Randonymity

Playing catch up

38 Comments

At some point last month, I got really behind in posting some things, so I’m going to try to catch up. Maybe if I get caught up with last year, I’ll feel ready to look ahead to this year.

We had our work white elephant gift exchange in early December. You will be amused at what I came home with!

“I hope these aren’t real cats, because they have atrocious fashion sense.” -M

TB sent me a tasty birthday/winter care package – belated thanks, TB!

“Hmph. None of this is catnip.” -M

My neighbor gave me a really cute little ornament that much intrigued the cats.

“I wonder when I’ll get to the squishy soft center?” -C
“Whatcha got there, big kitty?” -M

“Big kitty, I don’t think there is a squishy soft center…” -M

The ornament was rescued and hung out of reach.

For Christmas, I received One Skein Wonders from my brother and SIL. This book has some really cute projects in it and will probably be  a lifesaver for last minute holiday and baby gifts. As an added bonus, unlike the book One Skein, all of the projects in this book actually only use a single skein of yarn. 😉 On the left are some great little knitterly cards that my other friend Deb made for me – thanks, Deb!

“Still no ‘nip – what’s up with that?!” -M
Contests, Randonymity, Reading

Randomly random

31 Comments

Ok, the needles? I have no idea what happened to them. Wouldn’t you think I’d remember slamming my purse in the car door or my purse getting run over by a truck?! As far as I know, I put the needles in my purse after a work meeting on Friday afternoon, proceeded home as usual, and opened my purse the next morning to find perfect right angles. Purse gremlins?! I bent them back and now they’re just a little wavy. Perhaps I should apologize to all the knitters traumatized by the sight of those needles, who now must worry if they will open their knitting bags to discover the same thing…

I finished watching the first season of 24 last night – whoa! I so did not see that ending coming. The next two seasons are already on their way to me… *twitch twitch*

Please drop by and wish Deb a belated happy birthday and Jeanne a happy birthday (Jeanne’s link features her cats modeling hats…)! I’ll wait… 😀

Jenn’s having a contest to guess how many balls of yarn are in her stash. Leave a comment by 10 pm CST, January 14. Very brave of you, Jenn! I definitely do not want to know this about my stash – too scary!

Janna’s having a blogiversary contest – simply leave her a comment before 10 pm CST, January 15, and you could win sock yarn or a copy of Knitting Without Tears.

Reading Update
The Club Dumas by Arturo Perez -Reverte. I was several chapters in before I realized that this book was the basis for a movie I’d seen, The Ninth Gate, starring Johnny Depp. I remember being a bit disappointed by the movie; I’ll have to revisit it now that I’ve read the book. I enjoyed the book and although I figured out little bits of it, I didn’t figure out the whole thing and was amused at the ending.This was the second book I completed for the From the Stacks Winter Reading Challenge.
Immoral by Brian Freeman. This thriller is set in Duluth, MN. It was pretty good, although the middle segment contained too much techy court stuff for my taste.

So, I think May might be up to something – perhaps ultimate evil… What do you think??

“Bwah-ha-ha!” -M

Chaos could not be reached for comment.

“…zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…” -C
Alongs, Contests, Randonymity

Ack!! Ack!!

62 Comments

Ok, I’m not feeling very coherent, since I watched the first 21 hours of 24 (season one) over the weekend (damn you for lending me the DVDs, Amy!), so I’ll just tell you about a few things going on around knitblogland.

On Friday, Margene had a nice round up of a contest and some recent ‘alongs that’s definitely worth checking out.

Stephania’s having a contest for her birthday – drop by and guess how many fathers she has (!!!!) and you could win some fun yarn!

You knew it was coming – a Victorian Lace Today Knitalong.

Lolly’s announced Project Spectrum 2.0! It starts February 1 and the colors are combined a bit differently. Also, each group of colors gets two months, so hopefully things will feel a little less frazzled.

(I’m sitting back and scoping out all the various ‘alongs that are appearing and biding my time. I’m trying not to jump on all the bandwagons, since that inevitably means that I fall off most of them.)

Oh, all the “acking” in the title?! Look at what I discovered when I pulled my sock knitting out of my purse Saturday morning. Sorry these pictures are so terrible – I was distraught.

May quickly took advantage of my distress…

“Hee hee – I’m sure Mom won’t notice me running off with this little bag of yarn right now.” -M
Randonymity, Those Cats

Happiness is…

49 Comments

Sheep pants and black cat slippers. Yeah, baby. That’s what I’m talking about.

*sniff sniff sniff* -C

If you’ve been reading for a while (ok, ok, over a year), you might remember the black cat slippers. The “real” cats are used to the slippers. The newly arrived Counting Sheep Fleece Pants (apparently a return, as they were only $16.99) seemed to cause Chaos some consternation.

“What the hell are these fuzzy little critters, May?!” -C

*sniff sniff sniff* -C

“These fuzzy little critters look like they might be good to eat, but they just don’t smell right…” -C

“Well, nothing to do but try ’em out!” *CHOMP* -C
“OUCH!!!” -me
Knitting

2006: The Knitting Year in Review

44 Comments

But first – thank you all so much for your well wishes! I felt quite a bit better on Wednesday. Whew! Oh, and Chaos and Mayhem are quite full of themselves for receiving the Cutest Couple Award in the 2006 JenLas. I fear prima donna behavior ahead…

How Did I Do on My Knitting Resolutions for 2006?
So so. Out of my five resolutions, I did some knitting from stash – but I also significantly added to my stash. I didn’t look very hard for a new weekly knitting group, but I did meet a lot of great local knitbloggers who I enjoy hanging out and knitting with. I didn’t go to a single knitting retreat. I did knit quite a bit more in 2006 than in 2005, when I only finished 17 projects. Finally, I did knit several things for the community – a scarf for the Red Scarf Project, a hat for a local homeless shelter, and some cage liners for animal shelters.

