It has been a rather productive day in several aspects. Laundry was washed and folded. Dog hair was banished from the floor. Hanks of yarn were wound from the swift and transformed into tidy balls of yarn much to the amusement of the cats.
I would have finished the afghan I have been knitting, but I ran short of yarn by six inches. I began to rip the bound off stitches back and decided that it can wait one more day to finish. Six inches of yarn... makes me want to pound my head on the desk.
--------------------------------
There was no tantrum, but there was sleep. An, "I don't think I moved at all once I got to sleep... Man, I really do have the chills, does this electric blanket get any warmer?... The thermostat for the space heater in the bedroom is set only to high so we're going to be broiling in here tonight... Woke up drenched in sweat and without cold symptoms, hallelujah!" kind of sleep.
I have frogged (rip-it, rip-it) back the stitches that I had bound off and have ripped to nearly the beginning to the last knitted row. 20 or so more stitches to rip and we will try this finishing thing again. Done. Now, on to other things.
If you are not aware of it, eBay recently raised the final value fees that it charges its sellers by nearly 60%. It has also placed limitations on sellers being able to leave feedback for deadbeat buyers. Sellers are staging a boycott. I think it would be nice if eBay buyers would do the same.
With the economy and stock market being what they are in this current economic crisis, I'm sure eBay would feel the crunch even more if there were no customers buying the items upon which they charge fees. eBay has a space where members can create blogs. My eBay name now has a Karma's Dogma - Impertinence et cetera blog, too. LMAO
And, the only post there was made earlier today and motivated by my support of the sellers' boycott against the increased fees and feedback restrictions.
My next entry to my blog there will be the calculation of just how much money I have spent on eBay in the last quarter of 2007 and thus far in 2008. I can say without hesitation that it will amount to around $1,000. It may well be more. That's merely an estimate based on some quick mental arithmetic.
I spend a lot of money on eBay. And, I am a loyal customer who is very displeased with how they have chosen to conduct business.
Also, I have transferred my eBay ID to Wagglepop www.wagglepop.com and to iOffer www.ioffer.com in protest. iOffer was even nice enough to provide me with a widget/gadget in order to be able to transfer my feedback rating from eBay to their site. If I were a seller rather than a consumer, I would have been able to transfer all of my eBay sale items to them with a widget/gadget as well.
I perused iOffer's knitting listings for a bit this morning. I saw several familiar seller names. Seems there are quite a few sellers making the switch.
My next order of business is to inform my regular eBay sellers that my money will be staying in my pocket for the next few weeks in protest of how eBay has chosen to do business. When you consider that I spend $100 to $200 per transaction with some of these vendors and purchase from them monthly or more frequently... Well, you can see where I'm heading with this.
That will have to wait until later, however. For now, it's off once again to bake in the bed in preparation for work tonight.
Showing posts with label eBay. Show all posts
Showing posts with label eBay. Show all posts
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Carl's Violin
I mentioned the death of one of my patients, Carl, a few weeks ago. In packing up what few boxes of possessions my patients have, the staff came across a violin in a box of unmatched socks at the back of his closet. Being that Carl has had both legs amputated above the knee for the last three years of his life, it was impossible to tell how long the violin had been hidden there. I came to work here 6 years ago and knew nothing of Carl having a violin. I asked some of the "old timers," those who had more than 10 years with the company, and only one of them knew anything about Carl having owned a violin. The others were surprised by this knowledge. Another piece of the enigma that was Carl.
Apparently Carl had this violin when he came to us in the mid-90s. According to the lady who knew about the violin, he had requested new strings for it, but had never seemed inclined to ever play it once he was living with us. That is very sad to me. While we do give many things to the people who live with us, we take away as well.
As he had no living family to give his things to, I put in a bid to purchase the violin. The money being used for our contribution account which purchases birthday and Christmas gifts for our residents. There was a note in my mailbox last week that I had won the violin. I will have it examined and appraised. If it is worth more than what I paid, I will donate additional money. It is for the my residents, after all.
So, I will always have a tangible bit of the quandary that was Carl. I think it would please Carl to know that this cast-off dream/treasure of his means a great deal to me. That the mystery behind it will always remain a mystery would please Carl even more. He left a legacy in the memories and in the stories. He will be greatly missed by all who knew him. God has never made another treasure quite like Carl.
