Contests

Official Blog Opening Contest!

61 Comments

Woo-hoo! Now that it’s all personalized and starting to really feel like home, it’s time for me to throw a contest. I actually had a hard time picking a contest, because Jeanne came up with quite a brilliant one that I think I’ll save for Chaos’ Birthday Party Contest next month. So, in lieu of a brilliant contest, I present to you the Chaotic Haiku Contest. Um, yeah, so maybe I was inspired by the Amazing Lace Poetry Challenge. 🙂 But I actually have written a haiku about Chaos on this very blog (which I’ll reproduce below), so some sort of precedent has been established, right?!

The details: Leave a comment below with a haiku about Chaos. At its most basic, a haiku is a three line, nonrhyming poem that should paint a picture in the reader’s mind. The lines are five syllables, seven syllables, and five syllables. Would a few examples be helpful? Here’s the one I wrote last November about Chaos:

Silhouette in black
Pointy ears twitching, watching
Dreams stalking snowflakes

And a non-Chaos knitting one that I wrote a few years ago:

Snow falls silently
as I sit by the window
knitting, watching, still

Yeah, there’s obviously something about snow that inspires me to write haiku. Maybe this contest will have a cooling effect on the weather… Anyway! Leave your haiku below before 6 pm CDT Tuesday, August 15. At that point, I will use my favorite random number generator to select a winner. If the winner is a knitter, the prize will be that skein of hot pink and black yarn (the skein on the far right in the linked picture) I recently dyed, along with a few other goodies. If the winner is not a knitter, the prize will be unrelated to knitting and a second (hopefully knitting!) winner will be drawn.

“Shhhh… I’m hiding in this box. Why do you guys always pretend that you can see me? That freaks me out!”
Randonymity, Reading, See the Sights

Wandering through Wednesday

35 Comments

Thanks for all the kind words about the new look! Things are mostly as they will be, although the banner isn’t displaying correctly in Firefox yet. Soon.

EDIT: I think it’s all set. If things look odd, please try hitting your reload button. If they still look odd, please drop me an email and let me know the details. Thanks!

The heat finally broke yesterday! It’s been raining off and on ever since. Hopefully the humidity breaks soon…

Scout’s challenged us to out our UFOs. *gulp* I posted about UFOs/WIPs back in December. Scarily, everything I mentioned in that post remains a UFO! Whoops… Sounds like I need to rip a few things out, doesn’t it?! And of course, I have new UFOs/WIPs, too. I’ll look around today and take some pictures.

SRP update: I made my fiction goal of 30 books! However, I still need to read two non-fiction books this month to meet my bonus goal.
Unhinged by Sarah Graves, 332 pages. Yet another Home Repair Is Homicide mystery! I’m not reading these cozies in order, but I’m enjoying them anyway.
Curiosity Killed the Cat Sitter by Blaze Clement, 261 pages. This is the first (and only, so far) book about former sheriff’s deputy, now petsitter, Dixie Hemingway of Sarasota, FL. I’ll definitely be on the look out for additions to this series – it was more compelling than many such mysteries and kept me guessing up to the end.

I finally got a picture of the “Gateway to the North of Nashwauk” sign last weekend! What I find very interesting about this sign is that you see it when you are driving south, not north. Hmm.

I’m a sucker for amusing wine labels, so how could I resist this one?

Chaos apparently wonders why “smell no evil” wasn’t addressed in the pictorial proverb.

*sniff sniff* “I sure hope you weren’t hoping for great taste from this wine, Mom…”
Project Spectrum, Randonymity

Under construction

38 Comments

You might’ve noticed that things are changing around here! Missa of MoonArts has been working on a new banner, new button, and some color changes for me. When all the tweaking is finished in the next few days, I’ll be having a Happy New Blog Look contest!

Darn bloglines is acting up and is showing updates for some blogs and not for others. I’m one of the lucky ones who isn’t showing as updated… Hopefully they get things corrected soon so I can catch up on what all of you are up to!

