Category Archives: Randonymity

Contests, Knitting, Randonymity, Reading

Oh, the felinity!

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Things are gonna get kinda irregular around ye olde blog. We’re going on vacation scheduling here – erratic! I will have the SoC mobile blogging station with me, but I’ll tend to have time to post when nothing very interesting is happening – like from my motel room in Lincoln, Nebraska, tomorrow night! Wild times. Needless to say, I shall get very behind in bloglines and probably never catch up. 🙂

I’m packing. I almost have the knitting projects figured out. The book bag is filled and waiting. My ipod is loaded with Harry Potter books 1-5 and the His Dark Materials trilogy. I even have a backup book on tape (Wuthering Heights), just in case. What else…. D’oh! Clothes!

Whoa, flashin’ – and not just the yarn stashin‘! (Before this gets too out of hand- no human tummies, of any age, ‘k?)

JessZ is having a contest while she and Dv are in suspense to hear whether the offer they put in on a house has been accepted – complicated backstory and complicated point awarding system to determine the contest winner. (“Triple points if either one of us shoots a beverage out our nose while reading your comment.”)

Carol of Go Knit In Your Hat is having a contest looking for ideas for her imaginary line of greeting cards: “How I Really Feel”TM. Email her your ideas before midnight, June 25. Only emailed ideas are eligible for prizes! Also, she will have prizes for the non-knitters, so don’t let that stop you (yes, Tink, Van, TB, MamaT, Deb B-M – I’m talking to you).

Michaele is featuring some interesting things I could see on my drive from Minneapolis to Denver, should I so desire. Tragically, Carhenge would require quite a detour.

Nichole has a nice post about animal protection that includes information about the ban on ivory, which expires very soon.

Reading Update
Smitten by Janet Evanovich. Another of Evanovich’s romances from back in the early 80s. Cute, but not worth exerting any effort over.
Murder of a Sleeping Beauty, Murder of a Snake in the Grass, Murder of a Barbie and Ken, Murder of a Pink Elephant, Murder of a Smart Cookie, Murder of a Real Bad Boy by Denise Swanson. A whole bunch of Scumble River mysteries. They’re light and cute and reading them is sort of like eating potato chips…

Knitting Update
Finally finished my pink’n’black socks. Whew! Plain stockinette foot and slip stitch rib on the leg, just to break things up a bit.

“Just out for a living room stroll, dum-de-dum-de-dum.” -Mayhem

“What have we here? A new kitty bed?” -Mayhem

“Lots of support. I like that in a kitty bed. And such a flattering color for me!” -Mayhem

Randonymity, See the Sights

Rub-a-tum-tum

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Edit: Hee hee – I wonder if they used Chaos as inspiration?! 

And more again…

I found another cat tummy or two myself. Chaos’ brother, Diablo (he’s on a diet!) – hmm, it’s a bit hard to tell, but doesn’t it look like he’s missing guard hair in the same spot Chaos is?! (I know, more exposed boy kitty nipples. Blog’s going to heck in a handbasket.)

A really bad shot of Chaos’ mom, Riley, and her white tummy spot – if it helps, part of her mouth is on the extreme upper left of the picture.

Our unsettled weather continues. Yesterday we had crazy, crazy wind. The big storms missed my area of Minneapolis, but the clouds over Lake Calhoun last night were pretty dramatic – these are from the south shore of Lake Calhoun, looking north toward downtown.

Ok, you busted me. I got nothin’! I’ve been doing all sorts of little things to get ready for vacation, but haven’t made a whole lot of knitting progress (although I am on the cuff of the second pink and black sock). Somewhere I have a reading update to post, too… I will post something else before I leave Monday, I promise!

Gratuitous Chaos shot to distract you…

*bite bite bite nip nip nip* -Chaos

Contests, Randonymity, Those Cats

Flat Mayhem

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Local craftblogger Becka is having a goldfish names contest and the prize is a really cool felted bowl. There is also a prize for the most creative wrong answer! Winners will be announced June 11.

Chelsey’s coordinating the Official Knitter’s Book Swap Volume 1, in which knitters will swap their favorite non-knitting books. To participate, send her an email by 7 pm EDT, June 14.

