Little did Chaos suspect what evil lurked in the heart of his mom as he lounged by the newly finished Mason-Dixon Knitting baby bib (knit from one ball of Sugar’n’Cream, color possibly Midnight Magic).
Library. I love the public library. I only live about six blocks away and I’m at the library two to three times every week. (And no, it’s not just because of the cute guy who works there. Sheesh.)
The old Walker Library. It’s been a thrift store and a spa and is currently sitting empty and for lease.
Across Hennepin Avenue, the new(er), mostly underground Walker Library.
While Chaos has never been to the library (I’m thinking he would be a bit disruptive), he is very fond of library books…
A big thank you to Just a Knit Wit (aka Kelly), who sent Chaos and I a sweet care package. Great timing – it arrived during a totally crazed day at work on Friday and cheered me up immediately.
It included a lovely skein of Kureyon, some mini Tootsie Pops (used to calm my equally crabby coworkers!), a tin of Knitting Girl mints, a Hershey’s pencil, red and grey mini-tuna toys for Chaos (clever!), a mysterious tin…*
and a great cd of Celtic music to listen to while knitting!
The tin contained a stunning black cat bookmark and two very fun bracelets, one of which has a little sheep and says “I Luv 2 Knit.”
Thanks, Kelly! Oh, and I think that Chaos likes the tiny red tuna (TRT):
Kittens. Like, duh. 🙂
Me with Diablo and Chaos when they were much, much smaller. Now their combined weight is around 30 lbs. Heh.
For Trek Along with Me, I’ll be knitting with Trekking 78, a lovely combination of purples and a hint of blue for Project Spectrum June.
“This is a particularly tasty shade of Trekking. I recommend it to all discerning kitties out there.”
I’m sort of hindered in the first Amazing Lace challenge, because unlike some, I’ve never seen the Amazing Race. Hey, I don’t get any tv stations. Cut me a break, will ya?So, last night the team met for the first time. On the left, we have Mim’s Adamas Shawl pattern, handily mounted on a magnetic board and stand (gadget geek alert!). In the front, we have a skein of Christine’s Fingerpaints laceweight yarn in Cabernet (with some blue, for Project Spectrum June!). On the right… we have, well, chaos.
“Cabernet? Are you sure? I’m thinking it’s actually a really good pinot noir.”
Greetings are exchanged among the team members.
*sniff sniff sniff*
Oh, dear, I’m afraid that not all team members have the same goal…
“Bwah-ha-ha!”
You might become confused while reading this post and think that we’ve skipped right over June Blue to July Purple in Project Spectrum. Do not be alarmed. Do not adjust your calendar. June still awaits.
When I posted about our weekend dyeing adventures, everyone was most interested in seeing the shocking purple yarn. Of course, I managed to not take any pictures of the ultraviolet before I started overdyeing it with black, but Jeanne will affirm that it was too purple. Neither of us believed such a thing was possible, either – until we saw the yarn.
Anyway! Here’s the first skein – it was a cream-colored fingering weight 80% wool/20% cashmere blend, courtesy of the thrift store. I think I have enough yardage for a lacy winter scarf. Dyed with Country Classics Spring Violet, overdyed with Raven.
This skein was dyed with Spring Violet and a dash of Raven and came out the exact shade I wanted – no overdyeing was necessary. The yarn was cream-colored laceweight Zephyr, 50% merino/50% silk. Um, yardage is a lot. I have to weigh it later and figure out how much I actually have. It will become a shawl someday, but probably not for the Amazing Lace. I need to start this shawl business slow, with a smaller first project!
This tangle was two skeins of cream-colored Silky Wool (65% wool/35% silk), wound on a warping board to stripe. I’m planning to make a pair of cushy house socks for next winter from this (assuming I get it untangled sometime this year). The purple was Spring Violet, later overdyed with Raven. The grey was Blueberry and Raven, later overdyed with Raven. I’ll probably try overdyeing the grey with Raven one more time, to see if I can get it to be a more true and less blue grey.
