Contests, Reading

*sniff*

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Susan’s having a humorous caption contest – best caption wins Koigu! Leave your caption comment by midnight EDT, August 14.

Wendy’s giving away a copy of The Yarn Girls’ Guide to Knits for All Seasons – to enter, send an email to her contest line before noon EDT, August 12.

Cute Overload is having a meerkat caption contest (your odds are going to be a lot better in Susan’s contest!) Winners will be announced Monday and will win a packet of goodies from Animal Planet.

A Message from Chaos and Mayhem
Mom doesn’t seem able to blog today. She finished listening to something called Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince late last night and even though we know it wasn’t the first time she’s listened to it, her face got all wet and it took a lot of purring and bringing her fetch toys before she seemed all better. She did seem cheered about being all ready for when book 7 comes in for her at the library, and she sure got a lot of her second Spiralling Sock knitted while she listened!

Maybe you could toss a fetch toy or two while you wait for her to be all blog ready again on Monday? We’re waiting.

Tales of the Neighborhood

The Knitty Professor was here! The Knitty Professor was here!

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Congratulations to Sydney, Ann-Marie, and Tanya, who all won copies of the Project Spectrum OrangeBrownPurple mix cd! And thanks to everyone who entered.

I am very, very behind in bloglines – if you’re having a contest you’d like me to mention, please send me an email!

Visiting Professor
The Knitty Professor arrived late Tuesday afternoon.

“Luggage is bad, right? It means she’s staying??!” -Chaos

Really, Chaos seemed unable to decide whether he was ok with Michaele or not, whimsically alternating hissing with allowing her to pet him.

*sniff sniff sniff* -Chaos

“Hurry up, big kitty. I want her to wave the goldfish wand toy around for me again.” -Mayhem

Michaele gifted me with some absolutely stunning Manos – thanks, Michaele!!

*sniff sniff sniff* -Chaos

Tuesday we made it to Depth of Field Yarn and Needlework Unlimited before we were tuckered out. (No yarn pictures from me because I didn’t buy anything! Yes, I’ll wait while you recover.) We had some tasty food at Tum Rup Thai, then came back to my place to chat and knit. Wednesday morning, we chatted and knitted some more, then wandered over to the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. Here’s the Walker Art Center and the Lowry Tunnel (I-94):

A shot from the Irene Hixon Whitney Bridge with the Basilica in the background…

Michaele walking on the bridge:

I thought this bench from Jenny Holzer’s The Living Series really spoke to me as a knitter. Sound like something you’ve ever done while knitting?! 🙂

Knitting, Reading

Spiralling Mayhem

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Don’t forget about the Project Spectrum mix cd contest! Submit your email entry by 6 pm CDT, Wednesday, August 8.

And don’t worry when there’s no post from me tomorrow – the Knitty Professor will be staying at Casa de Chaos y Mayhem tonight and I’m taking tomorrow off to play.

Reading Update
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling (audiobook). Making good progress on listening to books 1-6 before I get the book 7 audiobook from the library.
Candy Apple Red by Nancy Bush. No, no, not that Nancy Bush! 🙂 This is the first Jane Kelly mystery – it was an entertaining read, and I’ll definitely read more in this series. It’s kind of fun that protagonist Jane Kelly is lactose intolerant. Hmm, maybe there’s an open niche for a mystery series featuring a gluten intolerant sleuth…
Water Like a Stone by Deborah Crombie. The most recent Kincaid and James mystery is as engaging and well-written as all the previous books in the series.

Knitting Update
Can you believe it?! Two posts in a row about knitting?? I’ll wait while you all recover…

After taking a month to knit the Serpentines, I’ve already made great progress on this month’s Sockamania Spiralling Socks, which I am knitting from Trekking Pro Natura (75% wool, 25% bamboo, color #1607).

“I don’t see any sock in here! Oh, but that ball of yarn sure looks tasty… Does bamboo taste like kitty grass?” -Mayhem

“Oh! Here’s the sock! Maybe I can quietly gnaw a little hole in it while Mom’s distracted with the camera…” -Mayhem

“Hmph. I don’t see why you’re so unreasonable about me tasting your knitting. It was only going to be a wee little hole. Hmph.” -Mayhem

Contests, Knitting

Serpentines finished!