There’s going to be a blogger meet up at Estes! Thanks for organizing this, Margene.

And even more tummies!

Ok, I have to admit it – I’m completely fascinated by Mayhem’s frog pose. You might’ve noticed. 😉 She spends a lot of time like that, so I’ve gotten some interesting shots. For reference, that chair rung is 4 inches from the floor.

*swish swish swish* -the sound of Mayhem’s tail

*swish swish swish* -more with the tail

“Are you done yet? I come under here to get away from you with that camera! This is my private time.” -Mayhem

Contests, Randonymity

Tummy Tour

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My, when I posted a few tummy shots, who knew that this would happen?!

KitKatKnit is having another contest! No, not an art history contest – this one is about an ongoing reference in her blog to “Unlucky.” Go leave a comment speculating wildly what that whole “Unlucky” thing might be about and you could win some handspun yarn if you’re the closest or make KitKatKnit laugh the hardest. Contest closes at noon PDT, June 13

Last night I was hanging out at home with the cats when we heard some pretty darn loud thuds out the front window. I went to peek out in time to watch as a woman, cheerfully talking on a cell phone, hurled a brick through the side window of a running car. Then she unlocked the car from the inside, hopped in, and drove away. I’m assuming it was her car and she’d locked the keys in while it was running. But dang, wouldn’t it have been easier to wait for a locksmith?!

A bit later I walked into the bathroom to find Chaos on his hind legs rummaging through the medicine cabinet. Um, looking for something in particular there, Chaos?! Something to fluff up that tummy hair, maybe?!

Finally it was bright enough to take a few pictures of the rest of my dyed and reskeined yarn. Tangentially, we have had a lot of rain here recently – apparently, we usually get 4 inches of rain during June. By yesterday, St Cloud, MN (about an hour northwest of Minneapolis) had received 2.5 inches of rain in June. Yes, during the first three days of the month.

Anyway! Reskeined yarn.

I didn’t bother to reskein this small pink and aqua skein – I just wound it into a ball.

Hmm. Perhaps there’s something wrong with my camera – look at the black blob obscuring most of that shot! You can barely see the poor little ball of yarn.

Here are the other skeins – the top one is the Malabrigo and the others are sock yarn.

*sound of off-camera whistling* -Chaos

*sound of off-camera whistling* -Mayhem

Dang, sure is a lot of traffic in this living room, isn’t there?!

Contests, Randonymity

Chaos upside down cake

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To celebrate Worldwide Knit in Public Day, the Twin Cities’ Knitters (TCKnit) are going to gather (with bag lunches) at the Lake Harriet Rose Garden in Minneapolis on Saturday June 9, 2007, from 11 am – 2 pm. I’m a maybe – vacation prep will be eating my brain at that point!

Karrie is having a contest – if you know anything at all about drum carders, please go share that information with her! If you don’t know anything about drum carders (like me, for example), leave a comment about one of your knitting must-haves. Contest is open until June 9.

Jennifer is having a contest to help her spend her birthday money. Leave her a comment or send her an email recommending an etsy seller that you think she might like and you could win a skein of Duet sock yarn. Contest closes at midnight on her birthday, June 13.

Congrats to Amy, Heather, and Susan, who won Project Spectrum Red/Black/Metallic mix cds! Thanks to everyone who played along. I’ll have another contest at the end of July for Project Spectrum Purple/Orange/Brown mix cds.

Pao and MrsPao sent me a lovely surprise package a week or two ago. Gluten-free goodies (including one of my very favorite treats, dark chocolate covered rice cakes – don’t knock them until you try them!), a cute little wooden vase, a lovely skein of Lisa Souza sock yarn, a sheep magnet, a felted mouse bookmark (that might be a challenge to keep away from Mayhem), a gorgeous black cat card, and an extremely noisy cat toy that babbles. A piece of packing tape toned it down enough that all three of us stopped jumping when it babbled (which I know has amused Pao mightily). Thank you both!

