Category Archives: Randonymity

Randonymity

For true randomness, how about Random Friday?

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Peeve has a few pictures up of a baleful Chaos from her visit here. Hee hee – the secret is revealed. Chaos is a crabby kitty. If you aren’t me, really, he’s not sure you have any purpose to your existence. Before that sends anyone into the pits of despair, let’s move right along, shall we?

A few weeks ago, I reconsidered my wallet situation and decided I needed a separate checkbook – I rarely use my checkbook anymore, so why carry a larger wallet just to accomodate it? I picked up this checkbook cover on etsy from bagladiesinpa (kitten sold separately):

“Those black kitties look very saucy. I like them!” -M

Last Friday, Master Enabler Guinifer mentioned finding all sorts of goodies at Woolgirl, so I wandered over there to take a peek… My order arrived on Monday – talk about speedy! I decided to try some Woolarina sock yarn (color Yucatan). Check out the complimentary sheep stitch marker Woolgirl included – it matches her logo.

Mayhem was fascinated by that sheep stitchmarker. In fact, in the picture below it is in her mouth and I am about to drop the camera and leap to its rescue!

“Mwpfh… sheep… mwpfh.” -M

I also got some tape measures (not pictured, because they’re for swaps and contests) and a cat-shaped shawl pin. Um, yes, perhaps I should knit a shawl to wear it on. Moving right along…

“I could crush your puny shawl pin with my fluffy paw of cuteness!” -M

Knit Wit Kelly surprised me with some lovely black cat and mouse stitchmarkers and a book thong! Check out the cute sheep box in which they arrived, too. Thank you, Kelly!

“I am being sneakier than I was with the sheep… hee hee!” -M

Sorry, May, not quite sneaky enough, because I’m onto your little game now…

“I have my eye out for her, Mom! She won’t get past me. Not unless she has tuna, that is.” -C

Have a great weekend, everyone! Jeanne and I will be at the Yarnover market tomorrow morning – say hi if you see us!

Randonymity

Fridge frame

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The new issue of Yarnival is up! Check it out – as usual, it’s filled with wonderful writing and linkage. My non-knitting readers might want to bookmark this guide to knitblog lingo. 😉

Recently, Brigitte posted about her black not-quite-a-kitten-anymore Gandalf stealing magnets off the fridge. It was fun to see her magnet and fridge art collection, so I thought I’d share mine.

I think my fridge art tells you a lot about me. You might notice that I’m fond of black cats, if you hadn’t guessed by now. I’m also fond of bicycles, knitting, coffee, and Minnesota Public Radio’s The Current.

Chaos likes to lurk on top of the fridge. (Remember when he was stalked by the zucchini?!) In his youth, he would also knock magnets off the freezer door from on top the fridge, but he doesn’t do that anymore.

(Remember, you can click on these pictures to make them larger and examine things more closely.)

There aren’t any magnets within two feet of the floor, because both Chaos and Mayhem like to steal them (particularly glass bead photo magnets) off the fridge…

Not much stuff on the sides of the fridge (some business cards, phone number and address of the emergency vet, etc), but this postcard and some of the magnets are worth a peek.

“Hmph. I was not ever afraid of a vegetable. I don’t know what you’re going on about.” -C

Contests, Randonymity

In which I allude to the cruelty of April snow

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Susan’s having a contest in honor of her blogiversary and a comment milestone – guess which yarn her daughter chose for socks and you could win the other yarn plus matching stitchmarkers. Leave your guess by midnight, April 15, CDT.

Jimmy Bean’s Wool has a pattern contest every month. Their prize pack is amazing and probably beats what many online knitting magazines would pay you. I know many of you have designing skills, so I hope you give it a shot!

Snow. Blech. Need I say more? Here’s a picture from back in the snowy days of March… I liked the “Minnesota Nice” sticker and how it tied in with the “Snow Emergency Route” sign. Plus the balloons were a festive touch to an ugly, dirty snowbank. We better not have enough snow to make snowbanks. I might lose my mind…

Moving right along to happier things, remember when I swapped Knit a Fantasy Story with chittavrtti? Here are the goodies she sent me – two gorgeous 225 yard skeins of Socks that Rock in a lovely deep green (Beryl, probably the only green I’ll see around here for a while) and some espresso roast Peet’s coffee beans. Mmmmm… Thanks, CV!

“Smells… green. Mmmm… Greenies.” -M

“I can tell from here it isn’t tuna yarn! Hmph.” -C

(from a distance) “Look out for that coffee, May! Did I ever tell you about the time I ate a coffee bean when I was a kitten? Man, that was a rush.” -C

“Yeah, whatever, big kitty, and I bet you had to walk a mile uphill in the snow to get to your food bowl.” -M

Contests, Randonymity

Ding, dong, the espresso maker…

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…turns on! Woot-woot! All is well. Apparently, my espresso maker wasn’t dead, merely on strike until it was thorougly cleaned and decalcified. *hangs head in shame* Amusingly, I was so freaked out that it didn’t work yesterday morning, I completely forgot that I have a stovetop espresso maker for just such a crisis… Moving right along!

