Kristi’s back from vacation and having a holiday contest – guess the name of the band in the pictures on her blog. For every seven guesses, she’ll give away one of her patterns! Contest is open through December 19.
Don’t forget to play along in my personals ad contest – the deadline is 6 pm CST today, December 13!
Mayhem apparently took umbrage with Chaos’s closing comment yesterday…
“I do too rule, big kitty! In fact, I rule and you drool, so there!!” -Mayhem
Hockeymom’s having a contest – suggest some potential projects for her new yarn and you could win some yarn of your own. Contest closes December 14.
Have you read these cats’ letters to Santa?! Brilliant. Only wish I’d thought of it myself. Hee hee – Mama Tulip, what do you think Chewy would ask Santa for? To be flame retardent, maybe?!
At the beginning of October, I purchased a couple skeins of the new fall Meilenweit colors. I took the skein of Stile (color 8004) to the hospital with me and discovered that the colorway, so extraordinarly lovely in the skein, was butt ugly knitted in whatever pattern I first tried. (I didn’t even document what that pattern was and have obviously blocked it out of my memory.)
After I got home, I ripped out that heinous sock and started another one. This time I used a slipstitch rib, hoping the slipped stitches would help… They did not. You might think, from the picture below, that these socks aren’t too bad. Ha! That’s because the taupe is hiding. In real life, the taupe jumps out and somehow unbalances and ruins the colorway. (Well, for me, obviously.)
This sock irked me enough that I’ve apparently never mentioned it on the blog – even though it’s been on the needles since October… Last night I got tired of it lurking around and decided it needed to be gone. So, if you’d like a mostly knitted sock (um, not really sure what size it is – it would fit my SIL, but damn, I can’t in good conscience give her such ugly socks) and its attached ball of yarn (needles not included) and promise to give it a bad good home, be the first person to leave a comment requesting said ugly ass yarn. How’s that for a sales pitch?! 🙂 ETA: Congrats (???) to Brigitte, who was the first human to request said skein!
A few more pictures – please note that neither yarn nor needles were harmed during this photo shoot, although I think Mayhem was totally nonplussed at how uncharacteristically involved Chaos got…
“Oh, good, I’ve been waiting for Mom to put some needles on the floor – I have something between my teeth that I just can’t get out…” -Chaos
“That needle did the trick! Damn, this is ugly yarn. What was Mom thinking when she bought it?” -Chaos
“Hmm… I really couldn’t begin to guess, big kitty.” -Mayhem
“Do you think it would look better if we tangled it up a bit for her, big kitty? I think most things look better when tangled.” -Mayhem
“Oh, good idea – let’s!” -Chaos
Emily’s celebrating her eleventy-first blog post with a contest, and the more comments she gets, the more prizes she’ll award! Leave your comment with a link to your favorite blog post by December 7.
Lucia’s having a contest – identify which Barbara Walker stitch patterns she used for her charity knitathon blanket squares. Contest is open until someone identifies all the squares or until December 4.
Do you think Chaos and Mayhem were studying up on superpowers? The book you can barely see underneath May is Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman; it’s next on my reading list.
“Neener, neener, May – I’m going to have a better superpower than you – I’m going to be able to remove the bungee cords from the closet doors AND get the food container open!” -Chaos
“Hmph.” -Mayhem
You may or may not remember how easily amused I am by signage and its unintended messages. This first picture was from a walk I took a few weeks ago. Embiggen, and pay particular attention to the yellow sign and its location… 🙂
I took a rather chilly walk around Lake of the Isles Wednesday. The warming house was already out! I guess the Park & Recreation Board believes in being very prepared, since the ice probably won’t be safe until late December or early January. Maybe this year the ice will sturdy enough so I can skate around the islands.
