Contests, Knitting

Free to good (or, preferably, bad) home

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Hockeymom’s having a contest – suggest some potential projects for her new yarn and you could win some yarn of your own. Contest closes December 14.

Have you read these cats’ letters to Santa?! Brilliant. Only wish I’d thought of it myself. Hee hee – Mama Tulip, what do you think Chewy would ask Santa for? To be flame retardent, maybe?!

At the beginning of October, I purchased a couple skeins of the new fall Meilenweit colors. I took the skein of Stile (color 8004) to the hospital with me and discovered that the colorway, so extraordinarly lovely in the skein, was butt ugly knitted in whatever pattern I first tried. (I didn’t even document what that pattern was and have obviously blocked it out of my memory.)

After I got home, I ripped out that heinous sock and started another one. This time I used a slipstitch rib, hoping the slipped stitches would help… They did not. You might think, from the picture below, that these socks aren’t too bad. Ha! That’s because the taupe is hiding. In real life, the taupe jumps out and somehow unbalances and ruins the colorway. (Well, for me, obviously.)

This sock irked me enough that I’ve apparently never mentioned it on the blog – even though it’s been on the needles since October… Last night I got tired of it lurking around and decided it needed to be gone. So, if you’d like a mostly knitted sock (um, not really sure what size it is – it would fit my SIL, but damn, I can’t in good conscience give her such ugly socks) and its attached ball of yarn (needles not included) and promise to give it a bad good home, be the first person to leave a comment requesting said ugly ass yarn. How’s that for a sales pitch?! 🙂 ETA: Congrats (???) to Brigitte, who was the first human to request said skein!

A few more pictures – please note that neither yarn nor needles were harmed during this photo shoot, although I think Mayhem was totally nonplussed at how uncharacteristically involved Chaos got…

“Oh, good, I’ve been waiting for Mom to put some needles on the floor – I have something between my teeth that I just can’t get out…” -Chaos

“That needle did the trick! Damn, this is ugly yarn. What was Mom thinking when she bought it?” -Chaos

“Hmm… I really couldn’t begin to guess, big kitty.” -Mayhem

“Do you think it would look better if we tangled it up a bit for her, big kitty? I think most things look better when tangled.” -Mayhem

“Oh, good idea – let’s!” -Chaos

Randonymity, Tunes

Weekend busyness

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Don’t forget to play along in my personals ad contest – there are some very funny entries already! Deadline is 6 pm CST on Thursday, December 13. Now I realize that Cyn should actually be “Sin”… and watch out for Margene after she hits the martinis! 😉 (But I am so not knitting that edible thong.)

Saturday night my friend Lisa and I had an evening out in downtown St. Paul, starting with yummy pad thai at Ruam Mit Thai Cafe. We then walked over to the Fitzgerald Theater (very quickly and with much complaining, as it was bitterly cold) for The New Standards holiday show. The New Standards are an unconventional jazz trio composed of Chan Poling, John Munson, and Steve Roehm. They opened with their amazing version of the Clash’s “London Calling.”

If you remember the 1980s New Wave band the Suburbs, Poling was the lead singer – check out the YouTube videos of “Love Is the Law,” “Waiting,” and “Cows.” John Munson was in Trip Shakespeare and Semisonic (“Singing in My Sleep,” “Closing Time“). (Tangential tangent – I went to a lot of Trip Shakespeare shows back in the day, including on my birthday one year as a present from my brother. Munson’s “rap” in the middle of “Toolmaster of Brainerd” that night remains a favorite musical memory.)

The special guests on Saturday night were fabulous – Dan Wilson (Trip Shakespeare, Semisonic) sang “Free Life“; his brother Matt (Trip Shakespeare) made an appearance, too, and they both sang backup on the Trip Shakespeare song “Snow Day.” Other guests included Haley Bonar, Adam Levy of the Honeydogs, and Laurie Lundeen of Zuzu’s Petals. There was also an odd little bit where Poling’s wife Eleanor Mondale sang a very discordant round of “Silent Night” with him… Anyway, you’ll be able to listen to this show yourself if you’d like – it’s supposed to be broadcast and streamed on the Current on Christmas Eve. Although you won’t have the opportunity to get your picture taken sitting on Santa’s lap… both Lisa and I skipped that one! (Nope, there weren’t any kids at the show… so yeah, there were adults sitting on Santa’s lap. Feel free to discuss among your selves.)

