Knotty Mouse

A meme stolen from Amputeehee..

Mouse – [noun]: A real life muppet ‘How will you be defined in the dictionary?’ at QuizGalaxy.com

I giggled at this.. and then thought maybe I should try again and see whether I got another response. I guess they’ve got me pegged as a mouse huh?

Mouse – [adjective]: Fuzzy to the touch ‘How will you be defined in the dictionary?’ at QuizGalaxy.com

yes.. apparently I’m a fuzzy muppet. I rather feel like a fuzzy muppet at the moment. I’m a little sunburned from my day at the GA Ren Faire - we were there for about 5 hours dressed as pirates. Yes, the whole family. Yes, I am a rentard. (thanks Jen of Jenla for that word)  I was groped got my photo taken with a rather terrible looking “Captain Jack Sparrow” for the love of my 6 year old child.. that’s got to count for something. I’ll post the photo when my husband transfers it from the camera. I look really thrilled. Its quite amusing.
I spent the rest of my weekend at the sewing machine (headscarves, headscarves, headscarves..) and cleaning the bedroom.  I have some before and after photos but I’m not entirely sure I’m going to post them on the internet because they’re pretty brutal. I’m not a “dirty” slob but I do LOVE to pile things.. and the bedroom has gotten completely out of hand. Every night and every morning while laying in bed I was treated to the view of piles of clothing, jewelry & makeup all over the dresser, and piles of shoes on the floor… it wasn’t making for a restful time. The room looks worlds better now but I still need to move my fiber stash out of the bedroom - just looking at it is enough to make me go out of my mind.

Its late and I’m off to bed..  I’m taking the family to see Pirates 3 tomorrow at the theater, and I’m super excited! I have heard that the first 10 minutes of the film is not suitable for children.. so I’ll be waiting outside with Munchkin while my husband holds our seats.

Browsing around the internet the other day I found an article from LifeHack.Org called “10 simple ways to save yourself from messing up your life”. I usually don’t share websites here on the blog.. I don’t know why either because when other people do it I find it interesting.. but .. I’m rambling. Point is.. I thought it was really a great list.. and very appropriate for shit I’ve been going through lately. Check it out. I’m printing it up and putting it on the fridge.

I’ve spent a lot of time at my craft table lately working on new stitch markers for the shop.. and I came up with these while working on the set I promised to Sheepish Annie and her charity run. This photo was taken before I realized that there wasn’t a black edge on the toe portion of a pair of “Chucks” and went about removing that from all of them. The other white shoes are Adidas ‘toe shell’ sneakers.. one of my other favorite ‘old school’ shoes. Both sets found me sitting at the table with one of my ratty old shoes as inspiration.. These will be in the shop (on Etsy most likely) in the next few days.. I’m thinking Monday at the latest. I’ve got a bunch of other colors that will be going up as well.. because you know that you can’t JUST have one pair of chucks!

Since a bunch of people asked.. I worked up a pattern for the hairwrap/headband.. and gave it a few tweaks (like widening the center band from the original) before I went into “production” mode on them. I’ll have some skull/pirate type ones and some other designs by Monday for the shop. So far I have two of this style (mine aren’t in the photo..) and have been wearing them constantly. I’m very happy with the way they turned out and how you can wear them different ways. I also realized that they would be the perfect size for a belt on a child who is about 6 years old or younger.. because it fits perfectly around my sons waist with room to tie it.  He wants one as a “pirate sash” now…

So.. other than the decluttering of the house that I spoke of in my 7 things meme.. that’s about all I’m up to right now.  I’m dealing with Day1 of “Mommy… I’m so booooooooored” as well.. which I’m so not putting up with the entire summer. I never understood why people sent their children to summer camp.. until now.  Personally.. I don’t get being “bored”.. I never have. I’ve basically always been able to come up with something to keep myself entertained… which is probably why I have so many damn hobbies.  Anyway..  I have to go find something for my son to do because he’s already exhausted the “why don’t you make a necklace with all of these brightly colored plastic beads” idea and the “here’s a bucket of micro-machines” option.  Oy.  Does anyone want to borrow a slightly strange not-quite-six year old for a few hours so that I can get something done?