Yes, yes, I know everyone wants to see pictures of luridly purple yarn. Hopefully tomorrow. Right now the yarn is eluding my best efforts to capture the color. Grrrrrr…
So, in order to placate Marina, I finished my Chaotic Black Lagoon socks last night.
Yarn: Sundara Black Lagoon
Pattern: Judy Gibson’s generic toe-up pattern modified for two circulars, with this cast-on and Maeve’s Cherry Blossom Lace pattern
Needles: Addi Turbo 0s
Duration: 28 days
And on to the last few PS May images… A treasured green card from my grad school friend Deb:
One of the best wine labels ever (and the wine’s not bad, either!) – does that face remind you of anyone?! 🙂
For Chaos size reference, the wine bottle is 12 inches tall…
Saturday evening Jeanne and I did a bit more dyeing. Here’s our setup in Jeanne’s backyard:
Here I’m dyeing some yarn that will turn out to be shockingly purple – so shocking that I overdyed it with black Sunday night to tone it down a little! I have to remember to draft out color ideas before sitting down to dye yarn, because if I don’t – I can only remember that I like purple and black.
Yarn pictures later this week, after drying and detangling.
But the very best thing about the evening? Jeanne surprised me with a Stumbling Over Chaos word cloud t-shirt! I cannot even tell you how excited I was. I might even have bounced a bit (ok, ok, maybe more than a bit). Thank you, Jeanne – that was so sweet and unexpected!
Reading this is like reading really fun fridge magnet poetry. Some favorites include “thought time tongue totally tuna,” “SRM story stumbling text think,” “chaotic chris claws color,” and “favorite flamingos free fun.” I could go on – but I’ll spare you!
Whew, it’s been hot here in Minneapolis – 97F yesterday! When you consider we had highs of 45F only 10 or 12 days ago, I’m sure you’ll understand why we’re a bit stunned.
Anyway, here are an assortment of images from my neighborhood, taken over the past week. Most are Project Spectrum greens, but there are a few that just intrigued me.
A verdent mansion along East Lake of the Isles Parkway
Thomas Lowry Park, which is very small indeed.
Feet on a light post in the park
Mannequins – it freaked me out a little to get home from taking this picture and discover that Jeanne had just posted a picture of a mannequin from her neighborhood…
A control box for stoplights (pretend it’s April, since I missed taking this picture last month!).
Green, green Gulf
Van parked outside the local hip hop shop
And the possible scandal – pictures of a black cat… but not Chaos. Meet Richard, who was out for a walk when I was:
He was really too busy to stop for pictures or witty commentary.
I’m off to enjoy a lovely (albeit warm) day off from work. Chaos is enjoying the air conditioning, which I finally turned on late yesterday, having had enough of his dead kitty on the tile floor impersonation. Have a wonderful Memorial Day for those in the US (and I think it’s a bank holiday in the UK?)!
The Craft Modster posted a very inspiring entry about t-shirt stenciling a few days ago and got me all excited to try stenciling some onesies for my friends’ baby. (You remember the fate of the onesies, right?) I definitely need to try something else for the lettering, but I’m pretty pleased with my first effort, made with emerald green Jacquard fabric paint. The owl is a stamp that my dad sells (it’s on the Rango Zoo 3 sheet).
I also tie-dyed several onesies, since the parents are tie-dye fanatics. I used dark green Rit dye. The onesie on the left (slightly obscured in this picture) had rubber bands around it in three places. The onesie on the right (also slightly obscured in this picture) was simply tied in a big knot. I like the big knot effect much better!
“If I sit on them, she won’t be tempted to put them on me, right?”
“Oh, well that sort of ‘putting on’ isn’t so bad, I guess.”
“Duuuuuuuude, I could sure use a hit of catnip and some tuna. Must be the tie dyes.”