Knotty Mouse

(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.

(new WP ‘gallery’ feature inserted here.. not sure if the feed reader will pick it up or not)

• Molly’s Headband- from  IK Summer 2006 free PDF
• Elsebeth Lavold Cable Cotton - not quite one skein
• size 4 US needles
• Mods: I knit the lace section first and added the i-cord ties later to make sure I had enough yarn. I also screwed up the lace pattern because I didn’t read the symbols correctly - next time I won’t print the chart in draft mode to save ink. lol.
• I really love this headband and have the yarn for 2 more.. its great for flattening out my crazy hair.

1. Avada Kedavra Sock, 2. “dining room”- before 3. “dining room”- after

I know.. I know.. “holy shit.. KNITTING? On Mouse’s knitting blog? No way!” yes, way. I’ve been chugging along at night on the Killing Curse socks and have turned the heel on sock #1 while watching obscene amounts of CSI:Miami. I also found a “new way” (new to me anyway..) of doing a hole free short row heel which can be found here and is WAY easier than my previous method which was rather hit or miss. The pain in my hand from knitting is mild as long as I don’t knit for hours at a time.. so I’m trying to monitor my time and fly under the radar on that one. While I do miss knitting constantly I do NOT want to injure my hand/wrist anymore and risk further and more serious damage.. so I’m taking it one project at a time.

The photos on the right side are a before and after of my (useless for its intended purposes - which makes me wonder what sort of idiot designed these houses) dining room. Our house is a split level and its the room you come into when you come up the steps from the front door - so the mess and the clutter made me sad every time I came home. This is also the room that connects every other room upstairs so I was constantly looking at the mess and wishing it would go away even though I had no idea where to start in fixing it - some messes are overwhelming like that. A few days ago I ended up pulling everything out, throwing most of the contents of the top of the large table in a cardboard box to be sorted later, moving all the things hiding UNDER the table into the garage, and bringing up a small card table in its place. The small table with two padded chairs (also hiding in other rooms taking up space) became a really nice place to do homework with Munchkin at night.

Fair amount of bitching and an overdose of the real life of Mousie and a fair amount of swearing under the cut.. (so if you read this on bloglines you can feel free to skip the rest of this post if you don’t want to hear it) Read the rest of this entry »

I wanted to wish everyone who reads this blog a Merry Christmas, Blessed Yule, Happy Festivus, or Happy Holiday season!  I hope everyone has a wonderful time with friends & family… and eats waaay too many cookies.

I  am looking forward to the baked ham & mashed potatos waiting for me at hubby’s grandmother’s house this afternoon… and watching my son go nuts over the gifts that Santa (and his guest elf from the West -thank you friend!) and the relatives have brought him.

(I’m using the schedule feature of WP to send this post automatically since I’m going to be way too busy with family/holiday stuff to actually post on time.)

Have you seen The Story of Stuff yet?  Very informative and interesting… just thought I’d pass it along especially considering that its the “season of stuff”.

I’m happy to report that with the exception of my son’s few gifts from Santa and the 2 sticks of lip gloss that I bought for the cousins  (before I realized that I had handmade headbands that they would like..)  that everything else I’m giving out this year for Christmas is handmade.  Most of the family are getting bags of white chocolate dipped pretzels (assuming I stop eating them all… yum.) and the women are getting soaps from Etsy sellers and handmade earrings from my bead stash.  I really wanted to make an effort to find things that wouldn’t “collect dust” and could be used up.. leaving no waste.  (mmmm.. pretzels…)

I’m really hoping for gift cards for Christmas this year - I love getting to go out to eat or to buy coffee.. and I would really love one to a ‘big box’ store so that I can replace 2 appliances that are not long for this world.  I really cannot live without my microwave.. and its been near death for over a month.  Every time I walk into the kitchen the number “4″ is showing on the screen instead of the time.. and when I try to press buttons only certain number combinations work.  I’ve been microwaving things at strange times (2:22 or 1:11) and just hoping that it hangs in there until we can purchase a new one. It is about 10 years old and was bought at a yard sale.. so I’m thankful it lasted this long. The other appliance that is on the fritz is the waffle maker.. which just doesn’t want to cook the waffles dark anymore.. so I think part of the heating element went out.  We love homemade waffles here at Chez Mousie and they usually become dinner at least once a month (we also are big on pancakes & french toast for dinner too.. yum) especially during the winter.

Tomorrow is all about baking cookies, making chocolate cupcakes for Christmas Eve at the in-laws, and replacing the dipped pretzels that I’ve eaten tonight while sitting in front of the computer.  Have a great holiday everyone- my next post is going to be an automated one set to post on Christmas since I’m going to be traveling around Atlanta for 2 days to do the in-law stuff. 

