PippiKneeSocks.com

Sit down, pour yourself a cuppa, and pass me the earplugs, will ya?
I’m awaiting a propane delivery, so I can get some dyeing done. Until then I figured I’d flash the latest things to come off the needles…
More Mitts.

3.2 oz 2 ply handspun,
hand dyed, hand cleaned Montadale x Leicester & nylon
with a ply of handpainted domestic
DK wt. on US 3s & 5s

Mr.Pippi heckled them. (But he always heckes my knitting, I hardly every pay any mind to it…)Saying they were too pointy and the thumbs looked like sausages.
Next pair, I’ll go with the afterthought thumb. Thanks Mr. Pipps!

And to prove it hasn’t been all mitts all the time here over at the love shack

Some fulled slippers in Noro Kureyon #88 on US 10s
I tried to get a photo of them in their natural habitat, but, urggg.

And, (yep, one more!) I got on the bandwagon…
Calorimetry from Knitty

I made a few changes..
I cast on 98 st with a handspun DK wt. single on size US 2s (yes, you read that right, US size 2)
I really love the button… Of course, it is from Moving Mud.
I tried my best to get a good close up of it.

Curse you flash photography!
*shakes fist at sky*

Today is my kick off of Project Spectrum V 2.0

Three cheers for Lolly!
I’m normally not a big -along-er, but, I loved the first version and I’m back for more!!!

Have a happy Groundhog day!
I heard the when he came out he made a comment about global warming.

I was knee deep in the middle of updating the shop when Scout gave me a jingle to tell me that the Knitty surprise was up!

Looky looky!

My Mitts!

Remember these buttons?

Yeppers!

The shop has been updated!

I’ve added:

Bunches of new colorways of handpainted yarn!
Fingering and sport weights for your sockies.
AND!!!
New Worsted weights!!!
*For a limited time I will be taking orders for Custom Sweater Yarn.
The base of the worsted weight is the ultra lush Louet Gems, so, it is a bit spendy, but worth every cent.

Also today I’ve added some great hand painted spinning fibers
Including some Hot Merino/tencel!!

And I gave the 2 ply page a bit of attention, too.
With one 2 ply added.

You can view everything in the shop using this link or you can see everything that is new

Wow, alla that has taken me all day! Now I need to run and pick up Gurly Gurl from skool.

XO!

For once, I would love for our usual morning chaos, not to happen. I dream of quiet mornings, where everything runs smoothly, no one gets hurt, everyone is healthy, & no one yells.
A snippet of this morning’s yelling:
3: It’s a pineapple
5: No!! It’s a house!
3: It’s a pineapple
5: No!! It’s a house!
3: It’s a pineapple
5: No!! It’s a house!
(Wash, Rinse, Repeat until mom interjects)
34: It is a pineapple AND a house!
3&5 (in rebellious unison) NOOOOOOOO!

They do good work, turning it on me. (never fails.)

I have no doubt that if I was not a slob better at housekeeping, and was more organized, things would be smoother, because as much as I need to be by the seat of my pants, I loathe it too.
This is what happens when I run out of post-it notes.

(Gasp! I lost my pen, too!)

And, speaking of my less than stellar housekeeping.

Our tree, still standing (even tho 3 keeps trying to change that.) Lookit all of those needles!
I have started to refuse to vac them up. It is principle. It’s going to keep dropping those little effers. Why waste good vacuum effort? (You will be happy to know Sue, that all Polly Pocket shoes have been swallowed up by the sucker machine, in a stealth move, per your “advice”. Although, I did feel some guilt. I suspect that the makers of Polly Pockets anticipate such a scenario, and earn their living from that: Using MotherGuilt against us, inspiring us to buy yet more of those little buggers, only to be vacuumed up, thus inspiring more MotherGuilt. Vicious cycle.) I digress, that tree should come down already….

I fear, I’ll never get the hang of our mornings. It has been four months since 5 has started started skool & I’m still not running the show in any type of smooth & effective manner. In fact, I suspect 5 has developed some deep resentment with my apparent shortcomings.
Again with morning snippet:
5: Not that shirt, I want the kitty shirt
34: No, you just wore the kitty shirt.
5: grumbles in protest.
34: Thank you, now get your socks on…
5: NOOOOO! Not those socks!
34: Why not?
5: They AREN’T glitter sparkle socks!!
34: Sorry, just put them on please, we are going to be late.
5: MOM! YOU ARE RUINING MY LIFE
34: Well, sweets, it was bound to happen sooner or later, get used to it.

(note: She is 5, not 15. & this happens to be the second time I have been told I was “ruing her life.” The first time was over some pigtails that weren’t up to her exacting standards. Sheesh.)

I suspect I’ll miss these times in 16 or so years. Until then, I suppose I will have to rework my schedule & start to get up at 4:30, just so I can have some quiet time with my coffee and my sticks & string.
Speaking of my sticks & string, you surely didn’t just come here for the parenting rant, no?
Formerly known as Hand Things
Now Mitts in Progress

Much better.

