Crafty Diversions: July 2008

Monday, July 28, 2008

YIPPEE!

I've been sitting on my good news for a little while now, just in case I was dreaming....I received an email from Amy Singer of Knitty that my recent submission was selected to be in the Fall issue.
Woohoooooooo!

I have several things coming out in the next few months:

a pattern in Knitty's upcoming fall issue (Sept. 2008)
a pattern in Luxury One Skein Wonders (Oct. 2008)
a pattern in Interweave Knits (Winter 2008)

Last month, I finally received my copy of Sweater Surgery for my many contributions. I haven't had time to scan and post about my contributions yet, since as you can see, I've been busy with designing, Handicraft Café, and visiting in-laws.

I'm also currently working on two projects for a book that is due out next year, but I don't want to get my hopes up because I had some concerns about the contract. I already contacted the editor to discuss some of my questions, and she was very willing to chat. I was supposed to receive a draft of some proposed changes, but I haven't received it yet. I need to call and follow up tomorrow.

If this book thing doesn't go through, then that will make book #2 that has led to some disappointment.
This project is already on hiatus. I haven't received any information regarding its status for a long time now, but to my understanding, it is still undergoing some negotiation with the publishing company and I am still under contract for 2 designs, so I can sell them elsewhere.

No doubt I am happy to have been selected in the first place. They were my first attempts with a book contribution, and to have been selected for each of the 3 books that I submitted patterns to is a great joy and validation of my work and ideas. I really try not to get my hopes up or get too excited, because I am also a realist and know that sometimes things just are beyond one's control. However, when a project doesn't go through for one reason or another, it will always a slight bubble burst and somewhat of a personal disappointment. I must say though, that everyone that I've contacted and worked with in my submissions have been kind, professional and talented. Really. The only situation where it wasn't very professional occurred 2 years ago with a now debunked knitting e-zine.

* * *

A couple of weeks ago, my knitting group gathered with other local groups for a knitting in public event at Whole Foods Market in Costa Mesa. We knitted in great company and smothered ourselves in gluttony with all the yummy foods at the various delis inside the store. My favorite was the gelato and dessert bar.

Aubrey showing of her triple brownie lollipop with her robo-arm.

Labels: design, knitting

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Huntington Gardens

I took my in-laws to experience the wonder of Huntington Gardens and the Rose Garden Tea room last Monday. As usual, the gardens did not disappoint.

It was a leisurely walk around the gardens, though not so much for me because I was trying to make sure that the in-laws were okay and not getting too hot, tired or overheated. I also was trying to keep an eye on my mother-in-law, who really wanted to take a cutting off some of the plants to take back home to plant (she lives in Southeast Asia).

She said, "I should have brought a larger purse." Ai-yah! I told her that we'd get into a lot of trouble if she did. She did look around for fallen clippings or broken succulents that she could pick up and take, but to her disappointment, there were none.

I took them for afternoon tea for lunch. I knew that the food wasn't really something they're used to, but nevertheless it was an experience that would be memorable for them. They really liked all the fresh fruits, especially strawberries, which are hard to come by and expensive in their country. They weren't too keen on some of the sandwiches or cheese and my MIL remarked that the cheese didn't really taste good or special. Good cheese isn't really available where they live, nor is it a common food -- I think Velveeta is probably gourmet over there. The smoked salmon sandwich with caviar and the cheeses were among my favorites, so I set aside any possible embarrassment of my own gluttony and ate plenty to make up for what the in-laws didn't eat! ;)

My mother-in-law had to take several breaks along the way due to her health, so I took some of those opportunities to take some silly self-portraits with my knitting. In trying to take some of the photos, I unraveled my stitches several times and had to start over with my cast-on at least twice. Oh well. The orange yarn is some cheap superwash wool that I bought a while back. I'm thinking that this will be a sun hat project, but I think the reality is that this project will probably be untouched for the next few months. :-P

Labels: family, hats, knitting, misc babble

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Handicraft Café is Live Online!

After lots of hard work and some delays, Aubrey and I are proud to announce the Beta launch of Handicraft Café!!

The launch means that we are open for online shopping! We're still constantly uploading and entering inventory and photos. And of course, some tweaking to the site here and there. There are still some missing photos and some photo distortion in the thumbnail view, but everything else seems to be in working order.

