This week’s challenges: Logic fail. Dye Fail.

Favorite songs from Pandora today: Some Nights – fun

Currently reading: Lady Justice Takes a C.R.A.P by Robert Thornhill

Currently knitting/crocheting: sooper sekrit project that never ends

Currently spinning: the wheel is covered in dust

Currently weaving: unwarped

Currently sewing: roman shades for littlest girl’s room

My heart was broken today & I cry for families I will never know. I am hugging my children a little tighter but I am not afraid for them. I am full of hope for them. I hope I have raised them to become amazing adults and I hope they are able to grow up and reach their potential. I hope they become people who make decisions to reflect positively on other people’s lives.

I cannot fathom what could have been going on in the young man’s mind that made his course of action seem reasonable enough to go through with it however, I wonder who I might have negatively affected in my movements in the world that I could have instead left a bit of better on.

Everyone has a story and we don’t know what those are. Let’s react with compassion towards our fellow human beings instead of disapproval. A smile, a nod, and moment to listen, to hold the door, to realize we might not be the only one having a bad day. Make a difference to someone else today, treat them as you hope to be treated even if you feel like they don’t deserve it. You might be saving someone’s life or maybe just making their day. Give someone some hope. We can’t save everyone but maybe we can make a difference, even if it is just a small one.

Having a technical background and knowing my way around the Internet & social media has given me an advantage in the online marketplace. Etsy was not a good fit for my shop as it doesn’t offer flexible features, it’s clunky, & the rates are high.

I built my own online shop at my own domain (Nerd Girl Yarns) early on but retained a small Etsy shop for odd lots & handspun. There is still something to be said about a social marketplace & I didn’t want to lose the extra exposure that having one gives me.

At Maker Faire KC I had the chance to meet Riane Menardi from Goodsmiths. We spent time talking about the needs and wants of makers in an online marketplace as well as what we expect to get for our costs. It was a very positive conversation and I have a lot of hope riding on Goodsmiths.

Goodsmiths is a startup from Iowa that is building an online marketplace for makers. Still in Beta, they are working through bugs, adding features, and listening to feedback. They are still a very young company and are growing literally on a minute by minute basis. They are very enthusiastic about what they are doing and you can’t help but get swept up in the excitement.

I set up an account with them the other day and ran into a page display problem. I sent them an email with details on my monitor/resolution/OS/browsers and had a reply within minutes. Already the customer service is superior. They fixed the bug in no time flat and I went about creating my profile and setting up a new shop.

Setting up the shop was very easy as was adding an item. Some of my favorite features they currently offer:

• Dwolla, a payment processor as an alternative to Paypal in addition to the ability to offer Paypal.
• Built in hooks for G+, Twitter, Pintrest, and Facebook
• Group Offer – a sale maker for items/multi items that require a set number of people to buy in. It’s pretty cutting edge for maker markets – read more about it here.
• No listing fees and low transaction fees. They don’t make money until you do so they really want to help their sellers succeed.
• Import CSV capabilities to transfer your existing inventory from Etsy
• The interface is slick! Clean and modern, it’s the easiest to navigate backend I have used in an online marketplace yet.

What they are working on that I hope to see soon:

• Coupon/discount codes
• Ability to include international shipping rates
• More room for detailed shop policies & return policies
• Additional category hierarchy for more specific browsing and listings: for example, I can list my handspun as yarn but it can only be listed as either Supplies: Yarn (mostly commercial yarns listed there), Knitting: Supplies or Crochet: Supplies. Since my yarn is handmade I would like to have it out of the general supplies so it isn’t so mushed into commercial items however, I don’t like being limited to only knitting or crochet.

My dream feature list for an online marketplace would also include (and I would be more than willing to pay fees for):

• Ability to easily include links to seller blogs, mailing lists, and communities like Ravelry in the shop information sidebar.
• USPS on demand shipping rates through the USPS API instead of or in addition to hand coded shipping rates on each item.
• Searches initiated while viewing a shop would list search results from that shop above additional results from the rest of the marketplace to keep shoppers in the original shop as long as possible.
• Ability to have a drop down to include variations/options for products rather than separate listings for say the same shirt in blue, pink and red.
• The ability to theme my shop – even just tiny customizations so as to not lose the community feel the marketplace has.

