Category Archives: Contests

In which Chaos receives a love letter

Argh! I screwed up the link to Danielle’s contest yesterday… Thanks to Jeanne for letting me know. Here’s the contest info again: Danielle won a big ol’ bag of yarn from Mason-Dixon Knitting and is celebrating by having her first contest! Leave a comment for her, guessing what she’s knitting (toadstools maybe??) before noon on Tuesday, August 29.

Ok, Marina alerted me to one of the most mind-boggling garments ever, as photographed by Susan of therainysisters.com. You’ll scroll down through many lovely pictures of Susan’s award-winning State Fair knitting, but keep going until you just have to stop and say, “WTF?!” You’ll know which picture. I’ll wait……….. Ok, wouldn’t that be fun to wear someplace dressy?? Hee hee. Sock monkey insanity…

Deb and I took Annie Modesitt’s combined knitting class at Creative Fibers last night. (Amy couldn’t make it because she was sick – get better soon, Amy!) So I often knit combined (picking/continental) already – you cannot beat it for speedy seed stitch in the round. Or, as I realized last night, ribbing back and forth. I picked up some tips on combined knitting decreases and we also learned to cable without a cable needle, which is very slick indeed.

But the most exciting part of the class? Getting there. Right as I was about to leave, a mighty storm assaulted Minneapolis. It didn’t look like the sort of weather I should go out into, but darn it, I had a class to get to… Memorable images from the drive include water geysering several feet up out of a storm drain, people with their pant legs rolled up and carrying their shoes wading across streets in knee-deep water (when it’s raining that hard, I’m not sure what the benefit to carrying your shoes is), and having to turn around and take a different route because the water was too deep for my low slung car. No pictures, because I was far too busy clutching the steering wheel and peering out past the flailing wipers, looking out for deep water.

So, you’re probably all curious about the aforementioned love letter. It was sent anonymously, signed only “Miss Kitty,” and reads:

My Dearest Chaos, For some time now I have been reading your blog on-line and each day I fall in love with you a little more. You are so handsome and regal, even when you are subjected to cruel tortures such as modeling bibs for your mommy. I know we can never be together, but I shall always love you from afar. Always, Miss Kitty. P.S. I hope you like the gift. I saw it in the store and of course thought of you.

The gift is a little collar tag that says “PURRfect.”

When asked who this could possibly be from, the Chaos Kitty merely looked coy and a bit smug.

“Hard to say. Chicks dig me, you know.”

The rest of the (bib) story

I survived the switch upgrade, which didn’t finish until 5 am. I didn’t have to work yesterday, but I ended up only getting 3 hours of sleep because I had a plumber coming by at 9 am. At least I got to bed early last night and feel pretty darn good today.

Danielle won a big ol’ bag of yarn from Mason-Dixon Knitting and is celebrating by having her first contest! Leave a comment for her, guessing what she’s knitting (toadstools maybe??) before noon on Tuesday, August 29.

Norma’s gearing us up for the Red Scarf Project 2007, which will have its own blog this time around. Anyone who knits a red scarf to donate to the RSP and posts a picture to the blog will be eligible to win prizes, such as a skein of handdyed yarn from Scout! Both Norma and Scout have great explanations of how to save one of the many button choices to your own server and get it into your sidebar. That was something which completely mystified me when I started blogging, so take advantage of the info!

Cheryl’s having a contest to guess who will win the Wing of Moth shawl knit-off.

SRP Update
Mallets Aforethought by Sarah Graves, 294 pages. Another Home Repair Is Homicide mystery. I enjoy this series, but I’m not making any effort to read them in order – which I would if I felt passionately about them (like the J.D. Robb mysteries… mmmm… Roarke…). Anyway, I think this book had a relatively large “continuity” gap near the end. Hmm.

And now, the rest of the bib story alluded to yesterday…

“I can’t believe I fell for this again! The shame…”

“Nor can I bear to look at this thing… it’s so girly.

“Watch my fancy footwork as I begin my escape!”

“I am but a blur!”

“Whew, that was tiring…”

“Wait, it’s still there?! Not for long…”

“Ha! I triumph yet again!”

Bleary

The switch upgrade continues on… *yawn*

Sonja is having a contest to tell her the most creative story about why the Mona Lisa in Lion Brand’s ads is smiling. You have plenty of time to leave her a comment – she’s not selecting the winner until October 1.

Hopefully I’ll make it to the Twin Cities’ Knitters picnic this Sunday. Anyone else going? Here are the details:

The Twin Cities’ Knitters picnic: Sunday August 27, 2006, from 12:00 pm – 2:00 pm at the Lake Harriet Rose Gardens in Minneapolis (4125 East Lake Harriet Parkway). “Bring your blanket, your picnic lunch and – of course – your knitting! We’ll meet under the trees behind the Rose Gardens (closer to Kings Highway than Lake Harriet). Visit the Minneapolis Park & Rec Board Rose Garden page for more information and a map to the location.”