Carl had been "in the system" years and years ago. He was living at one of the developmental centers when he had walked away and assumed another life. He lived and worked in society for many, many years undetected. It was only when he had reached 65 and went to apply for his social security that he was found out. Being the system, he was immediately "re-placed" into an institutional living situation. How sad for him.
It had probably taken 10 years back in the system before he found his way to us. Being that records were so very poorly kept by the state when it came to the institutionalized mentally retarded, we had very little history of his actual life, inside or outside of the system.
Carl was a wonderful, colorful historian in relating his life adventures. In one moment, he would tell you of his time in the Army. In the next, he would relate crossing the Delaware River with George Washington. As I said to my friend, Al, was he crazy or is there really some merit to this past life mumbo-jumbo? All that I can say for certain is, that was Carl. And the void left by his absence from our lives will never be filled.
Life still goes on.
Payday was last Thursday. When I had met with my supervisor and Barb regarding taking the night shift supervisor position, Barb had decided to make my status change effective 1 February. Brian insisted I get my check and call him back immediately. Well, things being things, it was nearly 1am before I finally opened my paycheck. Can you say, salary. This was for the pay period which ended 18 January. Our meeting had been on 14 January. Abrupt and uninformed changes in plans had occurred. In our current pay period, I had overtime this last week, as well as worked holiday pay. Had I known that I had already been changed to salary, I certainly would not have worked the MLK holiday. I would have taken it off along with the rest of the salaried folks. And, I certainly would not have put in 56 hours this week.
In going to salaried supervisor, I received a $1 an hour raise. $80 more per pay period translated to an additional $100 in taxes being taken from my pay check. So, I'm actually $20 less in net pay than I was before this whole thing began. LOL Just figures, doesn't it?
I received my company cell phone last week, the surest sign that I have been officially damned to hell. The only good thing about it is that my company phone is a Razr. It came with a car charger and a blue tooth adapter. As my personal cell phone is a Razr, I can use the car and blue tooth accessories with it.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
A mere 21 hours later, I have returned. Isn't modern technology wonderful?
It is 3am. I should be headed to Wal-Mart or to work or, at least, to the shower. I have had coffee, chatted with Genny and Al, and ignored various household chores since rolling out of bed at 10pm.
I could not get to sleep today. Hate when that happens. I fell asleep somewhere after 3pm, after relenting and taking another Melatonin and a Flexeril.
I received my bamboo and soy yarns today from Canada! Yippee!! They were here Thursday, but I was not awake to sign for them & only today got 'round to the post office to collect them. They are lovely. omg! Nice hand, nice sheen, nice elasticity. I can't wait to start working with them. (I promised myself to do SOMETHING with this house before I set needles to them, and I suppose sorting beads doesn't really count.)
I also ordered the bamboo needles from the same company. They should be here next week. I sort of took it to the extreme with the needles. As I had lamented about having to use those horrid plastic over-sized needles on my sweater and did confess to ordering over-sized wooden ones from the Canadian company...
Well, I bought all of the over-sized ones that they offer. US 17,18, 19, 35, 50. I bought a complete set of bamboo straight needles US 0 through 15. I also bought a set of 16" circular bamboo needles in the same sizes, 0 through 15 - necessary for those hats and sleeves. OK, desirable for those hats & sleeves. I bought double pointed needles, 8" length - 0 through 11, 12" length - 0 through 15. And, I bought a set of bamboo crochet hooks. I simply like working with bamboo and wooden needles the best.
The swallow casein needles are nice but tend to be a bit "sticky" with some types of yarns. They would be my second favorite needles to use. Unfortunately, I do not believe that they come in circular needles. Well, that may be a good thing or I would have to set after acquiring those particular implements of construction as well.
Back to the sweater which I was attempting to construct on these wretched needles which spawned this buying frenzy. (I spent very wisely, all-in-all... 4 complete sets of needles, one set of crochet hooks, 5 sets of over-sized needles for less than $80. Still less than $100 including shipping from Canada. Try and get that here in the U.S. A set of Clover 13" bamboo single point needles, US 0 through 15, alone will cost more than $70.) The idea of knitting any further on the sweater with those wretched needles was appalling to me. As plastic needles tend to be "sticky," my stitches were not at optimum consistently. I contemplated simply awaiting the arrival of the new wooden needles and going on with the project from my stopping point. In the end, I succumbed and "frogged." (rip-it, rip-it) That's why it's called frogging. Seriously! LOL As I often reiterate to my granddaughter, "You cannot knit if you are afraid to rip."
