Contests, Knitting, Project Spectrum, Reading

Tired Tuesday

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Teyani is having a contest to celebrate her new blog home! Leave a comment by midnight PST on 3/15 and you could win two skeins of Sock Hop yarn.

KnitNZu is having a contest – her 250th commenter will win two skeins of fingering weight Claudia’s Handpainted.

And remember – I’m having a contest! Leave your comments at the contest post by 5 pm CDT, March 19. And if you haven’t stopped by and read the comments – what are you waiting for? They’re brilliant! I hope everyone is having as much fun leaving comments as I am reading them.

Reading Update
Death of a Butterfly by Margaret Maron. I love the Sigrid Harald books, but they’re older and hard to find at my library or used bookstores…
Murder with Peacocks and No Nest for the Wicket by Donna Andrews. More Meg Langslow mysteries! I realized while reading Murder with Peacocks (the very first Meg mystery) how rare it is that I laugh out loud while reading. In Murder with Peacocks, Meg is home for the summer, doing all the grunt work for the three weddings (!!!) in which she is the maid of honor. No Nest for the Wicket (the most recent book) features an eXtreme croquet match…
24 Declassified: Veto Power and 24 Declassified: Cat’s Claw by John Whitman. Hee hee – really, not a lot to say about these. I guess they’re a guilty little not-so-secret pleasure. 😉

Knitting Update
I finally knit my little blanket for HollYarns and Cyrano’s Creature Comforts Drive over the weekend. (You have plenty of time – the deadline is June 2.) I’ve been meaning to and meaning to… and then I realized that my yarn was perfect for the current Project Spectrum color theme. Yup. That was all it took to get me knitting… Anyway! This is about 24″x24″ – I cast on 65 or 66 stitches of doubled Encore worsted on a US13 needle and knit until I had a square. This fortunately coincided pretty closely with running out of yarn. 🙂

*streeeeeeeeeetch* -M

I wish I’d taken the following picture at a higher resolution, so that you could see how long May’s little kitty eyelashes are. Awwww….

“What?! This isn’t staying here for moi?! Hmph. How can everything always be mine if this isn’t?” -M

Contests

The SoC “But since I wasn’t blogging then…” contest

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One thing about blogging – it allows us to document and share all sorts of ephemera that would otherwise slip away unnoticed by anyone else. Sometimes that might be for the best, but usually, it’s those fleeting glimpses into your lives that really help me feel close to all of you. Hopefully that isn’t just me! 😉

Allow me to present the Stumbling Over Chaos “But since I wasn’t blogging then…” contest. Think of something that happened before you started blogging, something that, had you been blogging, you would have shared with us. Describe that event in a comment to this post before 5 pm CDT (ack!), Monday, March 19. (If you don’t blog, this contest will be particularly easy!)

What? You want me to start? Ok. Back when the Chaos Kitty was a wee kitten (only about 8 pounds or so, instead of the strapping 16 pounds he is now), he started to climb my long summer weight bathrobe (made from a nice textured t-shirt material), which was hanging on the back of my bedroom door. It was winter or early spring, so I wasn’t wearing that bathrobe and didn’t pay any attention to it. After the weather started to warm up, I pulled the bathrobe from its hook to discover that it was now a swiss cheese style bathrobe! Apparently, when an 8-pound kitten repeatedly climbs stretchy, lightweight fabric, there are dire consequences for said fabric. My poor bathrobe suddenly wasn’t good for covering much of anything and I had to throw it away. Now, if I had been blogging back then, I would’ve thoroughly documented this (although I would’ve been dressed underneath the robe, sheesh), as I have documented other tales of Chaotic naughtiness, but since I wasn’t blogging then…

And since I wasn’t blogging back during the memorable summer that I went on over 30 coffee dates (oh, the magic of internet dating… heh), you’ll all just have to wonder what the blow by blow on that would’ve been like. A hint – I went on maybe two second dates and no third dates. The tagline for my blog? Not joking!

Anyway. Winners will be selected by random number and there will be an assortment of prizes. No non-knitters will be forced to take yarn, unless, of course, they’re interested in learning to knit.

