You're letting the boys do what?

In a moment of motherly weakness, I allowed the boys to stay over at their friend's house on Superbowl Sunday. Why? Well, I don't give a shit about football but the boys do, and their friend's whole family loves football. Where do you think they'd rather be? The family also lives very close to their school so they could sleep in a little later after watching the WHOLE game. I think I wouldn't mind football so much - if it weren't for all the commercials. Players probably hate stopping every five minutes; no time to get their groove on.

The smitten socks are finished and blocking as I type!





I'm over half done with a pair of Saartje's booties for a co-worker's soon-to-be-born baby boy. The pattern is so cute, quick, and satisfying. I have plenty of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran left over to make several pair. Tomorrow, there's a trip to the LYS for wee buttons. I'm going to try a crocheted button loop for them. I wish there were a wee foot in this house to try it on! (Note: picture not to scale. Heh.)



The other unfinished chore is repairing the dryer. I'm fairly certain the heating element is shot, so after getting it out of the dryer I went to the parts store which is closed on Sunday (I kind of had the feeling this would be the case), so the old part is just hanging out in the back hatch of the car. The piece was a bitch to get out, and it seems like putting the new one in is only going to be worse. The weather is nice and the laundry is piling up quickly. I do have a clothes line in my back yard, but in Hillsborough people burn their leaves (I know how wrong/terrible it is - not to mention we're in a drought and have a ban on burning) so when I hang out our laundry it smells like burnt leaves. Yuck. I hope the Repair Goddess is with me tomorrow.

Sickness, socks, and spinning

For the first time in quite a while, I was too sick to knit. Nasty GI bug finally got me. It got many of the children I work with, but we had a week with no more incidents and I got too confident. Sunday night was the great karmic smackdown! The bad news is I was in bed for as almost twenty-four hours (haven't done that since my month of bed rest when I was pregnant with twins). Normally, even when I'm sick, I don't stay down. This time, I couldn't sit up. The good news, I feel much better and what ever bulk I'd added due to Holiday Treats... is gone.

I've tried to make up for lost knitting and spinning time. I'm on the home stretch of my second "smitten" sock! Still enjoying it, although I'm annoyed that I clearly went off "random" somewhere and spun waaay too much red/pink on one bobbin for a while.



Right now, I'm spinning some more chaos with a slightly more controlled environment. I have two ounces of seven or eight different rovings and batts. I haven't done any dying for myself in over a year and this little bit of fun has inspired me to do it again. Now that I've seen all those lovely random pairings, I'm ready to make some on purpose. A whole skein even.

Eowyn is still intrigued by Cocoa. Part of her interest seems like natural dog curiosity, the other part seems more, um, predatory. As a dog, Eowyn has quick, powerful movements and I would rather be cautious with her around Cocoa than sorry. When I was young, we had an Irish Setter (Ginger) and a guinea pig and this dog was terribly confused by the pig and thought it was her baby (same color).
Ginger would lick it (all the while the guinea pig was squeaking indignantly) and push it up under her with her nose to try and get it to nurse. There are cases where dogs and small animals can be friendly. I just don't think Eowyn is like that. See how "curious" Eowyn is?



And she seems to know she needs to feel guilty about it. Look at how she hides her eyes!



Eowyn is just as stubborn as every other living thing in this house. Tonight Chicky said, "I let her sniff Cocoa and Cocoa licked her nose!" Cocoa does lick Chicky (which is weird, I've known at least twenty guinea pigs in my life and none of them licked people!) but licking a dog is another thing. And an Unsafe Practice at the very least. The boys and I have stressed to Chicky the need for caution with both of them in a small space. We'll see how it goes.

Still socking. Heh.

I've stopped adding my "smitten" pictures to my appropriate flickr groups because I'm worried they'll think I'm crazy for taking so many pictures of one yarn and one sock-in-progress. I'm even going to be reasonable and put a small sized picture below (if you're jonesing for a better view just click on it).



Today was knitting with Chicky's class. They were celebrating the 100th day of school, so our time was short. Here are Chicky (in my Lady Detective hat) with two of her friends knitting. The boys were knitting too, but were more camera evasive.



The children go to their dad's house after school tomorrow and I have a pile of fiber begging to be spun. I'm planning on dividing my time between the socks and the wheel. No wonder I don't get out much - too much fiber and too little time!

I'm waiting for my Zen String shipment (yarn) and my Spunky Eclectic (fiber) to arrive. I'm thinking about setting one of those "wool traps" for the postman (I do have a "man" so I feel ok using the term, but also like I have to defend my use of it). We'll see if it works.

"Smitten" socks

I was so in love with the srappy handspun skeins that I cast on for a pair of socks. So far, they look like this



(I'm using the medium size pictures even though the right side gets cut of a little and messes with my control-freakish need for symmetry. The yarn begs me to do it anyway. See all the layers of color? Isn't it amazing? The sock cuff is about four inches along now. The color shifts keep me entertained and the texture is lovely. This could be the quickest knit socks, for me, EVER!

This past holiday, I received a lovely stump teapot. It is perfect. Holds 16 oz., doesn't drip when it is poured, has a fine mesh infuser, and a flat top for stacking. Isn't it cute?



I like it so much I've used almost all my loose-leaf teas! When I was at Whole Foods today, The Republic of Tea guy was there and he recommended Apricot Honey. It's a rooibus with marigold flowers. Quite tasty. I'm always up for a good tea recommendation.

Yikes, I need to go make dinner. After dinner and clean up... more knitting...or maybe spinning my Spunky Eclectic November fiber...hmmm.