Kiss My Knits!

Last week, I got a call from my cousin, who had mice, plural, in his house. He asked if we still had any Havahart traps. Their family is home to two pet rabbits, and I think a couple of rats and a gerbil, so they’re very soft on wildlife. Fortunately, we do still have the traps, after catching a mouse last year in our kitchen. They caught a mouse, which his wife promptly set up a habitat for and decided to keep. Insert eye-rolling from my cousin and I here. Anyway, they’re trying to catch the second mouse, which I’m guessing will also get a cushy setup in a terrarium. It’s a wild rodent, people. Two words: Black Plague.

Anywho, I just went into our bedroom and turned on the lights, and a mouse scurried down a chest of drawers. And us without our trap. Great. I went to write my mom to see if she still had a trap, and also to alert my husband to this. I came back into the bedroom just in time to see it scurry into our closet.

This is BAD, people. BAD! I know it seems like finding one in the kitchen last year would have been worse, but I keep yarn in that bedroom! No worries, the Jayne yarn is elsewhere, but the closet has lots of Lamb’s Pride, Manos del Uruguay, some handpaintedyarn.com worsted, hand-dyed mohair, and pippikneesocks handspun, among others. None of which is meant to be nesting material! BAD, BAD MOUSE!

I’m going to the massive 24-hour Harris Teeter RIGHT NOW and get a humane trap.

BAD MOUSE!

ETA: All I want is to be able to buy a no-kill mousetrap at 11:30 at night. Is that so wrong? No dice at the store, we’ll wait until the hardware store opens at 1pm tomorrow. Ugh!

Well, that didn’t go as expected.
Mom, don’t click!

Well, today was the last day of school, so I decided to head on up the road to Davidson to hit the Needlecraft Center, because it’s going to get a lot harder to take road trips after today. So I snagged myself some Koigu! See the pretty? I do have immediate plans for two of the skeins. More than this, I cannot say. Out of curiosity, which of the two colorways do y’all like best?

While driving back from Davidson, I was listening to the radio and my mind was wandering. I thought about the influence of the media, and a story my dad had told about being a kid in the audience at a radio show when the host commented on he and his buddies. They were all tow-headed*, and since one of the people in the band was called “Whitey” for his hair, it was remarked upon. 60 years later, and he still remembers it. And so did my grandmother, since I remember her talking about it too, saying that when she heard the fellow say that on the radio, she knew he had to be talking about her kid. I started thinking about it, and realized that while I knew it had happened, I couldn’t think of exactly where. It was 60 years ago, though, and the buildings have changed a bit since then. So when he called today to mention something, I asked him where he used to go and see the shows.

We had a great trip down memory lane, and the landscape of Charlotte music. The Briarhoppers (left) were mentioned, and so was Betty Johnson and the Johnson Family, Fred Kirby, and Arthur Smith, among others. I got to hear the story of how my dad got his first new bike, too.


So here are some questions for you: have you ever asked a parent a question that got you an unexpected or illuminating answer? Is there a question you wish you could ask your parents?

By the way, here’s what my dad was calling about. The Little Girl Giant, which I really recommend you check out.

*The things you learn. According to http://www.wordorigins.org/ , “Tow is an old (14th century) word for flax. People whose hair resembles flax–light colored and tousled–are tow-headed. The term dates to the 19th century.” Neat!

This is a picture that my daughter drew of a story called “The Kissing Hand.” You can click the pic for a larger view. My daughter read this book in school and really loved it, so we bought a copy to have at home.

In the story, a little raccoon (Chester) is worried about going to school, so his mother gives him a kiss on the hand, so that he can press his hand against his cheek and have kisses from her whenever he wants.

The picture she drew isn’t a copy of an illustration from the book, she just made it up on her own. Note the title in a big heart, “by” in another heart, and “Audrey Penn” next to it. Audrey Penn being the author, of course.

