I met with Opus and L today (L kinda by accident). Opus and I sat at Peet’s and knit for most of the morning (I’ve got cables on the sleeve!), until hunger drew us out to find food that wasn’t brewed or baked with sugar on top.
We found L at Knit Purl (where we stopped to return a set of DPNs I borrowed, get thread and just hassle the staff for fun… well, two outta three ain’t bad, anyway). We three then went to the Bijou Cafe (yum), when I was then lectured by Opus and L for underselling or undervaluing myself (or something). It was kinda scary. Somehow they extracted a promise from me to post a “donate” button on my sidebar (damn them), and Opus didn’t forget to remind me either when we parted.
But, hahaha, WP strips out html, so the Paypal button wouldn’t show. I knew they wouldn’t accept that as an excuse (seriously, you didn’t see these two at lunch), so I went with the ‘other’ option. Just ignore it. They’ll probably let me delete it in a month or two. I dunno, it seems so tacky to me. Now that I’m not being press-ganged and outnumbered I can explain why I didn’t want to put one up :P
Anyway. L had to run and Opus and I somehow convinced ourselves to go to Lloyd Center. Why we felt compelled to go to A MALL right now is beyond me. Must be Mall pheromones in the air, due to The Season, or something. We started out at Nordstrom’s, which was a freaky experience because the staff kept trying to help me. Maybe I looked like I wanted to buy something horrible and freshly pulled from the ’80’s and didn’t realise it.
After that we hit Barnes’ & Noble, where the other (gold lamé) shoe dropped. I made the mistake of pulling out IK, Vogue Knitting and the IK’s Holiday Issue. OMG. ‘Powerful ugly’ didn’t even cover some of the stuff in them. Am I the ONLY person who thinks so (other than Opus)? I keep hearing rave reviews of all 3 across the ‘net and can’t figure out why. Again, the only things I liked were socks or hats. Can’t we get some sweaters than AREN’T covered in giant, chunky cables? (VK, I’m talking to chastising you)
Oh well. I’m probably going to lose half my subscribers, but I had to say it. I’m really annoyed. And ever so glad I don’t have a subscription to any of ’em.
On a positive end note, I managed NOT to buy yarn today and even succeeded in getting us so lost that we never found Twisted. My subconscious was probably in charge of that. IT knows how big the stash really is, while the rest of me pretends otherwise.
Sara Morris Design 
Here you go — handy instructions for a Paypal button.
http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic.php?id=6760&page&replies=34#post-44521
IK hasn’t helped anyone with their horrid photos. (there i’ve now said it publicly). miriam’s river wrap is a whole lot of fun to knit. that’s about it though. i’ve heard mixed reviews those that love love tend to love the whole thing, those that don’t, we don’t. i’ve not looked at vogue b/c vogue just scares me on general principle. (though i do own the sock book). holiday issues are always a mixed bag.
selling yourself or pricing your goods or services is always hard. we tend to (as females) under price ourselves and then attempt to deliver much more than asked for or would be expected of a male. i don’t know why. i don’t have an answer. i know i am that way.
I’ll catch later on the ‘donate’ via my blog. To be fair you didn’t tell them why we felt you should put a donate button up. The short version for those of you that are reading.
You do an AWESOME job on pulling the sock knitting club together (which is up to 1800 + sock knitters now) and you are spending a LOT of time making this idea come to fruition for our enjoyment. We love it and you for the effort. We just felt that some of us might be willing to donate – from a dollar perspective to 1) show our appreciation for your time and commitment to our enjoyment and 2) let you make a wee living at designing and organizing this event!!!
Sincerely,
Your ‘Business Manager’