Alongs, Contests

Y is for…

36 Comments

YesterYear!

But first, a message from our sponsor… (Ok, no sponsor, but I’ve always wanted to say that.) Christine of the Pointy Sticks podcast is having a contest. So far all I know about it is that the details are in the podcast and the deadline is December 21.

Ok, back to YesterYear… Yikes. Apparently it’s never too early to start your baby knitting?! Don’t worry about those sharp pointy sticks. What could possibly go wrong?

For humanity’s sake, please don’t make your baby wear lederhosen!

“Please don’t make me wear those lederhosen! I’ll be good!”

Because lederhosen? Seem to bring out the wickedness within… Look out, dog!

“I’m so nervous, suddenly…” -dog
“I am so going to have nightmares now.” -M
Contests, Those Cats

In which I revisit May’s youth

37 Comments

Kat’s having an Xtravagant Xmas photo contest – take a picture of that house in your neighborhood that’s gone beyond all out with the lights and the inflatable snowpeople and let Kat know about it (you can post your picture on your blog or email it to Kat). Entries accepted until December 26 and a winner will be selected January 1.

Sachi’s having a caption contest – leave a caption for the cute cat picture by December 11 and the caption that makes her laugh the hardest wins some of her stitchmarkers.

Wow! I was one of the winners in the Heifer International drawing at Wendy Knits yesterday, and I won a Peace Fleece Lighthouse Sock Kit from Sybil at The Skein! Thanks, Wendy and to Sybil!

You’ve all probably heard of swap-bot, but I finally decided to check it out yesterday after I saw the chocolatey goodness that Elspeth got. I’m trying out the Best Covers Mix CD Swap.

So everyone commenting on how little May was in yesterday’s pictures (from a month ago) got me all sentimental about what my baby looked like not long after she arrived here (at about three months old)…

She still had whiskers!!

“I’m a sweet little present, aren’t I?” -M

“Keeping the world safe from gift bags!” -M

“Because gift bags? They’re nefarious!” -M

And although I still think she’s tiny in comparison to Chaos, back then, she was just a wee mite! (And Chaos’ butt wasn’t yet shaved…)

“Just making sure this gift bag is safe, miss. You can’t be too careful with these things.” -C
Contests, Those Cats

Look! Over there!

28 Comments

Jessica of Mikknit is having a blogiversary contest. Leave her a comment about your favorite fiber experience by 5 pm CST Thursday, December 7, and you could win some mysterious yarn.

I wonder how long it will take bloglines to pick up this post?! Yesterday was at least 12 hours for my main feed. Grrrr. Yesterday must’ve been a bad day all around, because I lost internet connectivity at home last night about 5 minutes before I was going to sit down and draft today’s post. So instead of something vaguely coherent (shut up! sometimes they’re a little bit coherent, really!), I bring you cat pictures. (I know, hardly different from any other day…) These are from early November.

“Hello? Anybody in there?” -M

“Oh! It’s you, big kitty! You were hiding so well I couldn’t see you.” -M

“I won’t crowd you in your hiding spot – I’ll just mosey along. *hee hee*” -M

*butt wiggle and tail twitch* -M
*lunge* -C
Knitting, Reading

Monday again?!

27 Comments

Thank you all so much for the kind words about Kureyon-Chan!! And many thanks to Frarochvia for convincing me to submit the pattern and for being my test knitter – check out her lovely buttonless version! I’m really looking forward to seeing what everyone does with this pattern. Chaos and Mayhem definitely liked modeling these bags better than modeling bibs! 🙂

Reading Update
Edge of Evil by J.A. Jance. This is the first book in a new mystery series by Jance (who’s better known for her J.P. Beaumont and Sheriff JoAnna Brady mystery series). This book introduces former broadcast journalist Ali Reynolds, who starts a blog…
Danse Macabre by Laurell K. Hamilton. I know, I know, I just read this most recent Anita Blake book a few months ago. But after re-reading the rest of the series, I thought I should read it again, too. I’m conflicted – the series seems, to me, to spend way more time in the bedroom than really necessary for the storyline and the plot is creeping along (this book covered maybe 48 hours), but I keep reading the damn books, don’t I?!
Motor Mouth by Janet Evanovich. The second in a series of NASCAR murder mysteries. I think I just need to admit to myself that I love the Stephanie Plum series and give up on Evanovich’s other stuff…

Knitting Update
I’ve been working on yet another pair of socks for myself. These are from the yarn Jeanne dyed for my birthday – I love how stripey they are! The yarn is far more purple and black than it appears in this photo…

“Stripes, schmipes – let me at those Addis!” -M

Knitting, Those Cats

My MagKnits pattern!

75 Comments

At long last, it can be revealed – go check out my felted bag pattern in the December issue of Magknits: Kureyon-chan! Kureyon-chan, or K-chan, takes a single skein of Noro Kureyon or similar feltable yarn.