You’d have to be completely crazy to go out on the ice right now even without this warning sign, since there wasn’t any ice on Sunday. Also, based on the signage, if you are crazy enough to go out and fall through the ice, there’s a high probability that you will be eaten by a giant, sure-to-be-ravenous muskellunge. It’d serve you right, eh? 😉
For those of you following along at home, here’s my annotated guide to Lake of the Isles:
As I was breaking down the case from my beloved gluten-free New Grist beer, I noticed that it, too, was annotated…
My second blogiversary was November 22. It’s very hard to believe I’ve been at this for two years – especially when I look back at those first painful posts. I continue to be amazed by the myriad ways blogging has enriched my life; when I started blogging, it never occurred to me that the impacts of blogging would extend beyond the blogosphere into “reality.” Many thanks to all of you who read Stumbling Over Chaos and who have become such an integral part of my life.
To celebrate all of that, leave me a comment telling me what your superpower would be if you suddenly had one. Your superpower can be grandiose or mundane, simple or complicated, subject to change or immutable. To play, leave your superpower comments on this post by Tuesday, December 4, 6 pm CST. Somewhere between one and three winners will be chosen by random number – knitterly persons will receive knitterly prizes and non-knitterly persons will receive… non-knitterly prizes. 🙂
Over the weekend, while walking around Lake of the Isles, I decided that my superpower would be to have an invisible bubble surrounding me. Within that bubble, I would be able to control the weather. Think how fabulous that would be! I wouldn’t need to be alternately frozen and sweltering walking around Lake of the Isles at this time of year. I could go biking in shorts and a tank top in January! Humidity control. Permanent umbrella. Windbreak. Ahhhh…
“Do you like my superhero look? My superpower would totally be to open the closet and get the MGWT out.” -Mayhem
P.S. Comcast folks – I am unable to reply to your comments because of some sort of spam blocking… Sorry!
Cathy’s celebrating her November birthday with a contest. Share your favorite poem or quotation with her and you could win some yarn – there’s a twist to this one, so make sure you read the details as it’s a fun twist! Leave your comments by noon CST, November 27.
Have you heard about the One Laptop One Child program? The New York Times has a particularly nice overview article about it. Between now and November 26, there’s a cool program called Give One, Get One – for a $399 donation, you give a laptop to a child in a developing country, receive one of the same children’s laptops (and they are very, very cool), and get a $200 tax deduction on top of it. This is the technology that could make all those cyberpunk novels come true.
A few weeks ago, Jeanne finally guilted me into getting a new cardboard scratcher for Chaos. Ok, it was definitely past time to do so (um, he’d had the old one for nearly four years and had worn out both sides of it), and I’d been meaning to, but… Anyway, you can definitely see the difference between the two:
I hung on to the old scratcher for a few days, just to make sure that the new scratcher was acceptable – last thing I wanted was a feline meltdown about not having the right scratcher. It turned out to be no problem whatsoever.
“New scratcher. Mmmmmm…” -Chaos
“New scratcher. Mine. All mine!” -Chaos
“Mine mine mine mine mine mine mine.” -Chaos
“I totally don’t get it. Are you ok, big kitty?” -Mayhem
“Happy happy mine mine.” -Chaos
“Back off, Mayhem, unless you want to lose that paw. This is my scratcher. Mine.” -Chaos
“Mine… zzzzzzzzzzzzz…” -Chaos
“I really don’t get it.” -Mayhem
“…zzzzzzzminezzzzzzzzz…” -Chaos
“Hmph. Well, who wants to scratch on cardboard anyway?!” -Mayhem
Valerie made it back to the East Coast from the Midwest and has written about our lunch at 318.
Jennifer’s having a contest to come up with themes for FiberFlix. Leave her a comment with your theme idea by midnight PST, November 20, and you could win some sock yarn.
You may remember the Biteberry Yarn Contest, won by Anne of Paper Tiger Knits. Anne has suffered through all of the ends in that poor skein of yarn and has finished her cats paw lace socks!
Wayward Elf of Zurich has a nice post up about work and science, including some links to recent research. Make sure you check out the article about how praise affects kids, even if you don’t have kids – it’s an article that definitely has me thinking.
Reading Update
The Gumshoe, the Witch, and the Virtual Corpse by Keith Hartman. Don’t judge this book by the silly title – it’s a surprisingly good detective story, set in the not-too-distant future. I think Hartman does an excellent job of projecting societal trends (primarily group polarization by interests), then highlighting how breaking down that polarization is critical if society is to survive. But I probably wouldn’t even have checked this book out if it hadn’t had a glowing review by Charles de Lint…
Charlie All Night by Jennifer Crusie. This light romance, set at a small radio station, is another of Crusie’s rereleased Harlequin titles.
