Randonymity, Those Cats

The Phantom Paw and Other Tails

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For the curious, my tattoo is on the back of my upper left arm. I had a mole biopsy there maybe seven years ago and it left a scar that bothered me, so I camouflaged it with the tattoo. (And my dermatologist even thought that was a fine way to deal with the scar!) Until last November, the tattoo was just the top half, which means “Good luck.” And yes, it was a bit difficult to photograph! It’s actually backwards (which amusingly didn’t occur to me until just now, or I could’ve corrected it!), because I ended up taking the picture in one of the plentiful mirrors around here.

Now, on to the Phantom Paw:

For all the Minnesota knitters who just took a collective gasp, trying to figure out how they missed the Yarn Harlot coming to town, don’t worry. Ana picked this up for me when the Yarn Harlot was in Pittsburgh a few weeks ago – thanks, Ana!!

Check out my new tape measure:

front
back

Yeah, that paw is definitely persistent, isn’t it?!I found some gluten-free beer while I was in Wisconsin! Of course, upon trying it, I discovered that beer tastes sort of weird if you haven’t had one for over ten years. Chaos doesn’t think too much of beer. When I tossed a bottle cap on the floor for Chaos to play with, he tried to bury it.
“I definitely don’t approve of beer. But that stuff with those nifty corks, that’s ok.”

This is what Chaos’ water looked like last night when I got home from work.

No, I agree, I don’t think that mouse is colorfast. Wouldn’t this have been a great March Project Spectrum picture?!

Dyeing, Festing, Those Cats

Neenah redux

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At last! 🙂

My first class was Rainbow Dyeing in the Microwave with Merike Saarniit. We learned how to do one shot dyeing with acid dyes. This yarn

became a bit more colorful, with the help of Country Classic colors Spring Violet and Raven.*

I was sufficiently inspired that I went down to the vendor room and picked up some yarn for Jeanne and I to try acid dyeing. After we get dyes someday, of course.

My second class was Exotic Stitches for More than One Color with Anna Zilboorg. I used some variegated purple and black to create this multi-stitch pattern swatch:

Detected any color theme here yet?! I also took Twisted Traveling Stitches with Anna Zilboorg, but I don’t have any pictures from it. I had a migraine and my stitches, while twisted, went on very short and somewhat erratic journeys…

On Friday night, I was sitting and knitting in the hospitality room at the hotel and someone called out, “Is Chris of Stumbling Over Chaos here?” Um, maybe… And that’s how I met Blogless Carla, pictured here with the amazing door prize she won. Those are five Alice Starmore books, kids… Note the look of shock on her face.

I met Blogless Jodee…

and Blogless Lydia, all three of whom will be at the Taos Wool Festival this fall, so hopefully we’ll meet up again there. Carla and Jodee are already rather (in)famous.

I also met knitblogger Amy Lu of Some Call Them Sticks and String… I Call Them Sanity – check out her nifty necklace!

I took advantage of our weekend-long discount at Yarns By Design to purchase a few things… (I know, you are so not surprised.) From the left, two skeins of Blue Sky Organic Cotton (one destined to be the baby bolero from One Skein), a hank of Helen’s Lace in Black Purl, Opal Zebra, and Trekking 108 (inspired by Cyn’s gorgeous socks).

*I dyed two other mini-skeins with Evergreen (plus a dash of Buttercup) and Raven. However, I don’t have very good pictures of them… You might remember that Chaos is fascinated with mini skeins.

“Hmph. These are not as cuddly cute as that STR mini skein that I know you hide from me.”
“Mmmmm… but they are awfully cushy…”
Knitting, Those Cats

Does he love me? Or the knitting?

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Thanks for the well wishes yesterday – I’m feeling a lot better today and am back at work.

Guess what? Kreature Kat forgave me – details over at Jeanne’s.

Unfortunately, I still don’t have my stuff from Neenah organized, so… I present a little photo essay featuring Chaos Clawboy.

“Why are you poking my tummy while I’m trying to go into a sun stupor?”

“Oh, this is a very squooshy and yummy ball of yarn.”

“Wait… what is that?!”

“Addi Turbos! Wait, what’s that swooshing sound?”

“There’s something stuck between my teeth that I just can’t quite reach…”

“Whew! I’m tired now.”