One of the most exciting features of the site for me is the multiple search functions and options. You can search through the customizable drop-down menu (pink), the keyword search (green) or through our detailed category lists (purple):

Another feature of the shop that we're very excited about is that we're going developing symbiotic and mutually beneficial relationships with artists of all kinds, with the majority of artists located locally to us. Zona Sherman, aka TwirlGirlFibers on Ravelry, has bravely volunteered to be our ~~guinea pig~~ first fiber artist tester. So far, we have uploaded and processed 6 of her yummy yarn creations. Future developments for the consignment section include adding more artists and bios of participating artists.

Acknowledgments: Many thanks to our friends, especially the wonderful local knit community and our special friends at All Things String for their constant support and encouragement, to Ben for helping Aubrey with all the Photoshopping, to Anna for our logo and to Mike and Derek for all the hours of web design programming and debugging! And of course, extra thanks to our significant others for supporting us in doing our own thing (and continuing to write those mortgage checks).

Labels: general craftiness, handicraft cafe, handicraftcafe, knitting, yarn business

Wednesday, July 02, 2008

Strange, but True

My in-laws are visiting again from overseas. They come at least once a year to visit their 2 youngest sons. My brother-in-law recently moved from NorCal to SoCal, making my in-laws very happy (less traveling for them). They are very nice people and are generally easy-going, but I do get some anxiety when they visit. Even though I'm a modern empowered and self-assured woman, there are certain cultural practices and customs that have been drilled into me as a kid, which I feel compelled to observe to a certain extent.

There are 2 main sources of my slight anxiety: One, I feel the need to clean my house from top to bottom, chauffer them whereever they want me to take them (except Vegas, which is hubby's job), and cook for them when they stay with us. I generally try to be a good hostess with any visitors, but with in-laws there is generally another level in that I try to be a good daughter-in-law. Two, I feel the need to at least eat some of the food that my MIL cooks or bring over.Number 2 doesn't sound terrible, unless you account for the fact that she brings meat and seafood on about a 24-hour transit (not to mention that it's illegal). It's true.

I certainly cannot blame her for wanting to make goodies for her children who are 1000s of miles away from her, and they certainly miss mom's cooking. Having a more sensitive and spoiled American stomach than my hubby's family, I can not stomach the thought of bacteria growth, literally and figuratively (no pun intended). She cooks things that are her specialty, like these shrimp cake roll, some sort of shrimp and chicken thing in a special sauce/coating, and her ultra signature dish: shark fin's soup. Out of respect, I may eat one or two pieces of the shrimp cake roll, because it's fried before serving. I don't really eat a lot of fried things in the first place, but I figure the high heat kills off bacteria. I don't touch the shark fin soup at all. Sometimes she brings the fins and some ingredients and then cooks it while she's at our house. Sometimes she brings it pre-cooked at her home country. A few years ago, hubby and I finally had to tell her that I don't eat shark fin soup. If you've never tasted it, it's crunchy cartilage in seafood broth. I don't eat it because I don't like it, and more importantly, it's cruel the way the fins are harvested. I used to be a Peta member and a vegetarian for over 10 years, so that part is hard to get over for me.

Luckily, I haven't gotten sick from the smuggled meat products, but then again, I barely eat any. However, I can't say that about my husband who got sick eating some suspicious chicken curry, which I had warned him about. My MIL didn't bring any curry this year, and in fact, seemed to have brought less food.

Anyhow, as part of my organizational and cleaning efforts, I decided to build me a new compost bin. For several years now, I have been using kitty litter buckets. I drill holes into the buckets on all sides, including the bottoms and lids, and stacked them near the kitchen door leading to the side yard for easy scraps and waste dumping.

The problem with my recycled buckets is that they are small and fill up quickly. And as of late, some raccoons have been tipping them over, thus making the dumped partially composted scraps a pain in the ass to clean up. So I decided to clear out an area that would not run off into the pool, and build myself a compost bin.

It was very easy to make. I bought some chicken wire, and some stakes (the ones that come in a package, or you can buy them at about $0.70 per piece) so that I didn't have to cut the wood myself. I then roughly measured the size I needed an made 2 L-shaped sides using a staple gun. I then linked the 2 Ls together using some cable holders I found in my toolbox and some extra wire that I bent to form latches (3 in each corner). That way, if I ever needed to move it, or to access my compost, I can easily disassemble it all. I marked the crude latches with some blue tape so that I can see it easily.