Knotty Mouse

Did everyone have a good Thanksgiving? I spent yesterday with the in-laws (no comment) stuffing my face full of turkey, stuffing, potato casserole, cranberry sauce, and lemon whip dessert. Other than the food.. I would have rather been at home with a hot mug of tea and the House marathon on USA, but Munchkin had a good time AND we were able to score some HOT Krispy Kreme donuts on the way home (I’m sure you can hear me bloating from your location.. seriously.)

I’ve been doing a little shop updating with more to come between now and Monday - the newest things are these cool alphabet beads which spell out yoga words, spinning words, and my favorite thing.. Mantra Markers! Right now I have “Om Mani Padme Hum” and the Maha Mantra (”Hare Krishna, Hare Rama”) but there are more coming (”Om Namah Shivaya” is sitting here on my desk.. ) as soon as I am able to photograph and post them. My head has been spinning (har) with ideas for these Mantra Markers - I think they’re great for anyone who does mantra meditation and knits. As with all shameless promotion posts- the items can be found at my shop on Etsy. (thanks for suffering through the irritation of a self promotion post.. its THAT time of year again and all purchases benefit the House of Mouse and the Munchkin Christmas Gift Fund. )

As for the dreaded holiday knitting.. I’ve got a list which is growing more and more silly by the day. I do really need to finish a hat for my sister-in-law which has been hibernating since last year when I found out that Hannukah skips all over the calendar like a rabbit on crack and sometimes falls 3 weeks EARLIER than Christmas. Doh. This year its a respectable 3 days before Christmas.. which may save the teeny tiny shreds of sanity I have left. I’m also back to picking up the crochet hook in hopes that I can get some scrappy handspun hippy tams & headbands into the shop for the Giftmas season.

Thanks for the concern about us freezing over here at the House of Mouse.. so far the temp has dipped down into the mid 20’s at night a few times and we’ve been relatively toasty with the use of only one or two space heaters running only a few hours a night (the timer on the larger heater is the coolest thing!) and early in the morning so we don’t turn into Mouse, Munchkin, or Mister Bearsicles. We’ve also used our huge fireplace once which heated everything up very nicely.. even Ms. Kitty learned that the best seat in the house is the meditation cushion at the foot of the fireplace!

Ten random things  (meme stolen from Happy Goth)

1. Magazines subscribed to - none currently because I’m po-or. I would love to renew my long lost subscriptions to Goth Beauty, Knit Simple, and BUST magazine.

2. Aside from knitting, my favorite pasttimes are - spinning, embroidery, beadwork, watching movies, reading..

3. If I were not a ______(insert your own profession), I would be - a hairstylist or makeup artist.  I’d also love to work in the fashion industry or in the movies, theater, or tv doing costumes.

4. I am irrationally worried about - dear god, how long have you got?  I’m irrationally worried about practically everything - nervous disorders are SO much fun.  I could think of at least 10 off the top of my head.. but “being homeless” is currently a big one.

5. If I were the opposite sex - It would be more socially acceptable for me to be as opinionated as I am.

6. The thing I miss most about childhood is - imaginary friends.

7. I like to collect -  Mexican prayer candles, scarves, earrings,  statues & things from India..

8. Though I’ve never been there, I feel inexplicably homesick for - India

9. I’ve never really liked to eat - Oreos.  bleh.  I’m also not really crazy about sweets.. one bite of something sugary and I’m usually done.

10. When I have nightmares, they’re usually about - not being able to get to my son.  I have horrible, irrational, and terrifying nightmares and am thankful when I sleep through the night without them bothering me.

not tagging anyone.. but if you do this, I’d love to see your answers!

A few weeks ago while trying to get ready for company to come I realized that it was a little chilly in the house (we were having an early cold snap) and maybe my guests would not prefer to have to wear a sweater indoors.. so I sucked it up and pushed the “heat” button on the thermostat for the first time since moving into the house. I waited and sat over the floor vents only to discover that COLD air was coming out!! I figured that maybe something hadn’t been properly turned on so I waited until hubby came home for him to ‘check’ the heater… he walked around and then crawled under the house to discover that not only was the furnace not working… it was NON EXISTENT! Yeah, turns out that we don’t HAVE central heating in the house - when the house was converted from gas to electric (for cooking, heating hot water, and logically HEATING..) the 50 year old gas heater was disconnected, capped off, and left to rust under the house. The living room fireplace and the wall mounted electric coil heaters which are in the bathroom, laundry room, and living room (that my MIL deemed “quaint”) are the only heating in the house! Uhm… yeah. Our landlord had no idea that there wasn’t central heat and since he’s not planning on continuing to rent this house after we leave (its going to be turned into a golf driving range in the future) he isn’t going to “waste” the money to put in heat. He did go out and buy us a nice electric heater to use, and the wall heater in the living room works very well (plus we do have acres of land and a fireplace) - so I think we should survive the winter. We do have 2 other (very safe) small portable electric heaters for Munchkin’s room and my husband’s office, and to be honest we’re really not in any position to move to another house anytime soon. We’ve lived in old, badly heated houses before and are well versed in the art of weather stripping windows, hanging quilts in front of them at night, and blocking off unused portions of the house with curtains to keep the heat in the living areas… plus, thankfully I know a little something something about making woolly stuff!

Its 35ºF outside right now (though thankfully it is a comfortable 65 in the house without the use of heat) and suddenly my whole household has decided that the wool slippers that I’ve offered in the past were JUST what they wanted to keep their feet snug and warm. *sigh* My husband has a pair of crochetted slippers somewhere but he can’t find them.. so I’ve gone stash diving and wrangled up a skein of olive drab Cascade 220 to make some Fuzzy Feet slippers for him. Munchkin has 2 pairs of ’slipper socks” from Jane the Sock Queen (who was nice enough to give her accidentally felted socks to my son.. he LOVES them and they still fit great!!) and he requested a pair of fingerless gloves for in the house and at school.

So, as of right now I have Marina from Wooly Wormhead on the needles with 2 pattern repeats completed, queued up Small Fry Fingerless Gloves, and have one slipper zooming along on size 10 (6.0 mm) needles…  If anyone needs me I’ll be on the couch with a blanket and my knitting!

more the engrish!

My thanks to Kathy at MinxKnits for pointing out this website with “Engrish” LOL’s… this one was too good to pass up.

Here’s to HOPE!

I’d just like to take this opportunity to remind everyone in the US to PLEEEEEEEEASE remember to get out and vote tomorrow! I know that there is a good chance that the lines are going to be long but we need to make our voices heard! I wasn’t able to go to early voting (too far away and the lines were 4-6 hrs) but I will be getting up early tomorrow to be in line for when the polls open, Munchkin & snacks in tow.  I’m casting on something to knit in line so that I’m not bored silly.. and I’ll also be charging up my ipod for Munchkin so that he can rock out to the Jonas Bros while we wait.