Life Update
Thanks for all of your birthday wishes! I had a very lowkey and pleasant birthday hanging out with my family. I got some Sugar’n’Cream cotton to keep up my bib production, a cute basket, a few decks of cards (I just had Ranma 1/2 cards, which were impossible to use), a Caribou card, a pound of Caribou Obsidian (if you’re keeping track, you realize I will not be buying coffee for quite a while!), a 2008 black cat calendar, 101 Designer One-Skein Wonders (it has some really cute patterns), and a Barnes & Noble gift card. Thank you, family!
I got nothin’ else today. I got sucked into adding projects to Ravelry. I’ve been a member since April, but have only been adding new projects to it… until yesterday. Where did the weekend go?! Heck, where did the year go?! How can it be Thanksgiving in just a few days?!
Anyway, perhaps this cute picture will distract you… 😉
“I do not understand this ‘time’ of which you speak, Mom, but I’m worried about it! I hope it had its collar on before it went away so that it isn’t gone forever.” -Mayhem
I know a few of you are suddenly unable to read my blog due to a filter marking it as “Hate Speech.” Remember when I mentioned the problems with my site being slow? My hosting provider moved my site to a different server last week, and apparently someone else in my new IP space is getting filtered for “Hate Speech.” My site is getting blocked vicariously, alas. I put in another ticket and my site has been moved again. Hopefully by the time this is posted, those of you who haven’t been able to read over the past week will be able to do so. Sorry for any frustration or inconvenience this has caused you!
Rebekah’s having a contest to help raise money for the medical bills of a dog that was left alone in a house for six weeks. Yikes! 🙁 Deadline to contribute is December 1.
ETA: It’s snowing right now. True, true, it isn’t heavy snow or anything. But still – my brain might explode.
Reading Update
Manhunting by Jennifer Crusie. No, CarrieK, you didn’t miss a new Jennifer Crusie book, really – it’s a rerelease of her first published romance (1993). Either she polished it up a bit, or she’s always been a great writer.
Kiss of Death: A Daytime Mystery by Linda Palmer. The Daytime (Television) Mysteries are exceptionally well-written and enjoyable. Recommended, but read them in order – this is the fourth book. (There’s a black kitty in the series, too!)
UltraViolet: A Jane Kelly Mystery by Nancy Bush. One of the reviewers compares Jane Kelly to Stephanie Plum and Kinsey Milhone. I’m not sure I would go that far, but I do enjoy the series and will definitely continue to read it.
Life Update
Later this morning, I go in for my recheck and work release appointment. I’ll be going back to work on Wednesday, November 14. At today’s appointment, I’ll find out whether I go back full-time right away, or ease back. I’m hoping for easing back! Especially since things are completely weird at work right now. Take a mental note, folks – if you need to take medical leave, make sure you do it while your company is being acquired. This adds exciting stresses to your leave. At least I know I made it through the first cut – whew!
“What?” -Mayhem
Miss T is celebrating her first blogiversary with a contest. Leave her a comment (through November 11) about what blogging’s done for you, and you could win some mysterious yarn.
Susan’s having a “Wayback Machine” contest – post what you were knitting a year ago and you could win some “knitterly goodness.” Contest ends midnight PST, November 11.
Same bibs, different model today. Chaos and Mayhem deal with bibs so very, very differently. Chaos actively works to remove the bib. Mayhem… not so much.
Step 1: Assume guilt-inducing look
“How could you do this to me, Mom?!” -Mayhem
Step 2: Ask the expert
“Um, big kitty? Could you get this off me, please?” -Mayhem
Step 3: Look for divine intervention
“Please… someone? Anyone?” -Mayhem
Step 4: Revert back to guilt
“I trusted you, Mom… *sniff*” -Mayhem
Kristi has posted some more sock yarn reviews.