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Jenn’s having a contest – guess what material the pictured countertop is made from and you could win some dishcloth cotton. Contest ends at midnight CDT today (August 6).

Bethe’s having a contest – guess what color she picked for the zipper, lining, and thread of her bag and you could win a fibery prize. Leave your guesses by 3 pm EDT, August 7.

Rosemary’s having a contest – guess what processing the featured picture went through and you could win one of her gorgeous shawl pins. Leave your comment by midnight PDT, August 8.

MezzoDiva is participating in the Toronto 2007 Weekend to End Breast Cancer (September 8-9). If you donate money in support, you will receive a copy of her lovely Campanula sock pattern.

Knitting Update
I finally finished my Sockamania July Serpentine Socks on Saturday! (Why, yes, that’s after the July 31 “deadline” and well after the end of the Tour de France…)

I knitted the socks from Sundara sock yarn (Lenten Rose colorway). I used 80 stitches instead of 68, adding my extra stitches in the stockinette columns between the paired cables. The stockinette columns looked too wide and plain after I added the extra stitches, so I added left and right twists down the middle of each stockinette column to increase the visual interest.

“Oh, big kitty, I see what Mom’s talking about. It really does help.” -Mayhem

“Whatever, Mayhem! Like you have any clue what she’s talking about.” -Chaos

“Hmph. The big kitty didn’t have to be so mean! I’ll show him!” -Mayhem

“MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM! The big kitty was mean to me!!!!!!!!!!” -Mayhem

Contests, Those Cats, Tunes

Furry distractions and Project Spectrum mix cd contest

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Thanks so much to everyone for your words of comfort and support in the wake of the I-35W Mississippi River Bridge collapse. I, like many other Minnesotans, am still in shock over the whole thing. And as additional information comes out suggesting that this was preventable, I suspect our shock is going to turn to anger and outrage…

But I need to think about other things for a while, you know? To that end, I continue to listen to Harry Potter Book 5 (I’m moving up the library list for Book 7 at a shocking pace!) and frantically knitting my Serpentine socks, trying to finish both. I think I’m about to start the final ribbing on both cuffs of the Serpentines.

And guess what? It’s time to give away some Project Spectrum mix cds for August – September. The colors are orange-brown-purple, and, perhaps unsurprisingly, the mix is weighted toward purples. Some artists on the mix include Neko Case, the Moutain Goats, Greg Brown, Los Lobos, the Okra All-Stars, and the Vitamin String Quartet. I will give away copies of the mix to three randomly selected people who send email to my contest line by 6 pm CDT, Wednesday, August 8.

Chaos hops into his my chair each time I set down ipod and knitting to get up and use the facilities or get a drink of water.

“Maybe if I look cute and asleep, she won’t roust me out of my chair.” -Chaos

You can always hope, Chaos!

“Try the extremely cute upside-down-kitty pose, big kitty. It works for me.” -Mayhem

I hope you all have a good, safe weekend.

Randonymity

Take a moment and hug the people you love…

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…because life is unpredictable. Many heartfelt thanks to all of you who have checked in on us here in the Twin Cities in the aftermath of the I-35W Mississippi bridge collapse. There are still people missing and we’re all kind of shellshocked. That bridge is just a few miles from where I live and I’ve been over it hundreds, if not thousands of times (although it isn’t part of my regular route). We aren’t famous for bridges in the Twin Cities, but since both the Mississippi and the Minnesota rivers cut through the metro area, we have a lot of bridges. I’ll be thinking about them a bit differently for a while.

“I’m glad I’ve never been over a bridge. How scary! I’m sending out nips and licks to those poor people.” -Mayhem

Randonymity, Swappin'

Handy Mayhem butt

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I’ve mentioned swap-bot a few times recently. Kristi has a great post on how to establish a rating on swap-bot.

Check out the Biteberry yarn in its new habit!

