Category Archives: Contests

Alongs, Contests, Randonymity

Ack!! Ack!!

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Ok, I’m not feeling very coherent, since I watched the first 21 hours of 24 (season one) over the weekend (damn you for lending me the DVDs, Amy!), so I’ll just tell you about a few things going on around knitblogland.

On Friday, Margene had a nice round up of a contest and some recent ‘alongs that’s definitely worth checking out.

Stephania’s having a contest for her birthday – drop by and guess how many fathers she has (!!!!) and you could win some fun yarn!

You knew it was coming – a Victorian Lace Today Knitalong.

Lolly’s announced Project Spectrum 2.0! It starts February 1 and the colors are combined a bit differently. Also, each group of colors gets two months, so hopefully things will feel a little less frazzled.

(I’m sitting back and scoping out all the various ‘alongs that are appearing and biding my time. I’m trying not to jump on all the bandwagons, since that inevitably means that I fall off most of them.)

Oh, all the “acking” in the title?! Look at what I discovered when I pulled my sock knitting out of my purse Saturday morning. Sorry these pictures are so terrible – I was distraught.

May quickly took advantage of my distress…

“Hee hee – I’m sure Mom won’t notice me running off with this little bag of yarn right now.” -M
Contests, Randonymity

In which we find evidence that I need to vacuum

38 Comments

Cara is having a contest to celebrate her upcoming January One birthday. Read the clues and guess what sock she’s knitting before December 31, 10 am EST, and you could win some not-yet-for-sale STR yarn and other goodies.

Kristi is looking for a baby whisperer (and celebrating her blogiversary) – leave her a comment with tips for getting both of her twins asleep at the same time and you could win some fibery gifts (and provide relief to some exhausted parents!). Deadline is January 4, 11 pm EST.

I’ve come to the conclusion that Typepad hates me this week. I’m having trouble commenting on Typepad blogs – pages load really slow and I (eventually) get error messages when I click “Post.” This is happening in both Firefox and IE – anyone have any ideas what might be the problem?! Much appreciated… If you’re on Typepad, really, I still love you. I just can’t comment! 🙂

I got nothin’… Look! Over there! A kitten!

“How can you resist such perfect cuteness?” -M

“You know you don’t want to resist… Hey, Mom, you need to vacuum in here! That’s not my hair.” -M

“I can’t bear to look at evidence of such slovenly housekeeping. I must avert my eyes!” -M
Contests, Randonymity

Driving in a winter wonderland

39 Comments

Vicki Knitorious has written a nice post about knitblogging that I highly recommend.

Trek is having a funny fiber fiction contest for those who usually purchase from Amazon.co.uk – you could win a £5 gift certificate!

Strangelittlemama is having a contest – let her know what your favorite FO from 2006 was and you could win a fun gift!

If you’re looking for some different Christmas music on Christmas Eve and you live in the Twin Cities or have good internet access, you can listen to several hours of various programming from Minnesota Public Radio’s station The Current. The music gets going at 5 pm CST on Sunday with an hour of local Minnesota holiday music. Then Aimee Mann shares some of her favorite Christmas music from 6-7 pm. Next is the Sound Opinions’ Christmas Special from 7-8 pm, American Routes’ Christmas in New Orleans from 8-10 pm, and Peter Otroushko’s Heartland Holiday Concert at 10 pm. I’ll definitely be listening!

So, I’m pretty sure you all have a mental picture of Minnesota, and it might involve a cold, snowy, wasteland (perhaps year round). 😉 Well, until yesterday, we’d had only a bit of snow this winter (Mayhem chittered at it, thinking it was quite the flock of falling birds) that didn’t stick around because it’s been so warm. Yesterday, it started to rain in the morning. That turned to freezing rain around noon, and by 12:30 pm, we had heavy snow for a while. Here’s what we could see from the window at work at around 1:30 pm (the close blobs are frozen raindrops on the window – the farther blobs are cars on the freeway, crawling along):

Here’s what things looked like from the window at home a few hours later, after a drive home on sidestreets (and a stop at Home Depot for some tubes of sand for ye olde rear wheel drive car):

Winter wonderland, no doubt! Except that’s only about an inch or so of snow, which probably won’t survive the weekend.

“Neener, neener, neener – I’m warm and cozy inside and life is good! And for any flying mice that break into the condo – look out, because you are toast!” -M

Happy holidays to all of you from all of us here at Casa de Chaos (and Mayhem!).

Contests, See the Sights

Cooqi

43 Comments

Ruth is having a contest – leave her a comment by Friday with your best guess as to why she knows that Lamb’s Pride Worsted (color “coffee bean”) burns with green flame in the fireplace – you could win some sock yarn.

Check out the Yarn Life 2007 Crafting Challenge! By declaring your fiber-related goals for the year, you can be part of the support forum (y’know we all need support!) and eligible for prizes throughout the year.