A bag of Briggs & Little Atlantic in mulberry (10 skeins, 1350 yards total):

“The tags make excellent snacks!” -M

“But what I really want is to get into that bag!” -M

A skein of Sunshine Yarns sock yarn in Denim:

“This looks like a fun toy, too…” -M

A skein of Trekking XXL, color 144:

“…or this…” -M

A skein of Dicentra Designs superwash sock yarn in Kingsfoil:

“You are so mean, not letting me play with these, Mom!” -M

A copy of Knitting Rules!, autographed by the Yarn Harlot herself to “Friend of Chaos”:

“Stay away from this one, May, because it’s all about me.” -C

Randonymity

Hey baby, wanna swap?

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Due to my own silliness and the draconian return/exchange policy of a local yarn shop, I have an extra copy of Jan Messent’s Knit a Fantasy Story. I confused this book, which I already own, with another of Messent’s books, Knit an Enchanted Castle. D’oh!

Anyway! If anyone is interested in this book and would be interested in swapping something for it, please let me know. Here are a few pictures from the book. Also, the cover picture is the actual copy up for swap, but the interior pictures are from my own copy – I wanted to avoid breaking the spine for the pictures.

Update: chittavrtti and I have worked out a swap for this book. Stay tuned, because I’ll be featuring pictures from some of my other Jan Messent books in the future – her stuff is amazing. I doubt I’ll ever knit any of it, but I love to look at the pictures.

This one’s clickable – check out the detail of this farm!

Sheep!!

A wizard

A dragon

A unicorn

A knight in shining (knit) armor

A witch and a black cat!

Randonymity, Reading

It should’ve been Friday days ago…

41 Comments

This is going to wander a bit. 🙂 I definitely need to start with a few things that make me happy:

  • Eating peanut butter off the knife while I wait for my toast in the morning.
  • Fixing a knitting mistake without ripping back.
  • Playing fetch with May when she brings the mouse/fluff ball close enough for me to throw it for her – and also the soft “pooft-plop” as she careens headlong into the front door in pursuit of her toys while fetching.
  • Listening to Chaos’ breathy little cat snoring – this is probably the only cute snoring I can think of!
  • The word “tohubohu” (TOH-hoo-BO-hoo), which means chaos or confusion.

Reading Update (because reading definitely makes me happy)
Operation Hell Gate: 24 Declassified by Marc Cerasini. “…a number of early CTU missions were declassified. The following is one of them…” Entertaining, if not great literature.
Night Vision: A Jane Lawless Mystery by Ellen Hart. This series is set in the Twin Cities and features restaurateur Jane Lawless and her theatrical friend Cordelia Thorn. This is a very well-written series, but it definitely isn’t a cozy. The latest book examines celebrity stalking.

It has just been one of those weeks. I’m feeling pretty healthy at least – even with working until 5 am Thursday! Yeah, still haven’t recovered from that one – but at least I was able to work from home. I’m not the only one who’s sleepy…

“How is a kitten girl supposed to get her beauty sleep with that thing flashing in her face?!” -M

That didn’t seem to bother Chaos. Hope you all have a good weekend and that the Daylight Savings Time change doesn’t mess up your sleep.

“…zzzzzzzzzzz…” -C

Contests, Knitting, Project Spectrum

Of Meilenweit and Mayhem

38 Comments

Aija is having a contest to celebrate her Space Invaders-themed socks appearing in the new knitty! Contribute a few lines to the Choka and you could win some really great stuff from etsy!

KnitWit Kelly is having a contest to help her find her knitting inspiration again – leave a comment by March 13 telling her why you knit, and you could win some yarn, music, and a bracelet!

Recently, I picked up some new Meilenweit Meeting because I thought it looked like a nice Project Spectrum color combination. Unfortunately, after I started knitting it, I realized I hated the colors. The blues slightly clash and there’s not enough grey or black to balance that (for me, at least). So I ripped out this fledgling sock Wednesday evening. (Hopefully none of you got too attached to it.)

