Category Archives: Knitting

Knitting, Reading, See the Sights

In which I lunch, accompanied by a furry guitar

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Remember the snow I mentioned Friday? Here’s photographic proof of it. May was enthralled, but she didn’t bird chitter at it the way she did last fall.

“If these are birds, they’re probably stupid, because they’re crashing right into the ground. Who wants to catch stupid birds?” -Mayhem

Reading Update
Unplugged by Lois Greiman. I’m reading these in reverse order, which isn’t brightest thing to do. Looks like I enjoyed Unscrewed (set after Unplugged) ok, but thought it covered so much of the previous books that I wouldn’t really need to read them. That explains why I had such a sense of deja vu as I read this!
Size 14 Is Not Fat Either: A Heather Wells Mystery by Meg Cabot. Former teen idol Heather Wells just keeps stumbling into murders as she tries to create a new post-teen idol life for herself.
Sex, Lies and Vampires and Even Vampires Get the Blues by Katie MacAlister. These are a bit silly, but since I am a sucker for cheesy titles, I keep reading them. 🙂

Life Update
Alas, I’ve healed so well that I return to work full-time on Wednesday. Waaaaah! If any of you know a single, cute, wealthy guy who has a great sense of humor and likes cats, send him my way, hmm? Thanks in advance! 😉

On Friday, after the snow had stopped and melted, I met Valerie (visiting from Massachusetts), her friend blog-free Kelly (visiting from Iowa),

the mysterious Guinifer (local, but I hadn’t met her before),

and Deb (yay, Deb!)

at 318 for lunch and knitting.

I have to admit that I was a bit nervous about knitting with Valerie, who you might know from Yarn4Socks, and Guinifer, who is a master yarn enabler (particularly sock yarn, but her reach is vast). However, I did manage to show up with a yarn that neither had heard of before – lovely sock yarn from Red Rocks Fiber Works (alas, nothing to their website yet), which was a convalescence gift from Michaele. I’m using the stitch pattern from the Los Monos Locos pattern, which I’ve knit before.

Besides the great company, conversation, and coffee, I really like 318’s decor. (Don’t look, Marina!)

“Why don’t Magical Flying Goldfish ever fall from the sky? Life sucks.” -Mayhem

Contests, Knitting, Those Cats

The return of the bibs: Mayhem

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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

Contests, Knitting, Those Cats

The return of the bibs: Chaos

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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

Knitting, Randonymity

Mayhem presents…

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“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!

Contests, Knitting, Reading

Now with even more Elegance

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Maylin is having two contests. For the first, suggest a use for a particular set of needles, and you could win those needles and other goodies. For the second, guess the total weight of yarn in her sock yarn basket and you could win something from that basket. Both contests at midnight (midnight in France) on Halloween.

Did you see these kitty Halloween costumes at Cute Overload? Chaos and Mayhem have nothing to complain about. 🙂

Reading Update
Singer of Souls by Adam Stemple. This book starts out only a few blocks from where I live! 🙂 This was a fabulous urban fantasy novel and I’m looking forward to reading more from Stemple (who has also been in the local bands Cats Laughing, Boiled in Lead, and the Tim Malloys).
My Big Fat Supernatural Wedding, edited by P.N. Elrod. I got this primarily to read “A Hard Day’s Night-Searcher” by Sherrilyn Kenyon (yes, yes, a Dark-Hunter short story) and “Something Borrowed” by Jim Butcher (a Harry Dresden short story). There’s a good short story by Charlaine Harris, but it isn’t part of her Sookie stories.
Three Bags Full: A Sheep Detective Story by Leonie Swann. This was such a fun read! A flock of sheep discovers its beloved shepherd dead with a spade through his body. Led by Miss Maple (hee!) and black sheep Othello, the sheep work to discover the culprit.
Kiss of the Night by Sherrilyn Kenyon. Dark-Hunter. Moving right along…
Stroke of Midnight – “Winter Born” by Sherrilyn Kenyon. A Were-Hunter short story featuring Ash and the Simi. What’s not to like?
Talk Nerdy To Me by Vicki Lewis Thompson. I’ve maybe overdosed on the Nerd Series…