So I might’ve mentioned that I’m a celiac and follow a gluten-free diet. Living life without wheat, rye, barley, spelt, and oats is definitely a bit of an adjustment. When I was diagnosed over 10 years ago, gluten-free products were only available over the internet or in limited selections at co-ops. Now? Wow. The times, they are a-changin’ and it’s good. One sign of this is that the Twin Cities now has a gluten-free coffeeshop and bakery!

Cooqi is located at 2186 Marshall Avenue in St. Paul – basically on the southwest corned of Marshall and Cretin – and has been open a week.

I visited them right before closing on their first day and they were a bit shellshocked (but happy!) about the response they’d received, as evident from the empty bakery case!

I’ll definitely be back to try some of their bread, have some more muffins and a mocha, and sit and knit. Cooqi is extremely warm and cozy and I wish they had more seating for knitters! 🙂

They also appear to be extremely kid friendly.

“I’ll get you for the foot incident, big kitty!” -M
Contests, Randonymity

The Tongue Edition

38 Comments

Nishanna is having a contest – caption a picture of her cute pup before Monday, December 18, 7 pm EST, and you could win some yarn!

Wendy’s putting together Knit From Your Stash 2007. Wisely, it’s only the first 9 months of the year. And there are additional conditions. Me? I freak out and start buying yarn like a maniac if I’m part of something like that. If I’m not, I don’t. Your mileage may vary!

So I have my blog signed up for Google Analytics, mostly because it’s fun to see what search terms bring people here. I’ve included some of the most interesting ones – feel free to discuss them amongst yourselves:

  • dress butt picture (whose butt?! I wear a dress about 2x/year, so not likely mine)
  • mom armpit lick (EEWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!)
  • sock monkey cookies (not sure they’d be edible!)
  • pics of chaos dying (NOOOOOOOOOOO!)
  • tossing ferrets (Like tossing cookies?!)
  • french coat flasher book (*blink blink*)
  • i love when my kids lickes my armpits (EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!)
  • ferret licks my hair (I swear, I have no ferrets!!)
  • lederhosens for dogs (please make sure you leave the appropriate holes!)
  • pics “boy’s butt” (I prefer men over boys, but whatever)

How disappointed do you think most of those people are?! 😉

If you live in the Twin Cities metro area and are looking for a kitty, I got May through Underdog Rescue. They have several kittens at my fabulous neighborhood petstore (Urbanimal) right now, including a gorgeous little black kitten girl called Suri (yes, like the alpaca – she’s obviously meant to be a knitter’s cat!), another older black kitten (Esmerelda) not listed on the website, and a dilute tortie called Tink (Tink?? Really, you need to come visit right now). I cannot get any more cats, due to condo regulations. Hopefully some of you can!

Ok, since I’ve obviously run out of vim and vigor and blogging ideas at the end of the week, I present the Tongue Edition (yeah, baby, that’ll pep up my search terms).

“Neener neener neener, May, I’m first cat in the blog today!” -C

“Big kitty, it’s age before beauty.” -M

“But my tongue is bigger than your tongue, May! Ha!” -C
Contests, Randonymity

Singularly unexciting

26 Comments

Go read a very eloquent post that Christine of Knitting on Trial wrote about the essence of blogging.

Lorinda is having two contests – leave comments about your favorite holiday tradition and your favorite holiday memory by December 18. Knitterly prizes for knitters, non-knitterly prizes for non-knitters.

Ok, although I usually don’t do memes, I thought this was fun – I first ran into it over at Maryse’s: What was the first sentence that you posted each month of 2006? (I learned that my first sentences were almost uniformly boring! Yikes.)

January
I’ve read a lot of knitting resolutions over the past few days, which got me thinking about what my knitting resolutions might be. Pumpkinmama’s list finally inspired me to stop thinking and start listing.

February
Thank you all so much for your well wishes!!
(I had the flu for the previous 3 days!)

March
As you might’ve read on Scout’s blog, she and I are working on an early October meetup in New Mexico. New Mexico is one of my favorite places – I spend an amazing amount of time gawking at the sky.
(*sniff* The meetup that didn’t happen due to a sick Chaos)

April
This starts with five overview shots and then a few detail shots of some of my favorite things.
(This was for Flash Your Stash.)

May
Not blech regarding the weekend, which was very fun, but blech is how I’m feeling today.
(Just back from the Midwest Master’s at Neenah, Wisconsin.)

June
You might become confused while reading this post and think that we’ve skipped right over June Blue to July Purple in Project Spectrum.

July
My Saturday sky is unsettled.

August
You might’ve noticed that things are changing around here.

September
Domesticat is having a contest to celebrate her second year of knitting and that she and Duck are moving.

October
Megan is participating in the Tour de Cure.
(I started to fear that contest announcements would be the rest of my first sentences…)

November
Hope no one’s got a Halloween sugar hangover this morning!

December
Xanthan gum!