“I can see an Addi!” -M

I turned to my stash and discovered some Meilenweit Fun that had plenty of blue and grey to qualify for Project Spectrum. I’m using Craftaholic’s Mata Hari socks pattern (not the charted pattern in that link – it’s explained in text a bit further down). I took these pictures right before ripping the sock back so I could knit another plain row or two between the lace rows so the socks will be a bit warmer and, well, less lacy.

“Maybe if I am very, very sneaky…” -M

“See how sneaky I am? Look out, Addi – you are mine!” -M

Contests, Knitting

This post not suitable for those sensitive to Addis in peril

48 Comments

Sorry for anyone who was worried that I didn’t post yesterday! I coughed most of Monday night, so when the alarm went off Tuesday morning, I called work, said I’d be in at noon, and went back to sleep. Much better!

Mim needs a name for her new camisole pattern – if your name is selected, you could win yarn, some soap, and one of Mim’s patterns!

Heather is helping to raise money for books for an impoverished South African school, which is the sister school to the Montessori school Heather’s daughter attends. If you pledge $20, Heather will send you a skein of her hand-dyed All Things Heather sock yarn. If you pledge $25, she will dye special yarn for you. But really, any amount will help. Deadline is March 19.

The polls are open in La’s DeFeet of Cuteness contest. So hard to decide! So many cute feet! Polls close March 9 at 5 pm PST.

I finished my Jailbreak Jaywalkers. True, true, they aren’t quite finished in the pictures, but they’re finished now and waiting for a little bath.

“Those are some pretty crazy socks, Mom!” -M

The sock on the left was knit from the outside of the ball of Opal Zebra. The sock on the right was knit from the center. Who knows if that led to the dramatic difference in the cuffs between the two socks! These socks definitely grew on me as I was knitting them, especially when I discovered the dramatic changes adding a few stitches made – the feet were knit on 72 stitches and I increased to 84 for the cuffs.

“Let me just sneak in here and work my magic on this yarn…” -M
*sound of shooing off-camera*

“Hmph, if you’re going to shoo me away, I’ll go after the ball itself.” -M
*sound of shooing off-camera*

“Sheesh, Mom, you leave me no choice but to go after the needle!” *chomp* -M
*sound of shrieking off-camera*

Contests, Randonymity, Reading

*cough cough cough*

59 Comments

Eve is conducting a comic-reading study and is looking for participants. If you participate by March 31, you could win some yarn! You don’t have to be a knitter to participate – presumably no non-knitters would be forced to take yarn.

I can’t possibly be the only WordPress blogger getting crushed by comment spam, can I?! I swear, I must’ve had 3,000 spam comments in the past week. I have added the Worst Offenders plugin for Akismet to see if that helps make things more manageable – so far, so good. I know a lot of people use Bad Behavior, but when I tried it for a day or two, it blocked many legitimate commenters, so it has been banished. Other than Spam Karma or adding a verification word, do any of you have good tips for fighting comment spam?

Reading Update
Revenge of the Wrought-Iron Flamingos, We’ll Always Have Parrots, and Owls Well That Ends Well by Donna Andrews. Three more Meg Lanslow mysteries, as our brave blacksmith takes on a Revolutionary War reenactment, a sci-fi convention, and a 30-family yard sale. These are fun, goofy, and well-written; I’m enjoying them!
Don’t Look Down by Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer. Think chicklit meets 24. Can a stoic Green Beret and a woman who makes dog food commercials find true love?

Here are a few pictures of our parking lot from inside my car when I finally ventured out into the snowy world on Saturday. Our plowing company is so in trouble.

I have a cold again. Blech. Alas, I can’t take stuff like Airborne, which is not recommended for people who have autoimmune disorders, so I’m toughing it out. Chaos is very unhappy about my cold.

“Mom, you keep sneezing and coughing and you scare me and I have to run away and hide and then it looks like I’m a ‘fraidy cat! Hmph. You’re bad for my image.” -C

“Face it, big kitty, you are a ‘fraidy cat! It’s just coughing and sneezing. What’s the big deal?” -M

Alongs, Contests, Knitting, Project Spectrum

Snow is Project Spectrum, right?!

40 Comments

Margene is celebrating her third blogiversary! Leave her a comment revealing a little secret about yourself and you could win some fibery prizes on March 14.

