Knotty Mouse

Happy Halloween!

My birthday continued to suck after I wrote the last post..  but instead of spending the rest of my birthday wallowing.. I worked on stitch markers for the shop.  There are 5 new designs (including “flat fleece” to the left) going up on Halloween and I’m  pre-dating this post for midnight tonight so that it goes live the same time as the shop. I’m a day early on my scheduled update but I will be working tomorrow with my husband all day and then heading home to trick or treat with Munchkin tomorrow night. I’ve also lowered the prices at the shop - happy holiday shopping!{/shameless promotion}

I’m only working “out in the world” one day a week but juggling home/life/knitting/blogging/motherhood..etc etc is already getting interesting. For a person who hasn’t even worn a watch for 6 years, getting onto a schedule and planning ahead is really difficult..  I don’t do well with structured days. Then again.. I’m also a person who thinks that being an adult gives me the right to eat cake for breakfast because there’s no one to stop me- hence the fact that I had cheesecake and tea at 10am this morning!

I’ve finished the Harlot handspun scarf and actually wore it out to dinner on Thursday night for my “pre-birthday dinner” at the restaurant opening. I have to ask my husband for photos of it because he took some outside on our deck for me… could be a few days though because he’s still rather um.. tense from quitting smoking.

I’m concidering doing the NaBloPoMo challange and posting every day for the month of November.. but I’m not entirely sure yet as to whether anyone could actually stand to hear me ramble like that on a daily basis.

ps. thank you for all of the birthday wishes, comments, and cards.. I really appreciated it. Y’all made my weekend much better here on the internet than it was in ‘real life’.

I’m just popping in before my birthday (I am writing this on Saturday night) to say that I totally botched Saturday Sky again.. because I was running around town with the husband and Munchkin.

I’m having a sucktacular birthday weekend at the moment.. we tried to go to Target (for metal stacking cubes for the office/studio), Staples office supply (for a computer cart/desk for the office turned studio..), and to a sub shop for samwiches.. all which turned out completely crappy. Each one of the shops had NOTHING I went in there for AND looked like the Village Idiot Convention had bussed everyone in for a shopping day..  I came home completely frazzled and wanting to crawl in bed and hide. Oh yes.. and then we found out that my birthday present from Munchkin (I’ll take a photo of it on Monday..) was broken! Poor little guy got me a locket and it wouldn’t shut! We’re exchanging it tomorrow for another one.. hopefully.

The one good thing that happened was that we decided to have lunch/early dinner at On the Border Mexican restaurant instead of at the sub shop. I ordered a giant burrito  ( called the Borderito.. its awesome.. I highly recommend it) with chicken.. and they ended up bringing it out with steak in it instead.  It was one of those happy accidents.. because the steak turned out to be absolutely wonderful AND they didn’t charge me for the “upgrade” since they screwed up. I have the other half of it (honestly.. it was huge.. I’m still full) in the fridge for tomorrow- I love restaurant leftovers.

Oh yes..  think positive thoughts for my husband..  he’s quitting smoking this weekend! His last cigarette was Friday night at 4am and he says he’s “never” smoking again. Its been a rough day (to put it mildly) for the whole family.. but he still hasn’t lit up 18 hours later.. and I’m proud of him.  I used to smoke but getting pregnant 5 years ago changed all of that..  husband continued to smoke outside the house and when I wasn’t around. I’ve never “nagged” at him to quit because I know how hard it is to do - but I have always hoped that he would stop smoking while Munchkin is still young.

I’ve spent most of the night playing with polymer clay.. so expect an update to the shop sometime in the next week. As it stands right now I have 3 new fimo designs going into the shop for fall..

If you found your way here from my other blog.. then welcome! I’m going to transfer over my photo gallery and archives soon.. but I really wanted the feeds and links working before I moved here.

Most of the sidebar items from my old blog (buttons, blogroll, etc..) are to the upper left on their own pages.  I think that one of my main reasons for actually moving to this new blog was how much I love this new template and how easy it will be to customize it for different seasons.  I was even able to keep my animated prayer wheel in the corner.. which was another one of my (admittedly silly.. but..) factors in moving.

