Busy as a bee (but not the Bread and Honey kind)

Wow, busy busy busy few days. I'll leave it to you to make your own beaver jokes. Finally landed a part-time job for the summer - the interview was on Saturday and I worked my first shift Tuesday, how's that for turnaround? Hopefully this one sticks because I haven't heard back from anywhere else. Oh woe is the out-of-province university student when it comes to the job market.

But! Now I'm selling high-end women's fashion at Laura Plus. I have to dress up for work and put everything I learned watching What Not to Wear, Tim Gunn's Guide to Style, and How to Look Good Naked to use. And there are these gorgeous lace knit shrugs and cardigans in the store and I keep thinking "I want to make those." I've definitely found a new home for my pretty blue-green variegated Zephyr: the Frilly Brioche Shrug. I love the sleeves on this one. First, though, is my candleflame shawl and my Katlyn cardigan.

Too many projects, not enough time. A few people know that I've been considering a new business venture. The Streetsville Founders' Day Festival, also known as the Bread and Honey Festival, has for years and years had a large craft fair set up on the island next to the park. My dad suggested that I whip up a bunch of things to set up a booth, and I rejected the idea out of hand - I don't have the yarn, I can't sell things from other people's patterns, I don't have the time, the booth fee is too high for me to even feasibly turn a profit. It's June, no one's going to buy a knitted hat. And so on and so forth. But then I got thinking about it, did a cost-time analysis. Looked at material costs. Figured I could try emo and Harry Potter-themed hats and scarves. Take commissions. I contacted the organiser, figured it was doable. So I made a couple of hats with improvised patterns (one variant below) to see how long they would take to make and if the time would be worth the money.



It's really, really not. If I sell a hat that took me four hours to make with $3 worth of material for $10, that's not really a profit. I would consider that a loss in terms of labour costs. Also, with this job now, that cuts into my knitting time anyway. And I don't particularly want to spend the next three weeks churning out crap when I could be working on beautiful shrugs, shawls, and cardigans for myself and my family. Am I being selfish? Yes. Am I being business-minded? Probably not. Do I care? No.

Just. Say. No.

The whole idea has been wicked stressing me out, so I'm ready to just drop it. But now I'm worried that instead of seeing all the thought (and stress) that went into the decision, my dad will think I'm just being lazy. Because that's how most things go in this house. Because I'm not as verbal a person as my sister, when I refuse to do something I don't realise I have to give a reason. I assume that they will assume that I have one. Instead, they assume I'm just lazy. For years I've hated doing the dishes because it wreaks havoc on my hands. I don't normally have problems with dry skin, but after doing dishes? I can't use my hands for the next hour. But no. My parents kept making me do them - because they thought I was just being lazy.

Okay, that rant got me sidetracked.

Anyway, point of the story is that I will not be hawking my wares at the Bread and Honey Festival. Though I will be pulling pints in the Rotary beer tent. Which will be just as fun and probably get me more phone numbers. Although mostly from men, which will be less than fun.