if they do it again). Besides the carpeting is wrinkled and of poor quality.  I've been approved for the $5000 but I haven't signed any paperwork or even heard that it was ready yet.  So for now, I wait and we'll see what I can get done.

There is nothing much else of interest.  I cleaned and refilled the hot tub now that the water restrictions have been lifted.  However, I haven't used it yet.  The ph balance is still off, even with brand new water.  *sigh*  I don't know why I'm having so much trouble with it now.  It used to be okay when I'd fill it.

I have been a little self indulgent.  I purchased several adult coloring books: Eastern Magic, Nature Mandalas, Enchanting Gardens, and Mandalas for Artists.  Then I wanted a larger set of color options.  I have a 36 pencil set of water colors but I wanted a complete set of prismacolor premier color pencils- I didn't have the money to buy them all.  I purchased 45 at the OSU bookstore using mostly gift cards.  I ordered 78 more from DickBlick (much cheaper!).  There are still a handful of colors (39) I didn't get, mostly grays and ones that were out of stock. It was an indulgence, for sure, but I'm looking forward to playing with them and using them to create cards.

And, so it is, and so it goes...Hopefully I'll have more regular posts. Oh, yes!  The phone calls finally stopped about two weeks after they started.  I don't know why and I don't care too much as long as they don't start again!

Work for Midwinter's feast....

Marian and I have been working of food for Midwinters.
We made quince preserves, and yes that really is 12 lbs of honey.

We really love the quince preserves but had a very small supply of quinces given to us this year.  We need to find another source!

Cards...

This post is picture heavy being mainly pictures of the cards I made at the coast.



( Pictures below... )