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 (Although I’m horrified at how out-of-date their webpage is.)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

46 Comments

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!

Those Cats

8 things about Mayhem

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Brenda tagged Mayhem for the seven (or eight) things meme. I know, I know – lots of people have tagged me. I’m sort of meme-adverse and I’ll just apologize in advance to anyone who tags me. But Brenda made a very good point that I have 100 Things about me, 25 Things about Chaos, and even 5 weird things about Chaos… and nothing for May! Oh dear. Bad kitty mom.

1. Mayhem is a chewer. Chew chew chew. Fortunately, she doesn’t chew on power cords (much) and has only chewed on books that I own. I’m pretty sure that the library frowns on fang holes in paperback covers…

2. Mayhem believes herself to be the dominant kitty around here. Chaos does not agree. There are some rather spectacular disagreements about this. None of these disagreements has changed her mind.

3. Mayhem likes to sprawl froglike underneath the kitchen chairs. I think it looks like she’s been squashed.

4. Mayhem has the softest fur I’ve ever petted. Her tummy is particularly soft. This results in me snatching her up to rub her tummy more often than Mayhem feels is appropriate.

5. Mayhem doesn’t purr very often. She purred a lot when she was a wee kitten, but at some point she started to only purr when “nursing” from Chaos. Since Chaos has her mostly “weaned,” she rarely purrs anymore. This makes me sad.

6. Mayhem likes to be near me and almost always follows me around to see what I’m doing.

7. Mayhem is fascinated by water. She likes to lounge about in the bathroom sink. (Do you have any idea how hard it is to keep a white bathroom sink free of black fur when you have a sink kitty?!) Sometimes she falls into the shower with me. She doesn’t stay long!

8. Mayhem is indefatigable when playing fetch and her favorite fetch toys are little furry mice that rattle. None of her mice have tails – she either eats the tails off (see #1) or I cut the tails off so as not to add to tail collection in her stomach!

“This is an exceptionally nice nip toy! Mmmm…. nip.” -Mayhem

Contests, Randonymity

Goats and llamas and cats, oh my!

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Ok, now that we gave Jeanne a little break (and besides, she’s asleep on a plane to Miami right now anyway), we can get back to my last few pictures from Shepherd’s Harvest. I present the baby pygmy goat:

Apparently, when he’s fully grown, he might be knee high. Awwww…. I wonder if the cats would notice him? Can you litter train goats?

Besides all the goats and sheep that are part of Shepherd’s Harvest, there was a second, simultaneous event going on at the Washington County Fairgrounds:

Sort of boggles the mind, doesn’t it? What sort of magic do you suppose llamas do? Coin tricks? Levitation? Sydney, as the only magicians I’m aware of reading this blog, could you or Rick help us out here?

While we all wonder about that, let’s move on to what you’re totally waiting for – baby llamas!!

At that point, Jeanne pulled me away from the pen, because apparently the mama llamas were not happy with my picture taking…

Wow, talk about baleful stares… Thanks for the heads up, Jeanne!

Here’s a little prelude to some kitty photos you’ll see next week.

“Hee hee – maybe I can eat off this mousie tail before Mom steals the tail from me!” -Mayhem

Have a great weekend, everyone! I am heading “up nord to da cabin” with my brother and SIL. I’ll try to get caught up Sunday night…

Contests, Randonymity

In which I attempt to catch up

44 Comments

Nishanna is having a contest for her birthday – leave her a joke, a funny haiku, or anything else to make her smile and you could win a skein of Schaefer Anne. Leave your comments by 11:59 pm EDT, May 21.

Ali is having a summer knitting goals contest – you could win copies of her tank pattern and some Blue Sky Organic Cotton to make it with. The contest runs through the end of May.

Hee hee – apparently I’ve traumatized poor KitKatKnit for life…

Ok, I’ve been getting some grief (*cough* Jeanne *cough*) about how long I can possibly drag out Shepherd’s Harvest. She must think she’s in Groundhog Day or something. Anyway, I’ll give her a break today (no one wanted to see a baby pygmy goat/kid or baby llamas anyway) and turn to some thank yous.