I’ll be having a contest or prize drawing thing at some point in the next week.. so keep your eye out. Think of it as incentive to remember to blogroll my new blog address

(8:55am) Pulled this from Bloglines this morning:

Network Outtage

In other words..  We’re not going to allow you to access blogs on your birthday either Mouse, because technology as a whole hates you right now and we’re doing our part to drive you insane. This little “changes to network infrastructure” isn’t going to do a DAMN THING to help the problems you were having with claiming your blog feeds or making sure that all of your feeds actually WORK PROPERLY.. but we wanted an excuse to sit around and drink coffee & eat donuts for about 2 hours.  In short..  “Neener-Neener”. Thanks.

Testing take 2

posted at 4: 28pm

Trying to get the posts to show up in Bloglines since I’ve mucked with all of the feeds and re-routed them to feedburner.  I also fixed the problem with the site not loading up when you come straight to the page.

If anyone who is subbed here happens to be on Bloglines when this post first shows up.. can you record the time and the timezone in the comments for me? thanks. I swear I’m going to have this worked out soon.. or I won’t have any damn hair left from pulling it out in frustration.

• Clapotis
• Cabled footie sock #1
• Purple Trekking sock
• Mountain Colors Waffle Sock
• Ruffle scarf from Scarf Style (in a hideous acrylic..)
• Kyoto (awaiting the day when I frog it..)
• Ribbon Tank (Lion Brand Incredible ribbon yarn in “Falling leaves”)
• Moorehouse Merino Snake Scarf - for munchkin
• Gryffindor Scarf ( the scarf that never ends…)
• Munchkin Mitten - ( I think its too big..)

I’m also casting on for another Kittyville Hat in blue Simply Soft for Munchkin to wear to the bus stop. He says that his “best friend” has a hat with earflaps and he wants one too. He keeps trying to steal my grey hat that I made a few months ago.. but its the warmest hat I have for the bus stop right now and he CAN’T have it!

October 25, 2006
Comfortable In You
Scorpio Daily Horoscope
You may be plagued by self-consciousness in your home and in your workplace today, leaving you unsure as to whether you should give voice to your thoughts and feelings. Feelings of discomfort may interfere with your ability to enjoy pleasant social interactions, causing you to shy away from group or social activities. The fear that others will ridicule your opinions may even throw you off center. Yet casting off your uneasiness may be as easy as making a concerted effort to be yourself, regardless of the circumstances in which you find yourself. You’ll likely be happily surprised to discover today that people in the various spheres of your existence react warmly when you expose your true character.

Interpersonal interactions become a joy rather than something to be feared when we are willing to be ourselves, gladly allowing others to see us for who we truly are. Self-consciousness is often the result of our attempts to play roles that require us to deny the very qualities that define our individuality—we get mired in dread, concerned that others will reject us when they discover the truth that is us. When we accept that we are unique and are comfortable with ourselves, we no longer feel compelled to hide all or part of ourselves to please others. In opening ourselves to others in this way, we can revel in the pure pleasure of relating to people comfortably and honestly without trepidation. You’ll lose your self-consciousness today when you cast off your masks and let your true self shine.

This weekend was a busy one.. but was definitely fun. Our weekend started at Chucky Cheese with a birthday party for a classmate of Munchkins on Saturday which turned into half a day of being out and about. On Sunday I was lucky that the husband agreed to take me to Hockey Mom’s house so that we could go to Spinning Guild. We met up with Jane at her gorgeous new house.. played in her fiber stash, looked through her great library of knitting books.. then headed off to Guild. We stopped along the way and had lunch at a very good (though rather expensive for my budget) Italian restaraunt and then onto the Decatur library for Guild. Somewhere along the lines we decided to leave and hit a few yarn shops..  we went to Why Knot Knit? and Knitch. It was the first time I’ve been to WKK? and I LOVED the shop.  I bought a skein of Ultra Alpaca (the purple stuff on the left) at the shop.. and would have bought more had I not left all of my money at home on the desk! DOH!  I’d be inserting pictures here if any of us had actually bothered to pull our cameras out of our purses the entire day!! I’m pretty sure though that’s the sign that everyone was having such a good time that we weren’t thinking about properly blogging!