This little dinosaur across the street from the Fitz in front of the McNally Smith College of Music caught my eye as we were heading back to the car after the show.

On Sunday, Jeanne and I headed over to Craftmas at the Uptown VFW. We didn’t buy any gifts, but I picked up a few things for myself… We also wandered over to Uncle Hugo’s/Uncle Edgar’s, then had lunch at French Meadow Cafe, and ended up at Needlework Unlimited because Jeanne was looking for some very specific yarn. A busy but very enjoyable weekend!

“I have no idea what a barrette is either, May. I agree, it does look like some sort of cat toy. Shall we?” -Chaos

Randonymity

DWF seeks… A personals ad contest

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Dang, have I got nothin’ today or what? Um… Ok, how about a little contest? Because, you know, I just love going to the post office at this time of year. 😀 The prize will be a mix cd personally crafted by me for the winner. Said winner will be selected based on how hard I laugh, or by random number should the choice be impossible. Deadline is 6 pm CST on Thursday, December 13. ETA: Contest is now closed – thanks for playing!

To play along, leave a comment below in which you write a personals ad for me – now that I’m feeling really healthy, dating doesn’t seem quite as implausible to me. *a-hem* Please aim for clever over crude! I’d be perfectly happy to leave behind my blog’s current G rating, but I’d also prefer not to hit NC-17 or beyond, y’know?!

Basic info about me – heterosexual divorced white female, age 41, 5’9″, athletic build, wicked sense of humor, tends not to be attracted to blonds or redheads, likes to read and knit, has eclectic musical taste, loves bicycling and walking, not much into tv. More details can be found in my 100 Things About Me list or my 6 Weird Things list.

“Woman! Bring me a beer! And the remote! And some tuna! And a partridge in a pear tree – doesn’t that sound yummy?” -Chaos

Those Cats

SoC presents – Cat Fight!

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Between cats. Duh.

No cats were harmed in the making of this post. Well, other than a bit of fur flying. They had plenty to spare.

Thanks to everyone who weighed in yesterday on my neighbor woes! We’ll see how keeping them shut out of the bedroom works as a starting point, with kitty hovercrafts, offering her a white noise machine, or replacing my carpeting with more sound insulating flooring as alternatives.

Randonymity, Tunes

Looking for some advice, plus randonymity

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I need some advice. My downstairs neighbor has been complaining about Chaos and Mayhem running around during the night and early morning (5:30 am, when I get up) while she’s trying to sleep. I can’t blame her – they’re loud: “thundering paws” comes to mind. But I also can’t think of any great solutions, either. I know that while I was on medical leave, my schedule was very messed up (um, I might’ve unthinkingly played fetch with Mayhem after 11:30 pm on more than one occasion) and I think that was the final straw for my downstairs neighbor.

About all I can think of to do is to shut them out of the bedroom overnight and in the morning. Anyone else have ideas on how to tame the thundering paws of my extremely active kitties?? ETA: Some additional information – I have carpet. Chaos is around 16 or 17 pounds, so when he runs, you definitely notice. May is 10 pounds.

Ok, onto some random stuff. Congrats to Marina and La, who were the winners of my Superpower Blogiversary Contest!

I stopped at my quirky neighborhood liquor store Monday evening (if you’ve ever wondered where all the body mod people work? Yup – that’s the place) and mentioned my annotated beer case. She just rolled her eyes and said that “the boys in the back room” got a little bored sometimes…

Seems like it’s cats two, Christmas trees zero so far…

Some of you may be aware that I have extremely eclectic musical tastes. 🙂 In fact, if it’s by a top 40 artist from the past 10 years? I probably haven’t heard it. Anyway, there’s some pretty interesting holiday music out there, especially if the traditional songs are already getting on your nerves. Here are just a few – please note that this is all listen at your own risk!