“Dah-lings! Don’t you think I look simply smashing with this bag?” -C

“Oh! But this one, it matches my eyes!” -C

“And although Mom didn’t mention it in the pattern, these make great cat toys – just add catnip and you’ll get mayhem!” -M
Alongs

X is for…

29 Comments

Xanthan gum! If you’re a celiac, you probably already know that xanthan gum is used in gluten-free baking to add the structure normally provided by gluten. For the non-celiacs, it’s also used to stabilize salad dressings and sauces.

X is also for Xerxes, but I can offer no pictures, alas… Not only is Xerxes an avenue in Minneapolis, it’s also a cd by the local band Arcwelder. So what? Well, I’m actually in the video for the song “Smile” from that cd! 🙂 Sadly, the video is not online, nor do I have a copy from which I can take a photo. My part in it is small – I merely wave at the camera and smile, wearing my black leather biker jacket, hanging out at First Avenue in the mid-90s. (What, you couldn’t tell from the socks yesterday that I had a punk background?!)

“Well, ok, I’ll maybe concede that you brought the right kitten home from the vet. But do you blame me for being suspicious?!” -C
Contests, Knitting

Fee, fi, FOs, fum…

39 Comments

Scout’s having a contest! Caption the picture before Friday and the caption that makes her laugh hardest will win something from her shop.

Bloglines is wonky again – it took 23 hours for my RSS feed from yesterday to update. Grrrr. And I’m sure the only reason I almost (well, within 40 posts) caught up in bloglines yesterday was because it wasn’t updating.

May is doing great!! Her incision is less than 1/2″ long and she doesn’t have any stitches – looks like they used surgical glue maybe?! Chaos is getting over himself and isn’t hissing at her (much) now.

You may not remember, but this is, ostensibly and occasionally, a knitting blog. (I’ll pause to let you recover.) That said, I’ve actually knitted a few things (besides bibs!) recently.

I finished my luridly striping socks over the weekend – 63g of Kona fingering went a bit further than I expected, especially considering my size 11 feet.

“I know that if I look directly at those socks, I’ll probably go blind.” -M

The extra yarn is to the left – I knit each sock toe-up from opposite ends of the ball to make sure I used as much yarn as possible. Interestingly, while one sock had a pink toe and the other a black toe, due to quite a bit of variation in my warping board technique (my stripes weren’t consistent), both socks ended at the exact same spot in the colorway. (Please note that this picture was taken before May’s surgery, when she had a furry tummy…)

Several weeks ago, I knitted a narrow arrowhead lace scarf that I hoped to use at work, when I wear my hair up and my neck gets chilly. I knit this with my not-Rhinebeck La Lana Phat Silk. Unfortunately, my picky neck found this merino-silk blend too scratchy. Right now Jeanne is testing it around her own neck. I was so annoyed, I didn’t take a final picture of this after blocking/ironing (the ironing really made the silk shine).

“Could you work this into a cat bed for me maybe? With a little cashmere, too? I don’t have any fur on my tummy anymore and it’s chilly!” -M
Contests, Randonymity

WTF Wednesday: The British edition

33 Comments

Anne is having an essay contest – leave an entry by December 15 about why you or someone you know deserves a brand-new Denise interchangeable needle set. (Syd! She has ferrets!)

Thanks for all the well wishes for Mayhem!! She’s doing great – a little sleepy, but in good spirits… except that Chaos keeps hissing and growling at her. Guess she still smells too much like the vet…

“I’ll get you, big kitty, and your little dog Toto, too! Meanie.” -M

“Meanie?? Moi?! As if!” *hissssssssssssssssss* -C

Moving right along… A local grocery store has your basic “ethnic” food aisle. (Although I could make an argument for Thai and Indian being Asian…)

But here’s the sign on the other side of the aisle:

Ethnic British?! Hmm. I searched the store, but no other European countries were distinguished in this fashion, which is a shame, because I’d love to examine ethnic Andorran food. Here’s what the British section contained:

Do you think that’s a good representation of British cuisine? What distinctive British foods are missing?

Oh yeah – Acephalous is tracking the speed at which a meme can spread across the blogosphere for a paper at the MLA. Include a link to his post, explain the experiment, ping Technorati, and you’ve participated.