& My yarn from the other day

Has turned into a scarf,

I was going for “dramatic” but I wound up with “Muppet”.
It told me the other day that it should have been a wrap, not a scarf. I told it to go screw, the only thing worse than frogging plain mohair yarn, is frogging mohair locks. yup. Perhaps, I’ll be sorry down the road… Can’t win ‘em all.

And on that note, I am being summonsed by 3, to go build a snowperson. (Yes! Colorado & New Mexico have decided to stop hogging all of Vermont’s snow.) So, I best get out there before I’m accused of ruining his life, too.

♥

Happy New Year!

It’s our James Bond year! (Was I the only fool suckered into going to see A view to a kill because Duran Duran sang the theme song???)

Yes, I know, I’m a few days late… But trust me, you would thank me for not posting a few days ago! After all, this is supposedly some kind of knitting, spinning blog, right; not some type of therapy.
Good thing I’m not superstitious about ‘New Years’, I spent the first few hours in tears, and New Year’s day covered in vomit. Sounds like it was a good high school party, no? Well, It isn’t what you think. Plus, I was never one of those types to get drunk and cry, I left that one up to Rob. He was the drama queen back then. The vomit came from my young, ah! the glamorous life I lead. The tears, well, apparently, I slid down the dark PMS abyss. Add the power of hormones to the magical change that is supposed to happen with the turn of the new year, multiply that by the expectations I have for myself, viola, tears.
If I was 20 years younger I would have been held up in a dark room listening to Cure records smoking cigarettes and writing bad poetry and doing stipple… (And you know, with having two sick kids to contend with, this seemed like a really great option.)
Instead, I threw myself at the mercy of my spinning wheels.

I’m not one for resolutions at the beginning of the fictitious calender change; but I do have a bad habit of looking backwards over the year and finding all of my faults. The thing that bothered me the most was I felt like I wasted the gifts that were bestowed on me in 05. It was a difficult year, but the amount of personal growth that was granted to me by the universe was astounding. I feel like I’ve almost betrayed my compassionate path. I feel like what I do is totally trivial given the state of the world. In my heart, I hope that isn’t true. And I know I can take steps to correct that, if it is the case.
Out of all that came my Fiber Friday.

It is called ” 58,408 ”
185 yards
10 ounces
apx 11 wpi
2 ply,
One ply of black wool top & mohair locks with an itty bitty ply of wool, nylon and silk sari.
The topic this week was Grief.
58,408 is the number of Iraqi civilians killed since the resident and his cronies decided to stomp up in there. For what? Money and oil? When the greed of a few men can cause that much human suffering, and not be held accountable for such shameful acts; we truly live in an unjust world. I wonder how they can sleep at night? (Perhaps large quantities of sleeping pills washed down with alcohol? )

I know, you must be thinking “……and this ISN’T depressed?”
Believe me when I say you would not like to have read anything I would have posted a few days ago, before my new favorite cure for hormonal induced insanity…
For those of you who want in on the cure, take 3 to 4 pints of neopolitan dynamite (I would highly recommend 4, just to be on the safe side.) Put this on repeat, (Thank you Brenda & Muggle!) and do something you find joy in. Stir well and often.
I think that will be a new mantra for this James Bond year; Find the joy.

♥

I don’t know about anyone else, but, I’m thinking of calling off the month of December next year. Or at the very least, I wish to be heavily sedated. (Hells, in the 1950’s the docs freely prescribed us mothers speed. Get with it, medical community, it’s a whole new century. This mama needs a clone!)
I am so exhausted from yesterday, my house looks like a bunch of Frat boys held a kegger in it, my children are still slightly bonkers & I have some unexplained green paint on my arm.
To spite our efforts in keeping things simple (ie: we only got the kids one gift each) They made quite a haul. Thanks to friends and family, they were still unwrapping gifts 45 minutes after they started.
Pony Attack!

I don’t think the Baby Jesus Had this sort of thing in mind when he was birthed.

I’ve managed to keep Barbie out of this house for over 5 years. This year Bella got one from the lovely Amy, so, I broke and let her keep it. Barbie is QUEEN of all she surveys, I tell ya. Bells thanks you from the bottom of her heart, Amy. Barbie is the end all and be all of the Xmas gig. Barbie rules that pony castle like the beotch she is.

Another interesting thing that showed up here, (amazing that I get anything any more, since my letter carrier has started to refuse to deliver to me any longer & lost a few insured packages on me this week. ~ more on that story later….) are these ‘Polly Pockets’ things. Who on earth came up with this shit?

That is a Polly Pocket shoe. I give them another 5 minutes of existence. Virtually indistinguishable from dried bits of play-dough. Speaking of dried play-dough, thanks Jess & Pat, the kids are so loving their favorite Aunt & Uncle. One year we can all have Xmas together. Jess and I can bake our famous cookies, Pat can mix some cocktails and tunes, & Brad and Matt can play vidiot games while alternating searching for p0rn on the intrawebs… A good time will be had by all!

As far as holiday knitting went, I gave up sometime a week ago. Then on Xmas eve, I felt a big twinge of guilt. So, I cast on a scarf for my MIL. (Who has been really very helpful the past few weeks!) I was washing and blocking it at one am.

