First, the memorial afghan update:

I’ll get photos up soon of the seaming as it processes.

We have: 57 squares
They have arrived from:
(Found the lost envelope for yours, RadarKaty)

USA Kentucky C-Ville
Canada Manitoba Woodlands
USA Utah Logan
USA Texas Katy
USA Arizona Glendale
New Zealand Unknown Wanaka
USA New York New York City
USA Wisconsin Madison
USA Oregon Gearhart
UK Unknown Unknown
USA Florida Crestview
Norway Unknown Bergen
USA New York White Plains
USA New York Endicott
USA Minnesota Columbia Heights
USA Washington Lacey
USA Maryland Columbia
USA California Redlands
USA New York Binghamton
USA Illinois Chicago
USA North Carolina Hendersonville
USA Pennsylvania Conshohocken
USA Washington Tacoma
USA Oklahoma Broken Arrow
USA Alabama Huntsville
USA Maryland Huntingtown
USA Georgia Acworth
USA Indiana Moscow

And now for me and the yarn:

Wheee! I’m slowly… ok, not so slowly going craaaaazy! Ahem… ok, so I was already a little cracked. But I’ve got a big TRAC meeting coming up (Thesis Research Advisory Committee) in a week and a half, and I’m not ready. It could be the biggest, and last one of my grad school career. Eep.

In pursuit of that I’m madly trying to gather data for my paper for publishing, trying to keep myself fed, and as minimally sleep deprived as humanly possible… and keep all my other projects in the air (believe it or not, they help my sanity, hey, you there, stop laughing, right n… ok fine).

I got back to the gym last night. It’s been a few months. Ow. It hurt. A lot. But I need to do it. It keeps my back aligned (something I’ve been having trouble with), is a mild mood enhancer, and generally helps my body keep functioning. The final one is perhaps the most important, since I have kidney difficulties which have been acting up. Working out helps my body clear toxins, and forces me to put large amounts of liquid through the system, all good things for getting my kidneys back in working order. Despite being sore, I am feeling paradoxically a little less haggard today.

I also finished the Dionysus yarn the other day, and it’s finally dry and skeined!
The small skein will be up in the shop shortly. The large skein was commissioned. Sport-weight, Noiled green and purple silk (ivy and wine) plyed with brown beaded serger thread (vine and fruit), skeins are 360yds and 140yds respectively.

Ivy and vines twine with the flowing river of wine that symbolizes this Greek god of epicurean tastes. Spun from hand dyed, noiled silk as soft and decadent as Dionysus could Himself desire, the Dionysus yarn is beaded with dark subtle grapes and shining tempting fruit touched by the madness of the Maenads. Drink deeply, but which fruit will make your wine?

The Gnomespun website and shop:

So, I’m now capable of, and considering at least a trial run of migrating the Gnomespun Shop to the Gnomespun server, instead of hosting it on Etsy.

I don’t think I’m getting that much traffic from there, and it would allow me more freedom in how I organize things.

Now, the first iteration wouldn’t be searchable, most likely, but really neither is the Etsy shop. The question that remains is really whether paypal allows for a way to indicate stock, such that I don’t have a pile of “add to cart” buttons that will only disappoint people because I’m out of stock when they click. Mostly orders aren’t very fast/large so I can keep up with taking things down, but I’d rather not make things harder on customers than needed.

~The Gnome