Chaos has a late entry for Project Spectrum purple (sorry, Marina, I know you thought it was safe again). Apparently his purple mouse is no more colorfast than his hot pink mouse. (Oh, and the plant that is industriously growing into the cat feeding station is a purple passion – green leaves covered with purple fuzz. Missed that for July, too, darn it.)

*crunch crunch crunch* “Mmmmmmmm… cat food…”
Project Spectrum, Randonymity, Reading

Little purple houses for you and me

24 Comments

Bethe’s cat Pugsley was fine with wearing bibs – maybe because of the catnip bribe?!

SRP update: Wreck the Halls by Sarah Graves, 320 pages. Another Home Repair Is Homicide mystery – these are light light light, but I’m enjoying them anyway.

Ok, as promised and to finish off Project Spectrum purples right, I present two more purple houses. First, the less purple house – I’m particularly fond of how bowling balls are used along the sidewalk. (Click on the pictures see them larger.)

Next, the purple stucco two doors down, which is the most unapologeticaly purple house I’ve ever seen!

I couldn’t resist taking a picture of this utterly un-purple house on the next block, which I could have used during PS April!

Once upon a time, I owned a purple Escort station wagon. I loved that car. Alas, it rewarded my love by throwing a rod through critical engine bits (probably an important life lesson there, eh?). Here’s a very bad picture of me with the dead and dusty Escort, as I prepared to remove my stuff from it.

Speaking of cars, this auto repair place a few blocks from where I live has great purple signs. Sorry about the photo quality! I took this 6 am Saturday, as I headed out of town to the cabin. I wasn’t up to playing around with camera settings until after the caffeine took hold many miles later!

Chaos survived my being gone just fine.

“I demand popcorn to compensate me for the emotional trauma of worrying about you!”
Randonymity

It’s too hot hot

33 Comments

Yowza – temps here in the Twin Cities are supposed to hover in the upper 90s to 100F all weekend, with a max heat index of 109F. Fortunately, at the cabin, it should “only” be in the upper 80s/lower 90s, so I’m heading north tomorrow morning.

Peeve surprised me with some fun mail from Australia yesterday!

I love that card. The small purple box contained this:

A tiny cute mouse just for me! 🙂 Thanks, Peeve! (Tough luck, Chaos kitty – it’s too small for you to play with , anyway.)

Here’s another in my series of Project Spectrum purple buildings:

Even though we have air conditioning, Chaos has been hanging out on my bed (on my Project Spectrumesque duvet) underneath the ceiling fan.

I check periodically to make sure he’s still alive.

“Whaaaaaa?”

Have a great weekend, everyone, and stay cool, wherever you are.

Knitting, Project Spectrum, Randonymity

Thursday things

33 Comments

Jeanne’s yarn from Saturday turned out great, although it seems as if Bugsy now thinks I’m a bad influence, keeping Jeanne out late. How come he doesn’t think Deb is a bad influence?!

Christine is having a contest to name her new dachsund boy with a “B” name. The contest ends Sunday, July 30, 2006, at midnight, CST. Bonne Marie is having a contest in honor of fictional Chicago private eye V.I. Warshawski’s 50th birthday.

Chaos won a contest at Trek’s. Too funny! I wonder if it will be catnip or tuna? 😉

This purple house is only a few short blocks away from me. I still have to get pictures of a few other purple Minneapolis houses before the end of the Project Spectrum purple month – houses that are far more luridly purple than this one!

In the spirit of Project Spectrum, here’s my first completed Trekking sock. I’m just finishing the toe increases on the second sock, so I doubt I’ll be done with it before the end of the month. I’m also back to working on my moderne log cabin baby blanket – no bibs on the needles! *twitch twitch* Bibs bibs bibs bibs bibs! Whoops – sorry about that lapse..

Chaos spends a fair amount of time on top of the fridge or dangling over the edge – hopefully he doesn’t fall off onto his head… (That black kitten card on the front of the fridge? Not Chaos, but how could I resist it??)