They seem to have a good balance of a social marketplace but not so over the top that it immediately takes sales away from individual shops.

My Etsy shop is maintained as an independent label for my handspun, odd lots, and test bases. Rather than renew my expired listings with Etsy (Etsy charges you a fee to list each item and all quantities so they have a set expiration date) I am moving them over to my new Goodsmiths shop and updating my links to bring customers over.

I will keep you posted on my experience but honestly, I have already started referring crafters to them. Compare rates for similar products here with their handmade fees calculator.

Makers already have higher supply costs because they don’t have the buying power of the big box stores plus they have to charge for their time it took to manufacture that item, their research and design time, and all the administration costs of running their shop & business.

There are so many variables that could affect the price of an item but let’s estimate based on a common & simple item. Let’s break down the costs of say, a very vanilla hand knit good quality yarn scarf that the maker sells on Etsy:

• One skein of quality 100% merino worsted yarn: $25
• Time to knit: 10 hours
• Time for staging, taking, editing, & uploading photos, writing product listing, publishing listing to social media: 2 hours
• Item listed price: $75
• Costs of product labeling, shipping & packaging supplies: $2.00
• Etsy fees + Paypal fees on a $75 item: $5.30
• Net income from handmade scarf: $42.70

Sounds great right? Profit from ONE scarf of over $40! Let’s divide that out now to figure out how much that crafter made hourly…

• Estimated hourly pay for crafting, posting, & promoting the scarf: $3.56 per hour

We haven’t even subtracted taxes, social security and medicare yet. Think about this for some of those items you figure you will just pick up cheaper at your local department store.

I am not demeaning the jobs that folks are doing to support their families working in the larger retailers, I just want you to consider the overhead and the value that has gone into this handcrafted item when you balk at the cost.

Crafters & makers have not chosen their career path because it will lead to riches & early retirement, they have chosen it because they want to love what they do, they want more flexibility in their work place and their hours, and they find the sacrifices they make in order to do what they love worth it.

Burn out.

I love challenges. At an interview for a company I was once asked if I prefer project work or putting out fires. I answered putting out fires without hesitation. As stressful as some folks consider that I thrive on it. I enjoy the fast burn that comes with an outage or crisis. The crash from it is inevitable but after a proper rest I am recharged.

Tech changes fast and I have never been destined to be a long timer anywhere. It takes a few years to get into a groove in a position. You have to tweak it, setup scripts, improve processes, and help the systems to run themselves. The problem with efficient systems is after you get them to the point where they are self-sufficient there isn’t a lot of challenge left.  There is always maintenance, upgrades, and revisions but the fires are far and few between and things get, well, comfortable.

To challenge myself I started dyeing yarn. It started with a few skeins a month and before I knew it it was hundreds of skeins a month. I get all the math and logic that comes with the science of textile dyeing and the creative outlet as well. Both sides of my brain are happy. Whenever I need a new challenge I set myself to a new colorway or design.

You ever have one of those days where you do nothing and you are completely exhausted from the nothing? I am not one for the mundane – it leaves me exhausted. Enter day-job career burnout. Add in several years of personal health challenges, top it off with a year of family health crises that flipped my whole world upside down, a part-time business that was already working me full-time and my fun meter was tapped.

Reevaluation.

It was time for change for not only my happiness and sanity but I missed my kids and I missed my partner. I was chasing my tail and it wasn’t good for anyone. Time with your partner and children are things you can’t get back. You start missing all those important things and they are just gone. One day your kids are 7 the next they are leaving home and you don’t know where the time went.

A sacrifice had to be made and the day job got the cut. I was tired of office politics, 500 mile a week commutes, and expenses associated with the daily grind, plus my heart just wasn’t in it anymore. My yarn business gave me face time with my family, flexibility to meet the needs of those I care for, all the challenges I cared to present myself, and the power to control my own destiny. It’s darn hard work for not nearly the financial payout but there are some things you can’t put a monetary value on.

