Knotty Mouse

I found this on the Ravelry tea-drinkers group (yes.. there is one. Yes, I joined it. Please don’t get me started about all of the groups on Ravelry or this will be a very long and silly post.) and had to share …

“Pantone-style mug for tea drinkers - colour matching mug” 

(I actually want one of these.. I think its hysterical but I’m pretty sure my tea would fall between the “milky” and “British” chips)

I also found a pattern for the following item while feeding my queue of doom (its at 170 patterns or so and is now requiring virgin sacrifices so that it doesn’t eat me) on Ravelry…  Its perfectly work safe but will probably induce loud snickering.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/52765712@N00/1441328096/ 

yeah.. you’re welcome.  If you are on Ravelry you can find the pattern to the item here.  I’m also taking no blame if you make one of those and your cat kills you in your sleep..  you’re on your own there.

Just some hand spun eye candy… The orange yarn is the Targhee/ Rambouillet blend I showed last week (about 4oz) which spun up to a sport weight 2 ply of 152 yds. At first when I saw this as I was plying I thought.. “ew”.. but its really grown on me. I’m just sad that its not enough to actually make a scarf, but I think that the other purple yarn in the photo may match enough that I could make a chunky striped scarf.

The purple is a sport/worsted single of Corriedale from Spunky Eclectic in “bruised ego” - about 148 yards. I thought it looked like peanut butter & jelly when I was spinning it.

My little one is still sick and has been up all night for the last few nights. He seems to be a little better today but I can feel myself getting the same symptoms that he has - and right in time for my husband to go away on a business trip! I’m planning on stocking up on soups and comfort foods (mashed potatos.. yum.) and hide in the house drinking hot tea.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

 Edited to add: ok folks, clearly Chez Mousie did not turn into a gourd at midnight.. so everything is all good.  Today my husband managed to move things around and pay for the hosting fees so that we wouldn’t lose our websites and my blog would stay up… HOORAY!

About 2-3 weeks ago I actually started to doubt whether I was going to stick around until I was at risk of losing the blog and realized that I didn’t want to quit quite yet.  I’m going to give it another year in blog land and look at switching things up with more photos and less words for a little while.

Thanks for all of your kind comments.. they’re much appreciated.

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Just a note of warning that this blog, my knottymouse.com email, and the Mousie Masala site may possibly all go “poof” and turn into a pumpkin tonight at midnight. Hopefully if I vanish I’ll be able to return within a few days.. money is more than tight around here and the web hosting fees are the least of our current monetary worries. I would let them drop entirely and go back to a free blog hosting service, but my husband has domains docked on my hosting space and it would cause all sorts of issues to move everything.

So, don’t worry- I haven’t quit blogging or anything crazy like that and I shall return. (and if you don’t like me.. then I’m sorry to inform you that I’ll be around for at least another year.. hee hee.)

This blog post is brought to you by the letter “F” for fever - munchkin has one. Also by the letter “p” for the popsicles that daddy was asked to bring back from the supermarket by said feverish munchkin. I promised to go watch some Star Wars with the little bugger, so I’ll see y’all when I return from internet hosting limbo.

After writing the “feline blocking unit” post I forgot to actually post the finished object that she helped to block. This is the
‘Lochshal Scarf’ that I made after finding the German pattern link on Ravelry. You can find an English translation and a better chart here at BavGirl’s blog.

I ended up making the scarf too short because I’m not very good with charts and kept messing up the pattern and I didn’t like the yarn I was using (Wool-Ease Worsted- wheat ’sprinkle’ with the bits in it) or the way the edges folded back. I would definitely do this pattern again with more garter stitches on the edges and in a yarn without pieces in it.