I’ve been spinning up the 8oz of Corriedale roving that I picked up at Plying the Arts in Athens GA and I finally was able to get a better photo of the colors.  It suddenly turned cold here in Georgia (it happens overnight really.. you walk out one day and shorts and sandals and freeze your ass off!) and I’m wroking to spin this up quickly to make a scarf (or something.. I don’t quite know yet) to wear to the bus stop in the mornings. I’m definitely happy with how this yarn is spinning up even though the preparation is making it a bit rough at spots - but I’ll deal with it.  I’m using the Ashford Traditional (look at the tiny bobbins!! ) to spin this yarn and am enjoying myself very much..  so much so that I ended up BUYING the Traditional. I’m calling it “Happy Birthday to Mouse” - because every other plan has gone to absolute crap.

I’m pretty sure at this point that Sunday will find me hiding under the covers in the bed until my birthday is completely over. First SAFF got ruined, then it was fixed and I could go but my husband and son were going with me and we would camp, then it was totally screwed by the robbery.. and finally we were supposed to go to Helen,GA for a day trip (its supposed to be a cute shopping area and is in the mountains with gorgeous hiking trails..etc..) but its OCTOBER- which means OCTOBER-fest and tons of tourists. Bah!  I hear that the inlaws are planning on “celebrating” my birthday on Halloween..  but I honestly am just over it at this point. I told my husband I’d like a piece of the pumpkin cheesecake that I saw on a sign at Barnes & Noble - and maybe a pumpkin spice latte to go with it- instead of a whole cake that I don’t even care for. I can’t wait to take a photo of Munchkin in his Halloween costume this year.. its a good one!

Its a very “Random Monday” here at Casa de Mousie Mouse - and I’m offering up pictures of fiber love to combat the absolute suckage of my weekend. The tire was taken care of this morning and my car DID make it to the clinic where Munchkin survived what appears to be his LAST vaccination for “the series”.. I think that means we’re free from clinic hell for a while.
To the left is 3 skeins of handpainted laceweight yarn from www.handpaintedyarn.com that FINALLY came in on Saturday. I’m having a hard time trying to figure out what to say about this company since I’ve heard good things prior to my experience.. but I ordered this (all marked “In stock” ) on September 22nd and just recieved it. Seems as though some part of my order was backordered TWICE… but the customer service dept. did email me to inform me that my package was in limbo. The red yarn on the left is their new laceweight merino (for Hockeymom- hence the colors..) and the two others are 850 yds each of ‘laceweight wool’, one in “Saphire Magenta” and the other in “something something Loro” - the merino is by far softer than the ‘wool’. The colors are ‘off’ from the website but since I generally feel that ordering yarn online (especially handpainted yarn) is hit or miss I am happy anyway, the colors are very rich and beautiful. I’m contemplating a lace shawl or stole with them.. but otherwise no plans have been made.
Next up are the things that are keeping me happy during all of this “lets cosmically crap on Mouse” week.. I ordered Barbara Walkers ‘Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns’ and I’m absolutely in awe of the fact that the book is chocked full of 700 different stitches. I’ll be ordering the rest of the series between now and Christmas before they decide to become ‘out of print’ again. I bought this book with the part of my birthday money that isn’t going to replace husband’s stolen tools (insert nasty swear words, curses upon the thieves, and evil eye glaring..) and I’m definitely happy with shelling out $30.00 for it. The new VK is out.. and I’m loving the scarf on the cover - even if its knit with numerous strands of 90 inch i-cord. (um yeah.. I’m not quite that bored yet.. thanks) The rest of the magazine is remarkably more ‘wearable’ then some of their previous issues and I love the Asian influence section. Edited to add: Yeah.. I totally forgot to mention the Coffee Mate creamer- its the new seasonal flavors “Pumpkin Spice” and “Peppermint Mocha” (the Gingerbread one didn’t thrill me last year so I left it at the supermarket)which both just thrill me to bits when I saw them at Publix. I’ve gotten away from coffee in the last few years but I really enjoy a cup of flavored hot coffee when its cold and raining outside. I totally admit that I don’t have a life and new coffee creamer flavors make me excited.
I’ve been doing a lot of spinning lately and decided to dig into the fiber stash and find something new to play with. This is the hand-dyed Corriedale that I picked up in August at Plying the Arts in Athens GA… and its absolutely gorgeous. Its overcast here and I’m having trouble getting accurate photos.. but its a very soft mix of purples, wines, greens and blues that reminds me of the colors that oil makes in water. I’m spinning it as a sportweight single (about 13 wpi for the spinners out there) and am not planning on plying this so that I don’t “muddy” the colors too much. In the spirit of full disclosure.. I’m not spinning this on my Louet S-10 — but on the Ashford Traditional that Hockey Mom left here during her completely random visit last Friday. She came through town and dropped off her Ashford Trad for me to take for a spin (har har har) and see if I liked it.. since its for sale. Right now, I’m really having a good time with the wheel.. we’ll see.

