All posts by Chris

N is for…

Nashwauk, Minnesota. Can you see me in the first picture?! (Clicking on a picture will open a new window with a larger version of the pictures.)

Nashwauk is located about four hours north of the Twin Cities between Hibbing (boyhood home of Bob Dylan) and Grand Rapids (birthplace of Judy Garland). It’s deep in the heart of “Da Range” (aka Minnesota’s Iron Range), which you can tell by the “From Timber to Taconite” bit on the sign below:

The Hawkins mine, which abuts the eastern edge of the town, was the first mine in Itasca County.

The old mine is surprisingly beautiful. They didn’t fill in the huge open pit when they closed the mine; instead, they turned off the pumps that were keeping it dry.

Some of the hills of taconite tailings are not quite so lovely, alas.

Just outside of town, this structure always mystifies me – some sort of radar installation?

Isn’t it amazing how different the sky looks in those two pictures? Yet they were taken within a few hundred feet of each other.

Edit: I was just informed that I somehow missed the wonderful sign “Nashwauk, Gateway to North of Nashwauk.” (The Boundary Waters? Canada? The North Pole? The mind boggles.) Drat!

Tidbibs

You may have had some difficulty connecting to my blog over the past several days. My blog hosting provider has had a very rough few days. Please keep your fingers crossed that everything is back to normal and thanks for hanging in there.

We went up to the cabin Saturday morning and my brother immediately finished hooking up the toilet, giving us complete indoor plumbling facilities!! (Pause for a moment to consider what using the biff on a humid 96F day would be like – see why we were excited?) We then got the air conditioner installed – ahhhh… My brother and I worked on stuff outside, taking many frequent indoor water breaks. My sister-in-law was supposed to be taking it easy inside, but she managed to get most of the cabin decorated and vacuumed. Not surprisingly, she was a bit tired and sore on Sunday when we headed back to the Twin Cities around noon. But she’s doing great! 🙂

I am spectacularly behind on bloglines again – I usually catch up on the weekend, but going to the cabin prevented that. Sooner or later I’ll get caught up!

Knittymama is having a contest – tell her your biggest “I can’t believe I did that” knitting story in her comments and you could win two skeins of plum Misti Alpaca laceweight! The contest deadline has been extended to Friday, July 21.

SRP Update

Please Do Feed the Cat by Marian Babson, 192 pages. A cozy little English village mystery set in “Brimful Coffers,” where many mystery writers live and discover mysteries in their midst.

A Handful of Coppers by Charles de Lint, 332 pages. This is a collection of de Lint’s very earliest work and is a bit heavier on the sword and sorcery than I generally enjoy. I would not recommend this unless you are a diehard de Lint fan or unless you are interested in a few of the stories that combine Arthurian legend with some bits of the Mabinogen.

No Good Deeds by Laura Lippman, 343 pages. Chicago has V.I., Santa Teresa\Barbara has Kinsey, and Baltimore has Tess Monaghan. The latest Tess Monaghan novel is another enjoyable, suspenseful read.

That brings me up to 22 fiction books completed, for a total of 6809 pages since the beginning of July. Still eight fiction and two non-fiction to read by the beginning of September.

Knitting

I finished knitting my bag for the Knit Sock Kit Swap. Whew! I still have a few ends to weave in and then I should probably line it. But no pictures of it until it’s received by my swappee.

I also finished another bib… Really, I don’t have a problem. What makes you think that?! Tell me if you could resist not only the baby’s parents going on about how great these bibs are, but also the baby’s grandfather?! Yeah, you’d be cranking out bibs, too. Hopefully my friends now have enough bibs to get them through! Although I do have another color I want to knit… Anyway, the most recent bib was knit top down from Sugar’n’Cream, color Jewel – very Project Spectrum!

Apologies to Chaos. I tried one last time to have him model, but it didn’t go so well… At least his fangs didn’t break the skin, right?! Which probably means that I got off easily.

“Run away! Run away!”

Two, two, two posts for the price of one!

We’re going to try going to the cabin again this weekend (no stops at Dairy Queen this time), so I’ll be offline from Saturday until sometime Monday. My SIL is doing really well – thanks again, everyone, for all the healing energy you sent her way! 🙂 Hopefully it will be a bit cooler up at the cabin than in the Twin Cities, where the temperature will be hovering around 100F with plenty o’ humidity to give us that special sauna feel.

