The Eyes Have It

So yeah, um… this robot hat thing on Etsy….. I’m a victim of finding an unfulfilled kitsch hat niche.

I’m now backlogged FOURTEEN freaking hats, have go to Michaels on Monday to special order a bulk purchase of grey yarn just to finish the last four of those fourteen hats, will not be putting up *ANY* new listings until mid-September (at the soonest), am contemplating bumping the price up yet another $5, will be crocheting on the bus too & from work all week, and have a pile of creepy eyeballs hanging out on the dining room table.

And for all my moaning and groaning… I’m actually doing the happy dance of pure giddy glee that so many people like my stuff… and am now thinking my glib comment about hiring little old ladies from the local nursing home may not be such a bad idea!

I promise to get back to blabbing about Ms Soapfi tomorrow and all the fun stuff we did over the weekend.

Still Feeling Crafty

So the Etsy shop is going like gangbusters.  Okay, not professional level, have to start hiring me some little old ladies from the nursing home to keep up with the demand, gangbusters – but certainly more prolific than I ever imagined!

Twenty robot hats later, I finally sold a Jayne Cobb style hat (yeah!) so it’ll be a nice switch this weekend (and a chance to find what will ultimately be the FIFTH craft store in order to get more of that silver grey yarn), and I’m starting this months Crochet-A-Long with Fresh Stitches.

I’m going with a navy blue and off white – I have some really cute sleepy blue eyes from Suncatcher Craft Eyes I’ve been wanting to use.

And I’m still working in the background on my attempt at illusion knitting – can’t wait to see how it turns out… then I have a few ideas for some shawls I want to try to design and I want to figure out my own Super Mario Brothers 1up mushroom hat.

So much crafting, so little free time!!

Feeling Robotic

Eight down, still three to go (for now). I’m in full out Robot Hat making mode! Toddler size, adult size, heck I even knitted a newborn sized one – I was worried it would be too small since it fit Soapfi’s Calliou doll so well, but the people who bought it loved it, so yeah me!

Overhauled my listings to make it easier for people to choose the size they want – apparently I had way to much faith in people following the directions and I need to force them to tell me how big to make their hat.  I had originally just done the one listing to save on the listing fee, but the extra buck twenty to put up six extra listings will pay for itself 10 times over in not having to worry that people who are ignoring my (MULTIPLE) emails about what size they need will give me crappy feedback for taking too long to make and ship their hats! (Again with me and my first world problems!)

Looking forward to the weekend – Soapfi & I will be helping Gramma with her garage sale, then we’re going up to the Skagit Speedway for “Rolling Thunder Big Rigs, Sportsman Sprint Showdown And Outlaw Hornets“. It will be interesting to see if Soapfi gets into it or finds it too loud and scary.  If nothing else we’ll probably manage to at least get a picture of her in big azz headphone/earmuff/hearing protector “thingies”!

In the mean time, you know you want one of these sweet adult robot hats!

The Gatekeeper

Still crocheting like a mad woman, but feeling much more caught up, only two hats to go, but I have to wait for purchasers to get back to me on what size they want, so at least I have a slight respite – so I’m using the time to make some more progress on my proof of concept World of Warcraft shadow knit Thrall baby blanket (but what I really want to do is try my hand at Entrelac knitting!).

But the best part – Soapfi is home!!!  And she was happy to see me and gave me some of the best & biggest hugs ever. We spent Sunday playing out in the yard where she decided that dirt really needs to be swept, and that brooms make excellent gates.

She wanted to play gatekeeper for what seemed like hours, shouting “No Daddy, you stay there” and then changing her mind and demanding he come inside as she lifted up the broom for him.

Half a tube of sunscreen later we had spent a wonderful day outside and managed to even do a little weeding and yard maintenance – although Soapfi did think the lawn mower was much too loud and scary – of course I think it was just a ploy to get to ride on Mommy’s shoulders which is her second most favorite thing to do behind OMG SWINGS!

It’s wonderful to have them home safe!

Crocheting IDIOT!

Holy, HOLY, HOLY Crap!!!!!  So as I mentioned earlier this week, my Robot Hat was proving popular on my Etsy Store.  I was all jazzed that I would be making five hats and tee-hee wasn’t it nice that people liked my stuff.

Three days, and four finished hats later, my hands hurt and my face is turning as grey as the yarn I’ve been using! And there is one small problem, I wasn’t really thinking ahead and set up the listing to auto-renew after purchase… so I *STILL* have four hats to make cause people keep ordering them (that has since been fixed and why I purposely didn’t link a listing to it up there when I mentioned Robot Hat!)!!

I know, I know, first world problem!!  But I’m running out of yarn & pupils for the eyeballs and I’ve already completely bought out TWO of the local JoAnn Craft stores of all their 15mm pupils and grey yarn! (Boo on Michaels for not carrying these pupils!).  And I really need to get these finished before Soapfi & Daddy get home from back east because I want to spend my Sunday playing and catching up, not crocheting!

However, on the bright side, how cool is it that one of my hats will be heading out to Australia tomorrow?!

Crocheting Fool

Holy Crap!!! My Robot Hat in my Etsy store has proven more popular than I ever imagined – over the weekend I received FIVE orders!! Including my first attempt to really really downsize the pattern for a newborn (which I have found I have to knit because I just can’t get it small enough with an “F” hook – so now I’m converting it from a crochet pattern to a knit pattern too – but I’m also paranoid that even though I’ve done “the maths” it will be too small – it looks so tiny – I don’t think Soapfi’s head was ever that small!)

