PippiKneeSocks.com

It seems I’m only capable of posting my Saturday sky bi-weekly.

Mostly, due west. (Perhaps a hair west south west…)

I spy a wee bit of color change! This summer flew past me at warp speed.

Beam me up!

Last week, I had a nice respite from all the chaos of my normal world.
We had friends in from out of town. So awesome and so fun!
The last time they stayed with us, we each were just mama’s to girls. (Although, I was absurdly preggers with Finchly & the last time i saw her son, he was a mere few weeks old.) So, it was incredibly cool to have everyone together, much laughing, screaming (out of glee and excitement!) and a few tears too, but hey, such is life with kids. (My son has a black eye from when his sister shoved him between the mattress and the box spring and proceeded to sit on him.)
The grrls

Dancing to The Muppet Movie soundtrack (yes, we have it on vinyl)
The grrls assigned us each a character. S was Piggie, Bells was Kermit, I was Fozzie (ha! woka-woka), Andrea was Janis (from the band, The Electric Mayhem, for those of you who don’t remember) and the funniest, both the boys were Animal. Haha.
It was really great to share notes as mamas of ‘one of each’; specifically notes on the younger brothers. Not to mention how great it was seeing them again. The house always seems a bit empty when they leave.

Speaking of kids and all that jazz, I have two very bored ones on my hands at the moment. My Animal is showing his displeasure with me by stabbing the furniture with some knitting needles.
Time to utilize my child labor resources and get some black berries picked.

♥

i haven’t fallen off the face of the internets or anything; i’ve been busy and sick. mostly sick; and it seems like forever now, it has far surpassed the point of “gettin’ old”. & it has been so long since i have written here, i think i may have forgotten how. which is terrible. i should utilize this space to try to help me make reading about spinning interesting. after i hit “send” on my latest article, i had some pangs of regret. solidified by making matt read one of the eleventy hard copys; and him only getting past the third paragraph on the first page. so, i’ve failed. (seems to be alot of that going on with me in recent weeks. but, you know that can work to my advantage, by making me try harder. sitll and all, not a great place to be; in the right here, right now. I should try starting by using proper capitalization and punctuation. I’m no ee cummings. Ever notice, My favorite punctuation is the ! followed by the ; what gives? Reading my stuff out loud, and doing edits is very painful.)
So what has been going on in my world? (clearly you didn’t click on your bloglines to be witness to my beating myslef up, did you?) Let’s see; in no particular order…
WORD to

Lime & Violet (for those of you unawares of L&V… hottest new fibery goodness pod cast out there! can we say Chock Full of Fresh & Funny!!! And by hottest, i mean they are getting all kinds of attention from the i tunes peeps and bloggers alike; and we all know that the blogosphere is always right on ze money.)
So many of my lj peeps were talking about it, I tried to listen, but being a podcast virgin; I didn’t know one had to wait.for.the.page.to.load. I also i had no idea they had mentioned me in some fashion until my mama Scout shouted out to me. Thanks Scout! I do have to shamefully admit, that i haven’t given it full listen yet,(just bits and bobs) I’ve been so far removed from this box it isn’t even funny. Even if i was sitting right here, the noise level in this house is decibels above my preference; making it hard to pay attention to something; or anything really. (bedtime you cometh not a moment too soon.) But from what I was able to gather from the little bites i was able to hear, it is up beat and funny! And Lime and Voilet are stand up chicks, so I’m sure it is all good stuff! (sooooooooooo, go give a listen and when you are done, click that little donation button; any podcast that is awesome enough to give me a shout out deserves a bit of fundage to keep their servers up.(Podcasts use up a metric butt ton of bandwith, in case you don’t know.)
So, what else…?
ah, the “I wanna be an elf” hat

Made from a ever so slightly variegated (kettle dyed) green bulky think and thin single, on size 10.5’s. With YO’s every few rows, carried along with a semi-coily number.

Semi coils, interesting, but I’m still not too thrilled with them. I’m far too anal it seems.
I’m not happy with the hat in general, I’m going to frog it. But, I continue to knit on it. (WTF?) I think it has something to do with “the drugs” Velma mentioned…. ‘I do it for the drugs.’
So, I’ll keep knitting on it until it is done, then i’ll frog it.