Sallee sent Chaos a very interesting mouse, which I can’t find to photograph. The front half is a regular brown furry mouse. The back half is a soft sparkly red ball with a little bell inside. Finally, there’s a stubby mouse tail sticking out of the ball. Initially, the kitties weren’t quite sure what to do with it, but they’re definitely playing with it now. She also sent some cute stitchmarkers. Thanks, Sallee!

MamaTulip sent me the book Boo because of the cover, disavowing all knowledge of the contents. Thanks, MT! Janet and I set up a little swap between ourselves and she sent me these fabulous cards (I’m not sure I can bear to use them!) and some lovely Hempathy, which I’m looking forward to trying. Thank you, Janet!

“Maybe if I hug this yarn, Mom will let me keep it.” -Mayhem

E and I set up a little cover cd swap and E included this gorgeous necklace in perfect Chris colors! Yum – thank you, E! RheLynn sent me a lovely artist’s card that she painted. Thanks, RheLynn!

“Are you sure that isn’t a cat toy?? Are you completely sure?” -Mayhem

And finally, Frarochvia surprised me with a package yesterday.

“Ok, almost got it…” -Chaos

“Hmm…” -Chaos

“Whatever, big kitty, give it up with the mysterious thing and let me see!” -Mayhem

“Mmmm… tasty box!” -Mayhem

“Yarn and chocolate. It’s always yarn and chocolate, isn’t it, big kitty?” -Mayhem

“You’re catching on, May.” -Chaos

Thanks, Fraro! Bib bib bib bib…

Contests, Randonymity, Reading, Tunes

“Oh, it’s just a harmless little bunny, isn’t it?”

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Diane is having a rant contest. Share a good rant with her before May 31, and you could win some sock yarn!

An Aquarium Drunkard is giving away copies of the forthcoming Soul Sides Vol 2: The Covers cd. To win, answer the trivia question in an email before midnight PDT, May 19.

Anyone in the Twin Cities interested in going to see the National at the 400 Bar on Friday, June 8? Let me know!!

Reading Update
Setting up a new computer has really cut into my knitting and reading time! Hopefully things are mostly set up by now so life can go back to normal around here.
A Finer End and And Justice, There Is None by Deborah Crombie. Continuing on with the Kincaid and James mysteries – only a few more left!
High Profile by Robert B. Parker. Another combined Jesse Stone and Sunny Randall mystery. I’m actually getting frustrated with both characters at this point! Why bother continuing either series if these characters are just going to stay stuck??
The Accidental Florist by Jill Churchill. This most recent Jane Jeffrey mystery didn’t feel very mysterious at all. Actually, I’m really not sure why I kept reading the book. Not a series I plan to continue reading anymore…

Today’s Shepherd’s Harvest Cute Animal Photo
The sign on the cage reads “For your safety, no fingers in cages!” Oh no! Run away! Break out the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch! 😉

“If you think that bunny is fierce, check this out! Rawrrrrgh! Are you running away yet? It’s hard to see with my eyes all squished up like this.” -Mayhem

Those Cats

Cat, cat, llama

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I couldn’t resist this stuffed toy at Shepherd’s Harvest because… doesn’t every child need a stuffed llama?

[sounds of suspicious sniffing are heard]

[sounds of suspicious and somewhat puzzled sniffing continue]

“Ok, I give up – what is it?” -Chaos

*sniff sniff sniff* -Mayhem

“A llama. Sure we were going to be able to figure that out. In case you haven’t noticed, we aren’t in the friggin’ Andes around here. Hmph.” -Chaos

*sniff sniff sniff* -Mayhem

“Come along, Mayhem. We have no time for this silliness.” -Chaos

Hmmm… What have we here? Could it be Chaos, returning to knock over the llama?

“Hee hee hee!” -Chaos

“That’ll show that llama!” -Chaos

Hmm, I wonder what exactly that will show the llama?!

Contests, Festing, Randonymity

The sweetness of the lambs

67 Comments

Once again, Claudia’s riding her tandem in support of the MS Society and giving away fabulous prizes to donors. For every $10 you donate, you get another chance to win.

HeidiHo’s friend Karen has two children with cystic fibrosis. Karen and her children are participating in the Great Strides walk this coming weekend. If you pledge money to support them and let Heidi know about it before Friday, May 18, you will be entered in a drawing for a skein of Scout’s yarn.