Through the Loops and Olga are having a birthday contest to celebrate that they turn 45 within days of each other. You can leave a comment at one or both blogs, identifying each of them from the baby pictures. Leave your comments by 11:59 pm (PDT? PST? EDT? EST?) on April 14 for your chance to win yarn and chocolate.

In the midst of my groggy day yesterday (even though I did stop for a moosed soy mocha, no toppings, on the way to work), I got fun mail – my Nana Sadie Rose Posy Sock Sack arrived! This is a really cool bag – it’s padded and very sturdy (even somewhat freestanding), with a shoulder strap and pockets inside to anchor a scissors, pencil, needles, etc. It’s about 10″ tall (everything looks small with Chaos in the picture). Looks like there’s plenty of space for a pair of socks-in-progress, along with keys, cellphone, and wallet. Thank you very much, Knitnana – I love it and can’t wait to use it! (You can email Knitnana to get your own Posy Sock sack.)

“Hmm, it isn’t a sock, so I guess I can relax my tuna and catnip rule. After all, there are cats on it.” -C

“*mumble*…pockets…*mumble*” -C

“Ok, ok, I’ll pose nice with the bag…” -C

“Can I go play now?” -C

Alongs, Contests, Knitting, Project Spectrum, Randonymity

I hope you’re all sitting down… oh wait, you’re at your computers. It should be ok.

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Yay, KnittyMama! She actually got a decent picture of me from Wednesday night. 🙂 (Please note that I’ve been updating yesterday’s post with links to people’s pictures and tales as they’re available.)

Twitching about the upcoming Harry Potter book release? Maybe participating in the Hogwarts Sock Swap will help distract you for the next several months. You have until April 30 to join.

You can sign up for Jennie’s Sound Swap until April 11. However, number of participants is limited, so sign up early!

Julia is having a contest a day for the next week. Check in each day to see what the new contest is! Winners will be selected randomly on Friday, April 13.

Question for Those in the Twin Cities
Does anyone know where I could take an ASL class in the area?! The Minneapolis Community Ed class I was signed up for was canceled (even though it still appears on their website). I’m not interested in taking a college level course (even just auditing). Thanks for any leads!

Pet Food
Obsidian Kitten has some great posts about making your own pet food – definitely something to think about in the light of recent events.

Jeanne turned me on to a good blog for tracking the current pet food issue, as well as others that come up.

Knitting Update
Ready for a bit of color shock? I’ve been working on Project Spectrumesque socks that are a bit different than my usual colors, but this week has been so crazy, I haven’t had a chance to blog about them until now. You might’ve seen this first sock in some of the pictures from Wednesday night – it’s a plain stockinette sock, knit from Regia Crazy Colors. This sock has some black and purple in addition to the pink and red, so it isn’t too much of a stretch. (The purple bag with black cats on it was made by Trek!)

“I am much cuter than the kitties on the bag, of course. Oh, Addis – my favorite!” -M

The next sock is quite a bit further outside of my usual color range…

“Addis, Addis, tasty tasy Addis…” -M

That’s Sundara’s sock yarn in Bird of Paradise, the most recent colorway in the Petals Collection. Initially I tried a garter rib, because I wanted to avoid the less stretchy slip stitch rib in the pattern that came with the yarn. However, the garter stitch broke up the colors way too much. Here’s a shot of the sole (stockinette) – imagine this with much, much more color choppiness.

“Are you going to eat that entire Addi, May? Maybe you could save a little nibble for me?” -C

So I conceded that Sundara knew what she was doing, using slip stitches to pull the alternating rounds of color together. I didn’t use the same ribbing as in the pattern; instead, I decided to use R1: *K1, slip 1 (as if to purl), K1, P1*; R2: *K3 P1*. I like it. A lot. And I’ll probably try a variation of this ribbing on other socks in the future – as long as I remember to make my sock heel deeper to compensate for the slight loss in stretchiness.

Contests, Randonymity

Work has eaten my brain

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Scout’s having a Project Spectrum contest. You can play along in two different ways: by describing or showing a picture of the preppiest outfit you’ve ever worn, or by writing a Project Spectrum limerick containing the words pink, yellow, and green. Leave your comments by noon, MDT, April 4, and you could win a skein of Scout’s yarn in the Prepster colorway (which is pink, yellow, and green).

Ok. That’s it. That’s all I have. After sitting in front of a computer and working for 16 hours yesterday, I don’t have a lot of brainpower left. I’ll catch up on bloglines later in the week, everyone. I miss you already.

So let’s see what I have in my spare photo folder… Whoops. There’s a picture I took for Tink, who was wondering if Knit a Fantasy Story had any patterns for fairies in it. Yes, indeed it does, Tink, although I’m pretty sure that dandelion isn’t knit.

Oh, look at this! Here’s a picture of Mayhem lying on the floor, underneath the chair rungs. It doesn’t look comfortable to me, either.

