Fat gifts.

Had a bit of a busy weekend. Heh. Busy weekend. Just a bit. Hehehehehahahahahahaheeeheeeheeheelmmfao

Yeah. Ok. So. Right now we're looking at roughly 272 people for the dyeorama swap when I'm all done confirming a few entries and getting some info I need from a few others. Call me a softhearted woman but yeah I'm giving people about eleven more hours to confirm or ask nicely if they can join.

Let me say that again. Two hundred seventy two people. And the server didn't go down. And it won't show up as overage on the bill either. So hooray for Dreamhost! It shows a little having that many people signing up for WordPress but the swap registration form was great. All things considered there were very few problems to fix. Especially once we got the Internet Explorer issue resolved. When there were problems (primarily people entering wrong information and a RTFM moment or two) they were incredibly easy to fix thanks to Cody's programming and Dreamhost running PHPmyadmin so I could maintain the database.

Now on to the programming a way to randomly match people and email them by May 1.

We were approached by a store for sponsorship and decided to give out some prizes in a random drawing from the list of people who completed the swap. I'm really pleased with the sponsor's yarn and I think her dyeing kits are great! We're accumulating several good gifts (I love the idea of having an incentive to be a good buddy) and trying to come up with a way to confirm when people have received their yarn. Cody has some great ideas.

It's kind of hard to get across how much work programming something like this from scratch really is, or making things run as smoothly as possible with all the possible variables. I pretty much haven't done much else this weekend but check emails, change database info, fix the website, and figure out how to fix bouncing emails. It's not sexy or exciting but I'm proud of the work. And I think it's going to be a fun swap.

The great part of this is knowing that between Cody and I we can pull off a project for almost 300 people. That's something to put on a resume. Which is very cool.

So after all the work I've been shopping online for a prize for myself. Between this work and resolving a serious problem we were having wth PNM misreading our gas gauge and overcharging us by several hundred dollars, *and* selling some yarn this weekend (to a dyeorama member no less!) I feel like I should buy myself a present.

In a state of sleep-induced delirium yesterday I wandered around online looking at my favorite places. My favorites list at Etsy, Kpixie's one of a kind yarn, the new Fiber-of-the-month club at Spunky...I couldn't decide on anything.

After running to Trader Joe's for groceries (we still can't get over the prices there) and to Smith's for the less glamorous groceries like toilet paper and kitty litter (I know TJ's has hippie pine pellet kitty litter but that isn't going to work for my cats' industrial grade asses - we need crystals), I ended up going to Borders to get the brand new "Big Girl Knits" book. They couldn't find it for me so the nice guy called Barnes and Noble (which was maybe a football field away anyway) and had them hold it at the desk for me.

It's a great book - the models are actually plus sized not the like "oh she's a little hippy but otherwise railass thin" kind of models. The advice is good, the patterns cover a wide variety of materials and shapes. I'm very pleased to hear that ribbon yarn is the novelty yarn for the big girl since that's what my big tunic project is - also pleased to find out that they recommend tunics. And I love the boobs, butt, belly category. I found the bottoms section a little - well, kind of weird. But I'm not much for knitted skirts. And there weren't any bottoms for belly people which annoys me a little. I might try the yoga pants pattern someday. Yoga pants are my favorite kind of pants. The accessories was an interesing section - mostly because of the advice to carry larger accessories. I can attest to that - there's nothing that will make you look bigger than a tiny purse. Or make your neck and chin look larger than a mini necklace. So overall, I'm pretty pleased with the book. It's a nice sized hardcover that will take a lot of abuse. I beat up on my books ya know.

So I was feeling pretty plus-sized friendly. And still looking around in my wishlists and things for something else fun to buy, maybe. And I've been going back to this one little weird thing on etsy the last few weeks. It's by the same woman who made my incredibly cool purse. And I kept going back to this weird thing and last night I'd just pointed at this little chubby guy and made too many cute boopy "poking in the belly with my cursor" sounds for Cody - he decided that Barry had to come live with us. I'm very excited about this. He's definitely a belly guy. No boobs and a flatter ass than mine which I wasn't sure was possible. Aww but I love Barry. Can't wait to have him here.