I was tagged about a week ago by Lana and have been kicking around how strange of a list I want to put up. The rules of the Meme are as follows (in case you’ve been living in a hole for the past week and missed it)

Each person tagged gives 7 random facts about themselves. Those tagged need to write in their blogs 7 facts, as well as the rules of the game. You need to tag seven others and list their names on your blog. You have to leave those you plan on tagging a note in their comments so they know that they have been tagged and to read your blog. Here are my facts:

1. I can pick things up with my feet.
2. I have such tough soles on my feet that I can walk through pretty much anything without having to put shoes on. I love to be barefoot.. and clearly it shows by the fact that I have “feet of steel” (as my husband calls them)
3. I don’t ever wear shoes in the house and I really can’t understand why America doesn’t have the same “take your shoes off at the door” custom that Japanese homes do. The idea of what is on the carpet from the bottoms of shoes is something I just don’t want to think about.
4. I have a very sensitive stomach and won’t eat anything that “smells funny”. My husband is convinced that I can tell if something is 5 minutes past its expiration because I will turn my nose up at it. I say its because I can get food poisoning from just looking at bad food.
5. I am pretty sure that I’m addicted to eyeliner. My “every day” makeup consists of eyeliner (lined fully around my eye), lipstick or gloss, and concealer.. and that’s just so I can stand to look at myself in the mirror. The only difference between my makeup now and in high school is that I changed from black eyeliner to chocolate brown and I don’t wear quite as much of it… depending on the day.
6. I never go out without sunglasses. I can’t stand the brightness of the sun and will get either a headache or full-blown migraine depending on the amount of time I’m forced to spend outside without my protective huge, dark glasses.
7. I am a packrat (packMOUSE my husband says..) and a clutterbug. I don’t like dirt and filth but I will pile things up everywhere without stopping until they fall over. I’ve always been like this since I can remember. Right now I have no idea where the surface of my desk might be and the only clear space is where the keyboard is sitting. I HATE clutter.. and I really would love to have that ‘zen minimal’ feel to my home. I would also love to get rid of at least half of what I own… but I’m emotionally attached to my things. (you can file this under “things I’m trying to learn from Buddhism”)

If you haven’t been tagged and want to do this.. go for it.  Meanwhile I’m going to enjoy the last 30 minutes or so of my freedom until August 13th — today is Munchkin’s last day of kindergarten!  The school ended up passing him to the next grade regardless of what we or the teacher thought… so as of today at 3pm I’m officially the mother of a First Grader! We’ll be working over the summer on getting him up to speed for the next school year.. I’m already looking into different “systems” of teaching to help him along.

Surprisingly these socks took me less than 2 months to complete and I even finished another full pair of socks in between! I do believe that the combination of toe up and magic loop is the secret to making sock mojo work in my favor. This pair was technically the first toe-up sock I did and I’m pretty happy with the way they turned out. I did end up doing ’sock surgery’ on the toe of the first sock that was very pointy because I cast on too small of a number of stitches..

pattern: Universal Toe Up
yarn: 2 skeins gifted Koigu KPPPM (with quite a bit left over)
needles: size 1 Addi circs (magic loop)
Started: March 27,2007 finished:May 17,2007
Shoes: Keen Seattle maryjanes ( I love these shoes..)

I was a little unhappy with how splitty the yarn was in one of the skeins.. you’d think for how expensive the stuff is that there wouldn’t be as many issues with it. I was very concerned with the pooling on the socks when I started because I really like my socks to be ‘matchy matchy’ and these weren’t. Pooling usually makes me neurotic but I was able to just let go and accept that its what this yarn does. Other than the problems with the one skein, Koigu KPPM is a very nice yarn to knit with.

In between finishing these socks while watching CSI: Miami - I’ve been working on more stitch markers (polymer clay and beaded) for the shop and some hair scarves as well. Getting the pattern correct involved ‘the maths’ and I had to drag the hubby into the design process because the Mouse hates the maths. After explaining to the hubby that I really don’t give a crap HOW he came up with the numbers and that I just “wanted it to work so that I could go back to sewing” - we seem to have managed to make it all work out. I think. Honestly I’m not really sure right now considering I seem to have contracted a case of “Squirrel Pox” (aka. strep throat.. again) from the lovely children in Munchkin’s class.

