piddleloop.com

The Universe is trying to tell Jen something

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friday nite it was rainy here and i had not a good feeling the whole way to nat’s. Cars were driving in the middle of two lanes and people must not have been able to see very well. So while coming around the severe curve of the Museum of Science and Industry a cab was blocking my lane and 1/2 in an intersection. By the time i realized i was going to slam into him it was too late. I had at least been able to throw all my weight on my steering wheel and try to get my car in the direction of the cab rather than try to swerve around him by going into the other lane. So i avoided people from hitting me from the left and behind. This resulted in some smashed headlights and me just being very freaked out. I drive an old old beast of a car, and i am really sort of thankful for her metal around me..and peeling paint.



As you can see i took out a red cab.

So my weekend continues. I was told by 911 friday nite TWICE, that i could go to ANY police station to make a report and that i had 48 hours to do it in. So Nat and I head to Belmont and Western to the police station. Where i was berated, yelled at, and lastly IGNORED by the police officer. Also was yelled at for not going to a police station by the museum. By the end when he had to give instructions on what to do with the report he ignored me and spoke only to Nat who was standing beside me. This all stemmed from me only having the information 911 told me to get from the cab driver. So when he’d ask me for information i didn’t have i’d say “no i only have this” pointing to the paper or “i only have what 911 told me to get fromt he other driver” and he’d yell very loudly at me YES MAME YOU TOLD ME THAT FIVE TIMES NOW. And when i elevated my voice at him he told me not to speak to him like he was my son??????? This whole experice was *so* bad even Nathaniel wanted to get the hell out of there. Once we left i cried for a good 2 hours. I just couldn’t stop. It was awful. The one redeeming thing on saturday we going downtown to meet:



Stacey from Sheep in the City. SHe was visiting for the weekend. Look she had her bag with a blankie stuffed inside. Sorry i didn’t take so many pictures i just enjoyed talking to her for the short time we had. My day had been *that* bad. We both have orange glasses!



We even saw this woman, decked out in designer sweatsuit and UGG boots and tiny little dog shopping in Nordstroms????



So i go home take a nice hot bath and go to bed early. I wake up and tell Nat..i hope the universe will be kinder to me today. COULDN’T BE MORE WRONG.

We come back from brunch drive past my car (which is parked directly in front of nat’s apt building) and my WHOLE driver’s side window is smashed. Nat just stops the car in disbelief and i just start to cry.

Nat found the broken bottle of beer in the passenger side of the car



someone decided to throw a bottle of beer at my window for fun.Thanks. Thanks a lot.



So tomorrow i wake up in fear of now what? Sorry there will not be an etsy update today, possibly some tomorrow but i’m not sure. The universe was trying to take me out or something all weekend. There was no sewing. :(
And even Nat tried to cheer me up with going to Tea Geschwender I felt really sad when i said not even that would cheer me up this weekend.

Posted by Jennifer on 10/28 at 09:19 PM ♥ Comments (36)

Stuff & Things Eleventy Billion Edition

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Things:
1. Yes nat really said those things, in my conversation i pasted..i didn’t edit.
2. Glad too see that he made a lot of you and not just me laugh!
3. Yes, the store at the store url on piddleloop dot com is still down. I have to go thru it and do some major updating and get rid of things. For the meantime just pop over to our etsy shop please. And pattern seekers, just look there for now ok?
4. If you noticed this website was down monday or tuesday, thanks amy, you were right. Nat is helping update this site, and my expression engine software.
5. I’ve hired Nat my web genius to freshen up the template. He showed me stuff the other nite and it looks good. He rocks.
6. I have this awful start-itus. Thanks to ravelry. I don’t want to sew and just want to cast-on for a million projects, and ignore finishing them. (as per usual anyway)
7. I succombed to knit picks again for DPN’s (still live dangerously and don’t have a knit picks gauge) and i gave in and got a hippy the hippo.



Isn’t she cute, she’s huge and holds a lot of stuff..of which i’m not showing you it was cold out this morning.

Stuff: You know y’all want it? How about a really short Etsy Friday?

I pestered Katy of Love Sticks for some trick or treat colorway yarn. Then i saw Count Sockula when she posted she had a Morrissey colorway. SHe was out of the Girlfriend in a coma (rats!) but i picked up Count Sockula to add to my special order of trick or treat. She rocks.


She makes her yarns all stripe. mmm stripes. She even included a few business cards, and some post cards of the yarn. Very pretty!