So click on the photo and give him some clicky belly boops with your cursor for luck and safe travels for Barry.

And now, photos of my ironically cabled socks (ironic of course because the cable was out when I started them) that I finished last week sometime.

a silly photo I took of myself in my rock n roll cowgirl t shirt

And a few birds have been building their nests under our porch roof again. This one had used a little strand of pink yarn. Isn't it sweet?

Is this post long enough or what?

Dye-O-Ramamamamamama

So. We're three hours into signups and already have 80 (81, 82) DYE-O-RAMA Swap signups. Not all have been confirmed but we're working on it.

For the most part it's going well and I'm incredibly proud of Cody's ability to teach himself a programming language while he creates a usable form and database and pretty proud of my ability to work with him, create and make a fairly usable group weblog, and figure out how to go into my php admin and edit database entries.

The internet explorer issue is, well an issue. And we're hoping to get that resolved soon. But my man is tired and we've got it working for the most part. Absolute worst case is we have people email and we'll enter the data by hand. But that's absolute worst case. Here's hoping this is the impetus for folks to switch to a really good browser like, say, oh, this one. But browser snobishness aside, we're working on it for the IE people too.

Good news! Monica has resolved the IE issue! We think! We hope?

We hit 100 forms submitted right before 11 pm tonight
14 people haven't confirmed their email links
the form page shows 86 so it's correct in showing confirmed registrations for the swap

I'm showing 64 registered users on the group weblog (including the admins)

There's 43 hours to go.

So this is one of the projects I've been working my butt off on. Kind of explains why I haven't been posting very much hasn't it?

The yarn diet is ovah!

If officially ended Saturday around 1:30 pm my time. We justified this by saying that it was Easter sunday in Australia and the yarn store wouldn't be open on Sunday anyway. Considering that I had bought no fiber in any form since Ash Wednesday I have to say, I did well. Particularly for someone who doesn't really observe Lent anyway. And to my complete surprise I didn't go crazy buying everything I saw or had on my wish list. I hadn't been to Village wools since the large koigu shipment had come in so I was happy to sift though the shelves.

So I bought four skeins of a pretty color of koigu to make myself some kneesocks

And, social dork that I am, I did succumb to peer pressure and purchase the yarn to make a shadow shawl with my abq snb girlies. Hey, without them I never would've tried the Jaywalkers pattern especially as my first sock and to my utter surprise I've become quite the joiner. The pattern calls for three skeins of koigu kppm and three skeins of E Lavold Silky Wool (which I've eyed several of the last times I'd been in the store) in contrasting colors. Several people have been getting dark silky wool and bright koigu. I kind of went the other way.

So those and I paid Mama-E for her project spectrum sock yarn subscription and that was pretty much my discretionary portion of our tax return. But I'm very happy and really looking forward to those kneesocks and casting on for another project with my snb buddies.

All the purchases (including my April mama e sock yarn) involves yellow orange so I suppose it qualifies as Project Spectrum. I'm way WAY behind on my PJ project but I've finished the ugg booties and ironically cabled socks.

In Dye-O-Rama News, which i'm sure you read at Scout's anyway Cody and I are putting the finishing touches on the signup forms and the Swap website tonight. SIGNUPS WILL BE TOMORROW NIGHT AT 6PM MDT - THEY WILL END SATURDAY NIGHT AT 6PM MDT. Number of participants is unlimited but only one swap per person. There is a group blog and you'll be sent to the group blog signup form after you finish filling out the swap form. It's all very complicated and stuff for us but (hopefully) easier for you.

My Albuquerque-related project is on hold until the signups are done but I've pretty much paid for and finished part one of the big indescribible project. I really wish I could go into it more but that one's seriously top secret.

Back to the salt mines with me. Where the hell are my glasses.

Dye-o-Rama update

I'm just working working away on my little projects. Scout cracks the whip and I jump. Ok just kidding but damn that girl can really light a fire under your ass if you mention you were thinking about maybe doing something sometime.

