New bags available

Yes, yes. I know with the name House of Wool, in theory at least, this is a knitting blog, but lately my fabric stash has grown at an astonishing rate. Sadly, I have not bought myself any yarn since last year. I have purchased some for bagatelle, but that's it...

Anyway - I have a couple of new bag designs available. As always, they are fully lined with a coordinating fabric. Both designs have a slip pocket and a zipper closure.

I still haven't finished the fix on the hippopotumus* socks. It turns out that there was one broken strand and the strand below that was just about to break also. I decided to fix both rows (genius, I know) so there wouldn't be further problems down the road. I clipped the strand that was nearly broken and slipped the stitches from the row below onto a dpn. With a short piece of yarn, I reknit about 8 stitches on the first of the rows. All that awaits me now is grafting the row where the strand had actually broken.

For some reason, I am not quite up to doing this. If it were just plain stockinette, it would be a snap. Cables, bring 'em on. Twisted stitches, ribbing and K2togtbl, however, leaves me a twittering mess. I've done the first stitch or two and while not great, it is better than I had expected. But then my liquid courage ran out and adding more to the mix did not seem prudent given the difficulty of the task ahead.

Until I get up the cajones to work on this, I am studiously ignoring the offending sock sitting next to the couch.

*Yes, I know that isn't the name, but it is what I call them in my head.

I saw the light

Today is a happy day all the way around. Hopefully, this will signal the long-awaited end of my general state discontent and bitchiness. As you can imagine, my family hopes the same thing! Because I am a bit scattered, I will be doing the bullet point post.

• Happiness the first - I am starting a new job on the 27th, pending the drug test. Unless aliens happen to inject my veins with something in the next few days, I should pass with flying colors.
• Said new job comes with health insurance that starts on July 1. Whoo-hoo. Only one month of COBRA.
• The hours are great - 8 to 4:30. I don't think I will really miss the hour lunch, given that I can sleep a few extra minutes in the mornings!
• Walmart, Target and the grocery store are all at the exit I will be using for work, so it will be easy to do a quick run.
• Caleb starts his new daycare on Tuesday and he is excited about it. More than I am. Me? I am a sniveling wreck just thinking about the fact that he will have to go through the process of making new friends. Ironically, it just occurred to me that I will be doing the same thing at the same time. How dumb am I?
• Happiness the second - bagatelle is doing pretty well. On the trip that we took to waterpark hell the Wisconsin Dells last week, we stopped at 2 different store in small towns along the way and I sold to both of them. I have sold back nearly 50% of what I have put into the business so far. Not to bad for just 6 months.
• While in Baraboo, I found the cutest yarn shop. Seriously. If I could have moved in I would have. I was seriously irritated that I didn't have my camera with me. She had a fantastic selection of Cascade, just as good as Lakeside Fibers in Madison. For the Harry Potter fans, she is getting the new book and the corresponding Cascade that has been specially dyed to match the house colors. With those, I think she said she would have around 100 colors in stock! The shop also boasts a gift shop and coffee bar, a sofa or 2 and 2 HUGE kitchen tables in one of the best lit shops I've ever seen.
• Happiness the third - I think the universe is trying to tell me something. Today I received this from Trek. It's my prize from the contest she was running. It is a top whorl spindle and just under an ounce of chocolate brown roving. This must be the kick I need to learn to spin.

bagatelle

I have started to launch my new handbag business and I am so excited because I made a great sale this weekend. One of the local, funky, boutiques bought a total of six bags! Granted, it isn't a huge number, but it is a great needed influx of cash.

I have also started uploading photos to the new shop website.

In my effort to sound like a broken record, I have to admit that I haven't done much knitting that isn't related to what I can sell. The creative juices haven't really been flowing unfortunately, but hopefully, the knitting mojo is just on a short vacation, instead of a long term sabbatical. I've finished several more washcloths and three more hats.

A cruel joke

That's what this spring is, a cruel joke played by Mother Nature. Two weeks ago, it was 80 degrees. Today, we have wind chills in the teens. All of the tulips, daffodils and crocuses are up, but it's any one's guess if they will survive the week of temperatures hovering around the freezing point.

As today is Good Friday and it is a paid holiday (thank you corporate America), I have been enjoying myself tremendously. I got to sleep in and NO ONE crawled into bed with me to say how much he loves me. (I totally love snuggling with a sleepy preschooler, but not so much with one who wants to wake up) This means I actually got to SLEEP. Truly a wondrous concept.

Not only did I vacuum my carpets today, but steamed cleaned them as well. Yes, my parents are visiting tomorrow, how did you guess? I haven't gotten as much done on the tidying front as I would have hoped, but the dishes have been washed and the kitchen sink scrubbed. I need to do a once over in the bathroom, but that should be pretty easy, all things considered.

For me, the dining room is my nemesis. See, we use this not so much as a place to eat, but rather as a home office cum sewing room. The built in china cabinet is a great place for me to store assorted kitchen appliances. However, it is also a great place to dump crap.

And, you know how it is, once you decide to clean, it is really less about tidying and more about archeology. There is a sense of wonder and enlightenment when you unearth a long buried treasure. Like car keys.

I've gotten several more handbags put together and I am hoping that tomorrow afternoon I can make a trip to the store that is interested in them. Otherwise, I will be sending my fearless sales force out to do the dirty work next week.

Thanks for the compliments on the bags. They are fun to make and I really like finding funky fabrics to use. I was hoping to take pictures of them today, but it was freezing cold and the wind was blowing like crazy. This isn't a problem if you are photographing, say, rocks. But something that weighs less than a pound? Slight issues ensue.

Bags

This is what I have been making lately.

The grey polka-dot has a dark grey satin lining and a magnetic snap closure. The brown polka-dot has a salmon colored gaberine lining with a pocket and magnetic closure.

There is a local store that wanted a few different designs and I am hoping to take these in next week for sale.

There are several other options for sale, but these are the only two that have half way decent photos. I need to clean them up in Photoshop on my work computer.

Soon, there will be a website up listing these for sale, but if you are interested in purchasing, please email me at sales at myhouseofwool dot com.

Yet another picture free post

Still not much is new on the knitting front. Mostly it is just washcloths and felted hats. But really, as drained as I am by work, I don't have the creative energy for much more. Soon I will have to drag out the yarn again for Sizzle. I am looking forward to making it, but finding the time to knit what I want is hard, harder than keeping a four year old quiet. Yup, that hard.

On the sewing front, we found a store that is willing to take 4 each of a couple of different bags, so I am burning the midnight oil trying to get them completed. The thought of making a couple of sales and recouping the burgeoning costs is beyond delightful!

I promise that I will take pictures of them once we get a few more nice days. I will then need to use the ol' work computer (which has Photoshop) to edit them. After that, it is the whole issue of getting the website up and running. I do have a tax ID number, but after much consideration, the name just isn't working for a handbag business. I am thinking that I will make is much simpler so that I can use it for either endeavor.

I'm tired just reading the to-do list. What I wouldn't give for a quick nap.