“La la la la la la la…” -M

“Mom! I can’t believe you posted that unflattering picture of me!!” *sniff* -M

Hee hee – just wait until she wants to start dating! 😉

Contests, Randonymity, Reading

Ahhh… Friday.

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Wendy has started giving away books after she reads them – if you send her an email before noon EDT, April 1, you could be selected to receive her copy of Past Reason Hated by Peter Robinson.

Lorette is celebrating her third blogiversary! Leave a comment about your favorite knitting trick or gadget and you could win some sock yarn. Comments must be left by midnight, April 1.

Reading Update
Innocent in Death by J.D. Robb. The latest Eve Dallas/Roarke (mmm…. Roarke…) mystery is good, but pretty standard fare. I swear, didn’t Born in Death just come out?!!
The Return of Jonah Gray by Heather Cochran. I was expecting this chicklit tale of Sasha, an IRS auditor, to be pretty standard fare, too. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that it had a bit more substance than I expected.

Life Update
Some things I’m looking forward to over the next few days – as part of their World Tour of the US, Peeve and Mr Peeve are coming to Minneapolis tomorrow and they’re staying at Casa de Chaos y Mayhem! Now, if I can just remember to bring along my camera… 😉 Hopefully the flood watch we have going through Saturday night remains just a watch…

Also, next Wednesday, the Yarn Harlot will be speaking in St Paul and signing copies of her new book. Rumor has it that there are 400 knitters who’ve reserved spots, with a waiting list. Should be very crazy indeed!

I’ve had a rough week at work and things will continue on in that fashion at least through the early part of next week. So imagine how finding this in my mailbox yesterday afternoon cheered me up:

“I don’t remember being in the mailbox, but I know I always cheer Mom up!” -M

*snort* “Yeah, that’s what she meant, May… not.” -C

Hmm. I didn’t mean for you to have to imagine quite that much. Let’s try again, shall we?

*sniff sniff* “I will allow you to accept this gift.” -C

Gee, thanks, Chaos. Anyway, Imbrium and I exchanged mix cds – the mix she sent me arrived yesterday, along with two gorgeous skeins of Interlacements Tiny Toes sock yarn in Midnight Blues! (Yes, there’s purple in there – it just didn’t photograph well.) Thank you so much, Imbrium!! Hey, I can’t get to your blog… 🙁

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Contests, Randonymity

In which I show off some yarn and goodies

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KnittyMama is having a contest to celebrate moving her blog and that everyone in her family has birthdays over the next few weeks. Leave a comment with a birthday story or just wish the KnittyFamily happy birthday by midnight CDT, April 15, and you could win DPN rolls or yarn!

Ages and ages ago, KnitNZu sent me a little thank you package with a cute little bag she made (very handy for carrying knitting miscellania), as well as some black and purple cotton yarn and an amusing card. Thank you, KnitNZu!

“That card is so right. Big kitty and I will have to get that Dealing with Difficult Owners book.” -M

Blogless Jan decided I needed some cheering up and she sure knows how to manage that!

“Mayhem! Bring back Feathers McGraw!” -me

*mumble* -M

Please note that no penguins were hurt in the previous escapade – Feathers McGraw was rescued before coming to harm. Jan also sent some lovely pictures of her cat Merry, a gluten-free brownie mix (yum!), and a very cute little sheep purse. Thank you, Jan – you definitely brought a smile to my face!

I’ve also picked up some yarn recently… (I’n sure Marina’s saying “I knew it!”) Hmm, maybe this isn’t the best picture of my acquisitions…

“Stand back, May. This is work for an experienced yarn sniffer.” -C

“Whatever, big kitty.” -M

I guess this picture is a little better… From the top left, a skein of Seacoast Merino Sock, Coal and Fire, from Yarn4Socks. May’s head is mostly obstructing a lovely skein of purple superwash bluefaced leicester from Maeve at Knitting Musings (Maeve has a much better picture, with no feline obstructions – Cricket must be slacking off!). On the bottom, Regia Crazy Colors in Passion and Regia Nation Colors in Fun Nation (both from Yarn4Socks). (Yes, yes, I know I’ve already knit a pair of socks from Fun Nation. What can I say? I’m a sucker for those wide stripes…)

“Ha – I can sniff yarn just as well as the big kitty. In fact, I’m sure I do it with more panache and definitely with more tail!” -M

Randonymity

Melancholy

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I’ve definitely been feeling down for the past several days. The grey, dreary weather? The grey, dreary landscape? Low iron? Hormones? The stress of work? The cumulative effects of the DST change? Lack of exercise? Dreary knitting projects? Time for a medication change? I don’t know exactly what brought it on, but there it is. I actually have things to post about, but I just feel too blah.

The forecast is for a bit more sun and some warmer weather over the next few days – hopefully that helps cheer me up. I hope everyone is feeling livelier than I am!

“Oh no!! I thought I would be safe under here!” -M
“Bwah-ha-ha!” -C