Post the First

Amazing Lace Challenge #4: “If you bound off your lace RIGHT NOW – what could it be used for?”

Let’s see… the binding off part is pretty easy, since I haven’t cast on yet! In its current state, my shawl could be used for a paperweight.

Or it could be used for a nice soft ball, perfect for indoor play – no fear of denting my closet doors!

It could also be used for a cat toy.

“Oh, Cabernet, how I have missed you!” *chomp*

Post the Second

My name was drawn in Kristi’s contest to name her new sock pattern and I got a copy of the DK Balance pattern for my very own. Thanks, Kristi!

I also recently won a contest at Enchanting Juno and the prize arrived yesterday. Look at those gorgeous skeins of alpaca silk – yum! Thanks, Juno! (Oh yeah, and I think Chaos liked the toys she included for him – particularly that peach mouse.)

“You put your right paw in…”
“You put your right paw out…”
“And you shake your mouse about!”

Walk(er)ing

Several weeks ago, when I went to the Sculpture Garden, I took a few more pictures but never got around to posting them. Whoops. Anyway, the Sculpture Garden is located on the north side of the Walker Art Center. Here’s a picture of both the old and the new parts of the Walker – can you tell which is which?!

I love reading this every day on my way to and from work:

Remember the stone bench in the Sculpture Garden with the very odd saying on it? It’s only one of the 28 benches that make up Selections From the Living Series by Jenny Holzer. Here’s another bench:

And another… (Please note that I have finally turned the heel on my purple Trekking sock but that’s about it – those bibs have been taking up all my sock knitting time!)

Speaking of bibs, Chaos still seems wary of me…

“I’m keeping an eye on you until that bib is out of the condo. Just in case.”

Just another Random Wednesday

SRP update: Dating Can Be Murder by Jennifer Apodaca, 275 pages. Obviously inspired by the success of Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum, but not as well-written or clever. I got the book for $0.69+tax at the thrift store and it was worth every penny. 🙂

Jeanne’s been knitting bibs, bibs, bibs, too! Her four cats were just as unimpressed by bib modeling as Chaos was, but Jeanne might have the only “color true” picture of a Countryside Ombre bib in existence. Sydney (July 5 entry) had the same problem I did getting a decent picture of that color.

Mouse sent me some wonderful stitchmarkers! Her fimo stitchmarkers are extremely cute and clever – you can see them at her new store, Mousie Masala. Check out the the little red mouse, mini-mini Chaos, and tiny red tuna!

The markers received the Furry Black Paw of Approval.

I finished another bib. (Um, is anyone at all surprised?! Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?) This one’s from Sugar’n’Cream color “Playtime,” although I think the color looks more like a tropical sunset.

Chaos quickly took action to prevent any bib modeling.

“Hee hee. I am so tricky!”

Chaotic exercise?!

Thank you all so much for your support! I conveyed your well wishes to my SIL last night and she thanks you all. Her doctor thinks that her leg is “just” deeply bruised and might take up to six weeks to get back to normal. Still, better than the alternatives! My SIL is already hoping we can go up to the cabin this coming weekend, although they won’t be stopping at that Dairy Queen again…

Last week, I moved my exercise bike away from the windows so the windows could be replaced. Chaos became very interested in the bike in its new location…

“Let me just check out the controls.”
“Very intuitive. But those pedals look awfully far away…”
“Hmm, I’m really not seeing how this pedal thing is going to work.”
“Maybe if I take a quick bath, I’ll figure something out.”
“Oh, to heck with it. I don’t want to overdevelop my thighs anyway.”

We didn’t make it to the cabin…

This was not the weekend my brother, SIL, and I had planned. On Friday night, my brother and SIL were driving up to the cabin. They stopped at a Dairy Queen for supper and were sitting on the tailgate of their pickup, eating their burgers and enjoying a lovely summer evening when a minivan backed up without looking and trapped my SIL’s leg against the truck tailgate. Initially, it seemed likely that she had a broken leg, but so far it’s “just” severely bruised. She’ll have more tests this week to see if there’s nerve, ligament, or tendon damage.

