Knotty Mouse

Yesterday I came across this button making machine at “Big Name Craft Store” and had to have it. Ideas flooded into my brain - think of the possibilities! Instead of buying it right on the spot I went home and gathered up coupons (two to be exact) for 40% off one regular priced item and headed back to the store today with the husband (one coupon per customer per day.. and all that) and Munchkin in tow.  I even bought two packages of refills so that I knew I had them.

I could barely contain myself on the way home.. I was very excited about the idea of making cool little buttons! Guess what - this “Amazing Button Maker” thing? It SUCKS.  I’m pretty sure that the person that returned the thing before I bought it (everything in the package was already opened) came to the same conclusion that I did…  what a piece of crap!  My son was looking forward to helping me make buttons with this thing.. and he was horribly disappointed. I was unable to actually make the machine function properly.. and when I did- the pin back broke off! I’m not entirely sure which one of us burst into tears first.. but it may have been me.
This horrible piece of crap is going back to the store tomorrow along with its refills and I’m getting my money back.  To make myself feel better.. I may have accidentally bought some roving at Spunky Eclectic (the roving color was called ” Bruised Ego”.. and it matched my mood.) with a little of my Paypal money that I had left from the shop. I’m calling it fiber therapy.. and it was totally necessary.

-Mouse  (beaten by a plastic craft kit)

Just like everyone else in blogland.. I had to have a fuzzy headband. Yes folks, its another Calorimetry from Knitty! I’m a little unsure about my cast on amount but I’m going to say its about 100 stitches - and I believe that I did the increase portion for about 5 repeats. The yarn is Plymouth Encore worsted weight that I bought ages ago at Genuine Purl in Chattanooga TN.. and I used a size 7US circular needle to get the job done. Basically I cast on enough stitches that it would go around my head, then I knit the increase rows until it looked half as wide as I would want the finished piece. I’m very scientific.. if you haven’t noticed. Its a little wider than I had in mind, but I’m really happy with it. I also finished it just in time for it to be 65 degrees for the entire week here in Georgia.. not that I’m complaining about the weather. I’ve spent a lot of time out on my (completely falling apart..) back deck in the last few days with the cat, just soaking up some sun. Clearly from my glaring white complexion you can tell I don’t get out in the sun much.. lol.
I took a second picture of it off my head so you could see the cool button that I stuck on the back. I’m really happy that the yarn didn’t pool or do anything ugly.. and its pretty soft for a wool/ack blend. I’ve actually completed TWO of these- the other was in a strange ack yarn with eyelashes and fuzzy chenille stuff for a friends young daughter. These headbands are seriously a quick knit.. I cast on for the one in the photo during the second half of “Kull the Conqueror” (I can’t help it.. I watch it every time its on tv. Its so bad that its good.. really.) and cast off after I watched 2 episodes of Naruto.

Thanks to two bloggers (jodi & Amputeehee) all available knitting time has been taken up with Naruto on You Tube. I’m totally blaming y’all for the fact that my house looks like a train wreck and the family is eating cup ramen for dinner.

(*snicker*)

After a very stressful week involving work, money, parent-teacher conferences, weird stomach issues, and lots of other nasty junk.. I was invited to Athens with Sandy to do some spinning with Jodi. We had some breakfast at the vegetarian restaurant The Grit and then went on to Jodi’s studio at UGA to teach her to use the Lendrum wheel that she borrowed for a project.

After a short lesson from Hockey Mom- Jodi was spinning like a pro. There was much gabbing, goofing off, and talk of fiber that went on for hours. The small studio space was jam packed with wheels (my Louet s-10 in the front, Sandy’s Ashford Joy on the right, Jodi’s borrowed Lendrum on the left) and there was fiber all over.
I spun for about 3 hours on some gorgeous Corriedale pencil roving that was gifted to me by Jane for Christmas. This is the result of all of that spinning (that wasn’t very good for my back.. ow.. ow..ow..) from yesterday - 128 yards of dk weight singles. I’ve already got them washed and hung up to dry in the shower and will take a better photo when its finished since the flash washed out the color a bit. I’m not planning on plying these singles and am hoping to get enough to make a half-clapotis out of the 8oz of pencil roving that I have.
All in all, a pretty damn good ending to a crap week. Oh, there may have been an incident involving two carnivorous bloggers stopping on the way home at a certain drive-thru burger joint to supplement their healthy vegetarian breakfast of potatos & grilled veggies with a Whopper or two. I’m not entirely sure of the truthfulness of this statement since I believe the burgers in question were inhaled at the speed of light and chased down with milk shakes & frozen slushies. I’m sure my partner in crime will deny the whole thing.

