Knotty Mouse

Idea stolen from todays blog post by La. Its a photo of my handspun South African Fine from Spunky Eclectic in the “Leaf Peep” colourway. Enjoy!

My first order from The Loopy Ewe came in the other day (talk about lightning fast shipping..) and I started on Munchkin’s snake socks last night while watching some crappy tv. The yarn is Opal Rainforest and I’m already finished with the first sock! Getting the right amount of stitches at the cast on for my son’s kid size 13 feet was very tricky and I was really getting frustrated until I hit on the right amount – 8th time is the charm and all that. I actually had him try on my second STR sock that was in progress and estimate the amount from that.. somehow it worked. The maths.. it is not my friend.

Its disgustingly hot here in GA and I’m pretty sure that my brain is going to melt before cool weather hits. So, in honor of my slightly mushy brain and lack of complete thoughts.. I give you random bullet points of nonsense!

• I’m motoring through the second STR sock and I’m actually ready to start the Broadripple cuff.. I love sport-weight yarn.
• I’m spending entirely too much time at Ravelry. I’m “Mouse” there and if you “friend” me, I’ll add you as well. Apparently I’m very whoreish with the friending – which is apparently obvious by my bloglines reading list of close to 200 feeds. “oh.. so-and-so commented and has a blog.. I’ll add it and read it too…” um yeah.. and I wonder why I feel like I spend all day online.
• There’s been a run the sheep bags at my Etsy shop and I’m painting, printing and packing up a storm. The only crap thing about the handmade stencils I’m using is that I can only get one to two prints before I have to draw and cut a new one. Slow going.. but worth it.
• I’m glad y’all liked the photos from the grocery store..  I’ll definitely have to take more pictures of silly things I find like that!
• I’m super proud of myself. Last week I cleaned my closet ( a walk in closet that I take up all on my own. Hubby’s clothes live downstairs) and I can WALK in it! Everything is hung up (not thrown on the floor) and I even managed to get rid of close to 4 trash bags of clothing to charity.  I still need to pair down more but I’ve definitely reduced the clothes by 1/3rd.

Ok.. I’m sorry for this post in advance. Really. Please let me indulge my inner 12 year old with these photos.. I’m having a rough day. After a minor meltdown at the grocery store with Munchkin involving the bakery’s lack of free chocolate chip cookies (we had to settle for a donut that was alas, not free) we visited the grocery store bathroom.. which is right next to their new Jamaican food section. I spied this and had to take a photo with my phone- so forgive it being dark and blurry. The package itself says ” c8ck flavoured soup mix” and the shelf below says “Jamaican Instant Spicy c8ck- $1.69″. I giggled like a teenager and nearly bought a package because the directions on the back nearly made me pee. Yes.. I know they mean chicken.. but its still funny.

If the soup wasn’t bad enough.. I stopped at the dollar store next to the grocery store to buy some hangers for the closet and some of these cheapo sponges for dishes. Do click the larger photo to see that the orange circle on the front says that these sponges are for “returning the reality of your life”.. hmmm. I’m not entirely sure that I want that.. but thanks. The makers of these sponges also couldn’t decide whether the name of the company was “Ceaning King” or “Gleaning King” like it says on the other side of the package. The opposite side gives you this gem of wisdom..
Um.. yeah. I’m not even going to try and figure this one out.. especially the bit about its character.

So.. happy Friday folks!

With a good portion of my internet friends out of town I’ve had a lot of knitting time on my hands and have actually managed to finish one of my STR socks. I had a lot of problems with finding a pattern that would work with the pooling and finally settled on Broadripple from Knitty. The pooling worked up awesome and I really loved how easy the stitch pattern is to memorize and follow. I’ve yet to cast on for the second sock but I’m already worried that it won’t match its mate. The only good thing with the second sock is thanks to my handy kitchen scale I know that I have more than enough yarn to make another sock of this size.

Tomorrow night is Munchkin’s first sleep over with his grandmother (MIL) and he’s thrilled. I however.. am a basketcase. I have to finish up some laundry and pack his bag and blankets in the morning but I still want to be sick over the thought of him not being here at night. I’m sure he’ll do fine.. and I’ll be up all night pacing the floors.