I did a terrible job at the blocking, it will need to be reblocked, with out the pressure of December 25.
A simple YO pattern, but what makes it uber special is the yarn (duh!) and the kick ass glass buttons from Moving Mud.

Now that it is the 26th of December, I’m feeling a bit less stressed. The dry erase board has been hung over the desk with great care. I can get down to really focusing on the tasks that are ahead of me.
First up, getting the shop updated with all the new yarn I’ve made the past few weeks.
Second, getting my returned packages back out. (Sorry to those affected! I hope! hope! hope your Xmas wasn’t spoiled!)
Third, take some time for the Childabeasts. My son has donned a princess dress and is ramming his new RC monster truck head on into our Charlie Brown Xmas tree, all while wielding a light saber. He’s not so covertly trying to take the sucker down. I’m going to need in on this one.
♥

My life is governed by Newton’s laws of motion (specifically, the third law….. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.) When good things happen in my life, something not so good happens in return. I accept this, as the universe’s way of balancing itself out. (The universe still has some ’splainin to do for last year. I’ll let that slide for now & chalk that one up to some past life redemption stuff…)
So, here I find myself, good thing, good thing, great thing, good thing…. BAM! My weekend was ruled by stress, chaos and possible life altering decisions. The least of which, I picked up my Duval Street sock, only to find that there were only 2 needles sticking in it. After picking up the dangling 32 stitches, my yarn felt weird…. Some young boy child, who shall remain nameless, drooled or tried to eat, or otherwise got too close to my yarn… Word to the wise (or young.) Please keep your candy cane laced boldly fluids out of Mama’s yarn. If you desire to knit, Mama has plenty of suitable supplies just for you, no need to touch hers. Hear that, NO need.
It turned out to only be a few rounds worth of sticky, I pushed thru. (Still: EW!)
Here is how it looks this morning.

The yarn is eluding good photography. Irritating.
And, if you know me at all, you know that I can’t handle project monogamy. Nope.

Some hand things.
Yes, I sad things… At this late in the game, one would think that I would know if they were going to be mittens, gloves, fingerless gloves, or hand warmers. One day, my devil may care attitude is going to get me in some real hot water.

The new Knitty went up on Friday, and I’m having a hard time deciding on what to make first from it. (Perhaps Monkey or Lauren or Piggle or Antifreeze) I haven’t even been thru the whole issue yet. Is it just me, or does Knitty get better and better with each new issue? Seriously.
Speaking of the new Knitty, My column “Get Spun” is launched in this issue of KnittySpin. This time, I tackle bulky thick and thin yarn. This marks my third go at this writing about spinning, and I think I am finding my voice with it. (Compared to the first one which was as cut and dry as it could possibly get.) I would like to publicly shout out to the wonderful women who put it all together. Thank you for asking me to do this, it is a real privilege.
Also, I’d like to thank Bev, who interviewed me for her article The magic of handpainted yarn. (Along with some other beautiful web faces.) Thanks Bev! Great article! Last but not least, my favorite article this issue has to be Knitting in the Indian Himalaya. So rich, it makes me crave to be there.

♥

The shop has been updated!
I’ve added:
4 handspun Bulky thick and thin yarn
1 handspun 2ply yarn
8 colorways of handpainted sock yarn!

As Always, (insert broken record)
You can view everything in the shop using this link or you can see everything that is new

* click for musical accompaniment

All four of you who do, will be Very pleased that I unearthed this little nugget. (It has been on repeat here for the past few days.) Special attention to the Iko. Especially if you have some headphones. Woah.

& Irene, Bob drops a Nice F-bomb durning Truckin.

♥

I’m being semi-tortured at night, by my dreams. For the past month, at least once a week, I have one of those dreams that stick with you during the day. They seem so real, I can still smell the smells and taste the tastes… Today, I did NOT want to get out of bed; I wanted to continue in my slumber land. Yes, it was that good. The best part, you, and you, and you & even you were there!
And there was food and beverages! No knitting, last week’s sticky dream was about knitting. (And Ew! I don’t mean sticky like that!)

I had to wake up to get my shop update done.
A well rounded week, I would say… A bit of something for everyone.

The rundown of what I’ve added:

1 handspun Bulky thick and thin yarn
2 handspun 2ply yarns

2 colorways of handpainted sock yarn
Oodles of hand painted, hand spinning fibers!

You can view everything in the shop using this link or you can see everything that is new

And, I revamped the shipping table. I found that it was being unfair to those who got the handpaints… When I set it up, I was only selling handspun, and that weighs more on the dollar… One day I’ll figure out zones and all of that jazz… That day isn’t today, tho..
One day (again with the one day) I’ll get around to updating the customer creation page & the yarn gallery. (I will!! I know it has been over a YEAR! But, I got tired of other people using it as “inspiration” to turn a profit.)

I have some FO’s to show, but after I got done with the pictures for the update, I didn’t feel much like taking anymore!
(*cough* lazy *cough*)

♥