Knotty Mouse

A little change in format on the blog… some of the past week’s events in pictures

eating cold sweet red grapes

changing our light bulbs to energy saving compact fluorescent bulbs

knitting on my Nanner socks

(click for larger photos & descriptions)

I didn’t sign up for the official Summer of Socks because I actually had no clue it was going on… but I’m knitting socks anyway and challenging myself with more advanced patterns. Its pretty hot here in GA and I can’t think about knitting anything more substantial than a sock - 88 degrees indoors with a pile of sweater wool on her lap does NOT a happy Mousie make.  The sock on the right is Mountain Colors Bearfoot in Meadow and I’m using the “More Fun Than Cables” pattern to make socks for my mom.  I’m calling them “hidden cable socks” because the mock-cable pattern isn’t obvious in the yarn I’m using - but I know its there because I took the time to add it into the sock, and my mom knows its there when she looks at the socks.  I know it sounds corny but I really like the idea of the ’secret’ pattern in the socks as something special for my mom to know how much I was thinking of her when I was knitting her socks.

The sock on the left is Meilenweit Bosco sock yarn in WendyKnits “Nanner Sock” Plurker pattern.  I found Plurk through another blogger’s sidebar (*waves at Rilana*) and got sucked into the fact that its (to borrow a statement I saw somewhere else) “like IM on crack” complete with dancing banana emoticons and the ability to share photos.  THEN I saw WendyKnits  Nanner Sock and had to cast on for it.  The patterned stitch is almost as addictive as Plurk itself..  but will at least result in me having something (besides Plurk Karma points & eyestrain) to show for my time!  What’s funny about the socks that I have on the needles currently is that I have never made a pair of socks with a patterned foot and now BOTH socks I’m knitting are heavily patterned.  I’m SO glad that I finally learned how to read knitting charts - I can’t believe how much easier it is to understand a stitch pattern with graphs.  I’m to the point now where I wish that ALL patterns contained charts when before I was completely intimidated by those little symbols.

Sadly, I haven’t been online nearly as much as I was in the old house.. mostly because of a strange electronic interference between my computer monitor and the satellite signal on the tv.  Because my computer and the television are both in the living room I’ve had to curb my online time drastically so that Munchkin can watch tv without the tv signal going in and out.  *grumbles*  Its yet another interesting aspect of this move into the new house and the adjustment period that goes along with our new surroundings..  but things are getting better around here daily and its starting to feel more ‘like home’ finally. Hubby was even able to fix the ceiling fan & overhead light in the bedroom today!  Ceiling fans are an absolute necessity in the South in summer, especially if you are insane enough to insist on living WITHOUT air conditioning.. like we’re currently doing.  The house does have working central air (thank the gods..)  but we’re trying to be very conservative (bordering on crazy) with our usage to keep our electric bill from swallowing our bank account.  We do have to run it to cool hubby’s computer (its built for the intensive graphics that he does for his business and it gets very hot very quickly in the summertime) while he’s working- so I’m basking over the floor vents cool breeze as I type.

I’ve got a movie to watch from Netflix (our one budgeted “perk” that I haven’t gotten rid of yet) and a bag of Spicy Sweet Chili Doritos (which are awesome.. and I HATE Doritos) so I’m going to drag myself from the computer and onto the sofa for some movie watching!

(hopefully this gallery will show up in bloglines.. but there ARE pictures here and you might have to go to the actual website to see them.)

In between cleaning the filth left by the previous tenants (*shakes head*) and attempting to unpack the house a bit I’ve been working on a few knitting projects. I finally finished the socks that I had started at Yarn Harlot last September - though I had to remove the picot edge on one because I decided that I didn’t like it. I really love these colors together and the sock yarn is very soft and squishy. Unfortunately I won’t be wearing these socks until it gets MUCH cooler– around September.  I used Magic Loop, short row - no hole heel, Turkish cast on for the toe, and 60 stitches on size 1 Addi’s ( all project info can be found on my Rav page)

Due to utter confusion when we moved (understatement of the year, that one) all of our boxes ended up spread around the house and I was left to poke around the contents of unlabeled bins looking for my knitting supplies. I found my container of straight needles and my small bin of kitchen cotton and got started on some wash cloths for end of school teacher gifts. Even though I’ve never really been into knitting cotton or dishcloths I really liked the pattern I was using (from the book “Mindful Knitting”) and ended up making about 5 cloths before the novelty wore off. I gifted the rest to my MIL for her birthday and used the end of the cotton to make glass cozies for myself.

I really wanted to thank everyone for the comments and good thoughts during our move - it really means a lot to have folks sending good vibes during hard times.  I should be caught back up with returning comments & emails but I do know that there is a good chance that things got lost in my inbox(es) so if you emailed and needed a response to something and I’ve ‘ignored’ you.. please email again.

Oh, for those of you on blog-readers I’ve redone the header bar for the blog with a photo I took here at the new house.. they are the well worn prayer flags that are hanging from the deck roof.  The photo makes me happy - and it reflects the sort of feeling I want in the house itself and on this blog.

Hi.. this is Ms. Kitty stepping in for Mouse while she is busy cleaning & unpacking our new home and dealing with that two legged creature she calls “Munchkin” since he is home alllllll day long now. Apparently that weird noisy yellow creature got tired of eating the kid in the morning & spitting him back out every evening and has stopped coming for him..

The house is big & old.. the humans say that it needs a lot of work but I’m pretty happy here, especially since there is a very large yard that I can explore and big window sills to sit in. I used to live in a house like this when I was a kitten and we lived somewhere called “Athens” - that was way before Mouse and I were friends and I used to chase her around and bite her ankles all day long.. those were fun times.

Unfortunately the new house used to be home to a smelly dog that obviously didn’t have a litter box.. (those dogs are so uncivilized) and had fleas.. which makes Mouse and I very unhappy. Both of us are horribly allergic to fleas and we’re scratching all the time.. I’m glad that I got some medicine from the vet to make me feel better but I think that Mouse will probably have to start wearing flea collars on her ankles. The humans who lived here were also very dirty and Mouse has spent a lot of time cleaning up messes to make our new house look and smell nice.. I wish she’d stop using that loud machine that sprays the carpets and makes my paws wet but she says it will get out the dog smell.

As you can see.. I do have a really nice deck now where I can sit in the shade on this big chair the servants brought for me. Mouse keeps saying that she will enjoy spinning here when she is done “cleaning this frakking house” - I just hope she doesn’t think she’s going to be sitting in my comfy chair to do it.

Well anyway.. I should go and demand some food and water (which I already have.. that drives them CRAZY) and maybe trip up one or two of the humans for a laugh - I don’t want Mouse to think that I’ll be writing her blog for her all the time. I should probably go back to pretending to speak LOLCat so that I don’t get stuck doing this again.. I so hate when I get used as blog fodder. Meows!