Aquarium Drunkard has a nice playlist, including songs like Mae West’s “Put the Loot in the Boot, Santa” and Big John Greer’s “We Wanna See Santa Do the Mambo.”

Big Rock Candy Junk Shop Christmas will be available for a few more days. There’s some overlap with the playlist up at Aquarium Drunkard, but that’s because Aquarium Drunkard’s songs came from Big Rock Candy Mountain! Check daily for more fun songs, too – yesterday’s songs were from Billy Childish & the Musicians of the British Empire (“Christmas Hell” and “Christmas Lights”).

Everybody Cares, Everybody Understands has a free and legal Christmas mix up, which includes songs from Bright Eyes, Sufjan Stevens, and Death Cab for Cutie.

Suburban Sprawl has its annual Christmas compilation up. Some of the songs include Love Axe’s “Happy New Year,” and Jon Cendrowski’s “Dick in a Box.” You can also download their previous compilations.

Snow, snow, snow. We had more yesterday. Some pictures from work before I spent an hour driving 8 miles.

Generally, the world continues on a little further…

“Do I look as if I could possibly be noisy?! It has to be the big kitty.” -Mayhem

Knitting, Reading

Wow, I don’t usually have this much trouble thinking of a title

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Reading Update
In Deep Voodoo by Stephanie Bond. This is one of those mysteries that could be a romance, or a romance that could be a mystery. Let’s just say that I kept reading, which counts for something, no?
A Girl’s Guide to Vampires and Sex and the Single Vampire by Katie MacAlister. *fans self* *clears throat in embarassment* Moving right along!
Unzipped by Lois Greiman. I have now read this series completely backwards, after saying I didn’t feel the need to read the earlier books. *a-hem* Apparently, all it takes is a dark and appealing hero and I’m a goner.

Knitting Update
Sorry, Marina – there’s purple involved… 😉

Finally, the Crazy Boo Monkey socks are finished! This is some lovely Red Rocks Fiber Works sock yarn in the Boo! colorway (it is so not the Vikings colorway, Guinifer and Van), which was a convalescence gift from Michaele. I’m using the stitch pattern from the Los Monos Locos pattern (a speedy, non-purl Monkey alternative).

“Remember, Mom, I’ll take my payment for posing for this picture in MGWT time. Or small denomination unmarked bills. Or you could wire it to my Swiss account.” -Mayhem

Festing

We were all stricken with camnesia

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Thursday evening I picked up Kristi the Fiber Fool from the airport. We chatted and knitted while Chaos glared balefully and May tried to entice Kristi to open up the MGWT closet. Friday I headed to work for part of the day, while Kristi braved the elements (it was maybe +10F with a bitter wind) and walked to Uptown for some holiday shopping. Eventually I rescued her and we stopped at Needlework Unlimited and The Fiber Studio before heading back to my place.

Friday evening, Kristi, Chaos, Mayhem, and I were joined by Jeanne, Guinifer, Jess, and the Procratinatrix for conversation, snacks, drinks, and knitting. Shockingly, not one single picture was taken to commemorate this event! I’m sure your imaginations will fill in the details, right? (Double-fudge brownies, brie, pecan nut thins, stuffed olives, wine, cats, yarn, needles…)

Kristi and Guinifer brought some fun stuff! To the left is a supercute “catfienated/detcatf” mug from Kristi, along with some sock yarn that she gradient dyed (the socks will shade from black at the toes to purple at the cuffs). Not pictured are a stack of mix cds from Kristi that I’ve been quite enjoying. Thanks, Kristi! To the right is a skein of Lime’n’Violet sock yarn from Guinifer, as well the largest cat toy Chaos and Mayhem have ever received! That puppy (a Four Paws Scratch, Rattle, and Roll Dog) not only has a scratcher on his back – he’s catnippy, too. Thank you, Guinifer! Both Chaos and Mayhem spent a lot of quality time playing with the puppy over the weekend; unfortunately, none of it when I had the camera handy. More imagination required here…

“So many decisions – get my head stuck in the mug? Bite up the yarn? Beat up that puppy?” -Mayhem

Saturday, Kristi and I had planned on hitting four or five yarn stores before Kristi met up with her cousin. The weather, however, had other plans; instead, we traveled slowly out to White Bear Lake, shopped a bit at A Sheepy Yarn Shoppe, and Kristi headed off with her cousin. I had a memorable drive home – fortunately accident-free, but it sure isn’t every Saturday that you’re creeping along I-94 west at a max speed of 25 mph.

