PippiKneeSocks.com

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’ve been trying to get Pippi updated all day. (I honesly started at 8 this morning.) Some silly c+p errors in the newsletter; yikes, what a way to look like a fool in front of 400 people in the same instant. So, now you all know how frazled I am. (I’m leaving out the part where I stayed up watching TV until 2 am.. hummm)

Any way, here it is

i’ve added 5 handspun bulky thick and thin singles
(including Forcynthia)
and 2 arty/novel types
2 new colorways (4 hanks) of hand painted superwash sock yarn

yikes!

I hope you enjoy!

♥

I couldn’t resist being this cheesy. (Maybe cheesy is the wrong adjective; dorky perhaps??)
Forsythia, from Spin to Knit (pg 65-67)

(I hope I’m not in copyright violation here; if I am, someone let me know!)

I’ve been doing lots and lotser of spinning too.
more lock-ness. (heehehe, Lockness.)

After Midnight
&

Atomic Locks

Sheesh! That is all I have time for; as I’ve been rushing all day. Now I need to rush to get Bells from the bus. Hopefully, the Finch won’t put up a fight about getting dressed!
♥

To spite the universe and circumstances working against me today, I managed to update the shop. All kinds of new stuffs.

Now, I’ll take a little digression and ramble about said circumstances
Today Izabella didn’t have skool; this means her complaining about it every 5 minutes & both of the young causing chaos, for good measure..
I had pictures to take, sock yarn to wind, things to add to the data base. (which, of course i managed at least one screw up.)
And I was up against this. (Don’t let the sweet eyelashes fool you.)

Every time I break out the camera, one or the other jumps right in front of it.
It has been more chaotic here today, than it has been in a long time. Norma’s Double Motherwort tincture arrived this afternoon, and Not A Second Too Soon. I’m tellin ya, this stuff is worth more than gold. I took some, and immediately felt better. (hummm, that might have something to do with the vodka it is distilled with… ha.) But, now i have a cup of coffee sitting in front of me; even tho my brain is fried from the juggling today; my body is tired and my house is a mess (and, mother comes Monday, for Bell’s birthday. AYE!)
But, there is no rest for the wicked, as I’m about to fire up the dyepots for something I have promised for Scout

If I owe you email, please know I’m not ignoring. I seem to be behind, and I have this syndrome; If i don’t respond Right Away; they slip my mind… :0 (Sad, but true… My brain isn’t so good some days.)

♥

Lawd, it appears I even have less time for the computer now that I only have one kiddlet here with me during the day.
How can this be? Sad but true.
Today marks Bell’s last day of her first full week of pre-skool. She is really loving it. (I, on the other hand am having a Very Hard time adjusting to living by this imposed schedule…)
She insisted on having her picture taken in her new bad ass t-shirt from auntie Jessica

My baby; all growed up & hamming it up! (the picture is small but her shirt reads “Hello Kitty Forever”)

I have gotten a little spinning done too. (Very little, but very inspired)
My favorite yarn this week

Autumn Changes

• hand dyed mohair locks
• hand dyed tinkle
• hand dyed wool
• recycled silk sari
• 5 ply
• 14 yards
• 4 WPI
• 1.8 oz

Even Matt had nice things to say about it. (”That’s hotttt” lol.)

The mohair locks are very inspiring.

Purple lock eater

• hand dyed locks
• hand painted merino wool
• 2ply
• 10 yards
• 6 WPI
• 1.7 oz

Highly addictive, those locks, yes…I have some pink ones on the bobbin now.

In other highly addictive realms, I’ve been dipping into the recycled silk sari, since I was able to replenish the stash this past weekend.

Autumnal Mayhem

• hand dyed wool
• hand dyed tinkle
• recycled silk sari
• 2 ply
• 46 yards
• 7 WPI
• 3.5 oz

I am planning a wee update of Pippi tomorrow. If i can get my sock yarn hanked up, and some special batts made; that is.

I’d love to sit here and blog about how I love the colors this time of year; or how MG Tank and Mike e called the other night, as soon as i got home from my first ever PTA meeting. Saying that they had a stolen Caddy and were on their way up. (Talk about paradigm shift.. There was no way my feeble brain would have withstood going from a PTA meeting to hangin out with those two. NOPE. ~
Hopefully this weekend’s rain check still stands.)
Yes, I would love nothing better to go on and on about it all. But my son has other plans for me… That, much to my dismay, have nothing to do with me sitting at the computer.

