Tag Archives: Knitting

In which Mayhem appears to be very happy that there are socks on the floor


Back in, um, February, I started a pair of socks for my SIL’s birthday in early March. *hopes no one notices what date it is now* Those socks are now complete!

“Socks on the floor! Yay!!!!” -Mayhem

“Is there a problem?” -Mayhem

Apparently you’ll just have to imagine what the rest of the socks look like…

“Socks! I love socks! Even if they aren’t stripey.” -Mayhem

I even started knitting a new pair of socks for myself.

“Stripey! Hurry up, Mom.” -Mayhem

Yes, dear…

Hopefully all the knitters were near padded surfaces when they collapsed from the shock of seeing knitting on the blog. 😉

Dear City of Minneapolis: I would be much happier if my tap water didn’t smell like dead fish. Thank you.

Congrats to Janna, who won the copy of Julia Barrett’s newly released steamy romance, Beauty and the Feast!

Oh! You only have until 8 pm today (March 17) to enter your picks for DA BWAHA! The grand prize is an iPad…


  • I wish I was kidding in the title about my tap water.
  • Ewww!
  • Minneapolis gets its water out of the Mississippi River.
  • All hail the Brita pitcher!
  • On Sunday, we hit a record-breaking high temperature of 64F.
  • Very, very unusual for March in Minnesota.
  • All the snow is gone, except for the biggest piles.
  • The rivers are flooding, since the snow melted before the ground thawed.
  • Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
  • Is it weirder that my cats have their own email addresses and respond to comments directed at them, or that some of you carry on conversation with my cats in email? 😉
  • I wonder how long I’ll have this post-it reminding me to throw out the scary old eggs in the fridge before I remember to throw out the scary old eggs in the fridge?
  • I continue to slog away on the leg of the first sock.
  • Would you like to see the sock?
  • Tough. You’re going to see it anyway:

“Oh, what have we here?” -Mayhem

“Needles or yarn, needles or yarn – which to bite through first?” -Mayhem

  • Eeep! *rescues sock and needles*
  • Maybe next time I’ll get a cat-free photo.
  • Well, I can always dream, right?! 🙂

For the First Time, Crazy Aunt Purl’s Kitties Speak Out! [CONTEST CLOSED]

Crazy Aunt Purl (aka Laurie Perry) is nearing the end of her blog tour to support her new book, Crazy Aunt Purl’s Home Is Where the Wine Is: Making the Most of What You’ve Got One Stitch (and Cocktail!) at a Time. Since Laurie’s probably answered every possible question there is to ask about her book at this point in her blog tour, her cats have stepped up to be interviewed… for the first time.

Today, Chaos and Mayhem are excited to welcome Bob, Sobakowa, and Frankie from Crazy Aunt Purl to Stumbling Over Chaos! Bob, Soba, and Frankie live in Los Angeles with Laurie.

Chaos: Excited? We are awake.

Mayhem: Speak for yourself, big kitty! Hi, other kitties!!!!!!!! Mom said you live far away. I hope you don’t live at the vet!! The vet is far away.

And May is a titch excitable… Perhaps you three can begin by telling us a bit about the book?

Soba: All I know is that I’m not on the cover – again – and she’s going to hear from my lawyer.

Chaos: So I heard that you actually wrote this book, Soba, but didn’t get any credit for it. Any truth to that, and if so, why do you let your mom get away with treating you so cruelly?

Frankie: I’m an airhead.
Bob: I’m scared. Or hungry. Or scared. Or hungry.
Soba: Obviously I have a more existential relationship with the manuscript, as my way of working is more self-directed, but I don’t need the recognition of a byline. Lesser cats may feel slighted by indignities like pooping in a box or having a stunt cat pictured on the cover of her human’s book, but I have loftier aspirations. Total world domination.

Chaos: Did you always know you’d be so successful at being crabby, Soba, and can you offer any advice to kitties who’d like to do the same?

Soba: I don’t think of myself as crabby. I think of myself as unfortunately equipped with claws but no thumbs.

Chaos: I feel your pain! The no thumbs thing really sucks, especially since Mom put locks on the cupboards. Hmph. Ok, Bob, you’re so laid back. Any tips for maintaining your boyish cool in a female dominated household?