So, I have ripped my beautiful strands of mohair and ribbon back into their respective balls and await the arrival of the more suitable construction tools, and I am thankful that this pattern says this sweater can be constructed in approximately 5 hours.
In organizing the studio, I think I have some needles that I will be listing on eBay. I also have a couple of books that I found on clearance and purchased specifically for that purpose. Very nice books from a popular series but not my style. However, the price did make them quite attractive for resale.
Construction of the throw that I am crocheting for my son-in-law is moving along quite nicely. I was joking with him that I may actually have it finished before the cold weather disappears. Given that I really like how it is turning out, I bought a similar type of bulky chenille yarn from the same vendor in an off-white cotton/tencel blend. I bought 9 pounds of the stuff! That will be an over-sized comfy throw for the y-chromosome person of significance.
He was apologetic for being overwhelmed with school when I saw him this weekend. Obstetrics and pediatrics will generally do that to you. Why nursing programs insist on teaching those two areas of very specialized curriculum together is beyond me. The scopes of practice are so very unique to each of those fields that it boggles the mind. The rules for pediatrics are different than for adults, and obstetrics is its own area altogether. There are areas of cross-over in other areas of practice.... med/surg and orthopedics, rheumatology and orthopedics, gastroenterology and endocrinology.... And, there are rules that are practiced by multiple disciplines - cardiology and pulmonology, hematology and immunology... It is insanity to try and learn two unique areas of practice, such as OB and pediatrics, together. Yet, programs do it. They may as well just incorporate anesthesiology into the same term and give you all three strikes! LOL
I sometimes wonder if it fails to register with him that I have already "been there, done that, got the t-shirt." All of this knowledge is just innate to my being, and I didn't have to spend months poring over over-priced texts and be at the hospital before daylight and leave long after dark. I didn't write volumes and volumes of pointless case studies and care plans in order to "get the big picture" of how the nursing process fits into the framework of medical diagnostics. I didn't have to research every one of the fourteen medications that my patient was prescribed - drug classification, uses, correct dosages, side-effects, interactions, pertinent laboratory monitoring, patient teaching... Nope. I was just born Mother Superior of Nurses from Hell.
You know, I would be very, very content to leave the field of nursing in his hands and stay home all day to play with the brown babies. I would have no problem at all handing over the reins to the next generation of nurses. However, I don't see that happening immediately. I see us working for the traveling service for part of the year and vacationing the rest of the year. Three months in Southern California, six weeks in Italy. Three months in Seattle, six weeks in the U.K. Three months in Denver, six weeks in Australia. It would be a rough life, but I think we could manage. Two nursing placements for the price of one housing unit. Such a deal! Though, if there were babies along, I would only work part-time. Good money, no housing expense. Nice way to travel the country for a couple of years. Well suited to our vagabond souls.
It has become early in the morning once again. Time to get on with my day.
Apparently Carl had this violin when he came to us in the mid-90s. According to the lady who knew about the violin, he had requested new strings for it, but had never seemed inclined to ever play it once he was living with us. That is very sad to me. While we do give many things to the people who live with us, we take away as well.
As he had no living family to give his things to, I put in a bid to purchase the violin. The money being used for our contribution account which purchases birthday and Christmas gifts for our residents. There was a note in my mailbox last week that I had won the violin. I will have it examined and appraised. If it is worth more than what I paid, I will donate additional money. It is for the my residents, after all.
So, I will always have a tangible bit of the quandary that was Carl. I think it would please Carl to know that this cast-off dream/treasure of his means a great deal to me. That the mystery behind it will always remain a mystery would please Carl even more. He left a legacy in the memories and in the stories. He will be greatly missed by all who knew him. God has never made another treasure quite like Carl.
Carl had been "in the system" years and years ago. He was living at one of the developmental centers when he had walked away and assumed another life. He lived and worked in society for many, many years undetected. It was only when he had reached 65 and went to apply for his social security that he was found out. Being the system, he was immediately "re-placed" into an institutional living situation. How sad for him.
It had probably taken 10 years back in the system before he found his way to us. Being that records were so very poorly kept by the state when it came to the institutionalized mentally retarded, we had very little history of his actual life, inside or outside of the system.