I’ve promised to donate a set of polymer stitch markers to Sheepie because she’s running a charity race.. so I’ve got some “Run Sheepie, Run!” stitch markers on the trays ready to bake. There is a certain sneaker that I have a collection of that I managed to reproduce in miniature….. hee hee.

Public apology to everyone for my lack of comment replies and comments at blogs.. I’m sort of not fit for conversation lately. Nothing is really “wrong” but nothing is really “right” either at the moment. We’re going through stuff with the house we’re renting (and clearly not buying), the neighborhood, my husbands work, and the confusion of figuring out “what’s next” while having a school age child who needs to be in one school and not bounced around like a human superball.

The idea that we’ve made all of these memories in this house for the last 2 + years (the longest my husband and I have ever stayed ANYWHERE in our entire 9 years of marriage) and it can (and will eventually) be sold to someone else.. is sort of playing with my emotions lately. Even if money weren’t an issue- we wouldn’t buy this house simply because of its location and the way its built. Both my husband and I would rather have an older house that we could redo rather than live in what is basically a very expensive Happy Meal box with siding.. though we’re thankful to even HAVE a house this size in this city with the current rental costs.

While we aren’t forced to make any sort of decision in the very near future, this sudden hiccup in our lives has definitely shaken loose some of the cobwebs that were cementing us to our comfy chairs. I understand that sometimes we need to be moved out of our comfort zone in order to bring about new changes and lessons.. but the process is far from pleasant.

I wanted to thank y’all for your comments on the headband I whipped up… I’m working on actually making a pattern for it and I am planning on making some for the shop once I get it all worked out. I do like that headband.. but I’m working on a thicker version to cover more of the frizzies that seem to pop up on a daily basis in my crazy hair. I think my sewing machine appreciates the attention I’ve been showing it lately .. and I forgot how much I actually used to enjoy sewing.

Speaking of moving and changing.. I’ve moved some of the things from my online shop over to my “new” Etsy shop because I’m having issues with the shipping changes and ZenCart. Honestly I’m sort of getting shafted by the new postal rates with my ‘flat shipping’ fee and I’ve moved some of the heavier items over to Etsy so that I can not eat the shipping costs on my sales.  I really love Etsy and am happy to be part of the community of sellers/artists at the site.

Its Mothers Day.. AND my husbands birthday so I was forced to see the in-laws and cook instead of spending my day vegetating on the sofa with a movie and some knitting. To kill some time this morning I decided that I needed a new headband and set about sewing one from a fat quarter I picked up at Joanns during their last 99 cent sale. In about an hour I banged out what seems to be a decently designed fabric headband that ties at the back. I’m planning on making a bunch more of these with fabric I’ve been hording for “something special”- they take so little fabric and hardly any thought.

Happy Mothers Day to all the mothers of human & furry children!

There are only 8 days left in the school year for Munchkin! Honestly I’m shocked at how quickly the year passed us by… it seems like yesterday I was putting him on the bus for the first time. Yesterday was Munchkin’s “School Birthday”- I spent the whole day calling it his “unbirthday” from Alice in Wonderland.. and cracking up a lot. While it was thoughtful of the teacher to lump all of the summer birthdays into their appropriate dates in May.. It would have been nice if I would have had some notice that I had to come up with baked goods. Judging from the response of the class mother when I called to ask how many children were in the class.. it was perfectly clear that most of the moms did store-bought goodies. I called and said “Hi.. this is Ms. Mousie.. Munchkin’s mom. I’m baking cupcakes and I wanted to know how many children were in the class.” and she said “your.. whatting.. what? baking.. like with an oven?” While I realize that most moms work and don’t have the ‘luxury’ of staying home - I was sort of surprised that homemade cupcakes were such a novelty.
Things are clearly getting weird around here.. I’m knitting lace. A few weeks ago another blogger set forth a challenge to knit lace this summer.. and here’s my second go round after the serious failure of the kiri shawl. This is (or at least I’m hoping it will be eventually..) Seraphim from Mimknits… Sandy and I are having sort of an informal knit-along for the pattern. In other words.. we’re both knitting it and she promised to help me learn to read charts when it gets all confusing later. At the moment its still a mouse (the animal..) sized shawl.. but its very pretty. The yarn is some from Handpaintedyarn.com and is my first real experience with knitting lace-weight yarn… I’m very nervous about screwing it up.