A sign I saw yesterday that amused me – so that’s where preteens go to get rid of pesky parents! Do you need to bundle parents with twine like you do newspapers and corrugated cardboard? 😉

Monday evening I was unlocking my mailbox after work and my (admittedly large) bag fell off my shoulder onto the mailbox key and snapped it off in the lock. Ugh! I could still get the key pieces to work – but so could anyone else with a screwdriver. I was calling a locksmith yesterday when my coworker interrupted me and got me off the phone before I could make an appointment for an expensive locksmith house call (because of course the lock can’t be removed and taken into the locksmith, as it requires a special removal key). Turns out my coworker had a lockpicking kit on him. . . . I didn’t ask, either. Usually it’s best not to know. Anyway, he loaned me a “key extractor” and after a bit of fiddling with the key extractor and a leatherman tool, I once again have a secure mailbox. Make sure you have copies of all your keys for times like this!

“This stuff is too boring to even bother sniffing.” -Mayhem

Is it just me, or does it look like May is mocking Chaos’ tail? Anyway, she wandered off to play ghost paws on the Kitty Casa instead.

“This is much more fun! Whee!” -Mayhem

See the Sights

One of my favorite places ever

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After I left the Brown Sheep outlet store, I headed north into the Black Hills. I love the Black Hills. Prior to 1991, I had never been there. But that summer, I worked for the Forest Service out of the Harney Ranger District in Hill City, South Dakota, marking timber and fighting forest fires. (Wow, the building I worked out of isn’t in use anymore and is now for sale!)

When I had time off, I explored. One of my very favorite hikes was through the miniscule Black Elk Wilderness up to Harney Peak. I have no idea how many times I hiked those trails that summer!

Ready to go? If you enlarge this picture and look at the skyline in the center, you’ll see a wee bump. That’s my destination.

I made sure to fill out my wilderness registration card, just in case!

Whew! Almost to the top, although I swear the last steps up are the hardest of all.

It might surprise you to learn that at 7247 feet (2207 meters) Harney Peak is the tallest point between the Pyrenees and the Rockies!

The views are best on a clear day, but they weren’t too shabby even on this cloudy one.

Unfortunately, the clouds really started to rush in then, so I booked on down the trail, lickity split! I got pretty wet that last mile or two – fortunately, I wasn’t wearing cotton, so I dried off very quickly once I got in the car and out of the rain. As I headed down to civilization, the storm got completely crazy and I pulled off to wait it out.

This is what a hailstorm looks like from inside my car:

“Whoa, Mom, that’s making me dizzy!” -Chaos

Contests, KALs, Reading

Serpentine Mayhem

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Lisa moved her blog to her own domain and is having a contest to celebrate! Leave her a comment by 5 pm EDT, August 5, to be entered and possibly win a gorgeous fibery prize.

Thanks to Janna for the heads up on this silly “test”: Which lolcat are you? I was Cheezburger Cat. If you don’t want to end up as Cheezburger Cat, you should probably have a snack before taking the test.

I’m very behind on blog reading after a weekend away. Please do let me know if you have a contest you’d like me to post about this week!

Reading Update
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling (audio). Plodding along, but I will finish listening to these again before I listen to Book 7. I’m #96 on the waiting list (and there are 94 copies) – I need to speed up my listening, don’t I?!
A Killer Stitch by Maggie Sefton. Is it just me? Or do others have trouble getting into these knitting mysteries set in fictitious Fort “Connor,” Colorado?
Passon, Betrayal, and Killer Highlights by Kyra Davis. The second book about mystery writer Sophie Katz and her cat, Mr. Katz, is as enjoyable a read as was Sex, Murder and a Double Latte.

Knitting Update
Alas, I didn’t finish my TDF KAL project – the Sockamania Serpentine Socks. I got about 1.5″ knit on them Friday at the cabin (on the dock, with the cool breezes blowing off the lake…. ahhhh…) before everyone else arrived. Didn’t touch ’em again after that. (The cabin was great fun – it was sunny and there were no bugs worth speaking of.) I would’ve had to knit every waking minute (and a few sleeping ones, too) in order to finish these in time. Ah well, at least I wasn’t kicked out of the Tour for drug use, eh?! (Please ignore how shockingly dirty the bottom of my foot was in the picture below – what can I say, I was just back from the cabin.) (And obviously too lazy to go wash my foot and take another picture!)

“While Mom is obsessing over having such a dirty foot, I’m just going to steal this Addi. I’m sure she won’t miss it, since she isn’t using it right now anyway.” -Mayhem

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