Sorry, been busy!! Starting in Sept I got slammed with not-Jayne hat orders for Halloween. I thought I’d have a break before holiday orders started, but I was wrong, lol. Then came the first of the year “I have holiday money to spend” orders. They’ve slowed to a trickle now, and I somehow ended up with an extra newborn-sized hat. Well, what else could I do?
I saved these instructions in a text file – not sure from where, or when. Time to finally try it out!
Sorry for the over-flash, Photoshop could only take out so much. I didn’t feel like getting up, so I just put some copy paper on my lap, and held the camera over the shamrock. You can definitely see how cute it is, though. :)
I thought I should start writing charts, too. I find a lot of foreign patterns online and if I learned to follow charts, I could make them. You can make the shapes in Illustrator and make your own charts, or you can get chart software. Here’s my first attempt, using Crochet Charts from Stitch Works Software.
I didn’t actually read the instructions or anything, so I’m sure that I could have made it a lot better. I moved the stem out from the row to make it easier to see the second row of stitches. I’m just noticing I don’t have any little indicator arrows letting you know which direction to go! Dang! Oh well, I only have the demo copy anyway; once I can afford to register it, I’ll get fancier.
Here’s the written instructions for you:
Shamrock:
Leaves:
Row 1: Make a magic circle (also called an adjustable ring), ch1, 7 hdc in ring, pull ring tight, join with sl st in top of 1st hdc.
Row 2: * [Ch2, 2tr, dc, 2tr, ch2, sl st] in same st, skip next st, sl st in next st*. Repeat between ** 2 more times; do not turn.
Stem:
Ch6, sc in 3rd ch from hook, sl st in each remaining st, join with sl st to bottom of shamrock. Fasten off.
Wow.
In Oct (the last time I’ve posted, as you can tell, lol), I started getting my annual order for hats from that “Firefly” episode. This is the first year that I’ve sold “not-Jayne” hats rather than “Jayne” hats, due to the cease-and-desist letter from Fox, so I wasn’t sure I’d sell any at all.
I’ve always included a link to my free hat pattern in my Etsy store, but this time I also included a link to the Official Licenced Firefly Jayne Hat available through ThinkGeek.com.
I stopped selling them for a while, as did everyone else. Some people then started selling them under other names. I started getting messages – people who’d never seen the show, but want to buy a hat from me just to say “Fuck you, Fox”.
In an interview, the actor who played Jayne said “I don’t have a Jayne hat, I have an Adam Baldwin hat.” So I put up another listing for my new color scheme, Adam’s Serene Sunset.
Not everyone knew about the licencing flap, though, and were still looking for Jayne hats. So I thought I’d just put it out there – selling Totally Not A Jayne Hat Seriously Just Move Along People.
I boldly tagged it with all the Firefly/Browncoats/Serenity tags I had before. If you’re going to rebel, rebel big. Malcolm Reynolds walking into an Alliance bar on Unification Day wearing a brown coat big.
How did this work out for me? Let me put it this way – I just mailed out the last of the orders two days ago. I had people messaging me to get notified when I had more when they saw the “Sold Out” sign. After the holiday orders were finished, the Valentine’s Day orders started! Who knew? Next year I know to advertise for that, lol. Second most popular for V-Day was the Pinkie Pie hat.
Now, it’s time to get busy on Phoenix Comicon. I thought that this year I’d be able to actually make myself a costume, but we have another room in Costuming this year, so I have even more panels to schedule!!!
Well, I will have one, lol. I’m holding a Duck/Duct Tape Cosplay Contest this year, and have already started the Star Trek red mini dress I’m going to wear in it. I might even remember to post some progress pics! :D
Today was a good day!
I’m having a fundraiser for my son’s tuition at SARRC for their Culinary Works program. He was so relieved to get out of high school that he really never had the desire to go to college, but he’s developed a passion for cooking, and is REALLY good at it! He’s very excited about being able to attend, and I have the best friends ever. ;)
Of course his treats are the perks offered, and I added that if people donated $100 or more, I’d make a gift basket to put their goodies in. I didn’t really think it would happen – ha on me, I need four so far!
I love to crochet, but all the crocheted baskets I’ve ever seen looked … well, sort of like those toilet paper covers people’s grandmother’s make. I did a search anyway, and found an AWESOME pattern at the Crochet in Color blog.