Hopefully Soapfi is right and my crochet hooks are really Magic Wands and *poof* these will be done by the end of the week! So pardon me if I’m lazy and don’t post much until the hats are done!!

Magic Wand!

Look at me, doing the whole fancy scheduled post thing!  I’m hopefully all nerd-ed out, most likely safely on my way back home, and definitely missing Soapfi. Hopefully she’s been having fun with Daddy and playing magician:

Because magic wands (otherwise known as size Q crochet hooks!), capes (yep we’re the people that buy those NFL themed Snuggies knockoffs!), and top hats (okay we were fresh out of top hats, but a mommy made Jayne Cobb cunning hat is even better for the crafty sci-fi nerd in me!) are awesome!

Indoctrination Begins Early

Lets face it, as much as we like to think otherwise, there is some indoctrination going on with our kids. Sure, we all spout how we want them to be independent little thinkers, taking on the world on their own terms, being their own person, bladdity, blah, blah, blah. But the reality is, there is a strong desire for them to like what we like, do what we do, and think like we think.

For us it’s mostly because we envision doing all kinds of fun stuff with Soapfi, but for right now our definition of “fun” is things *WE* like – golf, ice hockey, reading, crochet, knitting, and going to watch the AquaSox play baseball. As she gets older and asserts her opinions and ideas more, I will probably come to love gymnastics, horses, and tae kwon do or whatever else she decides to become passionate about (if it happened with Calliou, it can happen with anything!), but right now I could care less about them.

I’ll admit it, we’re trying to influence what she likes by exposing her over and over to what we like. And teaching her a few important phrases along the way:

I Need A Fake Head

With everything that has happened, is going on, and will be coming up, I have been knitting and crocheting hats like a crazy woman to help keep myself sane.

I’ve got this super nerdy convention coming up in Salt Lake City this June, Nerdtacular, that I’m extremely excited about. I am even going to contributing some of my hats to the Prizeocalypse, as a way to get the word out about my Etsy shop, which is currently just a place holder for my hobby and to facilitate selling stuff to my friends. I have set a goal of 10 Jayne Cobb Hats, 5 Bender Hats, and if I ever manage to design them, 5 Zoidberg Hats. In addition, I have a cross stitch project and crochet afghan project to finish for some friends I will be meeting at the event. It’s so much more fun to be able to hand deliver items than just plopping them in a box and shipping them off.

Since I’ve actually managed to sell some hats on Etsy (to friends who saw some of my “look what I did” postings on G+ and specifically requested them) I have contemplated actually ramping up the whole having an Etsy shop thing, making real effort to get the shop going with a few ready to ship hats and listings for customized versions, and put it out there for the general public. However, I have realized that I am ill equipped for proper hat photography.

As cute as Mz Soapfi is, and as much as I’m willing to pimp her out to make me some money, she is a piss poor hat model for me.  I am usually making hats for adults, so they are too big, as is the case with this Bender inspired Robot Hat (this too could be yours!).

She just doesn’t want to cooperate, as is the case with this toddler sized Jayne Cobb Hat (your sci-fi loving toddler will adore it – and I make adult sizes too!).

Or because they are made for adults and not her, they just look wrong, as in the case of this beret that sadly looks more like a chemo cap on her. 

It’s official, I need to invest in a fake head!

The Other Stuff

So far it’s been all about Soapfi, but as the blog title eludes to, there really is other stuff!

Behind the scenes I have been furiously crocheting away on a custom stadium blanket for the upcoming charity auction for the Sockeyes Cancer Foundation. It will hopefully look something like this base photo that I started my design from. It’s a wonderful group that ties together two things I’m passionate about, ice hockey (side note – I’m signed up to take some refresher lessons so I can start playing again this summer, I shall endeavor to make posts on my progress (or lack there of!)) and raising money for cancer research (my father passed away from colon caner before he ever got the chance to know about or meet Soapfi). I hope to have it done in the next few weeks and I promise pictures once I’m through. To convey an idea of the kind of blankets I make, here is the one I made for my favorite podcaster who is responsible for the Frogpants Studio network of shows that I’m completely addicted to. The lighting is a little yellow, but I think it still conveys how downright awesome my work can be!

I still make things for Soapfi, in fact I am currently taking an Amigurumi: Design Your Own Monster course on Craftsy to learn how to design and make crocheted amigurumi, and was inspired to make my own Flying Purple People Eater!

(It received mixed reviews from Soapfi, but I thought it wasn’t half bad for making it from scratch with no pattern!) I also took a knitting class on making seamless knit toys from designer Susan B. Anderson. And this is the elephant I ended up making. (I can’t speak highly enough about Craftsy (no I’m not getting any kind of kickback for this endorsement!). I know that you can get a lot of tutorials free on You Tube, but the quality of instruction and being able to interact with the instructor has certainly been worth the price to me…. and I will do a mini blog about their awesomeness some other time!)  

My current project is my first attempt at Illusion (or Shadow) Knitting. It’s going to be a World of Warcraft themed baby blanket, and not to be a tease, but I don’t want to say any more than that until it’s done (I’m about 1/3 of the way done). I think that’s probably more than enough crafty/non-Soapfi stuff for the day!

Tomorrow Soapfi and I are doing the St. Paddy’s Day Dash in Seattle, hopefully I’ll get a good story or two (not to mention cute pictures) out of the deal.