Carl was a wonderful, colorful historian in relating his life adventures. In one moment, he would tell you of his time in the Army. In the next, he would relate crossing the Delaware River with George Washington. As I said to my friend, Al, was he crazy or is there really some merit to this past life mumbo-jumbo? All that I can say for certain is, that was Carl. And the void left by his absence from our lives will never be filled.
Life still goes on.
Payday was last Thursday. When I had met with my supervisor and Barb regarding taking the night shift supervisor position, Barb had decided to make my status change effective 1 February. Brian insisted I get my check and call him back immediately. Well, things being things, it was nearly 1am before I finally opened my paycheck. Can you say, salary. This was for the pay period which ended 18 January. Our meeting had been on 14 January. Abrupt and uninformed changes in plans had occurred. In our current pay period, I had overtime this last week, as well as worked holiday pay. Had I known that I had already been changed to salary, I certainly would not have worked the MLK holiday. I would have taken it off along with the rest of the salaried folks. And, I certainly would not have put in 56 hours this week.
In going to salaried supervisor, I received a $1 an hour raise. $80 more per pay period translated to an additional $100 in taxes being taken from my pay check. So, I'm actually $20 less in net pay than I was before this whole thing began. LOL Just figures, doesn't it?
I received my company cell phone last week, the surest sign that I have been officially damned to hell. The only good thing about it is that my company phone is a Razr. It came with a car charger and a blue tooth adapter. As my personal cell phone is a Razr, I can use the car and blue tooth accessories with it.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
A mere 21 hours later, I have returned. Isn't modern technology wonderful?
It is 3am. I should be headed to Wal-Mart or to work or, at least, to the shower. I have had coffee, chatted with Genny and Al, and ignored various household chores since rolling out of bed at 10pm.
I could not get to sleep today. Hate when that happens. I fell asleep somewhere after 3pm, after relenting and taking another Melatonin and a Flexeril.
I received my bamboo and soy yarns today from Canada! Yippee!! They were here Thursday, but I was not awake to sign for them & only today got 'round to the post office to collect them. They are lovely. omg! Nice hand, nice sheen, nice elasticity. I can't wait to start working with them. (I promised myself to do SOMETHING with this house before I set needles to them, and I suppose sorting beads doesn't really count.)
I also ordered the bamboo needles from the same company. They should be here next week. I sort of took it to the extreme with the needles. As I had lamented about having to use those horrid plastic over-sized needles on my sweater and did confess to ordering over-sized wooden ones from the Canadian company...
Well, I bought all of the over-sized ones that they offer. US 17,18, 19, 35, 50. I bought a complete set of bamboo straight needles US 0 through 15. I also bought a set of 16" circular bamboo needles in the same sizes, 0 through 15 - necessary for those hats and sleeves. OK, desirable for those hats & sleeves. I bought double pointed needles, 8" length - 0 through 11, 12" length - 0 through 15. And, I bought a set of bamboo crochet hooks. I simply like working with bamboo and wooden needles the best.
The swallow casein needles are nice but tend to be a bit "sticky" with some types of yarns. They would be my second favorite needles to use. Unfortunately, I do not believe that they come in circular needles. Well, that may be a good thing or I would have to set after acquiring those particular implements of construction as well.
Back to the sweater which I was attempting to construct on these wretched needles which spawned this buying frenzy. (I spent very wisely, all-in-all... 4 complete sets of needles, one set of crochet hooks, 5 sets of over-sized needles for less than $80. Still less than $100 including shipping from Canada. Try and get that here in the U.S. A set of Clover 13" bamboo single point needles, US 0 through 15, alone will cost more than $70.) The idea of knitting any further on the sweater with those wretched needles was appalling to me. As plastic needles tend to be "sticky," my stitches were not at optimum consistently. I contemplated simply awaiting the arrival of the new wooden needles and going on with the project from my stopping point. In the end, I succumbed and "frogged." (rip-it, rip-it) That's why it's called frogging. Seriously! LOL As I often reiterate to my granddaughter, "You cannot knit if you are afraid to rip."
So, I have ripped my beautiful strands of mohair and ribbon back into their respective balls and await the arrival of the more suitable construction tools, and I am thankful that this pattern says this sweater can be constructed in approximately 5 hours.