♥

Yesterday, I scooted up to VTS&W. It was glorious, NO KIDS with me. I was almost suffering from a bit of shock, since, that is unheard of.
I had the pleasure of spending most of the day with Linda (& Peter, sometimes too). Walking around ogling the colors, admiring all of the beautiful hand work. And chatting. Great chatting! I got to meet a few bloggers in the flesh that I hadn’t before, Jessie, whom is far more beautiful than any of the pictures you have seen her post & her pal, Jessalu… Funny little thing, Jessie walked up to me and said, “I’d notice that feed bag anywhere” (my hemp courier bag)… which I found amusing; it wasn’t the flaming hair, Jessie? lol. (I think that is the advantage of having bright hair, you stand out in a crowd; easy to find or avoid.) I digress; I can’t wait to see what spindle you got!
By the end of the day, my bag was getting heavier and heavier. I’m not normally a shopper; but, I couldn’t help myself yesterday. Seeing all of the brightly colored locks, lovingly perched in baskets and bowls; the sea of color flooded me with desire, I was nearly left with no choice.
I picked up some mohair locks from High View Farm (Waterford, VT)

I’ve already washed a few handfuls and dyed them; I am anxiously anticipating them drying… I nearly was going to spin them damp. (I’ve got me some ideas.)
Some really lovely Alpaca from Snow Shoe Farm (Peacham, VT)

Very clean, and of course, so soft it should be criminal..
No plans on the horison for that delectable bag of fluff; but that is okay. It will make it’s place next to my angora from Woolybuns and bless the rest of my fiber stash with soft goodness.
Speaking of Chris, I had the pleasure of bumping into her a few times. She was teaching a felting workshop, and they stuffed her in an area half the size of my kitchen!! She and her participants were taking it in stride. Laughter and good vibes emanated from that corner.
One of my favorite acquisitions yesterday was this bumper sticker from Over East Farm

It will be making it’s way onto the back of the auto sometime soon, after it rains, as bumperstickers don’t like to cling to dirty cars.
& last but NOT least….ta-dum.

!!
Recycled silk sari from The Wool Peddler
Stephanie & her family are really lovley! (and she has a great muff pattern in the summer issue of knitty) I think from now on, I’ll be getting all of my sari from them, yes.
I already dove into the packages & made some batts

I couldn’t make my way up today to see Adrian (hope you made it!! and not to bingo!:)); as there was/is just too much to do here. I came home yesterday to find both the kids naked and covered from head to toe in marker, they also commingled all of the clean laundry with the dirty stinky clothes… This means, I have much laundry to do, as Bells needs clean clothes to go to skool (!!) tomorrow. AYE. Skool, I get butterflies every time I think about it.
Well, I should get off the computer, and do the things I need to do.
Hope everyone had a great weekend as well!!
♥

monday and rain. apropos, really. the weekend was sun-sun-sunny; and warm. a few degrees warmer than i would like, but hell, that is what oak trees and Ac’s are for. i feel fortunate. on thursday, the last time i looked at the weather; ‘they’ (yes, the weather folx are some of “them”) called for rain the next ten days. it seems we were in a pocket of beautiful weather; as my neighbors to the east had rain, and my neighbors to the south did as well. now we are playing catch up. the garden can use a good watering, tho, right? let’s just hope it doesn’t last a week, or i’ll be flirting with being mental again. (*cough*)
all in all, a good weekend. to spite some PMS outbursts. (*cough*) i got a small amount of fiber stuffs done.
more processing my churro fleece. i carded and dyed some up.

to the right is some mohair that i also processed this week, the churro is to the left.
looks really pretty close up too!

it was intended to be part of my project spectrum, june blue but, i’m running way out of time for what i had in mind. maybe i should start on purple NOW.

the weekend was also ripe with church tag sales.
i scored a metric but-ton of broadcloth, some notions, and some old skool fisher price accessories. (!!!)
a ethernet hub. (which, sadly, i can’t use because it has an in-line for cable, and not dsl.. and i can’t hook it up to either or my modems.)
we did have to scale down our normal weekend tag sale rituals; lately finchly the younger has been, how do i put this, very unhappy at said events. he has taken to biting me and leaving big bruises. bells the elder never really bit, so, i just don’t know how to deal. but that shit hurts. i swear i thought he was going to take a chunk out of me a few weeks ago.

last night as i was out doing the dusk garden cruise; examining my baby peppers,encouraging my ‘maters, pulling out offending weeds, etc. i thought it would be a good idea to check the mailbox, since i didn’t do it since thursday… i’m so HAPPY that i did! inside was a bounty!
my dye-o-rama swap.

my dyer was Monica from Two Left Needles. Sher really did her homework, to the left, pink + black sock yarn!! (she calls it pink panther… go see how she made it!)! i feel so lucky, she really put ALOT into my yarn. i hope i can get some new kicks made soon. she also sent some freaking lovely silk roving from interlacements (!!!) and further proof she really did her homework; bunny note cards!
soon, i hope to spoil my swappee just the same. i ordered some new dyes on thursday, and kicked for the fast shipping.. so hopefully today.
thank maude my swappee is understanding; or else i would feel like an even bigger heal.

i took so long typing and taking coffee breaks that the kids are now awake, and in full force. whoopee!

happy monday!
♥