It’s been nearly four months since the big switch and while it’s still the honeymoon period I can’t say I regret the decision yet. There are more than a few 12 hour days and 7 day work weeks but I am here with my family and accessible to them. My spouse and I have learned how to reconnect and my family has gotten involved in the business. We have made new friends, learned new skills, and look forward to each new day.

What’s Next?

I didn’t expect recovery to take this long so perhaps the change was long overdue. I am finally finding a good balance where I can enjoy tech again. My business runs on open source – that has never changed – and I pride myself on it. Connections I have made with other artisans has taught me a lot about what the industry has to offer and what it is lacking as far as tech goes.

There is an opportunity for open source to jump in and meet the needs of a growing market by offering alternatives and improvements to the available marketplaces where artisans  showcase and sell their creations. I have been talking to start-ups about their products and plans for development and I want to begin sharing with a wider audience. I’ve found my niche & my passion and now it’s time to hit the circuit.

Do my open source linux friends want to hear about my adventures in fiber? Do my fiber friends want to hear about my latest trials and tribulations with Ubuntu or OpenCart? It’s like two worlds smashed right into each other and I had such a hard time balancing what to tweet that I just stopped – about 2 years ago.

I spent some time tonight/this morning (I never did go to bed) tweaking on my Twitter, updating my profile, looking up follower requests, following new people, & wishing Twitter worked with Google Voice. Now here I sit with a blank prompt, 140 characters or less at my disposal, and I don’t have the vaguest idea what to say.

Hello world.

My name is Linuxchic. I left my day job as a linux & vmware sysadmin to pursue fiber arts full-time. I run my business on open source, assist other artists & crafters to do the same & I really love what I do.

I’m still the same person, I am just doing it a little differently than before. Let’s see if we can get reacquainted.

@Maker Faire KC 2012

…being a cat.

This post was originally posted on Life on Main.

I have the spring fever bad! Spring always gets me feeling productive and motivated which is good because I have a HUGE todo list! I have three quilts waiting to be started, I have a basement to purge so I can move the dye lab into, I would like to put a fresh coat of paint all over inside the house, and I am planning on ripping out and remodeling my kitchen as soon as the dye lab is moved and functioning. And let’s not forget, there is a garden to be planted! Whew! That’s a LOT to do on top of everything else but this weather just gets me energized!

The kids have been taking advantage of every nice day to be outside. It’s so nice seeing them enjoy the outdoors, I can’t wait for Spring to officially arrive!

This post was originally posted on Life on Main.

Headed out to the farm this weekend geared up with my Aura spinning wheel, bobbins of singles for plying, a niddy noddy, some knitting, and a crate of fiber. The plan was to ply all the bobbins that were full to clear them out for new spinning. Unfortunately, I left my lazy kate behind! Lucky for me I have my very own Boy Genius who cut some dowel rods down that were perfect to holding my bobbins across my crate and viola, instant stand in lazy kate.

She is far from pretty but is very functional and it was easy to ply from. I may use this method when I am hauling my wheel around to fiber fests. One less thing to carry around and to remember to pack!

This post was originally posted on Life on Main.

Happy Monday! Random photo today, one of my favorites ever of my littlest posing with one of the children’s shawls I crocheted for a living history museum in 2010. She is a joyful child and this is my happy making today.

The hat was too big even for oldest boy child so I had to rip it out and start over. No worries though, I wrote up the whole thing so I can make another from the left overs, yay!

Here it is, pretty cunning don’t you think?

And the rough notes (I will clean these up when I do a second and confirm the pattern):

Supplies:

Super bulky yarn in Jayne’s Hat colors

US Size 10.5 needles and US size 11 needles

US size 10.5 – cast on 48 join in round
k1p1 4 rows
switch to 11 needles
k for 2 inches
k4 rows yellow begin decreases
k2tog, k6 repeat
k
k2tog, k5 repeat
k
k2tog, k4 repeat
k
k2tog, k3 repeat
k
k2tog, k2 repeat
k
k2tog, k1 repeat
k
k2tog around
tie off

Now make earflaps

pick up 10 more towards back, not centered
k 12ish rows (I may have only knit 10, I will confirm when I make another, use your judgement on it)
k2tog k k2tog
p across
k2tog k k2tog
p2tog p p2tog
k2tog k2tog
p2
leave string & unravel a bit

make a haphazard pompom – jayne’s mom’s wasn’t perfect & yours shouldn’t be either.

