My high school had this rule that students couldn't dye their hair unnatural colors. An African American friend had decided to dye her hair red -- nothing flashy, a subtle strawberry red. One of the office worker ladies threw a fit and told her she couldn't attend with her hair that color and called her parents to come pick her up. Her mom arrives and has words with the principal. My friend told me the principal had a hard time trying to explain why red is a natural hair color on other kids in school, but was unnatural for her. She went back to class later that day and the issue wasn't brought up again. My school was dumb.

harassment? What's your preferred method? (Serious question here.)
Share a story/advice if you like.

I've never been the sort of person who's able to turn away when being tormented or bullied. I prefer to escalate the situation immediately into an all-out shitstorm (verbally, not physically) that leaves the aggressor questioning what the fuck just happened. Not the best, but I'm trying to work on it.

Edit: Not being harassed, but thank you for the concern.

I fixed up my 2 year old laptop to give to a friend whose laptop recently died.

I just really fucking love this plant. And because it's difficult to pronounce, apparently.

http://i.imgur.com/Ws7jwBT.jpg

At home: sit

In a public restroom: squat/stand while thinking "oh god don't touch the toilet seat why couldn't i wait until i got home"

Of all the things, what's your favorite?

Intentionally vague and open-ended question. Objects, people, places, memories, whatever works. Think deeply on it. Or don't.

My favorite thing is a roadtrip I took with my roommate in the middle of finals week. We said "fuck it" and drove 6 hours to a beach and spent the weekend partying and going to local venues. It was expensive, irresponsible, and one of the best times I've ever had.

Who gets under your skin the most?

Saying now that we would donate later is ambitious because we don't know what we'll be doing between now and then. Anything could happen. Erring on the side of caution is best for now so we don't get in over our heads.

All these considerations and ideas are giving us good material to work with, though. Taking it one step at a time.

I realize it's a donation. However, we haven't even gotten off the ground enough to be considering donations to others. It's an idea to consider if we prove to have beginning success, but this early in development it feels a little ambitious.

Not that he wouldn't be willing, but isn't the point of Tip of the Hats to raise funds for others in need? It'd be a delightful opportunity to get exposure and support the community, but wouldn't all or a part of the proceeds need to go toward whichever charity is being supported at the time?

There's only the Merc's Pride prototype (in my possession) and the Merc's Muffler he's toying around with now. Other than that, he's made a lot of scarves, plushes, and other knitted figures for people.

The method utilized for this scarf in particular is the intarsia method. It's where you have several pieces of yarn that you're working with for different colors as opposed to one. I think this picture says it best.

http://i.imgur.com/oclOUox.jpg

Fucking yarn everywhere. He's still delving into some other methods that may make it easier and less time consuming. But there's really no way to just "knit faster" unless you're a seasoned veteran or have a knitting machine (expensive).

Lumbar says it best:

ᵃᵐᵃʳʸᶫᶫᶦˢ➲: would you say
ᵃᵐᵃʳʸᶫᶫᶦˢ➲: that the knitting is hard for you
ᵃᵐᵃʳʸᶫᶫᶦˢ➲: or does it just take a long time
Lumbar: A long long long long long long time
ᵃᵐᵃʳʸᶫᶫᶦˢ➲: hehe
Lumbar: A LONG LONG FUCKING TIME
ᵃᵐᵃʳʸᶫᶫᶦˢ➲: OKAY
Lumbar: NO YOU HAVE NO IDEA

I have no idea.

That's essentially what this thread is about -- testing the environment to see if we want to proceed. He's not looking to make a business from this, at least not at the current rate of production. Even with one or two buyers at an appropriate price, we'd be happy. Hopefully, later down the line we can make them more affordable. We're taking baby steps for now.

He's not looking to make a killing in the custom-ordered scarf market -- just to potentially provide a niche service for the TF2 community. But I'll definitely pass along the information. Thanks!

He could make them in both the red and blue color schemes.

That's the difficulty in trying to find an adequate price range. We're tossing around some ideas that would cut down on the time to make them and make them more affordable. Purchasing a knitting machine is on the table, but to seriously consider that, he'd have to want to make a business out of this or something.

That's something we've been considering, too. Making 10-20 and holding an auction. We'd MUCH rather make them widely available, but it's difficult make that happen. Right now there's only the prototype sitting in my closet and the prototype Merc's Muffler he's working on. I'll see if I can upload more detailed pictures later.

I'm not sure how many people would find it reasonable to pay hundreds of dollars for a scarf like that unless they really, really liked TF2. I mean, come on. It's not even signed.

Some of you may remember the Merc’s Pride scarf [seen here:

] that was posted on /r/tf2 a few months back. It was pretty popular and generated a lot of interest in being able to purchase one or one like it. At the time, the awesome guy who made it (let's call him Lumbar) wasn't interested in making any for sale.

Each scarf is about 72 hours of work over 2-3 weeks, using materials that cost about $30. You can see the process of making one here. I've talked with him recently and he's considering selling his trade if there's enough community interest. This thread is ONLY to see how interested people are in buying this item. (And possibly infinity scarf Merc's Mufflers in the future.)

He would appreciate your feedback on 2 things:

- Would you like to buy a scarf like this?
- What do you think would be a fair price? (Keep in mind the work time and cost of materials.)

To reiterate: he will NOT be taking orders at this time, no matter how generous the offer. This is simply to measure current interest.

Edit: Gallery link works now.

Disney-Pixar films count.