Knitting, Project Spectrum, Those Cats

Back but blech

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Not blech regarding the weekend, which was very fun, but blech is how I’m feeling today. Plus Blogger is being difficult and not letting me add more pictures, so this is going to be a bit random and not at all about the actual weekend.

A last April PS image – the giant orange moose at the Black River Crossing exit from I-94 in Wisconsin.

And a giant whitetail deer from the same exit.

Chaos was pretty upset with me. He got into a cabinet and proceeded to strew tampons everywhere – apparently ob tampons are great cat toys. Who knew? I’m told he also managed to lock himself into the bedroom one day by knocking over some things that were behind the door. And he somehow got hold of my skein of Vesper, which is looking a little gnawed now. When I got my overnight bag unpacked, Chaos camped out.


“If I lie on it, you can’t leave again.”

But he did finally settle down after a few hours.


“All this mayhem has left me mussed.”

Over the weekend, I started my May Project Spectrum socks, from Sundara Black Lagoon, using a lace pattern that Maeve posted.

Hopefully both Blogger and I will feel better by tomorrow morning, so I can post more about the weekend!

Personal history, See the Sights

A season of egrets

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I saw the first egret of the year last Friday.

Egrets are important to me – the first egret of the year marks the true beginning of spring and hints at the promise of summer. In honor of this year’s first egret, I thought I would share with you an essay I wrote several years ago:

There’s a part of the summer that feels like a special separate season – a season of egrets is how I think of it. Sometime between midsummer and late summer, I slowly realize that I’m seeing egrets almost every day – in cloverleaves, along the shore of Lake of the Isles, in the stream running through the golf course I drive by, in the pond at General Mills. Egrets everywhere, every day.

Each time I see one, I feel a tiny burst of joy. I get excited when I see herons and cranes and other wading birds, too, but it isn’t the same as when I see an egret.

The elegant lines? The dignified yet vaguely silly locomotion? The intense white plumage? Or a more immediate and direct spiritual connection? I haven’t figured it out completely, and am not sure that I want to – if you try too hard to grasp magic, can it stay magical? Or does it become mundane?

My first season of egrets occurred in 1992, when I was working as a recreation survey assistant for Hennepin Parks. I was driving to Elm Creek and across from the park entrance in a shallow lake bisected by many powerlines, I saw hundreds of egrets – more egrets than I had seen before or have seen since. What is the group noun for egrets? Surely not a leap or a gaggle, but maybe an exclamation, or an exultation (like larks), or an entirety, or an enigma, or an elucidation… Whatever it is, seeing those egrets stunned me, left me mute, still, changed.

That day I saw the embodiment of joy, comparable only to the miracle of a monarch migration. I regretted that I did not have a camera, and have carried one ceaselessly since, just in case… but surely a photograph couldn’t have done justice to the event… and the image remains with me, vivid, intense, and immediate all these years later. My photograph is my memory, the capacity for joy that I gained at that moment and have been working toward embodying ever since.

And each summer, during the season of egrets, my capacity for joy and stillness are renewed, reborn, revitalized, refreshed, carrying me through the year until the next such season arrives.

– Chris, 8/17/2000

Some egrets in the New Orleans zoo, from January 2001…

Knitting, Project Spectrum

A few more April PS images

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My Sunny Opals are nearly done – just a bit more ribbing on each of them.

I have some Mod Podge on hand for a decoupage project that Jeanne and I are going to do, involving our old yarn labels and some small wooden boxes.

A very happy cat food can cover…

My favorite parking lot at the mall…

A cheery photo shoot from Minnesota Monthly…

Some very battered sparkly mice (the yellow one has no fur on his back half and the orange one has no tail)…

A magnet from the fridge…

And Chaos waiting for the magic toy retrieving yardstick to do its magic.

“I can’t exactly remember where I last saw SRM… It might’ve been as he ricocheted under here.”
Knitting, Those Cats

Knits and flicks

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Saturday evening I went over to Jeanne’s to knit and watch movies (The Aristocats, In Her Shoes, and Playing By Heart). Oh yeah, and to eat and drink and be merry.

I worked on my April Opal socks and Jeanne made good progress on the P sock while “Pud” relaxed on her lap.

Bugsy spent some time glaring at me, one of his favorite pastimes.

Kreature might be Bugsy’s apprentice…

And Chaos hung out at home, keeping an eye on things.

“Shhh… This is my favorite part of March of the Penguins. Don’t those penguin babies look scrumptious?”

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