The Barter System

mouse1
Originally uploaded by annmcclure2000

(goodness, talk about uneven pictures. The green one was scanned and the purple one was photographed and cropped. Guess I sized them differently. I'll get a hang of this picture business eventually.)

I was going to start with a nice picture of the flowers Hubby got me for Valentine's Day, but the camera seems to be MIA. Oh well, maybe tomorrow. I won't be able to kill them that quickly.
In other news, I think I might owe the guy in the art department a pair of socks. But he did the page layout on a sock pattern I'm going to publish, and even spontaneously designed a logo for me, so it seems like a fair trade.
In the mean time, until the socks are called in, I made him a couple of catnip mice (shown above) for, um, his cats, obviously. Well, they are catnip mice forms, since I don't have catnip with which to stuff them since I don't have cats any more.
I made the green one (on the left) first out of Cascade 220 using the pattern from WendyKnits. It took about an hour. I gave it to him last Thursday and he has since reported back that it was a big hit.
They were out of catnip, as the cats had raided the stock previously, so his girlfriend put a ping-pong ball in it instead. He says his cats enjoy toys inside toys and played with it all night. It also ended up in the water bowl, which is apparently a sign of approval.
Monday night I finished the purple one, which is version 5, and gave it to him Tuesday. I thought it would also be good for ping-pong balls. He says it's a good finger puppet for wrestling matches and has also ended up in the water bowl. It is so nice when your handmade items are appreciated.
What's that?
Oh, you want to know more about the sock pattern?
Well, Knitting Central is running a sock club (but membership is closed at the moment). I'm Miss March. (snicker)
As far as I know, sock clubs are usually run by companies that spin and/or dye yarn. You get unique yarn and a unique pattern. Since Knitting Central is a store, our twist is that you get sock yarn with which you are familiar, but a pattern designed by a staff member that is exclusive to the club for 3 months.
The theory is our structure is a little less risky because the wild card of the yarn is removed. Also, most of the members know us and our abilities so they can be confident they will get something nice. (I say most because we do have members out in California!) We even have a Yahoo Group for questions.
Everybody has been really pleased so far, so I hope they like my sock as much. At least I know the pattern presentation will be rockin'. Obviously I can't show you the sock since it's supposed to be a surprise and at least one person in the club has actually read my blog (which makes four people that I know about).

Well, it's bed time, so I should turn in. It occurred to me yesterday that if I just spend half the time I spend on Ravelry up dating my blog instead, I might be consistent at this blog business.