Been doing some sock knitting again.. slow going with working on the shop and trying to keep Munchkin from being “boooooored”. The yarn is Socks That Rock medium weight in the Gypsum colourway which I purchased at MSW last year. The second photo is where I’m currently at.. trying to figure out what pattern I’m going to use for the leg of the sock that won’t make my hard earned striping go back to pooling disgustingly. (I just came back after watching an episode of “Miami Ink” and knitting…) I’ve just tried the Jaywalker pattern (modified for my stitch amount) and it started pooling horribly again, not to mention the sock is now so tight I can’t get it on. I think its time for a riiiiiiiiipppp! I have to apologize for the lousy photo here.. our weather as of late has been less than cooperative for photography. Come to think of it – our weather hasn’t been cooperative for much of anything I’ve wanted to do lately from grilling with our new hibachi (thanks to the mother in law for her spur of the moment purchases that need new homes later..) to sleeping at night (bleh.. the heat!) or taking walks in the neighborhood with munchkin.

Today we’re hoping to get out and do a little grilling (some hotdogs & hamburgers.. yum) before the storms roll in again. Munchkin’s birthday (6 years old!) is in less than a month and I’m doing some online yarn shopping for Opal Rainforest. He told me that he wants some new socks because the others I knitted don’t fit anymore and he really is into the Schlange & Frosch ones (snake & frog) – and of course.. I need the Tiger socks.

{Edited to add: I’m a sucker.. I bought him snake & tiger Opal Rainforest for socks. I read on a blog that one skein can make a full pair for both an adult & a toddler.. and since we both want footies.. I think I might have found a way to justify the cost.}

On Saturday, Jane and I ventured down to Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta to check out the Indie Craft Experience fair. It was my first experience with Marta (the tube/train) and my first trip to Centennial park… and was definitely worth the trip. The show is sponsored by Etsy.com and a good majority of the crafters at the show were sellers on the site. It was very cool to people watch, as this was not a country crafts fair (ducks with gingham bows..) but a more alternative scene. I thought about whipping my camera out and taking some ‘crowd shots’ but we were way too caught up in the items for sale to get many photos. At some point during our trip Jane and I cracked ourselves up with the “I can has cheezburger” style of captions (I just wrote “cattions”.. which makes sense with them being lolcats and all) and started doing it with everything.
I think I’m getting the hang of the “one handed self-blogging photo” thing. This was us after taking a rest next to the fountain inside the park.. we had already done 2 laps of the vendors (step 1. go through and look at EVERYTHING step 2. go back again and buy) and I had just realized that I lost my cellphone somewhere from the car (now at the Marta station..) and the festival. I found my phone in Jane’s car at the end of the day (woot!) One thing that was awesome about the festival was the goodie bags that we were given at the ICE tent.. lots of stuff! You can also see some of the Etsy.com shwag from the Etsy tent – bumperstickers, a bandana, and pins. While we were at the Etsy tent they were filming for a video that will be on the website/blog – I can’t wait to see it.

This is my haul from the show… I somehow ended up buying 4 bars of handmade soap. I loves the handmade soap- and my husband already stole the green bar in the photograph called “Emerald Isle”. I also bought some wonderful hand lotion in a patchouli/orange scent and a pair of handmade earrings that aren’t shown because I was wearing them when I took the photo. (duh)

I had a great time at the show and can’t wait to go again (and possibly vend) next year.

I recently got an email on Etsy about my stitch markers and was asked about the number of markers I sell in my sets because 3 wasn’t enough. I’m not sure if the person who wrote the email reads this blog so I will say that I’m not being rude by posting this (and I certainly don’t think she was rude in the email) – it just brought up a lot of questions in my head about how I should be selling the markers to be most helpful to my knitting customers. I’d appreciate your response.. thanks! (you have to come to my site to use the poll because it might not show up on Bloglines)

I’ve added some new items to my Etsy shop and redid the photos for the headbands with the help of my wig-head and her new Corriedale pencil roving dreads.

Thanks to a post on 144 inches of I-Cord I have found and installed “Snap Shots” on this blog.. Its a handy little plug in that allows you to see the website where I’ve linked without even going there.. I think its really cool (and clearly it only works if you come to the actual site rather than read on bloglines..) but if y’all find it annoying please let me know and I’ll disable it.

Today Jane and I ventured to Centennial Olympic Park for the Indie Craft Experience (ICE) Fair/ Market.. I’ve got a few photos and some small purchases to show but it’ll have to wait until tomorrow as I’ve got a HUGE headache. Fun was had.. pictures were taken.. etc etc. Here’s one photo.. stolen from Jane.. to hold you over until tomorrow.