My second sock is progressing ever so slow.

I may have mentioned this before, but I was suffering from SSS even before the first one was done. I was putting off the toe decreases, and kept putting them off, the poor sock wound up being a bit too long with a boxy toe. Will I undo my kitchener, and frog back an inch? No. Boxy toe will stay with us as an ode to imperfection. An ever present reminder that I need not always be perfect.

I’ve only done a wee bit of spinning.

This yarn, will hopefully become this sweater. I can hardly wait to get the book in my hot little hands, so I can see just how much of this i need to spin. (Well, there is a plethora of reasons why i can’t wait to get it; have you seen the table of contents?!?!?! Lynne Vogel!! among many other super talents, including Crystal Canning & if I’m not mistaken, the book is lovingly dedicated to her memory.
Another reminder that our time here is short, we are only passing thru. People will not remember us for what we do, as much as how we do it & how we are.

Well, I’ve tap-tapped here long enough, perhaps if I blogged more than once a week, I wouldn’t be so painfully long winded.
Live gracefully & stay true to yourself.
♥

shannon okey’s latest book


spin to knit; has it’s very own web site
go ahead look inside
and, oh! what is that, when you look inside….?
me! (OLD photo! look i still had long hair!)
you can buy it from interweave; and it is also up on amazon at a special pre-order price
if all of that isn’t kick ass enough, there is a free pattern!!!!!!!!!
and! (yes! imagine, more kick ass-ness!)
interweave is putting together a handspun swap in celebration.
it launches october first, the same day the book hits the shelves!
be the first on your block to own it!

i am pleased as punch that i was a part of this project. working with shannon was wonderful. if you ever get the chance, go for it!

♥

-

i need to preface this by stating; i’m not your “work out” type of person.

i’ve never in my life belonged to a gym. i don’t walk or run or ride a bike for “exercise” i figure i get enough running around in just dealing with the kiddos day in and day out, to fufill any ‘exercise needs’. given the fact that ever time i sit down in a chair, my “ass alarm” rings and prompts on of my children to need something; often, with a sense of immediate urgency.

that said…. i hiked 4+ miles yesterday (ok, we all did, including the short legged folx.) 2 miles up landed us 3,536 feet above sea level. we summited mt hunger. everyone we met along the trail; especially those we saw at the summit; we struck by the kids making it. (i, on the other hand had no doubts they would make it; it was me i was doubting.) they we a big hit, especially with the BTDT parents we met, who, it seemed; were all on the mountain that day with their grown children. all eager to share stories of taking their kids out at that age. (conclusion: a family that hikes together; stays together.)

i digress, the children did really well. they went most of the way barefoot (until the rock faces just below the summit) bella flat out insisted on breaking trail; especially the way down. cyrus only wanted/needed to be carried, in the back pack for about 1/2 of a mile the entire trip. (a duty that matt and i split nearly 50/50.) apparently, the fact that a woman can carry a child on her back whist climbing a mountain blew the minds of some UVM students we met along the way. i didn’t say it, but thought ‘these are the facts, you fresh faced young adults; you carry them for nine months; and you wind up carrying them for years afterward. & just because you have been conditioned to believe that women are weak and frail, does not mean we actually are’ the other 3.5 miles that my son walked, he was impressive; abet a tad foolish. if there was 2 ways to approach, the chose the more difficult one. he scurried up rock faces like a mountian goat. his hands and feet so small, he could find hand holds where a grown person couldn’t. bella was just as adept; but a bit more cautious. they loved the summit with their whole little beings; we hung out of about an hour, had lunch and headed down, as it was cold and windy. bells informs me that she was on top of the world & it was beautiful.

something i found at the summit; my momento.

a red twist tie.

i should try to get moving, if i can. my legs are incredibly sore (as i said, i am not an exercise person.)i have a TON of work to do today; and i have to replace a whole photo card of pictures today, as somehow they got deleted. (which, is mind boggling; since my camera won’t delete photos anymore & i have to do it manually… and i know I wouldn’t get rid of said photos. *shakes fist at sky*)

♥

time for saturday sky!