The big news at the moment is we have a set time for signups for the Dye-o-Rama swap. It will be this Thursday at 6 pm Mountain. That's 8 eastern, 7 central, and 5 Pacific for you math is hard Barbies out there. We will be running countown scripts (which I need to go work on right now) on our sites and I'm working on a group blog for all members (which is pretty close to done). Rather than limiting the number of people who can sign up we're going to have the sign up forms only available for 48 hours.

Cody is working on the form and database for the signups - which will include the ability to set a password so you can go back in and change info. There's also the ability to volunteer as an angel to cover for anyone who flakes out on their swapee. Of course we're hoping that won't be the case. Please, please don't sign up if there's a good chance you won't get to do it. Really. I've been in exchange things where people have flaked out and it just sucks to be that recipient. We all understand bad circumstances but there's also just the flake factor. There's also the great threat of public humiliation. And I know I'm not above threatening that. So seriously. If odds are good you're not going to get around to dyeing that yarn and mailing it to your person, just don't sign up. Mkay?

The special Albuquerque project (which several of you already know about) should be ready to post in the next few days.

Ok so here's the offical thing I'm supposed to post but accidently just paraphrased.

We're looking at sign-ups taking place this Thursday, April 20th starting at 6:00pm MST. We have decided we will not have a number cut-off this time but we will only have sign ups for 48 hours. If you won't be around please have someone sign you up okay?

We are lucky enough that Noelle's husband Cody is our techy guru and is creating an online registrationg form that will go into a database for us. He rocks and we all should thank him big time for helping us.

A few things about the sawp. PLEASE DO NOT SIGN UP IF YOU ARE GOING TO FLAKE! There's nothing like having to hunt down flakey participants. Please don't make us do this okay? If there is any chance you can't dye one single skein of yarn in 6 weeks then don't hit that sign up button. You hear? Remember that picture of me with the hammer and drill? Don't go there.

There will be a choice on the registration form to sign up to be an Angel. This means you are willing to dye a second skein of yarn to replace a Swapper who had the nerve to flake out on us. It's nice to know we can contact someone to help us out if we need it. I'm hoping we don't need Angels but it's nice to have that as a back up plan.

We also have a website in the works for the swap. Everyone involved will be able to register there and post. This way people who don't have blogs can post questions, updates, post photos, etc. We already have a few guests who are dyeing pros who are going to share some tips with everyone and be available to help answer questions.

Later on today we will have a countdown timer for y'all so you know exactly when the sign up will start. Let us know if you have any other questions. We're really excited about the swap and already have over 100 people ready to play. Pretty cool!

So just keep checking back to know exactly when the sign up will be.

Project Dye-O-Rama

Yep, so that's one of my projects revealed :) I've joined the ranks of the Dye-O-Rama Mamas doing some web design and nerdy tech organization stuff and we've even got Cody working on a database form for the signups. I think we've found the downside to my feeling better - I'm more active and social that means he'll have to be more active and social haha.

So this is the project involving yarn I hinted about in my previous post.

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A few pieces of information about the swap:

-We will give plenty of notice about when the offical sign up will be. Just keep an eye on one of our blogs and we will give you a 36 & 24 hour notice.

-You will need to register to be a part of the swap. Just leaving your comment in the previous post does not ensure that you will be in the swap. We will need all of your information and that will be your committment to join the swap.

-Beginners will be welcome. We will have two official groups. One will be the WTF am I doing group and the other will be for people who feel pretty confident in their dyeing skillz. We'll be giving tips and information on the official Dyeorama site so the newbs can find out how to dye their yarn.

-You may use any dyes as long as they are permanent and lightfast.

-We will do international swaps. We will specifically ask whether you mind having an international pal or not.

-We have had a lot of interest already and we may have a 100 person limit for this first round. We will let you know about this.

-Finally, please do not sign up for this swap if there is even the slightest chance that are going to flake-out on us. We recruited (Me!) to help with the organization of this swap and the 4 of us will not be very nice DYE-O-RAMistras if you don’t follow through with your committment. Most of you have probably been a part of a swap before and know that nothing sucks more than having a pal who doesn’t do what they are supposed to. Ya know?

So stay tuned for more details