So I spent my weekend at my brother and SIL’s house, helping them out. I got a little knitting done – this bib was knit from the Fiesta Ombre Peaches’n’Cream that Frarochivia gifted me with. Isn’t it wild?! I love it. (And I decided to spare Chaos, so didn’t entrap him to model it.)

I also read Cherry Cheesecake Murder by Joanna Fluke, 342 pages. The latest in this somewhat silly series set in the fictional town of Lake Eden, Minnesota, again features cookie baker Hannah Swensen, her giant orange tomcat Moishe, more romantic entanglement for Hannah, and lots of recipes. I’m a sucker for those Minnesota mysteries. 🙂

Anyway, this is going to be a week or so of craziness, with unpredictable blogging, erratic bloglines reading (I’ll probably never catch up!), and lots of family time. Send healing thoughts my SIL’s way, if you have a few to spare! Thanks.

“I hope you get better soon, Jess! Even though I sometimes hiss and spit at you when you come to visit, I know you took good care of me when I was a tiny kitten.”

Cottons and critters

The lovely Frarochvia surprised me with a thank you gift for the housewarming gift I sent her! Apparently she’s noticed I’m knitting bibs – four lovely balls of Sugar’n’Cream (lovely purples in those), a rainbow ball of Peaches & Creme (which I’ve never seen before), and some Bernat Cotton Tot in Project Spectrum purple! Not that my camera likes to photograph purple – so poor Marina can pretend it’s blue. 😉

Those tasty gluten-free cookies will be joining me this weekend as I journey “up nord to da cabin.” (Yes, yes, poor Chaos will be left in the care of my trusty cat-sitting neighbor. Hopefully he doesn’t rip open all my tampons in revenge this time.)

Frarochvia also sent a great cat stamp to aid in my onesie projects. Thank you so much!!

Of course, Chaos had to check things out (the object on the left wrapped in kitten paper is the box of cookies).

“Oh no!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

I knit a very basic critter comforter for Basil and Abner’s Critter Charity Drive – double-stranded Encore Worsted on size 13 needles. It was a very fast knit and produced a nice squooshy comforter. I set the comforter down to photograph it and…

“It’s for me, right? You better be saying yes.”

“What do you mean, it’s for homeless kitties who live in cold steel cages?! What sort of barbarism is that?!”

“Ok, ok, since it’s for a good cause. Let me help you fold it up.”

Have a great weekend, everyone! I’ll be back late Monday.

Decoupage

Stop by and wish a happy birthday to Mrs Pao!

Ok, a show of hands – who remembers using Mod Podge for an exciting decoupage project as a child? (Gold leaf optional.) Well, AlterKnits has a clever grown-up take on that childhood decoupage using your yarn labels. Anyone remember Boobzilla? (One of the pictures in that post is messed up – click on it to see the larger, not messed up picture.) Boobzilla was purchased for the AlterKnits decoupage project, but I decided that she was too curvy for the yarn labels I have and I picked up a book-shaped box instead.

So last Wednesday, Jeanne came over with plenty of newspaper, Mod Podge, a box, and her yarn labels. As usual, we were so not prepared for the amount of work involved.

Wine purists might want to brace themselves – we had to switch to plastic glasses for our pinot noir (upper right, above), due to the amount of gooey glue coating our hands.

Here’s Jeanne, very focused on decoupaging (with our original “wine glasses” – I go with funky pottery that can’t be easily tipped over by a cat):

After much whining and a bit of cussing and a great deal of fussing about why I hadn’t saved certain particularly lovely yarn labels, I ended up with this:

Verdict: More work than we expected, but we were pleased with the final products. Layering is critical. Must keep saving yarn labels…

So where was Chaos during all of this? Fortunately, he was prevented from jumping on the table into a plate of glue. Still, he felt thwarted, so he took it out on Jeanne’s felted bag. (Fun fact – I knitted and felted this bag for Jeanne long, long ago, from some of the first yarn I ever dyed.)

“Hee hee – you are covered with glue, so there is little you can do to prevent my mischief!”
*sniff sniff* “Hmm, this smells like the oh-so-cute Kreature!”
“Mmmmm…. Kreature….”