Bob: Find a quiet spot in the closet.

Mayhem: Do you dye your fur, Bob? No one is that shade of orange!

Bob: I once ate half a bag of cheetos that I found in my human’s handbag. Maybe that did it?

Chaos: Are the rumors about Bob faking his dumbness true? Is it true he really has a degree in Economics, and it’s all an act?

Bob just fell off the bed, and is unable to answer this question.

Mayhem: Ouch. Poor Bob. I bet that hurt. Frankie, how do you deal with the pressure to be beautiful all the time? I myself find it requires many hours of napping to sustain.

Frankie: When you’re naturally gorgeous like me, you don’t feel pressure to stay beautiful because you just are. But finding people to appreciate your beauty nonstop is so hard! They always want to do things like “sleep” and “watch TV” so I have to stand on their stomachs or block the TV. It’s hard work being appreciated for your beauty.

Mayhem: Do you ever see ghosts? I do!!

Frankie: Not since we moved. Now we see more dust bunnies.

Chaos: Is it true that pets that live in California are all famous?

Soba: Only the ones with good representation. Our agent is with CAA….

Mayhem: What’s your favorite flavor of yarn? I like all kinds!!

Bob: I prefer knitting needles to yarn. Much easier to ruin.

Mayhem: Oh, yes, knitting needles are nice, too!!
Chaos: What kind of parties do you have when your mom’s at work?

Soba: I hate cats, so I spend most of the day trying to open the door and get to Starbucks so I can be with my own kind.

Mayhem: Do you have any suggestions on how to get our mom to quit spending so much money on yarn and buy more toys and treats?

Frankie: Have you tried throwing up on the yarn?

Mayhem: Oh, I’ll have to get the big kitty on that. He’s a very pukey kitty.
Chaos: What happens to you when your mom leaves for a while? (We’re pretty sure our mom stood in the hallway for two weeks when she said she was going on vacation, because even she wouldn’t visit the vet for two weeks.)

Frankie: We have a British nanny who stays with us. She’s like supernanny, only taller.

Chaos: How do you punish your mom for leaving you alone?

Bob: Hairballs.
Soba: Targeted furniture shredding.
Frankie: Constant meowing when she returns is really helpful.

Chaos: Oh yeah, I work the constant meowing, too. So very effective, isn’t it?
Mayhem: Is it true that fluffy white birds [snowflakes] don’t fall from the sky in California?

Frankie: We have lint. Does that count?

Chaos: I still miss Roy. Care to share an amusing anecdote about the Old Man?

Bob: He could actually open doors! He was so tall that if he stood on his hind legs and put his paws on the long type of door handles he could open all the doors. It was amazing.

Mayhem: Where does your mom buy your catnip? Does she have an inside line to a reputable source?

Chris breathes a sigh of relief that May didn’t bring up Frankie’s bust for catnip possession last summer.

Frankie: Living in California has its advantages, as we have legalized the catnip trade for medicinal purposes. Soba uses it for her “glaucoma.”

Chaos: Do you like it when your mom has visitors? How do you react? I stand at the front door after Mom buzzes someone in and I greet them with growling and hissing.

Soba: I enjoy discourse with new humans. The other cats hide under the bed and pretend to be invisible, the fools.

Mayhem: Thank you for visiting with us, kitties from faraway!!!!!
Chaos: Whatever.


And thanks for letting your cats visit with us today, Laurie!

Laurie’s publisher HCI has offered five copies of Home Is Where the Wine Is for me to give away, so make sure you mention that you’re entering the contest when you comment.

Contest Rules

  • To enter, leave a comment below stating that you are entering the contest. Leave your comments by 7 pm CST, Thursday, March 4.
  • If you haven’t commented before, your comment will not be visible until after I moderate it. Please do not leave a second comment because your first doesn’t show up!
  • If your comment is actually an advertisement or if your CommentLuv link turns it into an advertisement, your comment will be deleted. (Most of you do not need to worry – this just refers to some pretty clever comment spam.)
  • Winners will be selected by random number.
  • You must leave a valid email address in the “Email” portion of the comment form.
  • Please make sure that your spam filter allows email from stumblingoverchaos.com!
  • If a winner doesn’t respond to my congratulations email within 48 hours, I will select another winner.
  • Only residents of the US and Canada are eligible to win.
  • No PO Boxes.