Sundara is celebrating the first anniversary of Sundara Yarn. Guess how many skeins of yarn she’s dyed in the first year – submit your guesses by March 7 and you could win some very yummy yarn!

It’s very snowy here. That truck hadn’t been parked there more than 60 minutes yesterday when I took this picture. If you enlarge the picture, you can see the snow falling (use the truck as a backdrop). This morning? The cars look like snow banks. I’m working from home again today. 🙂

While I was looking out the window at the snow, I got this cute picture of Mayhem’s little kitty arms:

Awwww…

I started another pair of socks earlier this week, using some Opal Zebra. This yarn is boring me (why is it more interesting in the ball than when knit?!), but at least it fits the Project Spectrum theme (the white). The foot is plain, but I’m knitting the cuffs in the Jaywalker pattern.

“Dum-de-dum-de-dum… oh, look, some yarn on the floor again.” *yawn* -C

I joined FiberFlix. There are two films for March – you can watch Run Lola Run (my personal choice) and/or Logan’s Run. Fitting the theme of motion, I’m knitting the previously mentioned Jaywalkers and will also be starting some RPMs from my first Sundara Sock Club yarn, Lenten Rose (also a very Project Spectrum color – sort of a greyish plum).

“You put this yarn by me and you expect me to be good?! As if!” -M

“I mean, look at that tasty yarn cake!” -M

“Mmmm… yarn cake…” -M

I quickly rescued the yarn at that point!

Those Cats

Killing you with the cute

47 Comments

Aw, thank you all so much for the kind words about my refined raglan and yesterday’s self portraits! *blush* Today? Today, even though I am working from home a second time this week because of a little snow, I am brain dead (mocha me, baby!), so I will try to distract you with a whole lot of cuteness – additional entries for La’s contest. Yesterday, I picked up a Daft Catâ„¢ catnip toy made by the Scrub Your Butt Soap Company of Rochester, Minnesota – isn’t that about the best soap company name ever?! You briefly warm this toy up in the microwave – according to the website, “Kitty will love the warmth and the smell of catnip will fill the air!” I couldn’t smell it, but Chaos and May sure could.

“I must rub this toy over my entire body and then hug it!” -M

“Mmmmmm…. nippy.” -M

“Well, not nippy as in chilly, because it’s really quite warm and nice…” -M

“Maybe just a little nap…” -M

Chaos got in on the Daft Catâ„¢ action, too – he’s taking a little break in this picture:

And simply because May’s paws haven’t been featured before on the blog, while Chaos’ have – here are May’s cute fuzzy little paws, first the fronts and then the backs:

Contests, Randonymity, Reading

Nothing says “dork” like trying to take a self-portrait

69 Comments

La’s having a contest – post pictures of the cute little feet in your life (furbaby or otherwise) over the next week and you could win some La-made stitchmarkers. (Here’s my entry, La!)

Reading Update
Delete All Suspects by Donna Andrews. This mystery series feature artificial intelligence Turing Hopper, who helps a human private investigator solve crimes. I guess this would be classified as a “techno-cozy” mystery – really, mystery niches are amazing, aren’t they?!
Murder with Puffins and Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon by Donna Andrews. These were the first Meg Langslow mysteries I’d read and I enjoyed them much more than I expected – they’re very silly and feel a bit like reading a comedic melodrama. Definitely a nice break from 24! Anyway, Meg works as a blacksmith, making ornamental items – what was I just saying about mystery niches?!? And yes, the titles are all bird-themed, although none of the characters is an ornithologist.

Refined Raglan Photos
Ok, bowing to peer pressure, here you go – me modeling the refined raglan. Don’t I look thrilled? If you’ve been reading for ages and ages, you might notice that this sweater looks awfully similar to something… (You will need to click on the picture to see the cable detail.)

In an attempt to make pictures of a black sweater more interesting, here’s Mayhem! (My baby is all grown up! *sniff*)

“Did you see it?! I was just sitting there in the previous photo, minding my own business when I was rudely snatched up!” -M

And Chaos!

“Why is that thing clicking and beeping and flashing at us?! Obviously we’re running out of time and we’re all going to die!!” -C

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