Here’s how things were looking when I got home:

So I spent a pleasant rest of the weekend enjoying that cozy, stay-at-home first snow feel.

“Wha…?” -Mayhem

Contests, Tales of the Neighborhood

In which no one is eaten by a giant ravenous muskellunge

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Emily’s celebrating her eleventy-first blog post with a contest, and the more comments she gets, the more prizes she’ll award! Leave your comment with a link to your favorite blog post by December 7.

Lucia’s having a contest – identify which Barbara Walker stitch patterns she used for her charity knitathon blanket squares. Contest is open until someone identifies all the squares or until December 4.

Do you think Chaos and Mayhem were studying up on superpowers? The book you can barely see underneath May is Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman; it’s next on my reading list.

“Neener, neener, May – I’m going to have a better superpower than you – I’m going to be able to remove the bungee cords from the closet doors AND get the food container open!” -Chaos

“Hmph.” -Mayhem

You may or may not remember how easily amused I am by signage and its unintended messages. This first picture was from a walk I took a few weeks ago. Embiggen, and pay particular attention to the yellow sign and its location… 🙂

I took a rather chilly walk around Lake of the Isles Wednesday. The warming house was already out! I guess the Park & Recreation Board believes in being very prepared, since the ice probably won’t be safe until late December or early January. Maybe this year the ice will sturdy enough so I can skate around the islands.

You’d have to be completely crazy to go out on the ice right now even without this warning sign, since there wasn’t any ice on Sunday. Also, based on the signage, if you are crazy enough to go out and fall through the ice, there’s a high probability that you will be eaten by a giant, sure-to-be-ravenous muskellunge. It’d serve you right, eh? 😉

For those of you following along at home, here’s my annotated guide to Lake of the Isles:

As I was breaking down the case from my beloved gluten-free New Grist beer, I noticed that it, too, was annotated…

Randonymity, Viewing

Look! Over there!

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Maybe you can tell that I’m attempting to distract you from the whole lotta nothin’ goin’ on ’round here? 😉 My Crazy Boo Monkey Socks have been about five rounds away from being done since Saturday. I’ve worked on my cardi a bit, but back and forth stockinette is not my favorite thing in the world.

Instead of knitting and reading, I’ve been goofing around on my laptop a lot, working on some mixes and chattin’ with the Fraro (did you see her gorgeous yarn over at the Loopy Ewe?!). And I’ve been cleaning a bit for a special houseguest who will be here Thursday and Friday night. 🙂

Oh, and I actually watched a movie the other night – Matrix Reloaded. I was thinking “mmm, good sex scene!” and “butt kicking bestest car chase ever!” and forgot all the flying. Way too much flying. On the plus side, not as bad as Matrix Revolutions *runs brainbleach cycle*.

Talk about discouraging – from the June 2007 issue of Minnesota Monthly (I tried to wade through some stacks of magazines over the weekend):

Minnesota Dating Is Not-So-Nice – Still don’t have a date for that dinner party? You’re not alone (well, only literally): In 2004, the Twin Cities made the list of 10 worst cities to hook up in, as determined by Sperling’s BestPlaces. Recently, the online dating service OkCupid.com determined that Minnesota has the nation’s loneliest women and shyest men. The knock has always been low turnover: Fewer people (in search of companionship) move into and out of here than such larger cities as Boston, New York, and Philadelphia.

Well. See, Van, my plot to knock hot bicycling boys off their bikes isn’t unreasonable – takes care of that shyness thing straight off.

Here’s another shot of Mayhem in midair capturing that mouse. I’m not sure if leaving the picture uncropped helps with the perspective or not… That black smudge at the top is my ghostly thumb after the mouse has been snatched from my hand. 🙂

“I triumph!” -Mayhem

Art journaling, reading, knitting, and cat parenting. It's a wild life.