I’m a total Project Runway fan and I am so happy that my favorite designer won — Jeffrey Sebelia!

I was really happy when they decided to go with a final 4 since the styles of the final designers were so varied. All in all I think that Jeffrey had the most talent and innovation out of the entire group.. and I’m glad that he’ll have the money and recognition from the show to help carry him to the top.

(and now I have to go to bed because its entirely past my bed time..)

After reading about Harlot’s handspun scarf that she made I decided that it would be the perfect use for the purple merino singles I had on the bobbin. I’m very happy with the results so far and I have about 16 inches of the scarf done so far.. sometimes being away from the computer is a good thing! This pattern is really easy to memorize and was perfect for all of the waiting I was doing- waiting for the electrician, and the electric company, and the police for the theft report.. etc etc. It was such a beautiful day that I decided to spend time on the deck and knit straight off the bobbin (you can see my little mock lazy-kate in the photo.. a sheet of styrofoam and a knitting needle.. lol) and onto a set of size 8 dpns. The resulting fabric is a really nice patterned stitch with no definite front or back. Its also taking care of the biasing and the thick/thin spun of my single.. even though its been somewhere between a fingering & sport weight yarn. I’m having trouble capturing the colors properly in a close up- the top photo is nearly color accurate.. I have a good bit still on the bobbin and another 6oz of this hand dyed merino roving in the fiber basket.. so I’m definitely going to have enough for a long scarf. The width of the scarf is about 3 1/2 inches and I’d like to make it around 60 inches long.. since I want to be able to wrap it a few times around my neck and have it trail down. Not sure about fringe yet but maybe some sort of interesting edging from the Nicky Epstein books I have. I’ve got a few more things to show but they’ll have to wait until tomorrow since I ran out of photo-taking light. Hubby has to run out before work tomorrow and get the tire fixed - it turned out to be a bad stem on the tire and there aren’t any tire shops open on a Sunday in this area ( just my stinkin’ luck..) and then hopefully I’ll be back in business. The car is running like crap again but I’ve got to go to take Munchkin for more vaccinations on his day off (teacher in-service) from school. It’ll be another fun day at the local health department where we’ll wait ALL day to do something that will take 10 minutes… unfortunately he won’t be allowed back in school without these vacc’s current so it has to be done asap.

From time to time I realize that I’m not really following the actual directions of a pattern.. I’m just making it up as I go along and using the pattern as a guideline. I’ve been knitting lately but it hasn’t been getting TO the blog because I have ripped everything back out.
I started with a hat from One Skein (the lacey baby hat.. for myself) in Cashmerino.. but I couldn’t follow the directions for the lace pattern while Munchkin was up and royally screwed the whole thing up. Then I started a London Beanie in the same Cashmerino but realized that my idea for the hat (Cashmerino for the base and an intarsia snowflake in the rest of the pima cotton from Branching Out) both was a crappy idea because of the CS-Intarsia (dude.. I don’t need the google hits from that) AND because I only have one skein of Cashmerino and it was looking like two for the hat.  I also realized in looking at the London Beanie pattern (which I only use to find the cast on and then walk away since I’ve made the hat a million times) that I do the ribbing “wrong” on every London Beanie I’ve ever made! I use a K2P2 ribbing and its actually a 2/1 pattern..  I never noticed.

