Now, and next

Well, y'all, it's fall and you all know it too - just as soon as the weather gets cool enough for me to think about knitting with wool again, I get another order for a Jayne hat, this time on Artfire. Hooray! I had a nice break over the summer, during which I chiefly made baby presents out of nice, cool cotton.

J.T. sold some more hats for me at Mini Megacon where folks must have had an eye on fall already, since all the wool hats sold. I made some cotton ones too, thinking of all the folks who might not live in the frozen north, so I will be adding that option to the Fanknitics Artfire and Etsy sites soon.

Also coming up: I am working up some Very Small Jayne Hats for various uses, and am planning to branch out into Doctor Who fandom knits within the next month.

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ZOMG ITZ HOT

I have made a not-so-surprising discovery: knitting with wool when it's hot and humid is Not Fun (TM). It has more than once occurred to me that wool only really works for these hats in 1) cold places at 2) cool to cold times of year.

So! I'm off tomorrow in search of cotton yarn with which to make more Jayne hats, suitable for summery weather and southerly climes.

(I also might get some for Cylon hats too, come to that. More news when I have it.)

WisCon!

Okay, so I didn't go to WisCon, but one of my hats did! waywardcats, who won the Jayne hat I auctioned off for Peter and Ericka's Accessible House, took said hat to WisCon this year, and offered it for auction there, to benefit the James Tiptree Jr. Award. The hat raised $80 for the award, which is an an annual literary prize given to the author of "science fiction or fantasy that expands or explores our understanding of gender" (from tiptree.org).


I never expected a single hat to do this much good. It brought $45 for the Accessible House auction, in addition to the $80 at WisCon. I have a little daydream of this hat going on to be auctioned again for some other good cause. Whether the lucky winner (and gracious donor, pictured) decides to do that, or simply keeps the hat and enjoys it, I'm extremely grateful that it's gone this far, and has both assisted someone in need and supported one of those people who make this type of fandom possible.

Another hat spotting

Also, the charity auction is going well; go and place your bids before April 25th, and help save Peter and Ericka's Accessible House!

More cunningness

I actually made a sale via Artfire!

I'm working on this beauty for Walt, who will be giving it to a Firefly fan of his acquaintance as a surprise present.

The next one up will be for a charity auction, and I have a surprise in store for the people who don't win the auction (to be announced sometime soon!) that will also benefit the same charity, if to a slightly lesser degree.

One of these days I'll have a break in all these Jayne hats, long enough to make a few Cylons!

Jayne hat

Jayne hat, originally uploaded by CABridges.

Here's one of my lovelies, spotted at Megacon 2009.

Official Opening Day!

The fanknitics Etsy store is now open for business!

More listings will be added, one per day, and renewed as needed. I started with, of course, a Custom Jayne Hat.

Follow @fanknitics to keep up with the latest listings.

Success!

I sent four Jayne hats to Megacon. Count 'em. Four.

One: Sold Friday afternoon.


Two: Sold to the lady in the picture above Saturday morning.

Three: Sold Saturday afternoon.



Four: is a small, and still waiting to be sold.

Five: is in progress -- I got a request for another one from someone who follows both me and JT on Twitter!

Of course, if you want one yourself, either check out my Etsy site tomorrow/Monday (by then I will at least have listings for Custom Hats) or send me a direct message on fanknitics Twitter.

The Grindstone

is where I'll be for the next 24-48 hours. I'm trying to have a decent stock of Jayne hats, and with luck at least a Cylon hat prototype to send down to JT for Megacon, so my bud promote this stuff, and maybe sell some of it.

Attempts to make Cylon hat shiny have all failed. I hope to get some silk bamboo yarn in the mail Monday, but there's only a slim chance that will be able to turn into a hat in time for it to be mailed off with its more colorful cousins. If there is any chance of a package reaching FL by Thursday if sent Tuesday (without going into major debt to send it), then Monday will be spent busting out a Centurion cappie.

Until then, it's Jayne hats, ad nauseam.

Centurion - Back to the drawing board

I knit up a prototype yesterday of the Centurion pattern Wonderfallz so graciously allowed me to use, and, well, it's not scary, but it does need some work.


(Don't be fooled -- the only reason that's shiny is the flash from the camera.)

What it needs most is the right silver yarn and a larger gauge; the pattern itself said it would make an adult large, and this one barely fits my medium-sized noggin.

I'm renewing my search for gunmetal yarn, something with a sheen that doesn't break the bank, and for something dark red (and shiny) for the 'visor' that one can actually see through.

investigating CPSIA

is what I'm doing. I've gotten flack from daring to quote the CPSC today, so I'm taking my non-rhino-hide back out of the fray, and back into just looking up the info, to see if this is going to ruin my idea of how to support my yarn habit.

On my way

...to getting this stuff together. My Knit Picks color cards came today, so I can pick out which yarns will eventually become which projects.

So far, I know there are good colors for Jayne hats and Hogwarts gear. I have to go through the cards though, and figure what I need for which type of thing.

At least I have a source now for relatively inexpensive yarn that doesn't require me leaving my house. Winter + a four month old == blasted hard to get out of the house some days.

Onward!

Brainstorming

I'm working on ideas, folks. I've got quite a few under my hat (har!) but there's always something more, or something different.

So, what would you like to see? Join the conversation on Nightgig, or leave a comment here!

Feelin' the Love

Woot! It's a brand new blog!

What a surprise.

This time, though, I have an excuse: I'm starting an Etsy store devoted to bringing, you, the geeky, cool stuff inspired by fandom of all kinds.

It's starting with Firefly. Where it goes from there, you'll find out no later than shop open, March 1.

Kit's making me a logo, so both this site and the Etsy store should be more colorful soon.