Next up is future Etsy person Kelly. I wrote to her last weekend and she assures me she is looking into starting up an etsy shop. WHen she does y’all will be the first to know. Here’s the Pattern Tamers at work. So you can see what they do. keeping my place on my RPM sock pattern.



and



Keeping track of the Foliage chart pattern They hold down your pattern, and you slide it to keep your place. They are cute, and very affordable and very gift friendly. I will let y’all know if she makes a shop.
I have a problem. There i’ve admitted it to y’all too. I went into several antique shops last weekend and bought 4 pairs of screw back clip earrings for cheap. Then came bearing Hello Kitty gifts and other gifts to Kayt last nite. Begging her to put chains on them for me. So now i have even MORE sweater clips. Except my favorite ones need a tune up on their clasp so she had to take them (no photo) . But check these out:



These i got for way cheap and she informed me they were old sworovoski (sp) crystals and those beads are somewhat rare and expensive these days. Good thing cause the earrings cost me a whopping $4. Here’s the back cause you can see they are hand strung and hand tied. The tag said fromt he 50’s.


Then i found these heavy silver and robin’s egg blue with brown speckles in them



and of course a 60’s classic large pearls



So again eventually when i stop bothering her with stuff Kayt will be putting some of these into her etsy shop..keep an eye out...cause i’m quick like fox.

So I was hoping to hibernate this weekend. Wrong. I have Loteria pouches to finish and more Sugar skulls to finish large glittery ones and small ones. For an update hoping to happen monday or tuesday.
And i get to do rockstar drop offs of product to several people. And possibly get to meet a Colorado Blogger downtown.
Ohhh fun. I’ll be back Monday with more, y’all have a good weekend.

Posted by Jennifer on 10/26 at 07:28 AM ♥ Comments (4)

A short Conversation with Nat

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this is only a conversation i could possibly have with my boyfriend Nathaniel. I think this will be funnier for anyone who knows us in real life, but it’s still pretty good. Reminder my boyfriend doesn’t have cable, and hasn’t for at least the five years i’ve been dating him. This would explain why you can find me watching Smackdown in Spanish on Telemundo or mesmerized by infomercials on the Asian channel most weekends. He only watches “learning shows” on PBS or listens to NPR.

Jen: Sorry i was late, i was sucked into watching “Turistas”
Nat: That’s ok...what’s that?
Jen: a horror movie, it wasn’t *that* bad actually. It was only 1.5 hours long.
nat: oh
Jen: Has that guy Josh Duhmell (sp) who’s dating FERGIE in it
nat: oh i remember the signs for that, they were in the El
Jen: his band of people are taken hostage by organ harvesters
Nat: the princess?
Jen: FERGIE the singer, only *YOU* would ask that! you know i’m ferg-a-liscious!
Nat: what?
Jen: how can you possibly escape pop culture? what cave are you dwelling in?
Nat: i don’t watch tv or listen to the radio
Jen: i should do a google search and find out if fergie’s been on NPR or PBS!
Nat: if she hasn’t been on austin city limits, i haven’t seen her on tv
Jen: consider this BLOGGED
Nat: did you see i changed the shape of that etsy thing on your blog?
Jen: what are you doing breaking into my blog?????
Nat:  i was trying to make it look more like the rest of your blog, but their code is terrible and you can’t change it
Jen:  Maybe you should go work for them
Nat: it looks like they got their html from 1997

only my boyfriend folks. oh man.

Posted by Jennifer on 10/24 at 09:25 PM ♥ Comments (9)

big ass photo post number eleventy billiion and etsy friday edition

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&I have a lot to show and say in this post, so less chit chat and more photos, eh?
ok. I am behind on saying thank you to some mail love people. First there is Karen, from Weathertop Farm who had a little contest. My nephew being a die hard cubs fan paid off. She sent me a special prize. I tried to get her to send me one of her goats but i never received a large box with holes, sad i know.



I did get GOAT PICTURES! yay! Thanks so much Karen!





Next I have to thank Erin. She has been cleaning out Ida’s (her new home) and she has passed down some more awesome things to me. Books...adore them!


and then there were these photos of: the picasso in daley plaza circa 1973, the art institute lion with xmas wreath circa 1972, and a squirrel in lincoln park circa 1972


and then the thing that made me tear up. A set of sweater clips.



Lesa took this photo of me wearing them while knitting on my monkey sock



You see i wear cardigans, all the time. I’ve always wanted some of these. Erin thank you so so much. I adore everything.
This leads me into etsy friday.

As some of you know i buy stitch markers from various etsy people and put them on our bags for you to check out. Please welcome something and someone new. Natalie from Bake and Destroy. Not only does she have tons of baking recipies on her blog, but she has awesome things in her shop. Like these buttons, which will now go on some of our bags.