Good luck!

The Eternal Socks of Not-Quite-Eternity

Congrats to Faren, who won the copy of The Guardian by Mary Calmes!

Many thanks to JessaLu – I won a gorgeous skein of sock yarn in her blogiversary contest! And thank you, Nicole, as it looks like your referral led to this. 🙂


So apparently these were not quite the Eternal Socks of Eternity. 🙂

“Oh, what’s on the floor?” -Mayhem

“Hmm…” -Mayhem

“Mom hasn’t made one of these stripey kitty beds for ages!” -Mayhem

“Although I don’t understand why she didn’t make this kitty bed sparkly and pink! With feathers! Everything’s better with sparklies and feathers!” -Mayhem

“Woe. Woe. My life sucks.” -Mayhem

It came from the phone…

Congrats to Dana, who won the copy of My Everything by Julia Rachel Barrett… and congrats to Julia on the release of My Everything today!


Today’s little series of photos has no theme other than that all the pictures were taken with my phone. You’d never guess that I actually have a real camera that has a bunch more megapixels, based on how many pictures I take with my phone and its crappy 2.0 megapixel camera. 🙂

We have indeed gone to Winter Parking Restrictions. See the ticket shoved into the snow on the windshield of the car below? Always a lot of ticketing and towing during Snow Emergencies and Winter Parking Restrictions. (If you’ve recently found yourself shoveling a lot of snow, you might want to check to make sure you’re doing it properly.)

Pizza is one of my favorite foods and I make it nearly every week. I start with Rustic Crust Gluten Free Pizza Crust and top it with pizza or spaghetti sauce, Hormel Turkey Pepperoni (which says gluten free right on the label), sliced mushrooms, and low fat mozzarella. Yum! (No, you’re right, I’m not going to quit my day job to become a food photographer any time soon.)

My beloved mp3 player, looking stealthy and mysterious in its black silicone skin.

And for the knitters, especially poor Nicole, who reads “Misadventures in Stock Photography” as “Sock Photography” every time, the Eternal Socks of Eternity!

“Hey, Mayhem, you missed the socks and needles on the floor.” -Chaos

“Big kitty! I think I saw a bird fly by the window. Bird! Bird! Bird!” -Mayhem

“That girl is bird crazy. Let’s see if I can irrevocably tangle this ball of yarn before Mom can rescue it…” -Chaos

*Neither yarn nor birds were harmed during the production of this post.

In which I discuss stories about black cats and include a knitting picture

  • I think I’m only going to have nightmares about one or two cases.
  • Forgot about that one! I actually have Catnap, the first book, which combines knitting and black cats.
  • Then I remembered another black cat book – a free ebook by Cat Johnson called Black Cat.

  • Mayhem’s definitely not old enough to read that one!
  • Speaking of knitting (I did! Really! Look back a few bullets and you’ll see!), some of you have expressed concern that I no longer knit.
  • Not true!
  • I do still knit, albeit very, very, very slowly.
  • I continue to have neck and back pain; knitting for more than very short periods definitely aggravates things.
  • So, allow me to present the Eternal Sock of Eternity that I’ve been working on for, um, six weeks or so.
  • I’ve started the cuff ribbing!
  • Why, yes, this is the first sock of a pair.
  • What’s your point?

“What the heck is that thing on the floor?!” -Chaos

“Oh, look, unattended yarn. My favorite!” -Mayhem

The yarn is Trekking 100 and the stitch pattern is Charade. I think. It’s been such a long time since I started it… 😉

Mayhem presents…

“Um, what am I doing?” -Mayhem

Never mind, May… It’s been a while since we looked at vintage knitting booklets, hasn’t it? So let’s peruse Hand Knits for Men (revised, 1961)… Feel free to caption amongst yourselves, although let’s try not to make my hit statistics too interesting, eh?! In a rare show of restraint, I’ve confined my captions to the picture titles – hover your mouse pointer over the pictures to see. 😉

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!