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

Contests, Dyeing, Knitting, Project Spectrum

And finally, some knitting

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How perfect is this? I Can Haz Cheezburger is having a caption contest! C’mon, u noes u wantz to. Contest ends June 6, 11:59 pm – and it’s a black cat you’ll be captioning. You know you can do it!

Aw, Mayhem really appreciated all the sweet birthday wishes yesterday! For those who are wondering where the heck the year went, I didn’t get her until September last year. Whew! No lost summer of 2006 for y’all.

A few details I neglected to include in my dyeing post earlier this week… I used an assortment of base yarns – some left over from last year and some I was just curious about. I had a lot of Kona fingering superwash, some Schoeller Zimba Top (picked up on Destash from Jennifer), some Kraemer Jeannie, and a random skein of Malabrigo donated by Yarnzilla. So far, my favorite superwash fingering sock yarns to dye are Louet Gems Pearl, Wool2Dye4, and Treadsoft.

We use Country Classics acid dyes, which have citric acid mixed in with the dye – much less stinky than using acetic acid (the acid in vinegar). Our technique is pretty fancy – we mix the dye in plastic cups and pour it onto the yarn, trying to use the minimum amount of water that we can. Then wrap the yarn in plastic wrap and nuke the yarn to set the dye. Make sure you use dedicated utensils and containers for mixing the dye and nuking the yarn! You can use use your regular microwave, but make sure the yarn is well-sealed in plastic wrap and air out the microwave afterward. Wearing gloves is a really good idea, too, unless you want to be mocked at work for your technicolor hands. Right, Jeanne?

Knitting *gasp* Update
I’m part of Sockamania, and we’re supposed to be knitting a pair of socks each month. I loved May’s pattern, but I got distracted by other things and didn’t get very far. I got a lot less far than it looks in this picture, actually, since I’ve decided the heel is way too tight and I need to rip back and start the gusset earlier.

The yarn is Regia Bamboo, color 1072 – I picked it because it had the April-May Project Spectrum colors of pink and green. This sock is probably on hold until after I knit the June Sockamania sock.

I started another, simpler sock, which fortunately covers one of the April-May PS colors and one the June-July colors.

“Hmph. So what if it wasn’t my birthday? What am I, invisible?!” -Chaos

Nope, I didn’t dye that yarn – I picked it up before we really got into dyeing. It’s from ebay seller lotusblossom, but it doesn’t look like she has anything now with Treadsoft superwash as the base.

“Teeheehee, big kitty! I am the cutest!” -Mayhem

Reading, Those Cats

And now she is 1

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Reading Update
Bit the Jackpot by Erin McCarthy. Another steamy Vegas Vampires book. Fun and light.
Murder of a Small-Town Honey and Murder of a Sweet Old Lady by Denise Swanson. Cozy mysteries about Skye Denison, a school psychologist in Scumble River, Illinois.

Birthday Update
Happy birthday, Mayhem!! Although you’re all grown up now, you will always be my Kitten Girl. (Actual size of that “huge” blue mouse below? 2.25 inches… Actual size now of Mayhem’s back leg from toe to knee? 4.5 inches…)

There will be a contest to celebrate her birthday – but it’s going to be after I get back back from Colorado, near the end of June.

“But… I still feel like a kitten…” -Mayhem

Dyeing

Drip dyeing away

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Oh, there’s a kitty-themed music cd swap on swap-bot. Who’s in with me?! You have to sign up by June 1.

Our Further Adventures in Dyeing
Deb has already posted her account of our Saturday dyeing adventures. I sure couldn’t tell she started her day off with a migraine – it certainly didn’t impair her gracious hostessing abilities one bit! (If you ever have the chance to eat at Deb’s, do it.)

Here’s Jeanne, doing a little dye organization – alas, you can’t see her cute haircut. (Deb, you’ll thank me for not posting the picture I took of you.)

We dyed a lot of yarn.

I did have a mission, so I was cranking through the yarn and went well outside of my usual palette. I’ll wait for you all to recover from the shock.

Sorry about the color in that picture – I swear, every time I’ve tried to take yarn pictures for the past several days, clouds have swept across the sun. I was trying to get the lime green to show up better… Maybe this is a bit better – no touch ups at all.

Here’s what the pink and brown skein on the far left looked like reskeined. I haven’t reskeined any of the others yet.

“What the heck?! Are you using me as a prop again?!” -Chaos

“I’m so disappointed in you, Mom.” -Chaos

Knitting, Project Spectrum, Tunes

Iced java jacket pattern and Project Spectrum mix cd contest!

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Project Spectrum
Last year, Anjo the Crafty Modster made and gave away awesome mix cds for each month/color combination of Project Spectrum. Alas, Anjo hasn’t posted since October (I hope she’s ok!), so Heather made the first two PS mixes this year and I will be making the second two.

The colors for June-July are red, black, and metallics – each song or artist will have one of these colors in title or name. If you are interested in receiving a copy of the cd, please send email to my contest email address by 6 pm CDT, June 1. Three winners will be randomly selected. Only entries sent to my contest email address will be included in the drawing! You will not receive a confirmation email back. You do not need to be participating in Project Spectrum to win a cd.

Curious about what music will be on the cd? Some of the artists include Okkervil River, the Builders & the Butchers, the Mountain Goats, Blue Skies for Black Hearts, Joseph Arthur, the Sad Little Stars, Pete Yorn, Joseph Plunkett & the Weight, Thin White Rope, and Radiohead. Hey, I have notoriously eclectic and obscure taste. 🙂

Knitting: Java Jacket Pattern
To avoid having cold, soggy fingers when drinking iced coffee drinks in the summer, I knitted some java jackets from leftover Cascade Fixation. I have one at home, one in the car, one in my purse – you get the idea!

It’s a quick pattern for those of you who drink iced coffee or 20-ounce bottles of soda. For cans of soda or beer bottles, I would recommend casting on fewer stitches.

Materials

  • Cascade Fixation or Elann Esprit
  • US size 4 dpns/long circular/two circulars, depending on your preferred method (or size to get an approximate gauge of 5 st/in)
  • Beginning of round (BoR) marker
  • Darning needle

Cast on 36 stitches for seed stitch border or 37 stitches for ribbing. Join by knitting the first and last stitch together and place BoR marker before this stitch: 35 stitches (seed stitch) or 36 stitches (ribbing) remain.

Knit 6 rounds of seed stitch or 2×2 ribbing. Knit 20 rounds plain. Knit 6 rounds of seed stitch or 2×2 ribbing. Bind off and weave in ends. My bind off edge is a bit tighter than my cast off edge, which works well with a tapered cup. If you are planning to use these on cans or other non-tapered beverage containers, make sure you bind off loosely.

For a change, the cats were completely uninterested in all of this.

“Birds!” -Mayhem

“Darned screen. We could so get those birds… although since we are on the third floor, maybe the screen is a good thing.” -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!

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