On Monday, I cast on for the Cabled Footies from One Skein again..  this time in a fishermans wool sort of off white Wool-Ease from stash. After getting all the way to the instep (yeah.. I’m real slow lately..) and re-reading the directions for the instep cable pattern, I realize that I’ve misunderstood the cable pattern! Instead of knitting for 2 rounds, doing the cable turn, knitting for 2 rounds.. & repeating (its a 5 round pattern) I was doing the cable turn every 2 rows. Doh! It does explain why my cables are all ’squished’ looking compared to the ones in the book. I decided that I would leave them this way and make the second sock in the same cable pattern rather than rip them out because I’m pretty happy with the way they look. I think they will be very warm for this winter when we’re turning down the heat to save on the gas bill.

Just in time for Jane’s sock contest I caught my socks having their morning tea. Everyone was there.. from the little Munchkin striped ones, the 2 unfinished (trekking & mountain colors) single socks (who I heard got along QUITE famously..) the Vineyard Stripes (who still can’t stop talking about being at MSW) and the adopted Lornas Laces Waffle knits.. all enjoying a nice cup of green tea.

Last night while rather goofy from Sudafed I decided that I would start a pair of socks for Lolly’s Socktoberfest. (Now, nevermind the fact that I have two other single socks in the house somewhere..  and that one of them is the same Mountain Colors waffle sock that I started in MAY.. ) I started the Cabled Footies from One Skein in an ancient ball of Plymouth Encore varigated yarn - but ended up ripping out the whole sock because the varigation was really taking away from the cables.

Unfortunately  cabling with that many large dpns in the way was absolutely going to drive me out of my mind (oh hush.. I know what you’re thinking..) so, I went online and  learned to cable WITHOUT a needle from a really good tutorial.  Once I stopped doing what I THOUGHT it said and actually did what the directions said.. I was speeding along. I actually got to the heel flap on this pair before deciding that the colors were not going to work. I also realized that I don’t really like the way the socks are so short (yes.. I know they’re “footies”..) so I will add a few inches to the leg portion.

 I’m going to dig through stash today and see what I can turn up. The socks as stated in the pattern take one skein of LL worsted - 220 yds so I’m sure I have something floating around here for them. I am doing them on a size 7 needle instead of the 8 that it calls for but I tried them on before I tore them out and the fit seems to be good… I’m a horribly loose knitter on dpns… and I found out that somehow I don’t own a set of size 8 dpns.. which I find to be really odd.  Guess I know what my next 40% off coupon from JoAnns is going toward! 

  I almost managed to forget that it was Saturday.. when you are sick the days seem to run together. Being sick made me crave comfort food something fierce, and we have had homemade soup for the last few days for dinner. I started out with the intention of making some buttered egg noodles for dinner and somehow ended up making chicken vegetable noodle soup! I used a can of chicken, a bag of egg noodles, bag of carrots from the fridge, half a bag of stew veggies left in the freezer, a can of chicken stock, and a can of tomatos.. also some spices, garlic, and onion flakes. Usually my attempts at homemade soups have been less than stellar - but this one was so good that I didn’t mind eating it for 2 days.. I’m pretty sure it was due to the fresh garlic and all of the seasoning I threw in.. but man, was it good.

I did manage to photograph another Saturday Sky.. this one was taken only about 30 minutes ago as the sun was going down. Hubby left us money for pizza - and we took advantage of the situation and ordered delivery from Pizza Hut for dinner tonight. I was busy chowing down on some mushroom, ham & extra cheese pan pizza with the munchkin while watching Disney Channel and realized that I was going to miss getting a picture for today; so I raced outside and nearly tripped over the cat! She’s been acting rather flakey and territorial since hubby left on Thursday and I’m not looking forward to another week of her being under my feet every two seconds.

Mouse: 28 year old work at home mom.. Lives in Atlanta GA with her husband, 5 year old son, and insane cat. Knitter, Spinner, Fimo stitch marker making fool.. Pierced,Tattooed, Eclectic Pagan who studies buddhism and practices yoga… Loves Goth Music, Tea, Movies, Purple, and all things India.
Email: knottymouse (at) bellsouth (dot) net

I’ve been blogging since 2004 - you can find my old archives at www.knottymouse.blogspot.com