This post was originally posted on Life on Main.

I am working on a cunning Jayne Cobb hat. So far I am down to the earflaps and the hat is gigantic. I am hoping there will be enough to give this one to the oldest boy child and make myself one that actually fits.

This post was originally posted on Life on Main.

This is neither my first nor my only current blog but it is time to give space to my personal side. I rarely dip into me much on my fiber blog since it is linked to my business. Part is that whole overshare kinda thing and the other part is the not everything I might want to blog is relavent to the shop & fiber blog.

I thought I would do best to name the blog after my home; my big, creaky, 100 year old house with a nice front porch on Main in a small town in the midwest. You can’t get much more Andy Griffith that than. Life is a happy chaos most of the time here – four children, six pets, a couple of family businesses, a loving extended family and some of the best friends in the world.

Life has been changing dramatically for us. After years of punching a time clock in the corporate world my husband has moved into a more laid back position in education to have more time for his health and family. For several years I have been working outside the home with a long commute in addition to running a full-time fiber business. In less than two months I will leave the commute behind and rely solely on the fiber biz. It’s thrilling and terrifying all at the same time.

2012 is a year of change, a year of excitement, and a year of taking back our lives. I hope you enjoy our journey here at Life on Main.

Que será, será,
Whatever will be, will be
The future’s not ours, to see
Que será, será
What will be, will be.

When I was young, I fell in love
I asked my sweetheart what lies ahead
Will we have rainbows, day after day
Here’s what my sweetheart said.

Que será, será,
Whatever will be, will be
The future’s not ours, to see
Que será, será
What will be, will be.

Now I have children of my own
They ask their mother, what will I be
Will I be handsome, will I be rich
I tell them tenderly.

Que será, será,
Whatever will be, will be
The future’s not ours, to see
Que será será
What will be, will be.

So here is my ramble – it’s got a fabulous 5 megapixel camera with a dual led flash (I loved the camera and features),  32 gigs of internal storage. 1 gig of application memory, up to 16 GB of additional storage with a microSD card, a slide out keyboard (you can use an onscreen one in lieu of or in addition to) , a huge touch screen interface, all the bells and whistles of an iPhone, and it runs Linux. LINUX. Maemo 5 to be exact. This is the phone for the hackers and geeks.

Want to add whatever applications and functionality that you want? You can. Want to use an app style store? You can (Ovi Store). Want to SSH in or out of your phone? Yeah, you can. Want to dual boot your phone with Android? Go right ahead! Want to compile code? Not a problem.  Want to hack your phone without violating a terms of service or add functionality without being sneaky about it? You can (maybe not on AT&T, I hear that they like to force phones to comply with approved install sources for apps).

The downfall is that the product needs more developers. Everyone seems to be forgetting about the platform and going gaga over Android and iPhone. It’s a shame really because this is just so much better. This is freedom. Are you a Linux developer? Get a crackin’ and push some of your eye candy this way!

What else can I say about this little gem? It’s from Nokia – which holds a lot of weight for me. I do love Nokia – I like the ability (even on my little candy bar XpressMusic) to add jar file apps. The platform is stable and the hardware is tough and reliable.

Other things I loved about the hardware:

• TV out
• Non-proprietary headphone jack
• Easy peasy setup of Exchange, Gmail and Flickr
• No tears for lost address books – popped in my SIM and off I went
• Ability to add icons for not just apps but contacts right on the home screen
• FM transmitter – played my tunes & podcasts through my radio with no additional hardware
• Bluetooth
• GPS
• Wifi and 3G
• Widgets (and anything else you want) on the home screen (four of them!!)
• Dashboard interface to see what you have running on all your screens
• System notifications are superb.
• “Lens cap” for the camera – the sliding cap activates and deactivates the camera without needing to push any buttons.
• Skype works amazingly well
• Ogg support

Get one. You’ll fall in love with it. Want to read more? Check out the review at Engadget.