EDITED TO ADD: I think I fixed the photos folks! (as usual.. click to embiggen)

To say that I’m a bit worn out from yesterday is a grand understatement as I didn’t get home last night until OhGodItsSoLate o’clock. I was abducted by The Chicken Goddess yesterday at my local yarn shop (who are going to think we’re crazy for a LOOOONG time after this thanks to our in-shop antics) and taken for a joyride around the city. After realizing that her original idea of holding me for ransom wasn’t going to work she took me to an Indian sari shop and let me drool over the wall of bangle bracelets and pet expensive sari fabric. I may have bought a few bracelets there.. no one is saying for certain. There was a stop for some European milk chocolate bars that may have resulted in photographic proof that I ate a chocolate samwich for lunch… and there may have been visits to a few yarn shops in the Atlanta area.. though it all got a little fuzzy after a while and that wasn’t the KidSilk Haze and the fur from all the cats I petted talkin’. After arriving at our destination : The Yarn Harlot at Hilan Theater… we waited in line with an awesome bunch of knitter women before being seated in a room (in very uncomfortable metal chairs.. I’m pretty sure I left my lower back at the theater) with 700+ of our closest friends. There were flashing cameras and knitting everywhere.. I’m sure the bloggers were starting to scare the ‘normal knitters’ after a while.

After a raffle for some prizes The Harlot took the stage. This woman is hysterical! I honestly didn’t expect to be laughing so much - even though I’ve laughed out loud numerous times while reading her books. If she comes to your area I would highly recommend making the journey to see her. I did feel sorry that she sounded like she was either catching a cold or had a terrible sore throat.. but she was a brilliant speaker and I had a wonderful time.

Things started to run very late, and by the time dinner was over it was after 930 pm. Most of us actually got our food to go (which my husband was happy about when I presented him with a takeout box of curried chicken) so that we wouldn’t be late for the Harlot’s second book signing at Knitch. We arrived just in time and I was able to have my book signed and get this photo.. I got to hold the sock! I wish I looked happier (and believe me, I was happy.. ) but I was absolutely exhausted. I arrived home at 1245am at night thanks to Post Modern Artisan who I caught a ride with because she lives in my neck of the woods.

I am really grateful to all of the folks who went out of their way yesterday to make sure I was able to attend. I had a wonderful time and enjoyed meeting new folks & hanging with old friends. Thank you.

I’ve got my knitting bag packed, dinner for the munchkin picked out and ready for hubby to heat it up, and I’m ready to go hang out and spend the day with about 700 other knitters & knit-bloggers at Knitch. I’ll be hooking up with The Chicken Goddess and I’m sure we’ll find some fibery trouble to get into along the way.

I commented on Yarn Harlot’s blog this morning about how excited we all were that she was coming to Atlanta and ended up FIRST on the comments. I think I’m going to take that as a sign of good things to come!

Also.. I’m planning on wearing either a Pirates of the Caribbean shirt (it IS talk like a pirate day… ) or a Labyrinth shirt with David Bowie on it.. and I’m probably going to be wearing ripped jeans and hand-knit socks with maryjanes. I’m currently in the process of trying to repair the torn jeans.. but I don’t have high hopes for my hand sewing at 8am, nor do I have much hope that the ‘nice’ jeans I own will be dry before its time to leave.

Arrrrr… I be seein’ you scurvy dogs a’ Captain Yarrrrrrn Harlot’s ship - be there or be shark meat.

Proper blocking of a lacey knitted object requires water, pins, an appropriate sized blocking area, and a feline blocking unit (FBU). The FBU’s main purpose is to weight down the knitted object and provide warmth to stimulate the fibers to open and thus allowing the lace pattern to be better viewed. The Feline Blocking Unit also adds textural elements to your finished item. This function of the FBU depends greatly on the color of your knitted item and the color of your Feline Blocking Unit.. but most FBU’s can sense that the item is of an appropriate color to properly receive ‘textural element deposits’ and will roll and stretch to cover as much surface area as possible. You will never have to worry about over-blocking with an FBU, as the unit has an “automatic shut-off” feature - when your item is finished being blocked.. the FBU will simply turn its nose up at the knitted item and wander away. It will return to its docking station (see figure below) and proceed to recharge for its next use.

I’ve been working on these footies on and off for the last few weeks but I was waiting on a second skein of yarn to come in to make them larger. In the end I decided that I really could use some hand knit footie socks for my mary janes and kept them short. These were knit on two separate needles but at the same time. I really like having a completed pair finished at once but I don’t think I have the commitment to do full sized socks this way.
I’ve already started a pair of footies out of the Rainforest “Schlange” colorway that I made Munchkin’s birthday socks out of in July and I’ve been looking at sweaters that I could make with my stash yarn. I really do want to knit something to wear to SAFF but I’m already bored to tears with the Lady Eleanor stole that I started.