And then Peeve surprised me with a late birthday present. It’s getting close to my half birthday, so maybe it’s an early half birthday present… More gluten free goodies and two stunning skeins of very special yarn, dyed by the late Marta (and the skein on the right will coordinate very nicely with another skein that Peeve gave me during her visit). Thank you so much!!

So after I posted the picture of Mayhem’s fluffy tummy (complete with white bikini “smile”), there was some muttering in the comments about equal time for Chaos’ tummy. Well… funny thing about Chaos’ tummy. I suspect that he’s supposed to have a large white patch, very similar to that of his mother. However, he just has undercoat and a line of scraggly white hairs, leaving several of his poor little boy kitty nipples exposed. Inbreeding is a tragic thing…

“I can’t believe you just told them about the inbreeding. Do they really need to know that my father is probably my uncle, too?!” -Chaos

Randonymity

Things that made me happy today

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  • Gorgeous weather
  • Walking around Lake of the Isles, listening to Bake-Neko (my old ipod shuffle)
  • Taking a different route to my catsitting gig
  • Finding a used Leonard Cohen cd I didn’t have and have never heard
  • Identifying the record store clerk from his voice as a DJ on my favorite radio station
  • Buying a perfect iced soy mocha from Anodyne at 43rd and remembering how much I like that coffeeshop
  • Making a u-turn and going to Madwoman Foods, a relatively new gluten-free bakery (although they’ve been selling frozen items for a while)
  • Eating a piece of gluten-free carrot cake
  • Picking up one of their bumper stickers for my filing cabinet

  • Taking a picture of this posh treehouse, finally – I think you’ll have to click on the picture to see the circled satellite dish…

  • Watching May looking out the window while I wrote this

“I’m sure I could catch those birds if only this darn screen wasn’t here.” -Mayhem

  • Not having to go to work on Monday! 🙂
Contests, Festing, Randonymity

All work and no knitting…

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…makes Chris a very dull blogger. So dull in fact (brace yourself, Jeanne), I’m going back to the Shepherd’s Harvest pictures again.

I bought some yarn while I was there – a ball of Trekking with bamboo (the same colorway that Jeanne and Renee bought) and 662 yards of laceweight silk that I’ll dye sometime when I’m feeling brave.

“I know that the minute I lunge in for a taste of this yarn, Mom’s going to snatch it away from me. Hmph.” -Mayhem

Just one more picture of that adorable black Shetland lamb…

…and of the baby pygmy goat. I think I would name him Oreo.

“Mmmm… baby pygmy goat. Tasty! Probably. Although maybe squirmier than my usual kitty food.” -Mayhem

I had no idea yesterday when I posted pictures of Mayhem’s ‘tocks that it would inspire others to post pictures of their kitties’ ‘tocks…

Rosemary is having a contest – the first person to guess what was added to the pictured drink for a photo shoot wins one of her lovely shawl pins (Designs by Romi). Contest ends by midnight PDT, May 27.

Have a great holiday weekend, everyone! My plans are to knit, read, catch up on bloglines, dye some yarn with Jeanne and Deb, get out for a walk or two, and just plain relax. See y’all Tuesday!

Alongs, Knitting, Randonymity, Reading

Haphazard Thursday

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Deb likes to knit for babies, but there’s a baby shortage in her life. Rather than creating her own baby to knit for, she’s going to knit baby items to donate. But it’s hard for Deb to knit baby items without a specific baby in mind… so she decided to knit for Chloe and Morris’ baby and created the 24 Baby Knitting Shower. Drop by and leave her a comment if you’re interested in knitting along with her!

Do you read I Can Has Cheezburger? Don’t click unless you have a lot of time on your hands! (If you’re at work, please recognize that you will be giggling aloud. This may or may not be problematic.) Here’s one of my favorites – guess why! And here’s another.

How cool is it that there’s a community radio station in northern Minnesota called KAXE (pronounced K-AXE)? It’s eclectic and excellent and you can even listen to it online. Saturday night from 7 – 9 pm CDT, check out Green Cheese, an extremely fun call-in trivia show. Not all callers are entirely sober, but many have Fargo-worthy accents! (And hey, you can even buy sports bras emblazoned with their logo!?!)