I thought about resurrecting this “Fake Isle” hat as a Christmas gift but I’m not entirely sure that the intended receiver will even like it.. and its Silk Garden, which isn’t something that is in my budget often (it was a destash gift) that I am willing to just toss it out to whomever and hope they don’t use it as a dust rag. At least in digging it out I was able to get an accurate progress shot for Ravelry and my new progress bars! I have been waiting for my shot at testing them (you have to be ‘approved’ for the Rav- Magic to work between your project list and your blog) and spent all of yesterday trying to install them.. until I realized that the error was really stupid (it helps to HAVE works in progress to show on said “progress bars”.. duh.) and boom.. they worked.

Here at Chez Mousie its been computer and website fun for the last two days. After my Zen-Cart shop screwed me out of shipping for the LAST TIME - I shut the whole site down for “maintenance” while I called the creators of the program nasty names and wished terrible things upon their mothers. I decided that no matter what Etsy throws at me during the coming year that its probably better than dealing with my impossible Zen-Cart shop and made the decision to trash the whole thing and start over with a general site ( I am paying for the .com for the next year already) that links to the shop blog, Etsy, has a gallery so folks can see stuff I’ve made,  and doesn’t make me want to tear my hair out. Hubby is in the process now of dealing with my impossible wishes making my ‘new website’ all pretty and beating the code into submission.  I’m paying him in chocolate cupcakes and candy coated pretzels and hoping to “go live” with the new site shortly.

Oh yes, and Christmas break came early at the House of Mouse as last night Munchkin sounded like he was coming down with the plague. I sent him to bed with the promise that if he was ok in the morning he could go to school.. but he woke up sometime in the night and came in to my room to tell me he couldn’t go because he was “snuffy”.  I kept him home so that he would be well for Christmas and he spent the day in his new “army guy” pjs (christmas from my folks which came in mighty handy) laying around the house.

Feeling a void inside? I know what you’ve been missing… headless blogger photos!  I hacked my head off of this one thanks to a really really bad hair day.. and fighting with the self-timer function on the camera.  There is no pattern to this scarf.. I simply cast on 10 or 12 stitches and knit garter stitch using size 17us needles until I ran out of both balls of yarn.  The yarn was Gedifra Tagliato that I got for my birthday when I was in PA a few years ago…  I just could never figure out what to make with it or get the gauge right.  Its a huge, chunky, fuzzy scarf that ended up not really being entirely warm.  *sigh*

Other than this scarf.. I haven’t knit anything in quite a while. My hand and wrist has been giving me problems again and I’m not willing to do any more damage to it.. and seeing a doctor is pretty much out of the question. (insert rant about the US’s lack of gov’t health care here)

I have been hoping that I would suddenly be smacked upside the head by the “spirit of the holidays” and get to decorating the house (there are TWENTY DAYS until Christmas.. eep!) but so far.. no luck.  Usually I’ve at least considered putting up the tree by now.. but this year I couldn’t care less about any of it.  Hubby will be camping this weekend and I’ll be home with Munchkin for 2 days.. so I thought about putting some Christmas music  (we have those satellite music channels on the tv… I assume ONE of them is holiday music) on, lighting a fire in the fireplace, making hot chocolate, and getting my butt in gear with some help from the Munchkin.  Yes people, I’m FORCING myself to be festive… its a new low.  Anyone want to come over and help me staple antlers onto the cat? **

** Its a reference to the movie Scrooged- I’m not really going to staple the cat’s head.

• I seem to be fizzling out of all things that start with “Na” and end with “Mo” - Currently I hate my KniSweMo - I’ve decided that since I primarily wear sweaters over things as jackets that something tight fitting and with holes in it wouldn’t be something that I would necessarily wear. I’m also unsure about the color.. so I may be turning the cowl neck portion into a spiffy hat.
• I haven’t really been doing well on the NaBloPoMo front either.. since I’ve resorted to links and lame quizzes on day 6.  I am not real positive about making it through this month blogging every day.. though this seems to be the time when I post actual things going on in my life instead of my usual where I wait until I have a chunk of knitting or a wad of handspun to show you.
• Speaking of handspun.. that’s tomorrow’s post.  I spun up a bobbin of the Wicked Witch roving singles and then Navajo plied them earlier tonight. My lower back and right butt-cheek is not happy with the fact that I sat in front of the wheel long enough to ply an entire Louet bobbin (I just typed “boobin”.. hee hee) but I did it anyway. I was just so impressed by the fact that I spun thin enough to make a light worsted yarn after Navajo plying that I had to keep going until I had finished the whole bobbin. I still have more to spin up if I want to… depending on the yardage.
• I  haven’t gotten to knit up Yarn Harlot’s spiffy hat that I linked to in yesterday’s post.. but I did look at my possibilities with yarns.  I will probably have to do the “s-word” (*whispers* swatch…)  to see if anything I pulled from the stash is the right thickness.
• I bought a cute pair of fingerless gloves just in time for the weather to be too cold to wear them to the bus in the morning.  As much as I hate them (wearing them.. I think they’re perfectly adorable otherwise) .. I may end up knitting some mittens.  This would be a good NoroVember project.

