Saturday, August 06, 2011

Boo Hoo Hoo. I haz a sad.

A moment of silence, please, for my dearly departed kiln:
8/2002 - 8/2011

Oh, I'm sure he will rise from the dead at some point when I can track down a couple new parts for him but for now he's DOA, having quit on me (of course) when I was smack-dab in the middle of a huge stack of orders. *sigh*

So I am kiln-less at the moment and awaiting a whole new one to find it's way to me hopefully within a week. It took some honest-to-god pitiful begging on my part to find someone who could build me another one *this* weekend because no one but no one has these babies sitting on a shelf ready to go, it seems. It's kind of nauseating to see '2-4 weeks to ship' over and over and over again when you need one like, OMG YESTERDAY. So I have week off from bead making while things are in motion and I think I need it to help alleviate my stress levels.

Anyhoo. I have grand plans for my upcoming 'unemployment' aka forced unpaid vacation like:
  • catching up on six months/eight inch high stacks of paperwork. *ahem*
  • work on the site/Etsy in regards to Halloween/Xmas stuff so it's ready to go when the new kiln is here
  • no-excuses-anymore regular exercise.
  • no-excuses-anymore down and dirty housecleaning
  • track down some parts for the broken kiln so I will have a back-up in the future
  • oh, and all the usual not-at-all productive type things in the larger sense like knitting, finally finishing the Dance with Dragons book, etc.
 First up in the non-productive type thing is to finish this pair of mittens I started this week:

I think I had planned for these to be a Xmas gift for the hubby last year but he ended up with just the skeins of yarn in his stocking. Heh. On the bright side, I am now on schedule to make a grand debut of them for *this* year's Xmas stocking. :)


And my personal 2011 Sock challenge socks for July are fini so it's time to cast on for a pair for August. (I'm thinking a pair of candy-corn-ish striped pair of Jaywalkers. Mmm.) The yarn - Lornes Laces - and pattern - Boysenberry Yo - are exclusive to the Cookie A Sock Club and were a fun knit.Vaguely reminiscent of a feather-and-fan pattern.

I can't tell you HOW MUCH I am enjoying this sock club this year. I've joined a bunch of sock clubs over the years and this is the first one where I have not only used the yarn/patterns as they came in but I've used them TOGETHER. Usually you like the yarn but not the pattern or you don't like how they look together, but this one has been just perfect with each shipment. I think we just have one more shipment to go, in November, and then it's done. *sad*

11 comments:

Annie said...

Poor kiln! They always fail when you need them most. Hope the new comes in quickly!

Margaret said...

Oh bummer about the kiln! Hope the new one comes fast. I do love your mitten and sock knitting though. Both are so pretty!

Jackie's Stitches said...

What a setback! Things like that always happen at the worst time.

Glad to hear you're enjoying your sock club. Which one was it? Your purple socks are fantastic! Loving your mittens too. Hmmm...maybe I need too do some stranded work too...

valerie said...

What a drag! How come something breaks at the moment you really need it to work?! Love the knitting! Good luck on your goals for the week!

Sylvia said...

So sorry about the kiln - that really bites, esp. when you are in the groove. Hope the replacement shows up asap, so you can get back to the bead making.

Love the socks - they are wonderful. The mitten is really neat looking as well.

KarenV said...

Oh no! Sorry about the kiln, what a pain. I hope the replacement doesn't take too long.

Love the mitten you're knitting - I just attempted some 2-colour work and the back was...erm...a little messy ;) Love the socks too - great colour!

Catherine said...

Oh no! Hopefully you'll be up and running in no time!! Love your other projects, especially this mittens!!!!

Jenny said...

Hi Melanie - I just found your blog (thanks for finding me)! You are making the coolest beads! And I see that you stitch too - I am going to have so much fun browsing through your past posts and following your new ones.
Sorry to hear about your kiln, hopefully it'll get sorted out soon!

Dani - tkdchick said...

Poor Kilin! Things awlays break at the WORST time!

On the other hand the mittens are pretty cool, and the socks rock!

geeky Heather said...

*moment of silence*

Those socks are GORGEOUS. I love the color of the yarn. And the mittens are going to be really beautiful. Some day I will get the courage up to do colorwork!

Pumpkin said...

Oh no :o( Thank goodness you were able to get another one. How frustrating.

As usual, LOVE the socks!