In organizing the studio, I think I have some needles that I will be listing on eBay. I also have a couple of books that I found on clearance and purchased specifically for that purpose. Very nice books from a popular series but not my style. However, the price did make them quite attractive for resale.
Construction of the throw that I am crocheting for my son-in-law is moving along quite nicely. I was joking with him that I may actually have it finished before the cold weather disappears. Given that I really like how it is turning out, I bought a similar type of bulky chenille yarn from the same vendor in an off-white cotton/tencel blend. I bought 9 pounds of the stuff! That will be an over-sized comfy throw for the y-chromosome person of significance.
He was apologetic for being overwhelmed with school when I saw him this weekend. Obstetrics and pediatrics will generally do that to you. Why nursing programs insist on teaching those two areas of very specialized curriculum together is beyond me. The scopes of practice are so very unique to each of those fields that it boggles the mind. The rules for pediatrics are different than for adults, and obstetrics is its own area altogether. There are areas of cross-over in other areas of practice.... med/surg and orthopedics, rheumatology and orthopedics, gastroenterology and endocrinology.... And, there are rules that are practiced by multiple disciplines - cardiology and pulmonology, hematology and immunology... It is insanity to try and learn two unique areas of practice, such as OB and pediatrics, together. Yet, programs do it. They may as well just incorporate anesthesiology into the same term and give you all three strikes! LOL
I sometimes wonder if it fails to register with him that I have already "been there, done that, got the t-shirt." All of this knowledge is just innate to my being, and I didn't have to spend months poring over over-priced texts and be at the hospital before daylight and leave long after dark. I didn't write volumes and volumes of pointless case studies and care plans in order to "get the big picture" of how the nursing process fits into the framework of medical diagnostics. I didn't have to research every one of the fourteen medications that my patient was prescribed - drug classification, uses, correct dosages, side-effects, interactions, pertinent laboratory monitoring, patient teaching... Nope. I was just born Mother Superior of Nurses from Hell.
You know, I would be very, very content to leave the field of nursing in his hands and stay home all day to play with the brown babies. I would have no problem at all handing over the reins to the next generation of nurses. However, I don't see that happening immediately. I see us working for the traveling service for part of the year and vacationing the rest of the year. Three months in Southern California, six weeks in Italy. Three months in Seattle, six weeks in the U.K. Three months in Denver, six weeks in Australia. It would be a rough life, but I think we could manage. Two nursing placements for the price of one housing unit. Such a deal! Though, if there were babies along, I would only work part-time. Good money, no housing expense. Nice way to travel the country for a couple of years. Well suited to our vagabond souls.
It has become early in the morning once again. Time to get on with my day.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
NIN and eBay
Nine Inch Nails and eBay have nothing in common other than the fact that those two terms happen to be presently residing in the top three slots of my limited RAM cerebral cortex. Yes, my CPU is grossly under-powered as well when compared to current industry standards. Slot number three is occupied by knitting. Specifically, the sweater which I had not gotten around to making last year for this winter that is currently under construction on over-sized 20mm/US 50 knitting needles.
While having more needles than the law should allow in the implements of construction knitting arsenal, I have but one pair of 20mm needles. They are those which have been around forever. Boye #50 plastic needles. I tend to avoid plastic needles at all costs as they tend to be too "sticky" for me. A mere 7" into this sweater back piece, I can take it no more! I popped over to eBay and purchased a pair of wooden needles made by the same manufacturer from whom I purchased the bamboo and soy yarns. They offer a fair return policy and a lifetime guarantee on their needles, and anything has to be better than my current knitting milieu.
I shop quite a bit on eBay. While my feedback rating is only 204, I have 559 feedbacks posted. That means that I am a repeat customer for several sellers. Yes, I do tend to loyalty, even on eBay. I have purchased everything from earrings to CDs to yarn to beads to vintage patterns to art supplies to quilting notions to books to knitting machines on eBay. Oh yeah, there have been a few transactions that were for several hundred dollars. LOL The most recent having been the 60 pounds of wool yarns that I bought from Bob before he stopped selling on eBay last fall.
There are items that I no longer purchase on eBay regularly. Vintage patterns would be at the top of that list. A few years ago when everyone set out to become a millionaire by selling on eBay, the price for vintage knitting patterns and magazines skyrocketed out of sight. I refuse to pay $15 plus $8 shipping for a back issue of Vogue Knitting. The idea of it is ludicrous and sheer idiocy to me.