Reading Update
The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs. Quite some time ago, Sachi sent me a first chapter excerpt of this book. I read it, but wasn’t that compelled to rush out and read the rest of the book. Finally picked it up from the library and decided that the first chapter doesn’t really do the book justice – it gets quite a bit better after that. It’s not world changing literature by a long shot and some aspects of the book are a bit predictable, but overall I enjoyed the read.
Now May You Weep by Deborah Crombie. Kincaid and James again. 🙂

Gluten-Free Update
If you have celiac disease like I do, I highly recommend subscribing to Gluten-Free Living. (Although I’m horrified at how out-of-date their webpage is.) They do a great job of actually researching celiac disease’s urban legends, providing information about new research, keeping up with legislative developments, and reviewing new products. The Spring 2007 issue featured an article about gluten-free beers – I didn’t know that Anheuser-Busch was making a gluten-free beer (Redbridge)! I was familiar with Lakefront Brewery’s New Grist, which I actually tasted before those darn migraines convinced me to go alcohol free. (It was tasty – even my gluten-eating beer connoisseur brother agreed.) The same issue also mentions a few restaurants where it’s possible to get gluten-free pizza. Woo-hoo!

Knitting Update
Does anyone even remember that I knit? 😉 The laptop bag is knitted – I just need to sew it together and felt it. And I’m working on two different socks, but it was too darn dark last night to take decent pictures. Maybe tonight it won’t be stormy… although the forecast is inauspicious. Instead, shall we take another look at the lovely Mayhem and her cute ‘tocks?

“What? Yeah, so I’m flexible. I coulda been a gymnast! Or a master yogi.” -Mayhem

“I don’t know why you think this is so interesting…” -Mayhem

Alongs, Contests, Randonymity

Abundance abounds

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Local knitblogger Deb is thinking of opening an Etsy shop to sell her hand-dyed yarn. If you suggest a name for her store that she ends up using, you could win some of that same hand-dyed yarn. Leave your suggestions by June 4.

Had a good weekend up at the cabin with my brother and SIL and I even got a little bit of knitting done. Friday was 80F, sunny, and very buggy. It rained Friday night; Saturday was cloudy, breezy, and at least 25F cooler. Definitely fewer bugs. Sunday morning we awoke to lazily drifting snowflakes! Eeeeeeeek!!! No bugs, though.

I was one of numerous winners of Sachi’s birthday contest for my amazingly brief revised lyrics to Happy Birthday. Sachi sent me some of her gorgeous handspun (with beads!), a skein of Cascade Sierra Quatro (which I haven’t tried before), stitchmarkers, and some chocolate (not pictured). Thank you, Sachi!

“Is Neatnik reading? I know she likes pictures of my butt.” -Chaos

Local knitblogger Kelly sent Chaos and May some catnip mice that she made – you’ve already seen a couple of the pictures of how well the mice were received and you will see more, since one of the mice had Chaos cavorting like a kitten!

“Mmmm… stripey… Hey, wait a minute – I do not cavort. Whatever that means, I’m sure I don’t do it.” -Chaos

Check out what Kelly included for my refrigerator – thanks, Kelly!

Yesterday my Coffee Swap package arrived from (tragically blogless) Laura, who knows how to do an awesome swap package. She baked gluten-free biscotti for me and they’re very yummy! In the picture below, Chaos is trying to get into the bag of biscotti – no way, Chaos! Those are mine. Laura also sent me some Equal Exchange fair trade coffee, a wee bottle of wool wash, two balls of purple Jaggerspun wool silk and an Addi lace needle (with a note that she better see some lace on the blog soon…), dark chocolate truffles (not pictured…), black kitty statuettes, and stitchmarkers.

“I’m sure Laura meant to include a note that the biscotti were for me.” -Chaos

The stitchmarkers came in a cute necklace style bag, which will be very handy for holding markers as I need them… and keeping them out of harm’s (feline) way. There was one more blue kitty head marker that managed to evade the photo shoot.

The black cat statuettes are really cool, aren’t they? (No, I will not be getting another cat so I have a set that matches the statuettes!) Thank you so much, Laura!