Knitting Update
I finished a second pair of Sockamania Elegance socks… This pair is for another holiday present and was knit from Socks That Rock in the Monsoon colorway on 2.25 mm needles, 60 stitches. This was a sock club color that I bartered Jeanne for. What looks like grey in the pictures is actually supposed to be a plum color (and thus look less like camo), but you can only discern the plumish tinge under very specific lighting conditions.

“A camo kitty bed? So no one’s going to be able to see me when I’m on it, right? Cool!” -Mayhem

“Finally, I’ll be able to have some privacy and take a good bath, since no one can see me.” -Mayhem

*mrmph* “Boy, that’s a tough snarl there between my toes…” -Mayhem

“Hey, wait a minute… you’re all staring at me… this camo kitty bed sucks! It doesn’t work! Hmph.” -Mayhem

Knitting

And now… more socks!

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I wasn’t particularly tempted by this month’s Sockamania pattern until I saw Limedragon’s gorgeous socks last week… then I cast on within a few hours! I used Noro Silk Garden Lite. As per usual, it was a toss-up whether the gorgeous colors of the Noro were worth suffering through the atrocious quality control – besides the usual twigs and other vegetative matter spun into the yarn, there was a colorway breaking knot in one of the skeins. See the abrupt change from yellow to orange near the top of the leftmost sock?!??? Grrrrr….

Oh well, it’s not like anyone’s going to see the top of the socks anyway – these are warm and will be great for inside my Birkie clogs on cold days at work this winter.

“Ha ha, big kitty, I got here first!” -Mayhem

“This is my new cat bed, and you’d better not forget it! That includes you, Mom.” -Mayhem

Knitting, Reading

In which I finish another pair of socks (no surprise, that)

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Amy and Miss T came over to knit on Tuesday and brought me Chipotle! They got party favors. 😉

Reading Update
Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. This is the first book of the Twilight Saga and after reading it, I’m itching to read the next two! This is a young adult vampire story with a few twists, set in the Pacific Northwest. I couldn’t put it down.
Me and Mr. Darcy by Alexandra Potter. I know there are a few *a-hem* P&P fans out there… I picked this up because of the title and brought it home because of the intriguing premise outlined on the back cover. Most chicklit is just “ho-hum,” but this was quite good – if you’re a P&P fan, I recommend it!
Nerd Gone Wild by Vicki Lewis Thompson. Totally trashy romance, picked up for $0.25 at the “withdrawn” shelf at the library. It was silly, it was fun, it was trashy – and I might pick up another one or two of her other Nerd novels.
Wish You Were Here: A Mrs. Murphy Mystery by Rita Mae Brown and Sneaky Pie Brown. Actually, I believe this was the first Mrs. Murphy mystery. It took me a while to get into the book, but it turned out to be a decent read. I’m told that the series sort of falls apart after a certain point…
24 Declassified: Vanishing Point by Marc Cerasini and 24 Declassified: Chaos Theory by John Whitman. I read these not expecting much, but Chaos Theory was darn good (and not just because of the title). It would actually make a really good episode of 24.
The Fourth Bear: A Nursery Crime by Jasper Fforde. This is the second book in the Nursery Crimes series, which spun off from the Thursday Next novel The Well of Lost Plots. A different cast of characters, but I’m enjoying this series as much as I do the Thursday Next novels.
Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agness Nutter, Witch by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. This was laugh out loud funny – I can’t believe I hadn’t read it before!

Knitting Update
For all the relaxing I’m doing, I sure don’t seem to be accomplishing much knitting. Puzzling, that. Anyway, I finally finished a pair of 9-to-5 Socks using Trekking 167 (a new color).