Amy! had a good post about a knitting wiki – and do read the comments for a link to another one. Zenifer posted a nice list of one-skein projects. Vicki posted a list of triangular shawls organized by how many yards of yarn they use. Both things sound as if they would be great additions to a Wiki!

Yesterday I had the most amazing gluten- and lactose-free frozen dessert – Organic Rice Divine by Good Karma Foods (make sure your sound is turned down and that you have Flash installed). Click Products, then Pints. I tried Mudd Pie, which was very tasty (coffee flavor, with gluten-free brownie bits in it). But I am totally in love with Carrot Cake, which tastes exactly like carrot cake and even has bits of gluten-free carrot cake in it. I hadn’t had cookie/cake bits in ice cream or “frozen dessert” for over 10 years (since being diagnosed as celiac). Bliss.

Jeanne and I went to Shepherd’s Harvest on Saturday. We had great weather! I’m going to spread my report out over a few days and today is Lamb Day, featuring some pictures that Jeanne took of me. The little black lamb was a Shetland and the white lamb was an Icelandic. Aren’t they adorable?! (I don’t know how Jeanne always manages to get so much, um, chest in the pictures.) (Please note that the cats are taking a vacation day today. They’re just too hot to do much of anything – it was 92F yesterday!)

Contests, Randonymity, Tunes

First ever wireless blog post!

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Yay! I finally got all that geeky stuff configured so that I have a wireless network at home! In honor of that, I’m just going to blog with found photos in my unused photos directory, along with a few random thoughts from the week. You have been warned. 🙂

Dotty’s having a contest – guess how much she’ll spend at FibreFest today and you could win a mysterious prize (probably fibery). Remember that your guesses will be in Canadian dollars and guess before 11:59 PDT today, May 11.

I just discovered, over at Minneapolis F*ing Rocks, that today is the anniversary of the day that Minnesota became the 32nd state in 1858. MFR has a fun Minnesota playlist to download to celebrate, if you’re into music.

So quite the buzz about Ravelry, eh? Last week, when I caught up after getting behind on bloglines, it seemed like every other blog I read was talking about Ravelry. I started to feel like I hadn’t been picked to play kickball during recess. In fact, I left a whiney little comment about that at Jennie’s and Elinor took pity on me and sent me an invite. Thanks, Elinor!

Right now Ravelry’s in beta testing and is by invitation only (although you can sign up to be on the waiting list). I don’t have any invites to hand out, alas… But if you’re starting to feel left out, here’s an interesting article to read and think about – Ravelry’s a social networking site. So are MySpace, Facebook, and others. How well do these social networks connect? Are we building bridges between our social networks, or erecting self-contained silos? After the beta testing is over and Ravelry is free and open, will it be inclusionary or exclusionary? Inquiring minds want to know…

Anyway, since last weekend, I’ve been poking around Ravelry and checking things out. I like the integregation with our blogs, which are, with interactive commenting, a type of social network. I don’t like entering all of my project and stash and needles and such, when I already have all of that information on my own computer at home. Hopefully they add some sort of import/export facility for that, because I personally am unlikely to replicate my effort. I also am not as likely to include pictures, since Ravelry just uses Flickr as an image source. If they incorporate other image hosting services, sounds like it will be services like Photobucket. Doesn’t sound like those of us who host our own images and are happy doing so will be able to have images on Ravelry unless we start using Flickr, etc.

Ok, on to lighter things… Who’s going to Shepherd’s Harvest on Saturday? If it’s nice out, Jeanne and I will be there, probably late morning to noonish. If it’s raining, I’ll be there at around the same time. 😉 After my unsuccessful attempt last year, I’m not going to try coordinating a blogger meetup. Who’s good at that sort of thing?

Here’s a picture from 1996 that struck my fancy when I was scanning yesterday’s Colorado pictures:

I used to see that Starry, Starry Night VW everywhere! I loved that car – it made me happy just to see it.

And of course, we must end the week with a cat picture… *sound of rummaging*

“What? I didn’t do it! I swea… Oh, that’s not what you wanted? Never mind. No, I don’t have anything profound to say. Can I get back to watching the bunnies now?” -Mayhem

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