Of Mice and Men....

Ah, the joys of country living...field mice. We found signs of them in the undersink kitchen cabinet when we moved in. I bought some of those nice, new dCon traps that offer to trap them without harming them. They've been set for 2 weeks with a smidge of peanut butter to lure them in. Yeah..we caught one. It then proceeded to chew it's way out of the trap and exit the cabinet. It left behind a trail of shredded red and black plastic. Well, I can't have mice running rampant no matter how cute they are. We have resorted to the archaic wood plank/metal spring mouse trap. I feel horrible about them, but I'd feel worse about Peanut encountering one or their calling cards. I can't have that on my watch. Pepper has gone into stalker cat mode and is doing her part as well.

Speaking of Pepper, I have great news. Since moving into the house we have not had a single accident. I guess she hated the apartment as much as we did. She's a totally different cat. I'm so glad we kept her. She's also becoming more like a dog everyday. It's so fun to watch her.

Yesterday at lunch, I shirked my family secretary responsibility of running errands to visit a new yarn shop in the area. After finding the expressway exit closed and turning around twice, I finally arrived at Neighborhood Knits in Dearborn. I've been in four yarn shops in my life, this being the fifth. This is a very small store, but it was incredibly homey and welcoming. Mind you, they'd only been open 3 days but I had the place to myself for most of my visit. The owners are incredibly sweet and were interested in me, not just what I was going to buy from them. With it being a small store, they don't have an overwhelming amount of yarn. They've done a nice job of giving you a sampling of many different yarns. I bought my very first skeins of alpaca yarn. So soft! This will be a lacy scarf for gram or Aunt Jack. I also picked up the Great American Aran Afghan book, a nifty yarn guide tool and a new INOX needle. All of my INOX needles are teflon coated, this one is nickel and is supposed to rival the Addi turbo I've recently acquired. I bought it in a size 4 to hopefully use it to contribute a completed bereavement item to the Preemie Project sometime before Peanut goes to kindergarten. If you're out in the Telegraph & Ford Road area, definitely make the time to stop by. They're having their grand opening the first weekend in December.

I'm still working on the felted ballet slippers. I'm nearly finished with the second one. I'm hoping that will happen tonight, but I have a feeling it won't. Mister has class tonight, so it's just me and Peanut. My father-in-law is coming in for Thanksgiving, so we need to have things in order before then. We still have a lot of "we'll wash it once we move" laundry to do. Having to pay for it in the apartment, we kind of let things pile up. Now that pile is overtaking our master bath.

UFO's are becoming a problem in the house. I still need to wash and sew buttons to the Sunshine sweater to send out to it's gifter. The CMU sweater is in the home stretch, but it needs a hat. I'd love to do a blanket for it too. The Allison Sweater will have to been given to another little Miss as Miss Allison has outgrown it before I could finish it. There's another Allyson I know that is still teeny enough to wear it. I may need to send it her way. I have several preemie project items that are in final stages. Oh, it's a lot to think about. Once the boxes are unpacked, I'm going to refocus on my knitting. That's a promise to myself.