“A cat falls off the fridge once! Only once! And gets grief about it forever. Sheesh.”
Alongs, Project Spectrum, Randonymity, Reading

KisS KisS

37 Comments

Although I’ve been rather quiet about it, I’m participating in the Knit Sock Kit Swap (KSKS). I had to be sort of sneaky about the whole thing because my swap target was Mrs Pao and I didn’t want her to figure that out. But now that she’s received her swap package, I can talk about it – especially since it was such a Project Spectrum kit! 🙂

I asked Scout to dye a special skein of yarn for Mrs Pao, incorporating her favorite colors of black and purple (yes, yes, I know, those are my favorite colors, too, but I was ever so good and didn’t keep the lovely skein of yarn). The absolutely perfect Stormy Chaos colorway reminds me of Lorna’s Laces Black Purl and Koigu #305.

The bag was knitted from black Tahki Capri, a sadly discontinued Egyptian cotton tape yarn, using the Two Old Bags’ Pamela bag pattern. I can’t sew worth anything, but I dug out some swirly purple silk jersey and sewed a bag lining by hand. I have my very own Pamela bag from the same yarn (although not lined… yet) and think it’s perfect for carrying around a sock, since the bag handle loops so handily around the wrist. As soon as Mrs Pao’s router is playing nice again, I’m sure she’ll share details of what else was in the kit!

Last night I met another local knitter, blogless Kathryn K, at Bar Abilene for chips, salsa, margaritas, conversation, and, of course, knitting. We had a lot of fun and I bound off the first purple Trekking sock! One down, one to go…

And yet another SRP update…
The Art of Detection by Laurie R. King, 358 pages. The first Kate Martinelli mystery in a long time! This book sort of bridges King’s two mystery series, the Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes series and the Kate Martinelli series, as much as can be done when they take place many decades apart.
Wicked Fix by Sarah Graves, 290 pages. This is the first “Home Repair Is Homicide” mystery that I’ve read, but I enjoyed it and will be reading more. The series is set in Eastport, Maine, and features former Wall Streeter Jacobia Tiptree.

If you’re ever curious about the order of books in a mystery series, curious about mysteries set in a certain location, can remember the character but not the author, or want to find new books to read based on authors you like, check out Stop, You’re Killing Me! It’s easily the best resource an avid mystery reader can have (besides a public library…).

Chaos is enjoying the sun and the air conditioning…

“Why are all of you upside down?”
Dyeing

Driving to dye

37 Comments

Check out Janna’s cat Simon in his brand new bib!

On Saturday, Deb of Wound Too Tight invited Jeanne and I out to the far western suburbs to dye a lot of yarn, drink wine, chat, and eat yummy food. Jeanne has created the official photographic record, since I only remembered to pull my camera out once… Yes, she even got a few pictures of me – in one of which, I swear you can see down my shirt to my belly button (I’m an innie, thanks for asking). 🙂 Neither of us managed to get a picture of Deb’s daughter, Kathryn, who kept us on track by alerting us when the yarn in the microwave was done.

Here are the Country Classics dyes, ready to go and with color card at the ready. (Please note that the fountain was not part of the dyeing process.)

The load of stuff that Jeanne and I brought to fill up Deb’s sunporch.

Jeanne hangs out with Holly, who at the time had not displayed her fondness for licking hot dyed wool.

Deb niddy noddies up a storm, getting her yarn ready to dye.

Here’s the yarn I dyed, drying on my drying rack. From left, Ashford Tekapo dyed with Lialc and diluted Raven, KnitPicks Dye Your Own sock yarn dyed with Very Hot Pink and Raven, some ancient Lion Brand worsted wool dyed with Cornflower, a ball of ancient Bear Brand worsted wool dyed with Spring Violet and Cornflower (dyed by sticking the ball into a cup of leftover dye, then flipping it over and sticking it into another cup of leftover dye), and another ball of the Bear Brand dyed the same way but with leftover Very Hot Pink.