My computer is getting glitchy and I’m getting tired so I’m going to bed before the computer and I get into a fight about how many times I’ve ACTUALLY pushed the backspace key. It seems very keen on deleting everything I write..  it may be cursed.  If the cat is missing tomorrow.. I know the cursed keyboard ate it.

Yes.. over there… HERE! Isn’t this hat cool?

You could so use handspun on that project!

I’m starting one tomorrow!

(no.. I can’t think of anything else to say tonight and have no photos to show.. )

Oh look.. a useless quiz!!

You Are 64% A Child of the 80s

Not only did you experience the 80s… you are practically an expert. You should be totally stoked!

Are You a Child of an 80s?

A whole month of this nonsense… aren’t you glad its November-mo?

I’m posting this so that it might count for todays post toward NaBloPoMo.. but I’m pretty sure that I’ve crashed and burned at day 4 here folks. Assuming that just simply posting counts, here’s some quick random before I go to bed…

• I’m out of clever titles. Completely OUT. I think after over 3 years of blogging I’ve emptied my brain of interesting ways to say ” I have nothing to say so here’s a post with mindless drivel”
• I have a week filled with crap I don’t want to do.. including parent/teacher conferences because they’re jerking my kid around at school, taking my car (late) to get the emissions test (that it may not pass.. poor old girl.. cross your fingers y’all.. she’s got to make it through!) done, going to the tag office and getting my tags renewed (late.. pay a fine I already can’t afford.. blah blah..) and do a lot of standing in line, figure out how to pay for a battery for my car so that I don’t have to keep using a jump box DAILY on the poor thing, and of course run a household on nickels a day (so it seems). fun!
• The mail has been a constant source of happiness to me in the last week.. birthday giftie boxes are coming in from various friend-folks and its making my 30th birthday last even longer.. which is very cool. I have the most awesome friends.. honestly y’all.
• I wanted to thank everyone (speaking of awesome friends) for their birthday wishes and assurance that my 30’s are going to rock. I’m really behind in emails.. (again) so hang in there and know that every comment was read and appreciated.
• You know that sweater I’m supposed to be knitting in a month? Yeah, we’re STILL not going to talk about it.

ok.. its rather chilly here at Chez Mousie.. so I’m going to crawl into bed and hope that the cat has been doing her job and kept my side of the bed warm!!

Edited to add: hey WP bloggers.. you might want to change your time settings because otherwise your posts will be off by 1 hour! (ask me how I know.. lol)

Um.. or something. Yes.. its that time of year again when I ramble on the blog every day for 30 days and you silently beg for me to shut the f–k up. I’ve also decided to unofficially take part in Na-knit a sweater in 30 days-mo* in hopes that I’ll be able to finish a hand-knit sweater this year. I’m doing the Tree Jacket and I’m working on the cowl neck at the moment. I’ve also joined NoroVember.. and I’m thinking of doing one of those stripey 2 skein scarves or some fingerless mitts. In short, welcome to November.. I’m suddenly a joiner.

I actually MISSED posting a “Happy Halloween/Samhain” message yesterday because I spent the entire day out with MIL for my belated birthday lunch.  We were supposed to go shopping but we ended up at Olive Garden for the “unlimited soup, salad & breadstick lunch” and were nearly unable to move from the booth after putting away entirely too much food.  We DID get to finish up winter clothing shopping for Munchkin (thanks to the kind monetary donations of great-grandparents) who decided that NOW would be the perfect time to grow out of EVERYTHING he owns.  I’ve been sending the poor child to school in pants that are like 4 inches too short ever since the weather got too cool for shorts and I even tried to take down the hems of a few pairs of pants to no avail.  I seriously considered sending him to school in a pair of camo waffle knit ‘long johns’ with shorts over the top but figured that the school probably already thinks  Chez Mousie is a crazy enough place.