I’m sick as a dog again.. this time its an obnoxious cough that won’t go away and I’m hoping that it won’t turn into bronchitis. I seem to have caught the crud that my son had last week.. I guess its my turn to be a walking disease factory. On that note.. I’m turning this post into short statements of random thoughts because I have the attention span of a coked up hummingbird.  

• Thanks for all of the nice comments and well wishes for our anniversary.. it was a wonderful weekend. I’m really behind in responding to comments, but please know that I appreciated all of them.
• I’m not ignoring anyone’s blogs but ever since I switched to the “Upgraded” version of Blogger ( so that I could re-join some group blogs that had switched..) I am unable to comment on most of the Blogger blogs… or am only able to comment as ”Annonymous”. I’m still reading blogs and I’m hoping that Blogger gets their shit sorted out. I won’t hold my breath considering that Blogger’s bullshit is how I ended up here.
• I recently downloaded Itunes 7 and spent the entire weekend loading cd cover art into the program so that I could use the “jukebox” function. Clearly I need a life.
• Munchkin’s school scheduled parent-teacher conferences on VALENTINES DAY… AND made it a half day so that they wouldn’t have to do parties for the kids.
• Munchkin has to make a ‘mailbox’ for the Valentine exchange out of a shoebox.. and we’re making a pirate ship. I can see this getting completely out of control and ending up as a huge technical thing, rather than a childs project. My husband is all into it.. which means I’m sure the thing will float by the time he’s done with it.
• The school rule about children not being allowed to wear or have anything with skeletons or skulls on them is really getting annoying considering that my son is obsessed with pirates and “The Nightmare Before Christmas” Jack Skellington.
• I’m really tired of being sick.
• I’m not in the mood to finish any of the knitted items I have on the needles currently ( BIL’s cabled hat, 2 socks, the Kureyon entrelac scarf, cabled footie) but I also can’t figure out what I want to knit next.
• I have a stupidly large yarn stash but I have nothing that I want to knit with. Its just like the woman with a room sized walk in closet screaming “I have nothing to wear!!!”.
• I had artificial nails put on (acrylic tips) almost 2 weeks ago (for our anniversary -husband likes long nails and since I was getting all dolled up I figured I’d go all out) and I still don’t know if I like or hate them. I used to have super long acrylic nails and I always loved them.. but these are a ‘normal’ length and I’m not really thrilled with them.

This list brought to you by over the counter cough medicine that is making me loopy. I really need to stick with the childrens formulas.

Now I Become Myself

Now I become myself. It’s taken
Time, many years and places;
I have been dissolved and shaken,
Worn other people’s faces,
Run madly, as if Time were there,
Terribly old, crying a warning,
“Hurry, you will be dead before–”
(What? Before you reach the morning?
Or the end of the poem is clear?
Or love safe in the walled city?)
Now to stand still, to be here,
Feel my own weight and density!
The black shadow on the paper
Is my hand; the shadow of a word
As thought shapes the shaper
Falls heavy on the page, is heard.
All fuses now, falls into place
From wish to action, word to silence,
My work, my love, my time, my face
Gathered into one intense
Gesture of growing like a plant.
As slowly as the ripening fruit
Fertile, detached, and always spent,
Falls but does not exhaust the root,
So all the poem is, can give,
Grows in me to become the song,
Made so and rooted by love.
Now there is time and Time is young.
O, in this single hour I live
All of myself and do not move.
I, the pursued, who madly ran,
Stand still, stand still, and stop the sun!

-May Sarton

You can find out more information about the 2nd Silent Poetry Reading here.

Today is my anniversary — 9 years with a guy I met on the internet and that everyone told me was an axe murderer.  Aside from his collection of axes, hubby’s a pretty decent guy. *giggle* We’re dropping Munchkin off at the inlaws and going out for dinner tonight at Bugaboo Creek SteakHouse - the food looks awesome on the advertisements… so keep your fingers crossed for us that its good!

I’m totally over this whole “home sick” business with my son. Poor little guy still has the stuffy nose/hacking cough combination but its not as bad today.. I elected to keep him home again so that he’d only have one day to get through before having two more days to rest. I did get up twice very early in the morning because we were supposed to have a “wintery mix” (*insert giggling from a transplanted Yankee who spent some years in the mtns. of Colorado*) and I wanted to see if they called off school (and thus giving my son a ‘free’ day to get over this cold that won’t get marked against his attendance) but we weren’t on the list of over 110 schools. Boo-hiss.

Tomorrow is the blogger silent poetry reading.. (or so I’ve heard) and also my 9 year wedding anniversary. I’ll be back tomorrow with my poem. Hopefully I’ll be sending Munchkin to school - and fingers crossed that he’ll make it through the day.