Here are the same yarns (excluding the skein of Tekapo Lilac and Raven, which is still drying) in roughly the opposite order as above after they’ve been reskeined. Much nicer!

Deb surprised us with gift bags!

“I’m not sure I’ve had this color of tissue paper before. I will have to do a taste comparison.”

She gifted me with two stunning skeins of Alchemy Haiku (silk and mohair), two skeins of yummy Regia Silk, and a kit for making felted catnip mice! Thank you so much, Deb!

*sniff sniff* “This is very, very interesting indeed. You’d better get knitting, Mom!”

Randonymity, Reading

Return of the Phantom Paw and Monday miscellania

32 Comments

Insomnia Girl here. What the heck, I’m not going to fall asleep anytime soon, so I might as well post my Monday morning post a wee bit early.

I’m not done organizing my pictures from a big dyeing adventure Saturday evening, but you can read about it at Wound Too Tight. All I’ll say right now is that Deb is an incredibly gracious, generous, and all around damn fun hostess! 🙂

Janna’s knitting a bib for no reason other than to see her cat Simon in it. Go, Janna!!

Craftlilly Jennifer is having another contest! It runs through midnight, PST, Wednesday, July 26. Anne is having a blogiversary contest – what would your superpower be if you had one?

SRP update:
Quicksilver and Shadow by Charles de Lint, 357 pages. This is another book of de Lint’s early short stories. You might remember I wasn’t that keen on its predecessor, A Handful of Coppers, when I read it recently. Fortunately, in Quicksilver and Shadows, de Lint is much more accomplished. I would still limit my recommendation of this book to diehard de Lint fans, but you will find it to be much more pleasant going.
A Circle of Cats by Charles de Lint, 44 pages. This delightful children’s book about a girl who is always searching for fairies in the woods but never finding them is a prequel to Seven Wild Sisters.

Congratulations to American cyclist Floyd Landis, for winning the Tour de France against amazing physical odds!

This sign in the 50th and France neighborhood amused me no end:

Why was I as far from home as 50th and France? I met movie maven Renee of A Good Yarn Friday afternoon to catch a matinee of Leonard Cohen: I’m Your Man. Leonard Cohen is a remarkable singer, songwriter, and poet who has been making music for a long time – he’s in his 70s – and has influenced an awful lot of artists. The 1991 tribute cd I’m Your Fan contained covers by R.E.M., the Pixies, John Cale, and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. The 1995 tribute cd Tower of Song contained covers by Bono (U-2), Sting and the Chieftans, Tori Amos, Willie Nelson, Peter Gabriel, and more. Even if you haven’t heard of Leonard, you might have heard his songs “Bird on the Wire” or “Hallelujah” (perhaps as covered by Rufus Wainright on the Shrek soundtrack, by Jeff Buckley, by Allison Crowe…). Probably the best concert I’ve ever been to was Leonard at the State Theater in Minneapolis on June 22, 1993.

You might have guess that I was pretty excited to see this movie. And I was disappointed overall. Most of the movie focused on the Leonard Cohen Tribute Concert in Sydney, Australia, in 2003. The concert footage was intercut with interviews with Leonard Cohen and with artists talking about how Leonard had influenced their lives and work – most notable were the interviews with Bono and Edge of U-2 and with Nick Cave. The concert footage was the weak point in the film, and since it was most of the film… However, I would suffer through that part of the film again to see the glorious few minutes of Leonard singing his song “Tower of Song” with U-2 backing him!

I have a few more pictures from my early morning purple mouse photo shoot (I wasn’t kidding about chopping off ears, was I?!). Check out the phantom paw in the first picture, and please forgive the blurry second picture…

“Mousie, mousie, roly poly mousie. Mousie, mousie, crunch him up, yum!”

“Doesn’t he look scrumptious, my SPM?!”

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