Alongs, Randonymity

Abundance abounds

53 Comments

Please think good thoughts for little Mayhem today, as she’s going to the vet for her “surgery.” Thank you! I have assured her that she will still be all girl, but I’m not sure she believes me…

My Knitters’ Coffee Swap package arrived last week! My pal was Professor KnitWit, who sent me a very fun box of goodies. Gluten-free cookies (if you like gingersnaps, these are great), some lovely latte-colored alpaca, espresso-roasted coffee from The Sensuous Bean in NYC (let’s just pause to admire that name – and you haven’t even tasted the coffee, which is nice), and some delicious dark chocolate. Thank you, Professor! 🙂

If you’re curious about what I sent, you can find the details here. Here are the songs that were on the Coffee Mix cd:

Greg Brown – Good Morning Coffee
Mississippi John Hurt – Coffee Blues
The Galactic Heroes – Coffee and Pastries
John Gorka – St. Caffeine
The Jayhawks – Five Cups of Coffee
Claude Gray – I’ll Have Another Cup of Coffee, Then I’ll Go
The Mountain Goats – Woke Up New (ok, ok, this is the only song without a coffee theme in the title – here’s the excerpt that got it included: “The first time I made coffee for just myself, I made too much of it. But I drank it all, just cause you hate it when I let things go to waste.”)
Jars of Clay – Coffee Song
Ink Spots – Java Jive
Marlene Dietrich – You’re the Cream in My Coffee
Tom T. Hall – Don’t Forget the Coffee, Billy Joe
The Andrews Sisters – Proper Cup of Coffee
Lefty Frizzell – Cigarettes and Coffee Blues
Mandy Patinkin – Coffee in a Cardboard Cup
Gordon Lightfoot – Second Cup of Coffee
Brook Benton – Another Cup of Coffee
Guy Clark – Instant Coffee Blues
The Andrews Sisters – Coffee in Brazil
The Peanuts – Coffee Rhumba
The Boswell Sisters – Coffee in the Morning and Kisses in the Night
Peggy Lee – Black Coffee
Emmett Miller – You’re the Cream in My Coffee
John Mccutcheon – Cup of Coffee
Greg Brown – Smell of Coffee
Bob Dylan – One More Cup of Coffee
Ella Mae Morse – Forty Cups of Coffee

Many thanks also to KnittyMama for creating and coordinating this swap. I had a blast putting the package together and am looking forward to another coffee swap. And if there’s another Knitters’ Chocolate Swap, please, someone tell me about it!!

I also won a contest over at For My Next Project – I was Kat’s 1000th commenter. She sent some nifty cat toys (May adores Black Slinky Mouse), some stunning laceweight alpaca silk, and a tasty maple candy. Thanks, Kat!

Just a Knit Wit sent me a birthday package! She sent me some of her lovely stitchmarkers, birthday buttons, cat and yarn stamps, cute post its (including one shaped like a “C” that didn’t make it into this picture), a skein of Silk Garden, and a wonderful cabled Silk Garden hat! Thank you, Kelly!! (No, the kitten wasn’t part of the package.)

My Knit Sock Kit Swap pattern, Elspeth, also sent me a birthday/coffee package – I was curious about the famous Peet’s Coffee, so she sent me some, along with some Peet’s chocolate (with coffee in it), black Bernat sock yarn (which I haven’t seen before – the color’s perfect!), and a lovely sock pattern. Thank you, Elspeth! (Even Chaos had to check it out.)

Knitting, Reading, Those Cats

Bibalicious!

48 Comments

Heh, it appears that there are others out there who have Vexing cats as well… And check out the comments from the Whiskers post for links to stranger uses of whiskers than putting them into a sake cup…

I have a whole bunch of wonderful mail to blog about – hopefully I will have my pictures organized by tomorrow. Really, I will. Most likely, at least! 😉

Reading Update
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. Wow. This epic and intense book is, at one level, about searching for the reality of Vlad the Impaler, also known as Dracula. But it’s so much more – including a multi-generational love story and a glimpse into the history of a complicated region (Bulgaria, Hungary, Turkey). I don’t want to say too much about the book, because I think part of enjoying such a book is having it unfold, without a lot of preconceptions.
Sins and Needles by Monica Ferris. The latest of these knitting/needlecraft mysteries is pretty much on par with the rest of the series. Not great, but not so bad that I didn’t finish the book. And these are set in the Twin Cities metro area…
The Good, the Bad, and the Undead, Every Which Way But Dead, and A Fistful of Charms by Kim Harrison. These are the other books about Cincinnati witch Rachel Morgan. There are pixies! Vampires! Demons! Werewolves! A troll! And more… I definitely enjoyed this series and will be keeping an eye out for more books.

Knitting Update
So, um, I’ve knitted a few bibs for some recent and impending babies… I’m not sure that May has the build to be a bib model.

“You’ll notice that, if I actually needed to wear a bib, this one wouldn’t cover the strategic areas.” -M

“And as a skirt?! I’d be arrested for indecent exposure!” -M

So I hauled out asked my usual bib model to do the honors. (Please ignore May’s tail as she sashays through the shot, gloating about her bibless state.)

“The shame, the shame… Oh, woe is me!” -C

“I wouldn’t suggest trying this again, missy. You’ve had your warning!” -C

So, back to the petite model…

“Are you done yet?! I want to play with my mouse!” -M

“Well, you may not be done, but I am. Remember what I said about this as a skirt!” -M

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