A few of the sellers from whom I used to purchase regularly no longer sell on eBay. When the boom hit and eBay began to raise their fees and percentages on sales, it became prohibitive to make a profit to many of the noncommercial vendors. Unless of course they wanted to charge outrageous prices for items and practice extortion for shipping. The evil eBay-acquired spawn, PayPal, even charges the sellers a percentage of the shipping charges. Nothing like double-dipping. (I'm trying very hard to be polite and reasonably politically correct with that last sentence. What came to mind was more a phrase that would have been coupled with "and without lube.")
I still support the venue of eBay, however. There are some wonderful people on there, still. I can shop for goods from all over the planet from the convenience of my chair. And, there are many, many good and honest and fair merchants on there who are seeking to bring diverse and quality products to market.
I am thrilled to see sites such as Etsy www.etsy.com and Wagglepop www.wagglepop.com capturing segments of the niche and general markets.
When I finally get around to the coup that will allow me to re-occupy my studio so that I can make some product for sale, my store site will be on Etsy. I already have it set up and waiting for me to get my ass in gear.
Organizing the studio could be a good project for the wee hours of this morning before I head back to bed around 4am. The boys were behaving too badly to send to the sitter's today. After working 12 hours last night, the last thing that I wanted to do was to spend my day awake babysitting them, but I did it. The sitter has other children there as well, and it simply isn't fair to send them, when they are behaving badly, if I don't have to. As much as I really didn't want to stay up with them all day, I resigned myself to suck it up and tough it out. Michael came in a bit earlier than usual from work, so I was able to hit the bed around 4pm and slept until 9:30.
I'm just finishing up the half-a-pot of Starbucks Serena Organic Blend coffee - ah yes, serum caffeine levels are approaching therapeutic - and feel pretty good at this point. Time to consider other options and venues, take my medications and get up and moving about.
For the NIN portion of the RAM usage... Trent Reznor is tremendously talented and known to be blatantly outspoken. He has no bullshit threshold, and I love it. I subscribe to the NIN site feed on one of my Google homepages. There are days when multiple posts are made to the blog. If you are not checking, you miss out as settings show only the most recent post. Then, there are days that stretch into weeks when nothing is posted. Just when you grow really weary of checking, a post or two (or three) pops up... Damn those temperamental, right-brained, artistic types anyway! LOL
My spinning fibers and beads did not arrive today. I am a bit bummed out by that. Three new knitting patterns did arrive today, though. I have been coveting, for a couple of years now, a pattern by Karabella Yarn for a sweater that is called Traveling Cables. It is an absolutely stunningly beautiful pattern to me. The left-brained accountant offspring thinks it is hideously ugly. It is truly one of those love-it or hate-it patterns.
I have never been of a mindset to drop several dollars for one designer pattern. Though I have seen several that I really wanted to make, the idea of paying that much money for a single pattern simply did not set well in my psyche. Given that I have become quite addicted to the idea of making sweaters and things for ME (for a change), I decided last week to go ahead and take the plunge. Not only did I buy the Karabella pattern, I also purchased several patterns by Oat Couture and Just One More Row for sweaters and vests and hats and a jacket and a coat that I have really wanted to make for quite some time. I am going to make the Traveling Cables sweater pattern in alpaca. I told one of my coworkers about it and added that, for that reason, it will never be seen at work. LOL
I think my next act of submission to the purchasing of the designer patterns will be for Mission Falls. Again, another of those love it or hate it series of patterns. I love it! Creative! Different! Unique!
With that thought and bit of inspiration to motivation, I am off to the studio.
While having more needles than the law should allow in the implements of construction knitting arsenal, I have but one pair of 20mm needles. They are those which have been around forever. Boye #50 plastic needles. I tend to avoid plastic needles at all costs as they tend to be too "sticky" for me. A mere 7" into this sweater back piece, I can take it no more! I popped over to eBay and purchased a pair of wooden needles made by the same manufacturer from whom I purchased the bamboo and soy yarns. They offer a fair return policy and a lifetime guarantee on their needles, and anything has to be better than my current knitting milieu.