There will be two cards attached to your stitch marker on the zipper, one if or your marker and the other is for your button found inside the bag!


I also bought one of the shirts.



Cheap jewelry, you know how i love it. I also love horseshoes. I got this from Imogen


And Cheri of Tinkerwiththis had some pretty little wooden pendants! Update: i added cheri’s blog link too!




And last but not least, Kayt, showed me these sweater chains last nite.


she saw ida’s clips and i told her she should make eleventy billion, so i can buy them all. SHe showed me 4 sets last nite and i bought these two. She will be filtering them into her shop soon. That is if I don’t get to them first! muwahahahaha


I would like to thank Alyson of Yo Yo Knits for getting the word eleventy stuck in my head for weeks now. I’m totally ripping you off girl. Now please go check out some of those links.
Also check out the link again for Jennie the potter. Her pottery is unbelievable.

Posted by Jennifer on 10/19 at 08:56 AM ♥ Comments (0)

YarnCon, Chicago Oct 13th 2007

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Yarncon glorious yarncon!



In all your poor lighting glory!





We had a fun neighbor tot alk to meet Kelly with her Pattern Tamers. genius little things.





See this great pottery? They are made by Jenni the potter who is one of the nicest people on the planet.







Jennie found a lovely thing to do with our pouches! check it out, use that paper clip i give you in the freebie bags to do this!


Ditto for her booth neighbor Lara from My Green Apple Yarn.


Franklin Habit was there doing portraits of knitters for his 1,000 knitters project.


I did sit for him, but he made me laugh the WHOLE time. Who knows if i’ll make the final cut either. But anyways it was fun to talk to a fellow person who likes type.

here is my sister and i nerding out in our glasses



i pounded grommets for people and the hammer echoed sometimes



Erika showed up and said hello



and just more stuff







So in the end i bought a ton of pottery from Jennie, some pattern tamers by kelly, and 3 skeins of sock yarn from My Small Wonders Avacado, burgandy bliss, and orange crush. mmmmmm.


And my cheveron scarf is a little longer.



Special thanks to Erika for coming over to say hello! Her friend who let me take a close up of her fabulous glasses, and Lauren for being the best cash box holder ever.

Posted by Jennifer on 10/15 at 09:09 PM ♥ Comments (18)

Broken Internets and Fish

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Ok just a few things.

1. Wednesday I went intot he basement at 8am to package up some orders only to find several inches of water in our basement. It was flooded. All day and most of the evening was spent ripping up old carpeting, carrying sopping carpeting up and out, recycling some soggy cardboard boxes, and moving stuff. Our basement has never flooded, it was due to a water seal breaking near the meter and spigot. fun fun. not.

2. Yarncon was a success. It was fun and a nice event put on by two girls. Their hard work paid off and it was an enjoyable saturday. I’ll have a picture post on that tomorrow.

3. Our mailing list hasn’t been working for like 2 weeks. If you signed up and didn’t receive any kind of notification, it didn’t go thru. I have now got the brokn internets fixed, thanks to the web genius nathaniel is. So again if you want the skinny on our updates, shop stuff, fabrics and whatnot...please go here and re-sign up. If you don’t care that’s cool too.

If any of you know my sister and i have been in sewing overdrive for the past 3 weeks getting stock up for yarncon and the etsy shop. 3 solid weeks of sewing. Plus the basement flooding. So when our favorite customer Alexis posted her feedback on etsy and i clicked the picture..sometimes a simple picture makes everything all worth it.  She posted Osiris her fish with her newest pouch and it’s matching yarn.



I just love to see Osiris. She sent me in July this picture of Osiris enjoying her goldfish pouch. (thanks for permission to share the photos alexis!)


Sometimes it just takes a simple little thing like this to make me laugh and feel like...oh yeah that is all woth it. Man, you guys rock.

Posted by Jennifer on 10/14 at 10:45 PM ♥ Comments (11)

Stuff and Things

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Hi everyone, i hope you had a good weekend. I spent it sweating in our 90 degree heat and sewing. We did take a break on sunday to go down to the Museum of Contemporary Art for their 40 days things. It’s their anniversary and they are free for 40 days and they had a big rock concert for free. We caught the 1900’s and Califone. Nat is the big Califone fanboy, so in 5 years we’ve pretty much only missed a show once, and the red red meat show because we didn’t know about it. Nat got a fancy pants Canon Rebel XTI digital SLR camera and a few lenses last week.
I stole it during the show and took a few photos. He’s going to let me put them on flicker this weekend. But every so often i suprise myself and really like something i take. I think i want an 8 x 10 print of this one. If any of you know me in real life, i’m a banjo freak. The banjo makes me happy. This picture just makes me happy



That’s Jim playing his banjo. Taken with nat’s ginormous lens. Very top heavy..hard to lock in your ams to avoid camera shake. Other photos Nat and I took of them here.
So again because i don’t have anymore to share if you live in the indiana/chicago/wisconsin area please come out to yarncon this saturday from 10am til 4pm.