Just a little shameless promotion that I’ve updated the shop with 6 handpainted drop spindles! I’ve had a hard time shutting my mouth about my secret little project.. but I wanted to wait until they were done and up in the shop. I’ve “test spun” all of them - ok fine.. I admit that I played with every one of them and there’s some roving stuck to each one of them to prove it. After all.. I couldn’t just let them out into the world without making sure that they were ok.. right? RIGHT? yeah.. I thought so.
Funny thing about the one to the left.. it was going to be sheep on a blue background when I started it. How it went from sheep to the Buddha’s eyes.. I’ll never know, but that’s my “creative process” for you. Also during the making of this spindle.. I cleaned my brush in my coffee cup instead of the paint cup. Mental note.. move the brush cleaning water AWAY from your beverage!

Out of boredom the other day came the overwhelming desire to spin some coiled yarn from this tutorial. I spent most of the day filling up a bobbin on my Louet with about 100 or so yards of merino singles.. and then spent the other half of the day turning it into 15 yards of coiled novelty yarn. Yes, you heard correctly.. fifteen yards from about 100 yards of singles. Color me unhappy. While I have a new found respect for the spinners of novelty yarn and halfway understand why they charge so damn much for their product.. I’m thinking that’s all I gained from this experience.

So.. that’s what I’ve got for you today. Scary coils.. and a small reprieve from the shattering silence on Blog-Lines.  I’m sure there are a lot of folks who are currently rolling in fiber in Maryland… and I’m wishing that I were one of them instead of being stuck here in rather dreary and cool Georgia. I attempted some lace-knitting (the kiri shawl) but ended up throwing it across the room after about 12 rounds. There’s something about a bored 5 year old and a lace shawl pattern that just doesn’t work.

or something… I give you.. morning random with bullet points

• There is a new knit & crochet community called Ravelry that is currently in Beta. It should be opening shortly and I got a sneak peek at trying it out thanks to a friend who thought I had too much free time on my hands- har har.. You have your own “notebook” there with projects, needle sizes, stash yarn, patterns.. and everything is hooked into your Flickr account. You can find new friends based on location or project type.. and see who is knitting what just by searching! I’m hoping that they get a section worked out for spinners as well.. because that would just be awesome. Its ‘invite only’ right now.. but you can sign up (be patient.. they’re swamped) on the home page for a trial run. I’m hooked.
• I didn’t cave in and remove any of the ’stuff’ from my hair. The trip on Sunday was awful - but it didn’t have to do with commentary on my appearance.. for once. It was commentary instead on how I needed a ‘real job’. Apparently I’m supposed to stop playing with string because its not going to get me anywhere. I’d love to ask the ladies at Blue Moon Fiber, Spunky Eclectic, and Pippi Kneesocks how they feel about that thought.. lol

• Speaking of my worthless pursuits at income.. I’ve been working on some new things for the shop and I’ve got an update coming up on Monday. Stay tuned.
• Due to money issues.. there’s no way I’ll be attending MS&W this weekend. I’m going to be looking forward to shopping living vicariously through other bloggers if I want to have any hope of attending SAFF this year.
• Summer is officially here in Georgia.. I had to turn my AC on yesterday because I was sitting still and sweating like I had just run a marathon. Its May. We’re all doomed.
• My son has only 2 weeks left of school - I can’t believe it went by so fast. He will be repeating kindergarten next year.. but I think we’ll all be glad he did. I already think he’s going to drive me insane this summer because he’s started rambling uncontrollably at me from the time he gets home to the time he goes to bed. He even gets out of bed at least twice to come into my office and ramble at me. God help us all.
• I love getting mail. My life was going to hell in a handcart the other day and the mail carrier knocked on my door with an unexpected package from a blogging friend in Canada. Contents of said package were squished (wool), sniffed (soaps.. ), and screamed over like a girl (tea..knitting calendar, sheepie mug). Thank you friend!