Finished Objects: 45 total
13 pairs of socks
12 baby bibs
5 scarves
4 baby sweaters
3 bags
2 hats
2 cage liners
1 afghan square
1 baby blanket
1 iPod Shuffle necklace
1 Hourglass Sweater

Works in Progress
I’m actively working on my stripey black and purple socks (although I ditched the lace and am doing 2×2 rib), a baby bib, and a fortune kitty.

Skeletons in My Knitting Basket
Um, everything in this post is still a UFO, except the baby blanket and the purple Trekking socks! However, I am going to tear out the moebius cat bed. (Those cats have an entire love seat and 1/2 of a queen size bed to sleep on! They don’t need a cat bed!) I might tear out the sock yarn baby sweater, too.

Favorite Project of 2006
Hmm, that’s challenging! I love the Hourglass Sweater that I knit for the Knitting Olympics, but I am also very pleased with the baby bolero, the baby sweater I knit in October, and the baby sweater I started December 26 and finished December 31. That one doesn’t sound familiar, eh? 😉 It was knit from classic light purple Mission Falls cotton that I had in my stash.

Here’s a closeup of the buttons:

And if you survive through the rest of my 2006 retrospective, there might be a few pictures of May and this sweater at the end…

Major Knitting Accomplishment
Completing my Hourglass Sweater for the Knitting Olympics and completing it early.

Favorite Yarn
The Brooks Fiber Farm Four Play I used for the aforementioned Hourglass Sweater. It was the best silk and wool blend I’ve ever used.

New Techniques
Again with the Hourglass Sweater – I learned how to do knitted hems… and how to do them without sewing.

Whew! We’ll see if I have enough ambition to look ahead to 2007 for Friday, or if I save that until next week.

“Oh oh, this looks like it might be an article of May-sized clothing!” -M

“Drat.” -M

*nonchalant whistling* -M

“Although I must admit, it is a comfy place for a little intimate bathing…” -M
Contests, Randonymity

In which we find evidence that I need to vacuum

38 Comments

Cara is having a contest to celebrate her upcoming January One birthday. Read the clues and guess what sock she’s knitting before December 31, 10 am EST, and you could win some not-yet-for-sale STR yarn and other goodies.

Kristi is looking for a baby whisperer (and celebrating her blogiversary) – leave her a comment with tips for getting both of her twins asleep at the same time and you could win some fibery gifts (and provide relief to some exhausted parents!). Deadline is January 4, 11 pm EST.

I’ve come to the conclusion that Typepad hates me this week. I’m having trouble commenting on Typepad blogs – pages load really slow and I (eventually) get error messages when I click “Post.” This is happening in both Firefox and IE – anyone have any ideas what might be the problem?! Much appreciated… If you’re on Typepad, really, I still love you. I just can’t comment! 🙂

I got nothin’… Look! Over there! A kitten!

“How can you resist such perfect cuteness?” -M

“You know you don’t want to resist… Hey, Mom, you need to vacuum in here! That’s not my hair.” -M

“I can’t bear to look at evidence of such slovenly housekeeping. I must avert my eyes!” -M
Randonymity, Reading

Not a USPS approved use of a Priority Mail box…

25 Comments

Susan used Patons Soy Wool to make some Kureyon-Chans – they turned out really cute!

Cursed bloglines – it’s not seeing my blog again. Not seeing a lot of blogs, as far as I can tell. Grrrrr…

Reading Update
Grave Surprise by Charlaine Harris. This is the second book in the series about Harper and her stepbrother Tollivar. Harper was struck by lightning and can now find dead people and knows how they died. This series is ok, but not as good (so far) as the Sookie Stackhouse or Lily Bard books.
American Gods by Neil Gaiman. I’d read this a while ago and enjoyed it, but after reading Anansi Boys recently, I knew I needed to reread this book. Wow. I got a lot more out of it this time! Anansi Boys was a good read, but this is a great read – it’s epic in a most unusual way.
Heft on Wheels: A Field Guide to Doing a 180 by Mike Magnuson. Warning: the cover picture of this book is not for the faint of heart. It’s a “before” picture of the author – and it appeared in GQ, probably as a spoof of Liebowitz’s famous photograph of Lance Armstrong.)
This is the first From the Stacks Winter Reading Challenge book I’ve completed. Hey, I have all of January to read the remaining four…
Anyway, I love reading cycling books, which is how this book ended up in my stacks in the first place. I read another of Magnuson’s books a long time ago (The Right Man for the Job), mostly because a friend of mine knew him and was pushing the book. I remember nothing of it, other than it took me a while to get into the book, due to Magnuson’s writing style. Same thing with this autobiographical tale of how Magnuson used cycling to turn his life around as he neared 40, but after I got into it, the book gave me a lot to think about, including some ways in which I need to consider changing my own life.

Not much else going on around here, so maybe it’s time to check the mail…

“All I know is I sure can’t fit in there. Your mileage may vary, May.” -C

“I wonder if I can fit…” -M

“It looks awfully snug…” -M

*muffled*
Knitting, Those Cats

In which no cats were forced to wear baby socks

33 Comments

Ok, I actually did do a little bit of Christmas knitting – I knit a pair of socks for my friends’ baby from some of the stripey purple and black yarn Jeanne dyed for my birthday. I immediately attempted to get pictures of a cat wearing them, but the cats, they were having none of that. Instead, I present pictures of baby socks lying on or near cats. I know it’s a poor substitute.

“Why did you put these things on me?!” -C

“Maybe if I ignore them, they’ll go away.” -C

“Don’t you move those things any closer. I’m getting wise to your sneaky ways, Mom.” -M

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