Knotty Mouse

If you click the link it will take you to a great description of what the button means. I saw this on a blog earlier today and it rang so true that I went over and got the code to put up here.

I do feel like I should apologize for not responding to comments left in the last two weeks… everything is crazy around here. My husband has been away more than he’s been home this month and being a “single parent”- even for a span of 2 weeks- is a lot more work than one (still rather ill) Mouse can deal with at once. (*insert whining here*)

I know that its still rather early in the month but its nearly definite very possible that I won’t be attending SAFF this year (again) which would have made a really cool “Big 3-0″ birthday gift of a trip. Admittedly I’m sad that I might not get to meet the long list of Southern bloggers who are going to be there but I also realize that there is little chance we can afford the trip at this point.

If it doesn’t work out.. I’m pondering instead a trip to the mountains (hiking, photography & antique shopping) or a trip to Athens,GA for the day (shopping, food, yarn & a visit to my favorite tattoo artist for a consultation on a later tattoo) and a nice dinner.

I do have a finished object which went so quickly that it managed to slip under the radar of my side WIP progress bars. I found an openwork crocheted snood pattern online and pulled out a size e hook and some black crochet cotton (fingering weight) and went to town. I’m pretty happy with it but I may add another few rounds to make it hang more because I have a lot of hair. I also threaded some black elastic into the snood so that it would stay on my head without pins.. though I need to buy some thinner elastic or crochet an edge to hide the elastic from view. I’m sorry for the sucktacular photo but its hard to take pictures of your own head. I will get hubby to take some better photos this weekend when he returns home!

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.

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.

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.

After a very stressful week involving work, money, parent-teacher conferences, weird stomach issues, and lots of other nasty junk.. I was invited to Athens with Sandy to do some spinning with Jodi. We had some breakfast at the vegetarian restaurant The Grit and then went on to Jodi’s studio at UGA to teach her to use the Lendrum wheel that she borrowed for a project.

After a short lesson from Hockey Mom- Jodi was spinning like a pro. There was much gabbing, goofing off, and talk of fiber that went on for hours. The small studio space was jam packed with wheels (my Louet s-10 in the front, Sandy’s Ashford Joy on the right, Jodi’s borrowed Lendrum on the left) and there was fiber all over.
I spun for about 3 hours on some gorgeous Corriedale pencil roving that was gifted to me by Jane for Christmas. This is the result of all of that spinning (that wasn’t very good for my back.. ow.. ow..ow..) from yesterday - 128 yards of dk weight singles. I’ve already got them washed and hung up to dry in the shower and will take a better photo when its finished since the flash washed out the color a bit. I’m not planning on plying these singles and am hoping to get enough to make a half-clapotis out of the 8oz of pencil roving that I have.
All in all, a pretty damn good ending to a crap week. Oh, there may have been an incident involving two carnivorous bloggers stopping on the way home at a certain drive-thru burger joint to supplement their healthy vegetarian breakfast of potatos & grilled veggies with a Whopper or two. I’m not entirely sure of the truthfulness of this statement since I believe the burgers in question were inhaled at the speed of light and chased down with milk shakes & frozen slushies. I’m sure my partner in crime will deny the whole thing.

Did you ever wonder what would happen if you gave a camera to a 5 1/2 year old child and let them run wild? I allowed Munchkin to bring his new digital camera on the blogger meetup with Jane & Sandy last Friday. All of these images were taken at the yarn shop while we were doing a bit of shopping before lunch and spinning at my house.

Clearly I have not “photoshopped” any of them because the charm in photos taken by children are the interesting effects that they manage to get by moving entirely too fast while trying to take a picture! I’m rather amused by the photo quality and I’m planning on giving Mr. Munchkin his own posts on my blog to showcase his camera work.

 Honestly, my child did a better job in blogging the events of the day than his mom.. concidering that my camera never made it out of my purse for the whole day. Its been raining for days so I can’t show you the two skeins of pretty yarn I bought - but I’ll be back after New Years with some more photos.