Eek!

Plans are made to be broken, right? I was so looking forward to a relaxing day of knitting and watching football, but alas, a small creature has ruined it.

Friday night I heard a noise on my kitchen counter. When I went to investigate, I saw a tiny little mouse coming out of a box of soft batch cookies. Eeeewwwwww! I don't hate mice, but they sure aren't my favorite roommates. I bought poison and traps and haven't caught one yet. So today I am deep cleaning my apartment, with the game on in the background. The home is due for a good clean anyway, but I was hoping to put it off a little longer.

The kitchen is now CLEAN, and the only place I've seen droppings is there, so hopefully I won't find mouse poop anywhere else. The thing that freaks me out the most is that it's a studio, and my bed is 2 feet away from the kitchen counter. It's no fun to be in bed, trying to sleep, and thinking that there might be a mouse near the end of my feet. Gross. I'll get that rat bastard and kill him. Trust me.

The good news is that I'm housesitting this week, and will hopefully kill him before I'm home again.

Last night was best friend's birthday party, and we had a blast. I was almost done with her socks when the mouse appeared, and didn't quite finish them in time, but there was plenty of time to knit the legs while playing Charades.

Of course I ripped and started over with a new pattern shortly after I turned the heel on the first design. She ended up getting socks with baby cables: that 2-stitch cable where instead of doing a real cable, you knit 2 together and knit the first stitch again. They were a lot of fun and there's enough yarn leftover to make myself some too!


The best part is that she LOVES her socks! This picture was taken after breakfast this morning - she put them on last night and has not taken them off since. And they fit perfectly!

As of yesterday, Abbie and I have now been friends for half our lives. We are so different - in looks, personality, careers, family lives - every way. But we get each other. And we're always there for each other. When we hang out it feels like we're in high school again, but instead of sneaking out of my parent's house to smoke cigarettes, we're sneaking around her house trying not to laugh too loud or else we'll wake her baby. Life's funny like that.


I'm so thankful for Abbie, and all of my closest friends. I'm thankful for their families, who have become my family. They make life so sweet!

Why I Love Tennessee, and Other Random Fun

This is why I love Tennessee. It's just plain beautiful. It's a gorgeous sunny Sunday, not a cloud in the sky, and there's always a nice view. (Pretend that there is no glare)

Now that the camera has batteries again, here is my sparkling shower:

I tried to get better pictures by standing on the toilet but I bumped my head on the ceiling and gave up.

And I've gotten a lot of work done on the Tangled Yoke Cardigan. I've finished the front/back up to the armhole and one sleeve. This picture doesn't quite show the beautiful green celery color.


I'm taking a slight break from this to work on presents. There are 3 birthday gifts to be completed in the next month - one on October 16, one October 19, and one October 24th. Before I show pictures, I need to figure out if these people read my blog or not. My wonderful and amazing sister-in-law Jaime might read it, not sure. One is for baby Buddha's first birthday (he's my younger nephew. Did you know that he and his big brother hung the moon? Fun fact. They are also perfect in every way. Isn't that amazing?). I haven't started his gift yet but I'm thinking cashmere sweater out of either Cascade's Cash Vero or Rowan's Cashsoft DK. Cash Vero is softer, but Cashsoft is washable. We'll see. I get to see both nephews tomorrow so I'm bringing my measuring tape because while he might be almost 1, I think he wears a size 2 or 3.

The third gift is for by "brotha from anotha motha", Benji. Soon after I started to really get into knitting, Benji and I were roommates. He put up with yarn stuffed under the couch, and I put up with loud late-night poker games and lots of Steely Dan. He asked me to make him a fair isle Nordic snowflake hat, with earflaps. I tried and tried and my tension was all over the place. I finally gave up and bought him a polarfleece hat. To this day, he still reminds me that the hat I bought him sucks, and I'm sick of hearing about it. I've been swatching and found a great pattern, and am ready to cast on. I finally figured out how to make the tension even - holding both yarns in my left hand using a yarn guide. Pictures to come.

Time to knit and watch football. The Titans have a well deserved bye week, and we play the Atlanta Falcons next week here in NashVegas.

Holy Crap This is Actually Fun

I have a rough relationship with my bathroom. I love to take nice long baths, but when I found my awesome apartment, it only has a stand-up shower and no tub. It took about a month and a half to figure out how to shave my legs without hurting myself or pulling a muscle - the shower is that small. I bought a cute new bathmat when I moved in, only to realize that it's 16" from the shower to the side of the toilet, so nothing will fit (at the moment I'm using an old towel folded in half, but I'm working on making a perfect size bathmat - details later). I rarely close the bathroom door when I'm getting ready in the morning, but it blocks the drawers under the sink so I can only open them about 3" unless I close the door, and to do that I have to stand in the small space between the shower and toilet. It's a teeny tiny wee little bathroom and I make do.

The place was not necessarily sparkling clean when I moved in, and I am not a clean freak. The kitchen and bathroom are kept up nicely, but there is usually a pile of yarn in one corner and a pile of clothes in the closet. But I HATE cleaning. It's tiring just to muster up enough motivation to spend 15 minutes doing dishes. I do it anyway, because it's more fun to knit in a clean house than a dirty one.

My main problem is this: cleaning my bathroom makes this entire apartment reek of nasty fumes for at least 24 hours. I could clean the whole thing in 15 minutes, but then have to open all windows and leave for a few hours (yes, my apartment is that small). And there is still that slight stain on the shower floor that has been there since before I moved in.

The inspiration came from a fellow Southern knitting goddess, Miss Crazy Aunt Purl. She rocks for so many reasons, and has been on a housekeeping spree. So today I picked up some Seventh Generation shower cleaner and a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser (heavy-duty) and went to town. Holy Crap the results were beautiful! I sprayed and scrubbed and literally watched however many years of mildew just wipe away. No fumes, no smell, no bleach on my shorts, and now I have a sparkling shower. It even took all the funk off my shower head. This is it. Now I'm officially obsessed with everything made by Seventh Generation. I already use their paper towels (even though they remind me of the ones in my elementary school bathroom) and their recycled toilet paper, which is a lot softer than you would think. Tomorrow I'm getting the bathroom cleaner for the sink, and will see what else they have.

The camera's battery just died on me so there are no sparkling pictures, and I might need a glass of wine to help me not freak out about how fun it was to clean. I think I'll go take a shower and bask in the fume-free shine.