Photo by Ethan Hurd

When our oldest was in 8^th grade the public school he attended sent home forms for career paths – maybe a dozen choices – and told us to plan his course schedule for the next 4 years according to our chosen pigeon hole. How he was supposed to plan for a career when his life thus far had been exposed to so little at thirteen years of age. In junior high I despised history thinking it to be the driest and least interesting thing I could ever be forced to study. Up until high school I had only been exposed to state approved American and Missouri State history lessons and frankly, it was terrible. By the time I entered college I discovered ancient and modern world histories and well written American history. That exposure turned me around on history forever. I may not have plans to become a historian but who knew how inspiring history could be.

People reinvent themselves as they go through life. I like to visualize people as katamari and we are just rolling around picking things up and letting things stick to us. As we grow we are exposed to more knowledge from schools, people we encounter and our own personal explorations. Reinvention is a natural process in our personal evolution. The information we have defines the choices we make.

How can a person know what they want to do if they don’t even know what there is to be done?

For the last few years I have started to take time on at least a weekly basis to reflect on things that are important to me and to shift my goals as required. Learning and self-reliance have always held a golden place at the top of my list.

I have learned:

…that while it’s true that you can catch more flies with honey it doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice yourself in the process.

…that I learned more from my parents than I ever thought I possibly could.

…that learning what not to do is sometimes more important than what to do.

…not to be possessive of my ideas if it means that someone is inspired by them, improves them, and builds upon them.

…that it is my responsibility as a member of the human race to be productive and to contribute to my community.

…that no contribution is too small and that greed destroys communities.

…that being a woman doesn’t make me less of a person and having awesome homemaking skills is a strength not a weakness whether male or female.

…change is necessary even if not always welcome.

We are about to embark on a new adventure and I hope that I am able to  share it with you in the same vivid detail that I am about to live it.

Work is insane right now as we prepare for the fall semester. I am in the middle of a VMware infrastructure upgrade and adding new VMware products into the mix at the same time on top of a bunch of other new implimentations. The VMware projects are organized like a house of cards, if one project doesn’t run smoothly it is going to foul up the rest of them.

On the hobby front I have completed my DIY spinning wheel project (will blog about it more thoroughly another time) with only minor tweaks here and there being done.  I have been busy unraveling sweaters and cutting up t-shirts to respin into new and wonderful yarn. I have been trying to par down my pile of clothes to refashion and have completed a few projects that will go up into a new Etsy store. My biggest problem with my creative endeavors is that I always want to keep everything for myself and I am trying to convince myself that while these new finished objects are indeed awesome, I am better off selling them to fund my hobby habit so I can make more awesome things. I have been knitting and crocheting like a fiend too.

On the home front the garden is coming right along but the tomatoes are taking longer to ripen than we have patience for. We are battling the annual guinea pig summer mite outbreak like champs and surviving the seemingly weird weather we have been experiencing this summer in the midwest. I am still progressing with my slow move to a more sustainable life and we are also in the middle of another big home project but that is secret for now. Can’t give everything away yet.

On the family front I have 4 kids to enroll in 4 different schools (stupid yearly enrollment processes), school supplies to buy, school clothes and shoes to purchase and closets to purge.

I have had a couple of people ask me if I have stopped the technology thing and my answer is no. I am still a sysadmin but I do spend a whole lot less time sysadmin’ing at home than I used to. It just hasn’t been my priority but I help out anyone that asks whenever I can. I have gotten past the point in my life where I feel like I have to prove myself and besides, I just have better things to do with my free time than tinker with servers and run up my electric bill. I still keep up, I still support things, I am still reading about new technologies and I am still working on open source causes – I just am not really talking about it all that much.

So there you have it, my latest update. Lots going on in a pretty vague post but you know, I have things to do.