“Hmph. They aren’t a MGWT, that’s for sure!” -Mayhem

“But I suppose they are acceptable as a cat bed.” -Mayhem

Knitting

A pair of very small completed objects

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We saw the sun on Saturday! It’s been really dreary and rainy around here for the past week, so sunshine was a cause for much rejoicing – especially since I’m now allowed to go on short walks! Saturday was around the block, Sunday (cloudy and damp) was around two blocks, and today… 🙂

Over the weekend I started and finished a pair of toddler socks. The yarn is some Kona superwash that I dyed a few months ago.

“What the heck?! These are tiny! They are of no use to me as a kitty bed!” -Mayhem

“Hmph. I feel ripped off.” -Mayhem

Knitting

Second knitted holiday present finished!

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MrsPao has been posting about our visit to the Minnesota State Fair!

Jeanne’s posted about her visit on Saturday – complete with some pictures of me… Deb blogged about our lunch together on Monday – she got some great kitty pictures and even one of me. Gosh, I like this metablogging stuff – I’ll just blog about people blogging about me. 🙂

You all realize that I’m going to get way, way behind in my blog reading, right? If you’d like me to mention a contest, please send me an email!

Ok, on to some knitting. Been a while since we talked about that stuff. 😉 Before my surgery, I finished the baby cable socks, which will be a holiday present. That brings my total completed knitted holiday presents to two! (Not sure how many knitted presents I’m doing – just winging it at this point.)

“You all can just wait to look at the socks.” -Chaos

“What do we have here? New socks? Cool! Move over, big kitty!” -Mayhem

“Hey!” -Chaos

“Mayhemmmmmmmmmmm. I was here first! I’m the big kitty!” -Chaos

*innocent whistling* -Mayhem

“Hmph!” -Chaos

“Neener neener neener, big kitty!” -Mayhem

“The taste of victory is sweet! Bwa-ha-ha!” -Mayhem

Knitting, Reading

Monday meanderings

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Reading Update
Mr. Popper’s Penguins by Richard and Florence Atwater. I remember loving this book as a child. When I found it in the library’s sale bin for $0.25, it was obviously time for a reread.
Dead Copy: A Cauley MacKinnon Novel by Kit Frazier. Found this Austin, Texas, mystery in the library’s “New Books” section and enjoyed the read enough that I’m sad I didn’t read the first book before this one. I’ll get over it. 🙂
Scoop: A Cauley MacKinnon Novel by Kit Frazier. The first book that I read second… Cauley writes obituaries for an Austin, Texas, newspaper and is looking for a big story to help her move up the ranks at the paper. Of course, she gets a bit more than she bargained for when she finds that story…
The Penguin Who Knew Too Much by Donna Andrews. Penguins and llamas and hyenas, oh my! The latest Meg Langslow mystery is another madcap read.
My Sister Is a Werewolf by Kathy Love. Apparently this is the most recent book in a series about three brothers who are vampires. This book focuses on their werewolf sister and the veterinarian she falls for.
Accidentally Engaged by Mary Carter. A wonderfully fun romance about psychic Clare Ivers – this was completely madcap and unpredictable. I’ll definitely read more by Mary Carter!
Hot Wheels and High Heels by Jane Graves. Very trashy – but I read the whole thing, so…
Thunder Bay: A Cork O’Connor Mystery by William Kent Krueger. The latest book in this northern Minnesota mystery series focuses on Cork’s old friend Henry Meloux’s surprising past. I enjoyed this book more than I have the last few in the series.
A Charmed Death (Bewitching Mystery, Book 2) by Madelyn Alt. I swear I read the first book in this series (The Trouble with Magic), but either I missed it in my blog updates, or I read it before I started tracking my reading through the blog. This light paranormal mystery about Indiana witch Maggie O’Neill should not be confused with Charmed to Death, which is about Iowa witch Ophelia Jensen!

Knitting Update
I finished my Los Monos Locos on Saturday!

*sniff sniff sniff* -Mayhem

“These are acceptable.” -Mayhem