So, yes, I REALLY should be grading.
However, the post office just called to say that I have an express package from Japan to pick up (why, no, my post office does not bother to DELIVER express packages except on normal route schedules, but at least they let me know there's something waiting for me). This will be the big box from Celga, so I guess we're about to find out whether those are really Thin Orange eyes in the one-off Cyndy pretty quick-like.
And I took some pictures of new sweaters for the shop (http://www.squirrelmoonknits.etsy.com), one springy and one autumnnal.
Today is the Vacation Mode Protest on Etsy to bring attention to the problem of resellers and factories who pass themselves off as handmakers, but I have to confess that my political will is weak on this particular front. When I see a day opening up some picture and listing-edit time, I seize it, protest or no protest. I have mixed feelings about this protest, anyway. In theory, I agree 100% with the protesters, because I do think Etsy is both misleading in its promotional rhetoric and only too ready to pass off mass-produced goods as handmade when there's profit to be made. But in practice, WTF, handmade-artisan-people? You're protesting because Etsy won't protect your special snowflake microbusiness against Teh Ebil Factories? If you're staking your whole identity and livelihood on a head-to-head competition with mass-production sellers, then any single online venue is kinda unlikely to be your economic be-all and end-all. The Etsy fantasy of "quitting your day job and making your whole living here" has never appealed to me, though, and neither has the Etsy BS about "community" and "relationships," so maybe it's easy for me to shrug it off and roll my eyes. I don't claim to be reasoning through all this clearly, mind you--I just don't see Etsy as having any more of a personal commitment to me than I have to Etsy, and that's . . . pretty much nil.
And I took some pictures of new sweaters for the shop (http://www.squirrelmoonknits.etsy.com), one springy and one autumnnal.
Today is the Vacation Mode Protest on Etsy to bring attention to the problem of resellers and factories who pass themselves off as handmakers, but I have to confess that my political will is weak on this particular front. When I see a day opening up some picture and listing-edit time, I seize it, protest or no protest. I have mixed feelings about this protest, anyway. In theory, I agree 100% with the protesters, because I do think Etsy is both misleading in its promotional rhetoric and only too ready to pass off mass-produced goods as handmade when there's profit to be made. But in practice, WTF, handmade-artisan-people? You're protesting because Etsy won't protect your special snowflake microbusiness against Teh Ebil Factories? If you're staking your whole identity and livelihood on a head-to-head competition with mass-production sellers, then any single online venue is kinda unlikely to be your economic be-all and end-all. The Etsy fantasy of "quitting your day job and making your whole living here" has never appealed to me, though, and neither has the Etsy BS about "community" and "relationships," so maybe it's easy for me to shrug it off and roll my eyes. I don't claim to be reasoning through all this clearly, mind you--I just don't see Etsy as having any more of a personal commitment to me than I have to Etsy, and that's . . . pretty much nil.