* I was too lazy to go look it up and find out what it was actually called. (its NaKniSweMo I think)

Unfortunately there isn’t much going on here at Chez Mousie that has been bloggable in quite a while.. so I haven’t had much to say here. I signed up for Norovember again this year because last year it motivated me to learn entrelac and start the Danica scarf in Kureyon. I’m hoping to maybe work on Lady Eleanor or just some fingerless gloves. I’ve got a few skeins of Noro in my stash and I’d like to buy a few balls of Silk Garden for a pretty scarf if I get any birthday money.

It turns out that I won’t be going to SAFF this year despite the generous gestures of room & ride by some friendly blogger folks. The new elementary school my son is going to is having their Mother & Son Halloween costume ball on Saturday the 27th and my son was really looking forward to attending… so I called off the trip to go with him to his party. Our financial situation is less than favorable at the moment and it would have been horribly irresponsible for me to try and go to SAFF, not to mention slightly depressing as I wouldn’t be eating or buying anything on the trip. At the moment I’ve got it in my head to attend Rhinebeck next year as a consolation prize for 2 years of not being able to attend SAFF.. but we’ll see what happens.

I haven’t been doing much knitting lately but I have started on the Tree Jacket from Zephyr Style and hope to get it done to wear at Thanksgiving. I figure it MIGHT be cool enough for a sweater with holes in it by late November. I’m using gray Caron Simply Soft from my stash.. though I already know that I’ll have to buy a few more skeins to complete the sweater. I realized that I haven’t actually completed a sweater since my Willow cardi all the way back when I started this blog but I don’t actually have enough yarn in my stash to make complete sweaters. I saw that Michaels is having a yarn sale and I’m hoping to pick up enough yarn in the same dye lots for a few very inexpensive sweaters this winter… and as soon as they start putting sweaters out at the thrift store I will definitely be doing some scavenging for wool. Unfortunately my local thrift store has a bad tendency to felt anything that is wool before putting it out on the floor..

(ps. I wanted to thank everyone for the lovely comments about Joe Betta.. I decided not to get another fish for the moment and I’ve put away the bowl in the garage for a later time.)

I’m pushing this really close but I spent half the night looking for a specific thing in the house for a silly prop for my idea for Jane’s sock contest. This is my entry in her “first/last” sock contest. The newest sock (on the left) “Unmentionable Curse sock” (colorway is Avada Kedavra) meets the first socks (KnitPicks Simple Stripes in Vineyard) and its toe up friends to check out its future home in the sock drawer.

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.

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.

In between sweating off about 8 pounds and battling ants in my kitchen I managed to finish the STR Broadripple cuffed socks that have been hanging around on my needles since June. The first sock went rather quickly but the second was afflicted with SSS and spent most of its life stuffed in the bottom of my knitting bag.. especially when the cuff started to pool differently than the first.

Pattern: Turkish cast on, MisoCrafty’s short-row heel, Broadripple cuff.
Yarn: Socks that Rock Medium Weight in Gypsum bought at MSW during our raid on The Fold’s booth. We had a battle plan people, it was serious.
Needles: magic loop - Addi 2.5 mm
I loved knitting with the Socks that Rock yarn.. it was very soft, well spun, and didn’t have any knots. The colors are rich and gorgeous but pooling on the other hand.. tests the tiny handful of sanity I have left. While the price of the yarn is too rich for my blood at the moment, I’m hoping to get some of the semi-solid colourways in the future.

What’s next on the sock needles? I’d really like to try some of the Lorna’s Laces that I have in the stash to see what sort of color pooling madness happens - I’ll figure out the pattern for the cuff after I turn the heel.  Anyone who is on Ravelry knows that I’ve sort of gone batshit in regards to the pattern queue - I think I’ve got around 90 projects in my personal queue and that was only from some quick browsing.

Answer: What is “things that are cold?”

Yes.. that’s correct! Pick again !

Ok.. I’ll take The Daily Double for $500…

Here’s your clue:

Hell, Hot Pockets, Fire, Lava, & Mouse…

Answer: what is “things that are boiling hot”?

HOOORAY! Congratulations.. you win a trip to the tropical location of Chez Mousie for a vacation in the land of broken air conditioning hell during what is probably the hottest week of summer in Georgia! Woooo—hooo. You’ll be spending an unknown amount of time on its sweltering shores and enjoying the views of mosquitos bursting into flames in mid air and the local wildlife spontaniously combusting! (sorry Ms. Kitty..)
send cooling thoughts. send a repair man. please kill me.