I shop quite a bit on eBay. While my feedback rating is only 204, I have 559 feedbacks posted. That means that I am a repeat customer for several sellers. Yes, I do tend to loyalty, even on eBay. I have purchased everything from earrings to CDs to yarn to beads to vintage patterns to art supplies to quilting notions to books to knitting machines on eBay. Oh yeah, there have been a few transactions that were for several hundred dollars. LOL The most recent having been the 60 pounds of wool yarns that I bought from Bob before he stopped selling on eBay last fall.
There are items that I no longer purchase on eBay regularly. Vintage patterns would be at the top of that list. A few years ago when everyone set out to become a millionaire by selling on eBay, the price for vintage knitting patterns and magazines skyrocketed out of sight. I refuse to pay $15 plus $8 shipping for a back issue of Vogue Knitting. The idea of it is ludicrous and sheer idiocy to me.
A few of the sellers from whom I used to purchase regularly no longer sell on eBay. When the boom hit and eBay began to raise their fees and percentages on sales, it became prohibitive to make a profit to many of the noncommercial vendors. Unless of course they wanted to charge outrageous prices for items and practice extortion for shipping. The evil eBay-acquired spawn, PayPal, even charges the sellers a percentage of the shipping charges. Nothing like double-dipping. (I'm trying very hard to be polite and reasonably politically correct with that last sentence. What came to mind was more a phrase that would have been coupled with "and without lube.")
I still support the venue of eBay, however. There are some wonderful people on there, still. I can shop for goods from all over the planet from the convenience of my chair. And, there are many, many good and honest and fair merchants on there who are seeking to bring diverse and quality products to market.
I am thrilled to see sites such as Etsy www.etsy.com and Wagglepop www.wagglepop.com capturing segments of the niche and general markets.
When I finally get around to the coup that will allow me to re-occupy my studio so that I can make some product for sale, my store site will be on Etsy. I already have it set up and waiting for me to get my ass in gear.
Organizing the studio could be a good project for the wee hours of this morning before I head back to bed around 4am. The boys were behaving too badly to send to the sitter's today. After working 12 hours last night, the last thing that I wanted to do was to spend my day awake babysitting them, but I did it. The sitter has other children there as well, and it simply isn't fair to send them, when they are behaving badly, if I don't have to. As much as I really didn't want to stay up with them all day, I resigned myself to suck it up and tough it out. Michael came in a bit earlier than usual from work, so I was able to hit the bed around 4pm and slept until 9:30.
I'm just finishing up the half-a-pot of Starbucks Serena Organic Blend coffee - ah yes, serum caffeine levels are approaching therapeutic - and feel pretty good at this point. Time to consider other options and venues, take my medications and get up and moving about.
For the NIN portion of the RAM usage... Trent Reznor is tremendously talented and known to be blatantly outspoken. He has no bullshit threshold, and I love it. I subscribe to the NIN site feed on one of my Google homepages. There are days when multiple posts are made to the blog. If you are not checking, you miss out as settings show only the most recent post. Then, there are days that stretch into weeks when nothing is posted. Just when you grow really weary of checking, a post or two (or three) pops up... Damn those temperamental, right-brained, artistic types anyway! LOL
My spinning fibers and beads did not arrive today. I am a bit bummed out by that. Three new knitting patterns did arrive today, though. I have been coveting, for a couple of years now, a pattern by Karabella Yarn for a sweater that is called Traveling Cables. It is an absolutely stunningly beautiful pattern to me. The left-brained accountant offspring thinks it is hideously ugly. It is truly one of those love-it or hate-it patterns.
I have never been of a mindset to drop several dollars for one designer pattern. Though I have seen several that I really wanted to make, the idea of paying that much money for a single pattern simply did not set well in my psyche. Given that I have become quite addicted to the idea of making sweaters and things for ME (for a change), I decided last week to go ahead and take the plunge. Not only did I buy the Karabella pattern, I also purchased several patterns by Oat Couture and Just One More Row for sweaters and vests and hats and a jacket and a coat that I have really wanted to make for quite some time. I am going to make the Traveling Cables sweater pattern in alpaca. I told one of my coworkers about it and added that, for that reason, it will never be seen at work. LOL
I think my next act of submission to the purchasing of the designer patterns will be for Mission Falls. Again, another of those love it or hate it series of patterns. I love it! Creative! Different! Unique!
With that thought and bit of inspiration to motivation, I am off to the studio.
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