Project stats:
Pattern: toe up socks, short row heel, k2p2 ribbing
Needles: addi US size 1 circular (magic loop all the way baby!)
yarn: Lorna’s Laces sock- Vera colorway- 1 skein

dol·drums (dōl’drəmz’, dôl’-, dŏl’-)

1. A period of stagnation or slump.
2. A period of depression or unhappy listlessness.
A feeling or spell of dismally low spirits: blues, dejection, depression, despondence, despondency, dolefulness, downheartedness, dumps, dysphoria, funk, gloom, glumness, heavy-heartedness, melancholy, mope (used in plural), mournfulness, sadness, unhappiness. See feelings, happy/unhappy.

I woke up in a serious funk this morning after realizing that it was STILL 85 degrees outside in the middle of September and that Fall is nowhere to be found.  I’ve been trying to figure out if it counts as ’seasonal depression’ if I’m in misery about the fact that no one has informed the weather here that it should have shifted from Summer to Autumn about 2 weeks ago. I’m in no mood to knit anything because I feel like I will never be able to wear woolen items and will be stuck in sandals and capris (I don’t wear shorts outside of my home) forever.  As a transplanted Yankee  ‘the time formerly known as Fall’ is the worst time for be to be contented with living in the South. I have fall leaves on my computer’s desktop wallpaper for Dogs sake! Listen up pathetic excuse for a fall.. this is what I want!!!

•  I want to drink my coffee and tea hot without melting into a puddle
• I want to open the windows and turn off the air conditioning which has been running since May.
•  I want to wear shoes that have closed toes and aren’t made of plastic
•  I want to wear knee socks with my skirts
•  I want to wear jeans and boots
•  I want my makeup to stay where I put it on my face
•  I want my neighbors to stop mowing their golf courses lawns every weekend
• I want to wait for my son at the bus stop without nearly having heat stroke

I’m going to go crank up the air conditioning,  find something to knit, and make myself a pot of tea now that I’m done petitioning for a change of seasons.

Ok… I wasn’t sure that I was going to go here but considering that I have exactly a week left and have exhausted my options - Can anyone give me a ride to Yarn Harlot in Atlanta on the 19th???

If anyone who reads this blog is willing to give me a ride to and from Harlot (I’ll pay gas money.. at this point I may kiss you on the forehead.. or give you sock yarn.. its getting desperate) please email me at mousieblog(at) knottymouse(dot) com.

Edited to add: y’all are awesome. At the moment it looks like I have a ride ! Thank you so much for being so generous.

Seems as though I’m not able to blog more than every 7 days at this point.. and I’m not even doing anything exciting! I’ve been seeing “Eye Candy Friday” a lot lately on blogs that I read and thought… hmmm.. what a great excuse to post things that aren’t WIP’s! I’ve had a bunch of stuff come in the mail recently through great deals at Etsy.com and winning contests but I haven’t gotten to photograph or post about any of it.

This wonderful roving (merino on the left, Targhee/ Rambouillet mix on the right) was purchased from The Arts at Eagles Find Etsy shop. I’m already spinning up the wool on the right for some socks even though I’m not sure how the blend will wear..  I figure that if they start to felt too badly I will throw them in the washer and turn them into slippers for the Munchkin.  The “forest” (both are way prettier in person than in photos) roving will hopefully end up with enough yardage for a hat for my husband.

I’m off to pack for the weekend.. we’re heading to Athens, GA for Airsoft games for the husband and some knitting & spinning with a friend for me. Husband’s friend offered us space to ‘crash’ in their empty guest room (why do I feel like I’m in junior high at a sleep over??) so part of my weekend will involve sleeping on the floor and moving of furniture. Send happy thoughts for my poor lower back.  Munchkin will be staying the night with my mother-in-law and I’m sure they’ll have a great time.

By the way..  is it just me or does anyone else try to make words out of their “word verification” anti-spam-mumbo-jumbo on blogs?  While I was writing this post I commented on two blogs and was sitting here trying to figure out what that random mish mosh of letters sounded like as a word.

** also.. congratulations to Pixie and family on the cutest finished object ever! **