Well, it looks like my community dodged a bullet.

At about 3:45 this morning, I was awakened by HUGE thunderstorms and the weather-radio alarm going off. (I got up and checked it - even though it's a very broad sweep and I get alerts for places 50+ miles away, still, it could have been something for me). We were having severe thunderstorms, it said. (No foolin'?)

I think I heard some hail but I can't be sure - the way the windows in my bedroom are situated, sometimes very heavy rain sounds a bit like hail.

I peeked out the front door a few minutes ago and it's calm now, and it doesn't look like any branches are down off the pecan tree, and my street looks OK.

But around me, they're saying a lot of roads are closed in outlying areas either because of downed branches or, worse, power lines.

(I'm at home right now - my first class is at 9:30 so I'm going to wait until a bit after 7, when the sun's up, to go over to school just in case there are hazards in the road somewhere.)

I don't like thunderstorms but they're kind of a fact of life in the spring around here.

****

I do still knit. Last night, after Youth Group, while watching the Emergency! Weather! Reports! I knit some on the Kureyon socks and although I'm still doubting how well they'll hold up (single ply yarn, overspun in some places, very loosely spun in others), the colors are really interesting. And perhaps since I'm knitting to such a tight gauge (9-10 sts per inch) it will be OK. (I'm also trying to twist the underspun parts as I knit, to try to tighten them up a little).

But you know? That's something that frustrates me a bit about the Noro yarns. Not enough to reject them outright, but it's one of those "...if they can put a man on the moon" issues. By that, I mean "If they can do these wonderful sophisticated color palettes, why can't they pay more attention to being sure the yarn is evenly spun?"

Or maybe the funky spin of the yarn is a byproduct of the extensive colormixing, I don't know.

I also worked some on the second Snicket sock, from the now-defunct MagKnits.

Yes, now-defunct. If you don't read Ravelry or haven't checked for MagKnits in the past few days, you might not know that it is gone.

I'm trying my best not to judge in this situation as I don't know or follow all of the information, but apparently one of the other businesses the owner of MagKnits was involved in was having some problems, the owner was having some personal problems, people on Ravelry began to criticize (possibly with justification) the business end of the situation, and so she decided to end MagKnits faster than the planned end.

The biggest problem, I think? Designers (who retain copyright) were given extremely short notice to grab their pattern code before the site disappeared. By "extremely short notice" I mean that if you weren't right at the computer when the notice went out, by the time you got it, it was probably too late.

There has been a lot of back-and-forth recrimination on Ravelry, a lot of debate, a little nastiness (I guess you can't have an internet forum discussing a sensitive topic without at least a little nastiness, sigh).

One good thing has come out of all of it - a lot of the designers have noted that they will post their patterns on their websites or as a Ravelry download. (I don't think all the designers have; heck, they probably aren't all on Ravelry). Some designers may choose to sell their patterns as a .pdf instead. (And as I said in a comment on Ravelry, I'm fine with that. Yes, they were free on MagKnits but MagKnits was advertising-supported. If a designer has his or her own website, they generally pay for bandwidth...and if they get a lot of hits, that cost goes up. So I have no problem with shooting $5 or so to someone for a .pdf download of their pattern that I can use).

However, this does (help to) lay to rest one of my ongoing issues - the "they don't appreciate me here" bit. Because, as much as I do enjoy teaching and research and working with my colleagues most of the time, there are times (like the week before Spring Break, that was one) where I'm very pressed for time and then someone plops some other request on my desk with the assumption that OF COURSE I can do it without it seriously impacting other areas of my life. And then I get feeling taken-for-granted, and exploited, and that morphs into a feeling of being unloved. And I find myself thinking, "If I only had a bit more talent for designing, or a bit more originality, I could make up my own pattern website and sell patterns or make toys and crafts and sell them, like through Etsy, and everything would be wonderful and happy because everyone loves people who make and sell crafts!"

And apparently, there are a lot of unanticipated things that happen. And if you get sick, just like (or perhaps even moreso) than in academia, you have to keep going, or else you don't eat. And people can criticize for petty things - apparently there were people complaining about the new MagKnits layout and that was one of the factors playing in to the closure of the magazine.

So I guess (and I realize I am quite obtuse, or maybe willing myself to be romantic about other fields), criticism is rampant everywhere. And you don't get the sort of supportive praise in the crafts business that you think you might.

I don't know. The whole thing is kind of a big sad mess and one of those things where I find myself thinking that I'm glad I don't have more contact with "the public" than I do.

And, yet, on the other hand - living somewhere where often excuses from people contracted to do a job for you tend to be a frustrating way of life (We dealt with that just last night at Board Meeting - we are trying to get some repairs done to the organ, and you wouldn't believe the list of excuses the one firm in the area that's equipped to do them have given us), it IS frustrating when you're a customer and your package is seemingly-endlessly delayed because of personal reasons on the part of the person who's supposed to send it, or when you're a contract employee of sorts and your payment is delayed because the person paying you has bad stuff going on in their life.

And I realize single-person businesses are DIFFICULT, but you know? I've dealt with so many excuses from so many people - ranging from workmen I had appointments with to come out and fix something on my house to students coming in and "needing" an extension on a paper they've had a month to do - that I kind of lose a little sympathy on that front. Yes, life is hard. We all have difficulties. I have relatives whose funerals I have not gone to because they were far away and traveling would have meant me abandoning my duties for nearly a week. I have gone to work sick and gone to work with borderline migraines. I've gone to work when all kinds of bad stuff was blowing up in the lives of people around me (there's been a lot this spring that I've not talked about on here because I feel it's dishonorable to air other's dirty laundry) and all I wanted to do was either curl up on the sofa and cry because I loved those people and felt sad over what they were going through, or stay home and watch old movies all day as an escape. But I didn't. And I really don't think I'm that strong or that tough.

So I guess I get a little tired of the "poor me, my life is so horrible, so I can't possibly fulfill my duties right now" comments - which is apparently one factor that contributed to some of the business problems (and also with a couple other small businesses).

And I don't know. Maybe that's uncharitable on my part. But I do think if you're running a business and people have sent you money, if you have difficulties, you need to contact the people immediately and either offer an immediate refund or explain and give a firm ETA for the package and stick to it.

But anyway - as I said the whole situation is just kind of sad. Everyone loses. Probably people on both sides are acting badly. So I guess I'll just keep teaching college and occasionally making up a little pattern here or there and offering it for free, and doing what craft work I do either for myself or as gifts for people I know will appreciate it...and try to live with the fact that part of being an adult is sometimes feeling like you're not appreciated and are overworked a little, and also realize that although I believe part of being an adult is sucking it up and fulfilling your responsibilities even when you don't feel like it, maybe some people just can't do that, or have just too many things hitting them at once.