Look what I made (Sugar’n’Cream patio pinks, top down) – really, the parents keep raving about how great these bibs are, so what’s a knitter to do?!

Little does Chaos suspect what excitement awaits him…

“Mmmm… sunbeam…”

Wednesday, randomly

I’m a little slow this morning. Damned migraine. Feeling better now (bless the Imitrex), but I’ll have that slow, slightlly groggy feeling all day. Onward to our regularly scheduled program!

Just a Knit Wit is having a contest, collecting Las Vegas-themed songs to make a mix for an upcoming trip.

Gromit is having a contest to guess the number of WIPs/UFOs she has. Send her an email with your guess by 8 pm Eastern, Thursday, August 17.

And Kristin of Yarn and Order is having a contest. Leave a comment before midnight CST, Thursday, August 17, to participate.

Sign ups for Craftlilly’s KnitFlix swap end at midnight tonight!

Remember that retro black cat fabric I have? Well, Trek and I worked out a swap and I sent her the fabric to make me a DPN holder and a sock bag. They arrived yesterday, along with a cool little notebook for me and some catnip for Chaos! Thanks, Trek!

Chaos was definitely interested in the nip…

*sniff sniff* “Hurry up and get this into a mouse for me, Mom!!”

…but he was also very interested in the other things that Trek sent.

“Whatever could this be? It’s not quite what I would expect for a cat bed.”

“I know what this is – it’s a place for me to hide! I am such a good hider. They won’t see me here, either!”

“Wait, why are you all still there?”

My KSKS kit arrived!

Lisa is having a contest about the number of active projects you have going right now. Cut off is Tuesday, August 15th.

Chris is asking us to guess how much she spent at Stitches and what time she got home.

SRP update: Whew! I read up a storm this weekend. 🙂
The Math Instinct: Why You’re a Mathematical Genius (Along with Lobsters, Birds, Cats, and Dogs) by Keith Devlin (NPR’s “Math Guy”), 267 pages. Woo-hoo! I finished my second non-fiction book. This was a great book – it covered both the natural mathematics that our brains have evolved to do unconsciously (such as those involved in vision and perception) and the formal (“school math”) that humans have developed, along with the natural mathematics performed by cats, dogs, bats, owls, and more. If Trek’s Number Guy hasn’t read this book yet, he definitely should.
Murder Most Frothy: A Coffeehouse Mystery by Cleo Coyle, 257 pages. Featuring NYC coffeehouse manager Clare Cosi, this is the fourth book in the series and it takes Clare to the Hamptons for the summer.
Love Her to Death by Linda Palmer, 326 pages. Um, yeah, I only picked this up because it had a black cat on the cover… and then was surprised at how much I enjoyed it – enough to put the other books in the series on reserve at the library.
Spurred Ambition: A Pinnacle Peak Mystery by Twist Phelan, 265 pages. Featuring Arizona lawyer and former roadie turned rock climber Hannah Dain, I’m enjoying this series and look forward to tracking down the first book at Uncle Edgar’s sometime.
Fit to Die by Karen Hanson Stuyck, 292 pages. So far this is a standalone mystery (although obviously designed to be part of a series). It was perfectly adequate – I kept reading to the end, which I don’t always, should a mystery be particularly bad.

Last week, I received my KSKS kit from Elspeth. Mmmmm… purpley goodness!

Elspeth made a very cool felted bag that will be perfect for my grab and go projects. Plus she dyed this gorgeous purple yarn and made some purple stitchmarkers (they’re on the ribbon on the yarn). She included the pattern for Elfine’s socks – definitely on my list to knit!!

But that’s not all – Elspeth also included some lavendar lotion and bath stuff, purpley teas, yummy chocolate, a very cute sheep tape measure, and some of the new KnitPicks circulars in size 0 (which I was curious about and already trying out on a new pair of socks!). Thank you so much, Elspeth!!

Chaos contemplated the new things now available for him to try to destroy…

“Hmm, what should I try to get first? So many choices!”

Pretend it’s a Random Wednesday…

TB is having a contest in which you send her a picture of the weirdest thing on display in your house. Photos must be received by midnight, August 13. I don’t think she says what the prize is – hopefully not the weirdest thing on display from her house! 😉

SRP update:
The Apostrophe Thief by Barbara Paul, 247 pages. I’m reading the Marian Larch (NYPD) mysteries totally out of order – it’s an older series and the library doesn’t have all of the books.
A Deadly Yarn by Maggie Sefton, 259 pages. The third mystery about Fort “Connor” (Colorado) CPA and new knitter Kelly Flynn and her friends is another light and speedy read.