Check it out! I made one from the blog, and then ripped it out and made a smaller one. It’s an extremely easy pattern to adjust. Blog Author Liz is pretty much my favorite person ever now.
(sorry if you see any ads here. When I hit “Preview”, I was told that if I don’t upgrade, I get ads on my blog. Looks like it’s time to move my site to my own hosting server!)
Where you find out just how often The Glitzy Faery updates her blog…
OK, so … you may have heard that a bunch of us Etsy shop owners received cease-and-desist letters from Fox, telling us that we were violating their copyright by selling “Jayne” hats. Why would they care now, and ENTIRE DECADE after the show “Firefly” had been cancelled? Well, a hat manufacturer went to them to get the Official Licence To Sell Jayne Hats. Which none of us thought of, because we make all of OURS one at a time, by hand, and couldn’t supply the demand that you’d need to do to, say, get listed on ThinkGeek or something (after the media brouhaha, TG now gives their portion of the profits to charity.)
The official hat isn’t all that great, though. The colors are off. WAY off. It’s really bright, where the on in the show is more “mustard and rust” than “yellow and red”. If you read my original blog post, you know how much work I did on getting mine EXACTLY, PRECISELY right. Yes, I am a nerd. That’s Ms Nerd to you!
So, my roommate wears the No-Longer-A-Jayne-Hat to get his pic taken with Jewel Staite at Phoenix ComiCon. Yes, in May. Yes, it’s now practically October.
ANYWAY. She told him “That’s the best one I’ve seen!”
I’m still squeeing about that. I’m not even joking!
Judge for yourself:
Roommate Tom with JEWEL STAITE, AHHHHH!!!
Unfortunately you can’t see the pompom, and I’ve been told I make the best pompoms in the ‘Verse. I don’t skimp on the yarn, yo! Ma Cobb would be proud. She just couldn’t admit it to Fox.
If you have NOT checked out my other blog post, there’s a free pattern if you want to make your own. If you don’t have any crafty friends or relatives and would like an Adam Baldwin Not-Jayne hat of your own, check out my Etsy store:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/113255371/not-jayne-hat-knit-earflap-hat-with-pom?
As you may have already notice, I LOVES ME SOME MY LITTLE PONY! Which is sort of weird, since I’ve never liked any of the older incarnations. When I was told what some of the other shows the creator worked on, though, and read an interview on what she thought of “girl cartoons” and that not all little girls have tea parties and wear pink, I gave it a try. It’s actually a good show!
ANYWAY.
So. I make pony stuff. Pony earflap hats, amigurumi ponies … ERMAGERD, PERNIES!
So, when I got an email from the Southwest Bronies saying that they had room at their vending table at Jack O’Con, I squeed! And then answered the email, lol.
Check them out!
Oh, wait, I don’t see any of my pony stuff in my Flickr page — here, have some pony stuff pics!
I haven’t been posting because I’ve been almost literally neck-deep in enough yarn to do a “The Fourth Doctor” scarf!
Tom Baker was, like most of us in the US, my first Doctor. Also, my only – I haven’t watched any of the new ones. There’s just so much else out there I want to see, and only so many hours in the day!
But some of the people I made “Jayne” hats for asked if I could make some scarves. I found the awesome Doctor Who Scarf site, and went for it.
It’s finally finished! I wanted to mail it out as soon as I could, so instead of making my son model for me (again), I recruited Two Dimensional Marina Sirtis:
Yes, I’m swimming here in Phoenix! OK, the water is still kind of cold, but nice once you get used to it. If you’ve ever swum in the Atlantic, you can handle it.
Now, to get my patio umbrella up so I’m not squinting even when I’m not facing into the sun, lol. That’s how you can tell a Phoenix native – no sunglasses. :)
Here’s a pic of the one that’s going up in my Etsy store. The yarn is a nice soft acrylic, like baby yarn. Snuggly!
Now I’m off to finally see “Oz, The Great & Powerful”, so I’m not the last person on earth to so! Not that I always mind, I’m still The Person Who’s Never Seen ‘Titanic’. Hey, I know how it ends already!
I didn’t quite get it done in time, but maybe I’ll get my crocheted box of chocolates done by next year!
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