Ok, for surviving all of that, I present Sir Wooliam and Wee Wooliam, in the window of a Pendleton store.

Not enough compensation? Well, ok then…

“Isn’t it hard to read blogs when you’re upside down like that?” -C
Contests, Reading, Those Cats

Cat-in-a-box: The perfect holiday present!

45 Comments

Stephania is extending the deadline for her Lizard Ridge blanket for Afghans for Afghans until January 21.

Reading Update
One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson. This mystery is the sequel to Case Histories and is written in the same style, beginning with numerous disparate threads that slowly draw together into a cohesive whole by the end.
Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman. Ok, I read American Gods a while ago and obviously need to read it again, because I’m sure it’s related somehow.. Anyway – this is another enjoyable read by local author Gaiman, featuring the sons of Anansi, a Caribbean/West African spider god.
Night Passage, Trouble in Paradise, Death in Paradise, Stone Cold, and Sea Change by Robert B. Parker. I got interested in reading Parker’s Jesse Stone series after I read Blue Screen, which tied Sunny Randall and Jesse Stone together. Loves me a good Sunny Randall book I does. 🙂
Strange Candy by Laurell K. Hamilton. Strangely, these short stories are mostly sword and sorcery, with only two Anita Blake stories. Definitely a different side of Hamilton.

“Do-de-do-de-doody-do-de-do.” -C
“Move along, nothing to see here.” -C
“Hmm, I’m not feeling very comfortable in the kitchen tonight. I wonder why?” -M
“It’s as if someone is watching me! How creepy.” -M
“This is terrible! What the heck is going on in this kitchen?! I can’t shake the sense of looming evil!” -M
*sounds of scuffling and a faint “meep!”*
“You will do as I say. You will send me $1,000,000 in small unmarked bills, packed in catnip…” -M
Alongs, Contests

Y is for…

36 Comments

YesterYear!

But first, a message from our sponsor… (Ok, no sponsor, but I’ve always wanted to say that.) Christine of the Pointy Sticks podcast is having a contest. So far all I know about it is that the details are in the podcast and the deadline is December 21.

Ok, back to YesterYear… Yikes. Apparently it’s never too early to start your baby knitting?! Don’t worry about those sharp pointy sticks. What could possibly go wrong?

For humanity’s sake, please don’t make your baby wear lederhosen!

“Please don’t make me wear those lederhosen! I’ll be good!”

Because lederhosen? Seem to bring out the wickedness within… Look out, dog!

“I’m so nervous, suddenly…” -dog
“I am so going to have nightmares now.” -M
Contests, Those Cats

In which I revisit May’s youth

37 Comments

Kat’s having an Xtravagant Xmas photo contest – take a picture of that house in your neighborhood that’s gone beyond all out with the lights and the inflatable snowpeople and let Kat know about it (you can post your picture on your blog or email it to Kat). Entries accepted until December 26 and a winner will be selected January 1.

Sachi’s having a caption contest – leave a caption for the cute cat picture by December 11 and the caption that makes her laugh the hardest wins some of her stitchmarkers.

Wow! I was one of the winners in the Heifer International drawing at Wendy Knits yesterday, and I won a Peace Fleece Lighthouse Sock Kit from Sybil at The Skein! Thanks, Wendy and to Sybil!

You’ve all probably heard of swap-bot, but I finally decided to check it out yesterday after I saw the chocolatey goodness that Elspeth got. I’m trying out the Best Covers Mix CD Swap.

So everyone commenting on how little May was in yesterday’s pictures (from a month ago) got me all sentimental about what my baby looked like not long after she arrived here (at about three months old)…

She still had whiskers!!

“I’m a sweet little present, aren’t I?” -M

“Keeping the world safe from gift bags!” -M

“Because gift bags? They’re nefarious!” -M

And although I still think she’s tiny in comparison to Chaos, back then, she was just a wee mite! (And Chaos’ butt wasn’t yet shaved…)

“Just making sure this gift bag is safe, miss. You can’t be too careful with these things.” -C
Contests, Those Cats

Look! Over there!

28 Comments

Jessica of Mikknit is having a blogiversary contest. Leave her a comment about your favorite fiber experience by 5 pm CST Thursday, December 7, and you could win some mysterious yarn.

I wonder how long it will take bloglines to pick up this post?! Yesterday was at least 12 hours for my main feed. Grrrr. Yesterday must’ve been a bad day all around, because I lost internet connectivity at home last night about 5 minutes before I was going to sit down and draft today’s post. So instead of something vaguely coherent (shut up! sometimes they’re a little bit coherent, really!), I bring you cat pictures. (I know, hardly different from any other day…) These are from early November.

“Hello? Anybody in there?” -M

“Oh! It’s you, big kitty! You were hiding so well I couldn’t see you.” -M

“I won’t crowd you in your hiding spot – I’ll just mosey along. *hee hee*” -M

*butt wiggle and tail twitch* -M
*lunge* -C