Posted by Jennifer on 10/09 at 09:01 AM ♥ Comments (7)

whoa did someone say overwhelming?

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I went out with the girls for some laughing and knitting, mostly laughing. Thanks momma shortbus and kayTEE dog.
I’m on Raverly now. I’m Piddleloop...feel free to make me yer friend. or not.
I’d like to thank Nat who bought my poor ass a pro flickr account. You rock.
Now less talking more sewing for me.

Posted by Jennifer on 10/04 at 11:25 PM ♥ Comments (9)

Dogs, Duaflex, and monkeys

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The weather has been too nice over here outside of Chicago. Zander and I wandered outdoors tuesday and today. To soak up a little sun.

Just assure you i do still knit...i had the duaflex out to shoot thru the viewfinder again. Hadn’t done it all summer cause i didn’t want to lug it around.

Here’s a couple shots of my monkey sock which was re-cast on.





That’s some Koigu i’ve been hoarding for awhile in my stash. I’m still calling it Skittles.

On tuesdays we go over to let this guy out, Kelso wanted to run with zander.



i love this shot



then we went inside..zander usually spreads kelso’s bed all out for him...but he got new blankets. The rope toy was picked up and 30 pounds vs 140 pounds began





then everyone got tired and sat down, he crosses his paws and i think this is super cute


then zander scratched his belly, i love this picture too


so then i let lucy dog outside, and bothered her with the duaflex for a bit.



her ignoring me



her patented saaad basset hound face


and finally sunning herself



Samuel was busy tracking bunnies that live under our shed in the backyard.

i have no idea why i took a picture of my favorite Keen’s

So in case you aren’t part of the mailing list, update on project pouches in our etsy shop tomorrow starting at 8am central time. See you then!

Posted by Jennifer on 10/04 at 04:02 PM ♥ Comments (9)

The Schafer Family Tour-o-Rocks

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Rocks!



Glorious Rocks!



Utah, Zion National Park
Weeping rock



They said that water was coming OUT of the mountain. Intresting to people who come fromt he midwest and don’t live with giant rocks.

It was 100 plus degrees and we were hiking around rocks. Jen tries on country bumpkin hat in gift shop. i have a pin head.



And on our drive to Glen Canyon Utah we drove thru Zion Park. This was a senic area to stop and take pictures



So then we drove for hours to get to Lake Powell/Glen Canyon Utah.
This part of the trip was all for my dad. He really really wanted to see rocks.

We stayed at the resort, and there’s basically like 2 access roads into this place. They said you wouldn’t be able to pick out constellations cause there’d be too many stars in the sky.


they weren’t kidding. Nat and i sat outside in the dark looking up at the sky and the whole milky way for about 3 hours. You couldn’t get enough of it. The stars twinkled! I didn’t know they did that.

Flash forward to 7am. We board a boat. For the 3.5 hour boat ride to Rainbow Bridge. oy.
what do you do with a 4 yr old on a boat for 7 hours?



play a lot of rock, paper, scissors



play checking to see if uncle nat is really taking a picture of me or not, cause if he is i’ll run away

so now the rocks looked like this





so we are out in the 103 degree sun with no shade and dock, only to hike 30 min to Rainbow Bridge National Monument



Look how small my parents look relative to the rocks.

then we finally saw it.


then we did one of those hold your camera in front of you things, and nat had to lift his sunglasses..cause you couldn’t see him frown, but he smiled some..got it on record



this thing is so huge pictures just make it look small. So then we spent an hour at this rock then hiked back to the boat, then rode the 3.5 hour ride back to the resort, only to climb into a van and drive 4 hours back to vegas. We were one batch of grouchy, heat exhausted, midwesterners. ugh dry heat or not, that 100 degree with no shade thing kills us city folk.



So there you have it..the schafer family tour of rocks 2007. Thanks to Dad for hauling all our butts out there to see ginormous rocks, and that pretty cool bridge.

Posted by Jennifer on 10/03 at 10:06 PM ♥ Comments (8)