High Fiber—Of Mice and Mitts

The Ravellenic Games are over, along with the London Olympics. (Do I need permission to mention the "Games?" If so, I ask for forgiveness.)

In spite of being incredibly busy with other things and sick for one day last week, I managed to finish three pairs of fingerless mitts for Mitts of Steal. I used the Midnight Sky Mitts pattern by Becky Bair, which I have memorized. It calls for two strands of sport-weight yarn, but one strand of worsted works great. It makes a great project for taking in the car or knitting while watching the Olympics. (Oops! Mentioned the "Games" again! Sorry!)

I missed Vintage Stitchers this week because I came down with a 24-hr. bug on Wednesday. It was over quickly, but I was still sick Thursday morning. I'll spare you my symptoms, other than to say it involved a fever, exhaustion and many trips to the bathroom. My friend Ellen told me that her grandson and all his friends have had it recently. Lucky me!

The upshot is, having missed my quilting group, I have no quilting photos to show off. My only quilting news is, I spent half a day on Friday cleaning my fiber studio. It will take several more days, according to estimations, before it will be tidy enough to take a photo, but I have more fabric and yarn than I can ever use, and I still lust after more. What can I say? It's my drug of choice. At least it's high-fiber.

I try to keep my needles and stash out of sight if anyone comes to visit. To say nothing about keeping it free of dust, moths and...mice.

Every summer since our dear-departed feline, Kasih, retired from mousing, we have had a few of the little beasties move in and plan on staying all winter. We can't use poison because of the pups and are reluctant to use spring-traps. (Guess we're too kind-hearted.) We use live traps instead.

I must add here that we have had wily mice escape from the live traps, taking the bait, usually dry dog food. It helps if you weight the trap down with something heavy. (One time I moved the fridge out to clean behind it and found a nice row of kibble lined up there next to the wall.)

We catch two or three mice each night and deport them (they won't self-deport, for some reason) to rural areas far from other houses. They are field mice, after all; they belong out in the fields. We wait until we are sure they have raised their families in the spring. Yes, DH and I are soft touches. 

Sunny, however, is not. I don't know whether she studied under Kasih, when she was with us, or if she just comes by it naturally. The first time she caught a mouse we had to pry her mouth open. It was already dead, so we gave it a suitable burial. However, that experience taught Sunny that mice were not to eat. It didn't teach her not to catch and kill them, however. Every once in a while we find one lying belly-up on the floor.

By the time the weather turns cold, we are always mouse-free. Looks like this year will be no exception, and maybe sooner, with Sunny's help.

With no quilts to look at, the quilters will have to be content with baby photos. this first one has a treat for the knitters: DGS2 Soren in a sleep sack knitted by Mommy:

All together now..."Awwwwww!"

Someone on Facebook asked if DDIL2 made this, and DS2 said, "She made both of them!" Hee-hee! That's my boy!

Zachary has learned to sit, and Daphne is enjoying growing up with her little brother:

We're wondering if his eyes will stay that blue. It's genetically possible.

Oh, look! A quilt! That's the "Floral Bouquet" quilt I made for DD and DSIL. I'm glad the kids are enjoying it! We got a quilt in after all!

One thing that has kept me busy this week is the planning for our bathroom remodel. We had to postpone it last year because the value of our house had sunk below what we needed to get in a refinance. With the economy in our area improving, our house is back up in value, while interest rates are still lower than in a long time. So we refinanced, and DH is now starting the demo (demolition, not demonstration). We have hired the contractor who did our wonderful kitchen to do the bathrooms, changing one full bath off the main hall and one tiny master bath, with its phone-booth shower, into one powder room off the main hall and one very nice-sized master bath. We have to "unload" both bathrooms and our closets next week, and then we will have to move our bed against the outer wall and move into the guest room downstairs. It will be mostly done before the kids come for Christmas, with only the wall of cabinets left to do in January or February.

I should explain that going into the master bath is currently like going to Narnia: You have to go through open closets with racks of clothes, coats, etc., on each side, to get there. We're adjusting the walls to make one deep closet with two rods, suitable for all but very long clothes, enclosed with nice-looking doors, and the other side shallower, filled with cabinets and drawers. We're hoping that this will give the impression of going down a short hall to get to the master bath, rather than pawing your way through a "wardrobe." We'll make up for it by having another closet in the new master bath, with—wait for it—a LAUNDRY CHUTE in the floor! It helps that our bathroom remodel will be directly over the laundry room. Oh, and did I mention the heat tiles? Stay tuned. I will take photos and document our progress!

What's on my needles: Back to Dogwood Blossoms until I figure out which Christmas project to work on first. This is my totally gratuitous project, yummy and for me!
What's on my iPad: Still Drew Westen's The Political Brain. Very interesting and enlightening. (Just downloaded Dean Koontz's Odd Appocolypse, though. Just published. Looking forward to it!)
What's my app of the week: I've mentioned Zinio before, but I'm loving the new "Knitter's" magazine on it, especially after putting away all my paper copies of magazines in my fiber studio, not easy, I can tell you! I just got my latest issue of "Vegetarian Times," too. Beautiful on my Original iPad!
What's in my wine glass: Charles Shaw Shiraz 2010 (Two-buck or Three-buck Chuck, depending on whether you buy it in CA or elsewhere) picked up in Oregon at Trader Joe's. One of our favorites. Wish we could buy it in the SLC Trader Joe's when it opens, but they won't be allowed to sell liquor.

Note: This blog post was produced entirely on the MacBook. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for or cleaned.