3pm

an absolutely PERFECT day.
i can even smell fall in the air. in fact, last night i had to go cover up the tomatoes, we dipped down to 38 (f). kind of mind blowing when it was 90 earlier in the week. i welcome this weather with open arms. now, i just need to find a climate where it is like this all year round, i want to move there. never too much above 70 and never getting below 35.
today was also the perfect day for tag sales.
except….
well, i had a bit of an “accident” at one.
i pulled up to the house, along the side of the road, and drove right into a ditch. in my defense, the whole ditch was covered in brush. it wasn’t like i saw the ditch and neglected to avoid it. i had to call triple a to come tow us out; while on the phone with the triple a-ers they asked me for the make and model. i don’t know these things… so i had to ask matt…
me: matt, what kind of subaru is it?
him: fucking stuck.
this went on for the whole 45 some odd minutes while waiting for the tow truck.
various “funny” jabs at mom.
it is known both far and wide, that i hate to drive; and in fact, i’m not very good at it. (might be related to my dislike of said activity.)

on the plus side, i got some chick corea records at that yard sale, and some vintage knitting books.
none of which i can look at or listen to, since they are in the back of said subaru; which is en route to the disc golf course.
when matt was pulling down the drive way the following conversation took place:
me: i hope you drive into a ditch!!!!!! (hormonal retaliation for all the ‘good natured ribbing’ i had to deal with)
him: um, yea, that won’t happen.

of course it won’t; but for once i wish he had to walk in my clumsy shoes.

i really want a nap; but that is something that won’t happen either. so coffee it is.

♥

so, i was poking around the ’sphere this morning, as i so often do with my morning coffee; trying to catch up on my blog reading (which, sadly, i never will, it seems.)
and i spied this

how freaking COOL is that?!?!
it made me smile to see it! it totally negated all of the unsavory things being said about me, my yarn & the pattern. (not that i took any of that BS to heart, mind you; well, not for longer than a few hours anyway, lol.)
~
i did a small shop . update. (i know, long overdue!) today.
so, now i’m going to get those things out the door ASAP, so i can focus on the ton of work i have to do today.
AYE! i’m way behind the 8 ball!

♥

and i don’t mean me (although, some very well may disagree! hehe)

the pattern for the booze bag is up over on knitty
i made a few others, from handspun..

it took under 100 yards of x-bulky (roughly 80)
& i modified the pattern a bit.
i have another one that i’m trying to get finished out of regular bulky thick and thin, but, i’ve been so caught up in this, that, and the other, that i put it aside and forgot about it.
when i was working on the pattern to go with the coil article, i saw how i could take this basic idea, of the eyelets, and really run with it. hats, bags, belts… (my first idea was a belt, being for the summer issue and all…. but, i wasn’t able to find notions i was happy with in time…) it will be fun fire side knitting come this winter.

now, go! make one!
♥

days between; robert hunter
There were days
and there were days
and there were days between
Summer flies and August dies
the world grows dark and mean
Comes the shimmer of the moon
on black infested trees
the singing man is at his song
the holy on their knees
the reckless are out wrecking
the timid plead their pleas
No one knows much more of this
than anyone can see anyone can see

There were days
and there were days
and there were days besides
when phantom ships with phantom sails
set to sea on phantom tides
Comes the lightning of the sun
on bright unfocused eyes
the blue of yet another day
a springtime wet with sighs
a hopeful candle lingers
in the land of lullabies
where headless horsemen vanish
with wild and lonely cries lonely cries

There were days
and there were days
and there were days I know
when all we ever wanted
was to learn and love and grow
Once we grew into our shoes
we told them where to go
walked halfway around the world
on promise of the glow
stood upon a mountain top
walked barefoot in the snow
gave the best we had to give
how much we’ll never know we’ll never know

There were days
and there were days
and there were days between
polished like a golden bowl
the finest ever seen
Hearts of Summer held in trust
still tender, young and green
left on shelves collecting dust
not knowing what they mean
valentines of flesh and blood
as soft as velveteen
hoping love would not forsake
the days that lie between lie between