Contests! And links! And books! And sleepy cats!

Cheryl’s celebrating her blogiversary – drop by and leave her a comment before midnight, August 13, and you could win some ShiBui sock yarn (for returning commenters) or a Cabled Sheep mug or tote (for new visitors).

Rae’s having a mileage contest – guess how many miles she logged during her Montana vacation and you could win a mysterious prize. Leave your guesses by August 15 (and check her sidebar for more info on the vacation and the contest).

To celebrate her impending publication, “Anna Leonard” is having an lolcat caption contest. Leave your caption by August 19 and you could win a signed copy of her paranormal romance novel The Night Serpent before it’s available in stores.

Speaking of lolz… you can lolinate your website or find out your lol name. Iz funyz.

You may or may not remember that Chaos has had a longstanding fascination with bicycles, although I guess this is the first time he’s been near a bicycle with actual wheels. So far I’ve only hit my head on the back tire twice! 🙂

Obsidian Kitten has two recent posts about cardboard scratchers and toys that might interest you.

There are Keen biking sandals, so maybe I will get clipless pedals at some point. Thanks to KitKatKnit for that info, as well as for this link to a very cool black cat scooter.

Reading Update
Some Like It Hot-Buttered by Jeffrey Cohen. An extremely witty New Jersey-based mystery about the owner of a comedy movie theater.
Blue Dahlia, Black Rose, Red Lily (In the Garden Trilogy); O’Hurley’s Return (Skin Deep & Without a Trace); The Calhouns: Catherine, Amanda and Lilah; The Calhouns: Suzanna and Megan; and Three Fates by Nora Roberts. Just keep in mind that her older stuff, such as the O’Hurleys and Calhouns, is nowhere near as good as her more recent stuff, such as Three Fates (which I particularly enjoyed). And it was fun to see celiac disease mentioned in passing in Black Rose!


*blink blink* “Hey, I was trying to sleep over here! Stop with the random flashing already.” -Mayhem

“She has a point about the flashing, Mom. A guy never gets a chance to look his best with all the random flashing.” -Chaos

Stash addition

…bike stash addition, that is! On Saturday, I bought a 2008 Specialized Sequoia, which is an entry-level road bike. Initially, I thought I’d get a women specific bicycle (WSB), because the top tube on my 1994 manbike (Specialized Crossroads hybrid) was a bit too long (i.e., slightly too much distance between the seat and the handlebars) for me. Alas, during my WSB test rides, I discovered that my toes got in the way of the front wheel when turning. Ok, forget that idea and go back to the manbikes, eh? The Sequoia is very comfortable, plus it isn’t pink or baby blue or covered with butterflies. 🙂

Since my battered old hybrid isn’t very tempting to thieves, I have it tucked into the mass bike storage area (under a stairwell) in my building. However, that wasn’t going to work for the Sequoia, so yesterday I made a slight modification to one of the walls in my living room. Really, who needs paintings on the wall?! 😉 The Sequoia is displayed on a Delta Monet Wall Mount Storage Rack, which was pretty easy to install – even for my extremely unhandy self. (Why, oh why, were the wall studs not handily located in the center of that wall?! Mental note: Watch out for bike tire upon entering living room… ouch!)

“Hmm. I find myself at a bit of a loss as to what I should do next.” -Chaos

(I am definitely going to put some stuff on top of that bookshelf to discourage cats from playing with the bike!)

Do not adjust your dye-al*

*with apologies to Deb… More on that if you make it through the linky madness below.

Megan’s having a raffle to raise money to attend a missionary training course in Mexico. For each $10 you donate, you get a chance to win some pretty amazing prizes. Donate by August 13, 12 pm EDT to be included in the raffle.

None of us are free until all of us are free – check out the Free Tibet contest details at PoMo Golightly.

Hmm… T-shirt or sign or mug?! 😉

Oh, Itty Bitty Kitty Committee has a ScratchScroll, too! (If you like looking at great pictures of adorable kittens, you need to be reading IBKC.)

Lisa found this tutorial on making your very own cardboard cat furniture

And Dotty found the bag version of my water bottle… although we can’t tell if it’s risque or not.


So, as Deb mentioned, she and Jeanne and I got together last Saturday to dye some yarn. Deb picked up some KnitPicks sock blanks (to make self-striping sock yarn) for us to try. Isn’t she just the sweetest?! Group hug for Deb!

Here’s Dr. Deb at work on her very cool watermelon yarn. I think she might be about to add the seeds!

You may be shocked to discover that I dyed this Tequila Sunrise yarn, inspired by the first photo in Jane Brocket’s Twist Collective article.

Jeanne came up with the brilliant idea of using the Yarn Harlot’s Laurie’s Socks #1 and Laurie’s Socks #2 for color inspiration – here she is working on her interpretation of Laurie’s Socks #1.

Can you believe that the purple and black yarn in this picture was not mine?! 🙂 Truth.

Now, KnitPicks claims you can just knit two socks at the same time from your sock blank and not have a thing to worry about, but I’m doubtful. That’s some darned kinky yarn! I plan to soak it, weight it, and hope it hangs straight.

In order below, my Tequila Sunrise, Jeanne’s Laurie’s Socks #1, and my Laurie’s Socks #2.