As part of my ongoing series of unusually colored Minneapolis architecture, here’s a purple house/business that I missed in July…

…and a house of a different color – you definitely want to click on this picture to get a better look!

The Crafty Modster held her final Project Spectrum mix giveaway and I won; actually, everyone who entered won something! Look at all those PS neutrals:

I’m all set, aren’t I? Thread, embroidery floss, tasty chocolate, a very cool flower pin (with the button in the middle) that now graces my cube…

…the mix, of course…

…and a card for Chaos! (Interestingly, that’s similar to a favorite Chaos pose that I haven’t managed to get a picture of.) Thank you so much, Anjo!

Speaking of Chaos…

“Good grief, there are other vegetables besides the Evil Zucchini Monster?! That’s just not right.”

Official Blog Opening Contest!

Woo-hoo! Now that it’s all personalized and starting to really feel like home, it’s time for me to throw a contest. I actually had a hard time picking a contest, because Jeanne came up with quite a brilliant one that I think I’ll save for Chaos’ Birthday Party Contest next month. So, in lieu of a brilliant contest, I present to you the Chaotic Haiku Contest. Um, yeah, so maybe I was inspired by the Amazing Lace Poetry Challenge. 🙂 But I actually have written a haiku about Chaos on this very blog (which I’ll reproduce below), so some sort of precedent has been established, right?!

The details: Leave a comment below with a haiku about Chaos. At its most basic, a haiku is a three line, nonrhyming poem that should paint a picture in the reader’s mind. The lines are five syllables, seven syllables, and five syllables. Would a few examples be helpful? Here’s the one I wrote last November about Chaos:

Silhouette in black
Pointy ears twitching, watching
Dreams stalking snowflakes

And a non-Chaos knitting one that I wrote a few years ago:

Snow falls silently
as I sit by the window
knitting, watching, still

Yeah, there’s obviously something about snow that inspires me to write haiku. Maybe this contest will have a cooling effect on the weather… Anyway! Leave your haiku below before 6 pm CDT Tuesday, August 15. At that point, I will use my favorite random number generator to select a winner. If the winner is a knitter, the prize will be that skein of hot pink and black yarn (the skein on the far right in the linked picture) I recently dyed, along with a few other goodies. If the winner is not a knitter, the prize will be unrelated to knitting and a second (hopefully knitting!) winner will be drawn.

“Shhhh… I’m hiding in this box. Why do you guys always pretend that you can see me? That freaks me out!”

Contest!

I can’t believe I missed the obvious caption yesterday about Chaos having his foot in his mouth (which he did)… Obviously, it’s been a long week and my captioning brain is not up to snuff. And, since I won another contest yesterday (a drawing for a $15 gift card to a LYS from everyone who sent cage liners or squares to Chris of Chris Knits for her local Humane Society) (ok, ok, technically Chaos won, but he doesn’t get out much), I’m feeling the urge to spread a little contest fun myself.

The prize will be a 480-yard ball of Brooklyn Handspun superwash sock yarn, color Carnival. This colorway will cover all of your Project Spectrum knitting needs up until August (neutrals). (Tail not not included.) If a non-knitter wins, I’ll send that person something other than yarn and select a second winner.


The contest is to leave a comment with a caption for the picture below. Caption comments made before 6 pm Central Daylight Time on Monday, May 22 (my six-month blogiversary!), will be numbered and I’ll use a random number generator to pick a caption. Please note that the mouse in the picture isn’t SRM, but is the wonderful catnip mouse that Elizagrrl knit for Chaos.Have fun! Be creative!

Scattered in the sun

A few oddiments… I’ve made some progress on my Sunny Sock.

Most of it while I was hanging out with some coworkers after work on Thursday. It was 82F. In April. In Minnesota. We drank and were merry.

I’m also making quite a bit of progress on the cage liner that I’ll send to Chris on Monday for her local Humane Society. Sadly, I’m almost out of orange Canadiana, so I’ll be switching to all black or to green and black.

“Helloooo? Is anybody in there? Just nod if you can hear me.”
“Smells… orange.”

Here are a few more songs for the playlist – some from the comments yesterday and some from cds I picked up at the library:

  • Wimoweh (The Lion Sleeps Tonight) – Nanci Griffith
  • Under My Thumb – The Rolling Stones
  • Year of the Cat – Al Stewart
  • Slappin’ on My Black Cat Bone – Tony Glover, Dave Ray, Big Joe Williams, & Spider John Koerner
  • Devil’s Gonna Get You – Bessie Smith
  • Black Cat Moan – Tiny Parham & His Musicians
  • Black Cat, Hoot Owl Blues – Ma Rainey & Her Tub Jug Washboard Band
  • Black Cat Bone – Lightnin’ Hopkins
  • Black Ghost Blues – Lightnin’ Hopkins

It’s sunny and warm here, so I’m going to clean up my bike and hit the trails. Have a great weekend!