Clare is having a contest to celebrate her 100th post. Leave her a comment with a yarn substitution story, and you could win yarn, a shawl pin, or a book.
I should just knit up a pile of bibs to have on hand for those unexpected babies… Here are the first three bibs – I have a few more that still need buttons.
“Oh no, not bibs again. Well, at least this one will look nice with my eyes…” -Chaos
“Curses! These are easy to get off… unless your foot gets caught in the neck opening.” -Chaos
“Um, a little help here, Mom?!” -Chaos
Something I actually saw in a store yesterday: an anatomically correct gummi heart. Ewwwww!
Does this lolcats picture look like anyone you know?! 😉
Guess how many emails Heather will have in her work inbox when she returns to work after more than a month of vacation and you could win one year subscriptions to One Story Magazine and Kaleidotrope. Leave your guesses by the morning of November 6 to participate.
Chappysmom is having her second annual “Show me your November calendar pages” contest! Leave a comment on the contest post by November 15 and include a link to your calendar post to possibly win a Chappysmom Knitting/Fiber calendar. Here’s the calendar that’s hanging in my kitchen:
And the calendar that’s on my desk:
And while we’re talking about calendars – why the heck don’t we just stay in Daylight Savings Time all year?! The kitties love springing ahead (“Woo-hoo! Mom fed us early!”), but they sure hate falling back (“Boo! Hisssss! Mom is starving us!”).
Reading Update
A Cat in the Manger: An Alice Nestleton Mystery by Lydia Adamson. I read this short mystery about an NYC actress and catsitter and liked it ok, but I only got partway through another Alice Nestleton mystery (A Cat on a Beach Blanket) before deciding I didn’t want to bother finishing it.
Nerds Like It Hot by Vicki Lewis Thompson. Another trashy nerds mystery – this one was better than the last one I read, but the library copy was saturated in men’s cologne (that seemed a bit odd to me, personally), so this wasn’t a pleasant read.
Duplicity Dogged the Dachsund by Blaize Clement. This is the second mystery featuring Sarasoata pet sitter Dixie Hemingway. These are very well-written and I’ll definitely continue reading this series. My one complaint about this book was heavy-handed foreshadowing – so much so that I became vaguely obsessed (thus distracted from the rest of the story) waiting for the followup.
Serenity: Those Left Behind by Joss Whedon, Brett Matthews, and Will Conrad. This short graphic novel is set between the tv series Firefly and the movie Serenity and although it’s only so-so, it does answer a question I had during the movie.
Devil May Cry by Sherrilyn Kenyon. This is the most recent Dark-Hunter novel. Mmmm…. Dark Hunters….
Divine Evil by Nora Roberts. This was the first non-J.D. Robb Nora Roberts’ book I’ve read. She can definitely write, but I do like the the J.D. Robb books a lot better (mmmm…. Roarke….). I’ll probably try reading some of her other stuff, however, since the extreme evilness portrayed in the book predisposed me to not like it.
Viewing Update
Once you get over the shock of me turning on the tv to watch anything… 😉
Firefly – I can’t believe I hadn’t seen this before! What an amazing show – really sad that there were only 14 episodes. 🙁
Serenity – But I’m definitely glad they resolved a number of open questions from Firefly in this film… even though I spent the last 10 or 15 minutes of the film crying. “I am a leaf on the wind…“*sniff*
Sweetland – Jeanne brought this over Wednesday night for our “Hiding from Trick-or-Treaters” gathering. The movie was based on Will Weaver’s short story “A Gravestone Made of Wheat,” which I read about 15 years ago and don’t remember at all. Anyway, the movie was set primarily in rural Minnesota in the 1920s, when Olaf, a Norwegian bachelor farmer, receives a German mail-order bride at a time when anti-German sentiment is high.
Chaotic Update
Lindy wanted to see more pictures of Chaos, since apparently last week was somewhat Mayhemish. Sorry, Lindy! Here Chaos enjoys a lovely felted catnip mouse from Paper Tiger, who also sent a mouse for May, tasty dark chocolate for me, and even gooey gluten-free brownies! Thanks, PT!
*bite bite bite bite bite* -Chaos