Keeping your arms warm

I started out making arm warmers for myself, because we have strange climate control in our office. (Seriously. The AC kicks on regularly in the winter.) My first desk was in the coldest part of the office, so there was a lot of bundling up. Now I'm in my own office, which tends to be warmer, but still oddly variable. Also, there are days when I just don't feel like wearing long sleeved shirts, but then I realize the error of my ways when I get to the office. So I like having a pair of my arm warmers close at hand.

They're perfect for wearing with short sleeved shirts or 3/4 length sleeved shirts, and they can be worn over a tight fitting long sleeved shirt as well. I'm planning to start making longer arm warmers soon to go past the elbow, which I plan to wear with the massive quantities of cap sleeved shirts that I seem to have acquired. The past the elbow arm warmers should also work well with short sleeved shirts.

In recent months, the color selection for the yarns that I use has expanded greatly, so there's a good chance that I can put together nearly any color combination you can dream up. Most of the arm warmers are made of acrylic or other synthetic yarn, but I can make them in wool blends as well.

Ah, life!

Life means that this blog tends to come and go from time to time. Especially when I spend about 3 months working out of an archive with no internet, as opposed to in my office, where I can blog during my lunch break. :)

So let's see here. I spent most of December crocheting until I thought my fingers would fall off. I got a brief respite from that when we went down to California to visit Jeremy's family, but then I had more things to make when we got back. I haven't actually slowed down yet, either, as I'm working on a couple of custom orders.

Around February, when I think my actual production schedule should slow down a bit, I'm planning to work on some new stuff for Scary White Girl Designs. One of the things I'm hoping to branch into this year is crochet patterns. I've written up one already, and I'm halfway through writing up another one. I'm hoping to find someone who can beta test the patterns for me. My mom has offered, and I may take her up on it, but I have this sneaking suspicion that she'll finish making the items and then say "what did you just have me make?!" They're a wee bit on the super duper nerdy side. :)

I'm also planning on making some new products, many of which are just variations on things I already make. One thing that I know that I'll definitely be doing is both shorter AND longer arm warmers, as I've had requests for both. I've done one pair of shorter ones (wrist warmers) before, but longer (past the elbow) will be a new thing for me! But I'm excited about that one, because I wear a LOT of T-shirts that have very tiny sleeves, and having arm warmers that cover my whole arm would be epic! :) Also, I think that super duper long arm warmers in the style of the Fourth Doctor's scarf just seem RIGHT. :)

Baby it's cold outside...

When I posted yesterday, I neglected to mention how my show on Saturday went. It went very well, and I think, in fact, it might have been my best PRFM yet. It was definitely better than the one where I sold a bunch of Jeremy's Cthulhu T-shirts and a bunch of pairs of old boots. :)

I was nearly out of arm warmers when I got done with the EtsyRain show two weeks ago, and I barely had time to restock them for PRFM. I think I managed to sell just about as many pairs as the new ones I had made, in fact. So I'm still low on arm warmers. I've also gotten three orders for stuff (none of which is needed until after the holidays, but I need to work on it now) and another request to let a friend know when my schedule lets up (so she can get her orders in), so the arm warmer stock will be remaining low for the time being. Ah well, only one more show before the end of the year. :)

I am glad, however, that I still have my non-striped arm warmers that I made quite some time ago, when I was first experimenting with the idea. After I sold the pair off my arms at the EtsyRain show, the prototype pair are the only ones that I own! And of course, I have decided that I like how they look with my winter coat so much that I might need a matching hat and scarf... as if I don't have 8 billion of those... :)

Suffice it to say, I think I'm going to be busy well into January... maybe February... :) So as much as I'd like it to warm up a wee bit, maybe it's a good thing that the weather in Seattle has turned cold. :)

Absolute success!

The EtsyRain Holiday Craft show was an absolute success for me. I was selling arm warmers so quickly on Saturday that I couldn't even keep them on my arms! Literally! A woman liked the pair that I was wearing (which I had originally made for myself), and asked if she could buy them, in addition to the other pairs she had picked out. Who am I to say no to such a request? I can always make myself another pair or two. :)

I also sold a LOT of my eyeball cat toys. People were really amused by my jar of eyeballs (I displayed them in plastic jar that once held Parmesan cheese and a baby food jar), and I think the price point for them was perfect. My jar was almost empty at the end of Saturday, so I restocked on Sunday in between making more arm warmers (including two custom orders for vendors nearby).