And, of course, all the kinky self-striping yarn that Jeanne and I dyed – her skeins on the left and mine on the right.

My thoughts? KnitPicks, you need to knit the sock blanks more loosely, so that dye can reach all of the yarn. We all ended up with white spots that were not visible until we unwound the yarn. Also, I can’t imagine trying to knit this straight off the sock blank. I recommend that two people with niddy-noddies wind the yarn from the blank (one of you will will need to stand on the blank – beware if your feet are ticklish) into hanks so you can soak and straighten the yarn.

“Mmmm… doesn’t all that yarn look scrumptious?! I hope Mom is inattentive for a few minutes, so I can add some extra ends to the process.” -Mayhem

Chaos and the snack sheep

Wow – I ordered my water bottle from JamTots in Vancouver, BC, last Friday and it arrived Monday! Kudos to JamTots for that and for their great communication – I pointed them to Bethe’s post about discovering her sheepy water bottle was a bit risque; they were amused and a bit chagrined, as they hadn’t noticed that little detail.

“What’s this on the cat tree?!” -Chaos

“Yum, it’s covered with snack sheep!” -Chaos

“Although… darn it, those aren’t real snack sheep.” -Chaos

“I shall now sit here and be annoyed that there are fake snack sheep on the cat tree.” -Chaos

The second Xmas present is done!

It might be amusing to keep my camera handy for the facial expression when these are opened, eh? 😉 I finished the Fiery Charades (aka the Clown Vomit Socks) on Sunday. Again, these were knit from Socks That Rock colorway Fire on the Mountain (lightweight), using the pattern Charade at 64 stitches on 2mm needles. Each sock was knit from the opposite end of the ball, which had less effect than one would expect.

And the other side:

“Hey, socks on the floor! They aren’t stripey, but I’ll take what I can get. Besides, they do have some pink in them. I like pink.” -Mayhem

“Wait, did you hear something?!” -Mayhem

“Oh no, I hope it isn’t socknappers!” -Mayhem

‘Nipped and curled

After seeing a picture of the Dream Curl scratcher on Modern Cat, I knew we needed one around here. On Friday, I found a SmartyKat ScratchScroll at Target (although neither SmartyKatWorldwise nor Target has this item on their websites). I doused it with ‘nip when I got home, and I think it was a hit. 😉

*love* -Mayhem

*love* -Chaos

*sniff sniff sniff* -Mayhem

*love* -Chaos

“Whoa! That’s some good shit!” -Mayhem

*love* -Chaos

“Whoa!” -Mayhem

*love* -Chaos

“Now I have serious munchies, big kitty dude.” -Mayhem

“Me, too, Mayhem. Some tuna pizza would really hit the spot.” -Chaos

Linky Friday

Today (August 1), Tink’s Third Annual PB Contest begins at 9 am EDT and continues throughout the day. Winners will receive their choice of “a mixed goody bag” or a personal post.

Margene sent me this great picture of a shoe she saw at Bill’s Footwear in Berkeley. I wonder why she thought of me?! 😉

I couldn’t actually find this shoe at the Bill’s Footwear website, so I tried a little google-fu and found these…. and these. Yowza. Who knew?!

Flamingos on Cute Overload – how timely!

Did you see Sydney’s link to the phone sheep? I wonder how many telephones it took to make that flock…

Check out the pictures of Bethe’s very cute and unexpectedly, um, educational sheepy water bottle… Sorry, I just bought the last one! 🙂 Update: Thanks to KitKatKnit, who discovered another location that has these bottles.

If you’re a mystery fan, you hopefully already know about the wonderful mystery information site Stop, You’re Killing Me. If you’re a fan of the romance, suspense, speculative, or western genres, check out the FictionDB. While a lot of the site content is for paid subscribers, there’s enough free stuff to make it a handy reference.

Reading Update
Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader by Anne Fadiman. I’d argue that Anne Fadiman is something other than a common reader, but her essays on reading and books are excellent.
Dyer Consequences: A Knitting Mystery by Maggie Sefton. The latest book about Fort “Connor” knitter and accountant Kelly Flynn isn’t any better than the others, although Kelly does progress from scarves to a hat. I figure she’ll start her first St*rmore around book #2517. What can I say – if it’s a knitting mystery, I apparently persist with the series. Now, if there was a knitting vampire mystery series, would I be doomed or what?! 😉
Rising Tides, Inner Harbor, Chesapeake Blue (Chesapeake Bay Saga, Books 2-4); Daring To Dream, Holding the Dream, and Finding the Dream (The Dream Trilogy); The Villa; Born O’Hurley (The Last Honest Woman and Dance to the Piper) by Nora Roberts. A-hem.
Twilight Fall: A Novel of the Darkyn by Lynn Viehl. These are decently written vampire-based paranormal romances, but they continue to not completely engage me for some reason… possibly because it’s a bit more crudely graphic than I look for in a “romance.”


CindyCindy has been very worried about Chaos not appearing on the blog this week. Never fear, CindyCindy, Chaos isn’t working two jobs or anything!

“Good grief, Mom, can’t I have any peace around here?! What’s a cat gotta do so he can take a private bath?!” -Chaos