There aren’t any bugs in the book, except for background pictures of fireflies. Nonetheless, apparently “Linda” the bug and her mom, “Ms Bug” are now stars as well. Also, the school, unnamed in the book, is now labeled “School for Raccoons & Bugs.”

Parts I love about this drawing: She came up with her own illustration. In fact, she’s told us she wants to be an illustrator when she grows up. Pretty heady stuff for a “special” kid who threw major tantrums when asked to form letters in kindergarten last year.

Also, I love the rings around the raccoon eyes, and that she spelled “raccoon” correctly. I love little Linda Bug, and I love that my daughter used “Ms” instead of “Mrs” when the book itself uses “Mrs.” That’s my girl!

This hat ranks on up there with the chicken hat.

I think the pending parents on my knit list should be very afraid.

ETA: Someone on the Craftster boards suggested making the earflaps be yellow with long blonde braids. Baby Valkyrie!

So I’ve got babies to knit for, and I also want to work on some unfinished knitting. I go hunting through my knitting, and hey, presto! Not one but TWO unfinished pinkish baby booties!

The problem? I can’t find the freakin’ pattern book anywhere in my house.

Perfect. Just perfect.

Geekiest. Charts. Ever.

Yesterday my daughter and I were poking around outside, and found some pillbugs. She picked one up and took it to the front door and said, “It can live with me!” So we brought it in and put it in her little bug habitat.

She’s done this with pillbugs before. The part that cracks me up is that she named her pillbug “Cat.”

“Cat” was joined by several more pillbugs, one of which she forcefully tried to unroll, and then handed the two halves to me and said, “this one’s broken.” She knows not to do that now. I’m about to go set the survivors free. She’s been talking about wanting a puppy (note, she would hate this in real life) or a hermit crab and maybe a fish. Given the hazards of being one of her pets, I think we’ll stick with the pillbugs for now.

Going to get my hair cut today. It’s doing that floopy wings thing that it does on the sides when I let it go too long.

I’m ahead on Jayne orders. In other words, I do have hats in the queue, but I’m getting them out quicker than the estimated time I gave to the clients. I’m going to pause, though, and knit something else so I don’t go crazy, so it’ll probably go back to “right on time” in the next few days. Knitting time will slow down after school’s out on Friday, anyway, and then the hubby’s out of town next week. Bleah.

Hats up next for Oregon, Australia, and Charlotte!

The Charlotte Serenity screening, which was off, is back on again! And this time it’s only a couple of miles from my house! Yay!
Serenity Now!, knitting, weird foreigners, dead trees, and yummy whipped creamy goodness.

Sent a hat off to Raleigh today to be a prize at the charity screening of Serenity on June 23rd. More info on screenings near you can be found at http://www.cantstoptheserenity.com .

Also sent off three kits to one person in Australia. I had cut her a break on shipping, but unfortunately, three kits in one package came out to over a pound and a half, for more than $15 shipping. Ouch. Well, live and learn.

Sudden upswing in Aussie orders – not sure why that is. Probably because it’s winter there, and let’s face it, there’s no more stylish way to stay warm than in a Jayne hat.

Got a guy out west who wrote a few weeks ago to say his hat never arrived. It showed up back on my doorstep a couple of days later. I’m betting it got delivered to the office of his apartment complex, and since he’s out of town, his roomies didn’t pick it up, so it came back to me. I’ve tried to contact him, but he hasn’t written back. I’m a little worried that since he’s gone for the summer, e-mail where he is is sporadic. If worse comes to worse I can dig up his phone number, but we’ll wait and see. I just hate having his money and his hat just sitting here.

Hat on the needles for Minnesota, then California and New York. Then I’ve got to knit many, many baby outfits! Pregnant friends, just clench up, I can’t keep up with you!

Well, my car’s back out of the shop! Somehow when I started walking up to the garage to get it I didn’t realize it was 84 degrees Fahrenheit outside. That’s 29 Celsius to you weirdos in the rest of the world. A mile and a half in long pants was a bad idea.
The car, the site, and misdelivered yarn.