On top of all of my sales, my shop is looking a little thin in places this morning, since I sent my ice cream cozies, coffee cozies, and remaining cat toys to the Black Door Studio in Everett for their holiday open house on the 28th and 29th.

So I'll be spending my bus commutes for the foreseeable future working on items to restock my shop! I've still got two more shows to do this winter!

Brrr...

Even though the sky is solid blue today, and the sun is shining brightly, it's still a wee bit cold in Seattle. I meant to grab a pair of my arm warmers today, since I opted for a short sleeved dress over jeans, but our morning rush meant that the arm warmers stayed in the drawer instead of coming to work with me. Luckily, it was only really bad this morning while I was at UW, and just now when I had to run out for quarters and lunch. Ah yes, my thrilling day. :)

I have been doing little other than writing recently, which further contributes to how thrilling my life has been. But Jeremy has begun brainstorming on his character for my upcoming Vampire game, so I'm getting to toss a few ideas back and forth with him when we aren't both frantically working on our novels. I didn't expect that anyone (other than Katie) would get me much on their characters until December, when we start the game, but everyone has at least given me a small taste of their upcoming characters. Amusingly, after Katie and Megan were chomping at the bit for me to get them the character quiz, I haven't seen ANY answers yet. :)

Our plans for the next few days involve writing and gaming, in addition to my show on Saturday. I may not get to participate in the gaming, but I'm hopeful that I can at least divert my attention from the novel for a little while. My brain needs a rest every now and then! :)

They're fuzzy!

I've been making a lot of these arm warmers lately. I used to make them in a different style, but said different style did not lend itself well to making striped arm warmers. And given my adoration for striped tights, it's no suprise that I eventually got around to makeing striped arm warmers as well. Now, I can wear more brightly colored stripes than anyone other than Rainbow Brite should ever wear! :)

They also seem to be pretty popular. In their off-Etsy debut, I sold two pairs, which meant I needed more yarn. :) Since then, I've made a pair in blue and black, and I'm working on a pair in pink and black now. I've also got yarn to do red and black, as I realized that my color palette is so often in the purple range. Just purple, no other colors. :)

I'm still working on the sizing a little bit. I call the size that fits me a small to medium, but I really wonder if that shouldn't be an extra small to small. I may wear medium clothes, but I think my arms still fall into the toothpick category. :)

What is it with me and mismatched armwarmers? Seriously? I already had one mismatched pair in my Etsy shop, because I didn't have enough of the blue yarn to make two armwarmers, and had to improvise. (And then I made a hat that used both colors to justify it.) Now, another pair (the pictured pair) don't match either, and I started a third pair last night that look to be the closest matching pair so far, but they are not quite 100% matching either!

Am I the only freak who wants to wear things on my arms that don't match? I've seen other people do it, so I'm thinking I'm not the only one. :) But then again, my fashion sense and the rest of the world's fashion sense are usually a wee bit at odds with one another.

(Conversation of this morning:
Me: "Why don't any of my olive drabs match?"
Jerome: "Because they're baby puke colored."
Me: "So? I like olive drab!")

At any rate, hurrah for new stuff in the Etsy shop, I suppose, even if it is mismatched. There's also a hat that matches the armwarmers... no, for real it matches. :)

Hurrah also for swapping stuff I wouldn't have ever used for stuff that I am using. After the EtsyRain swap, I had a bag of all kinds of yarn--normal acrylic yarn, super bulky acrylic, some crazy synthetic yarns, and a few Italian wool blends (the really pricy stuff!). Now I'm turning all of this stuff into more stuff for my shop. Hurrah! :)
.

Well, I think that now I have found both the perfect pattern and the perfect yarn for the Jayne hat. Now, it's just a matter of implementing them together. w00t! :)

Working on armwarmers for Jenna, and then a pair for me, both in black. Because I didn't really need another pair of armwarmers (this will be my 5th pair), but I did need a pair in black. And I found Homespun, on sale, in pure black. Which is the best. :)

I really need to dig through my craft closet and see what is lurking in there. But it's a pain in the ass to do so, especially when you're trying desperately to NOT bump your belly button, or the region immediately surrounding it. I went through the yarn my mom gave me for Christmas the other night, so that's a good start. Unfortunately, all I accomplished there was realizing that some of that yarn hurts my eyes... :) But I'm sure I can figure out something to do with it... :) If nothing else, I can make a really godawful afghan, and maybe it will be neat in its godawfulness.

(Yes, that is a word. According to me.)

So glad this week is almost over. A full week of work, combined with other factors, have made it hellish.
.