Category Archives: Alongs

Alongs, Knitting

Cottons and critters

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The lovely Frarochvia surprised me with a thank you gift for the housewarming gift I sent her! Apparently she’s noticed I’m knitting bibs – four lovely balls of Sugar’n’Cream (lovely purples in those), a rainbow ball of Peaches & Creme (which I’ve never seen before), and some Bernat Cotton Tot in Project Spectrum purple! Not that my camera likes to photograph purple – so poor Marina can pretend it’s blue. 😉

Those tasty gluten-free cookies will be joining me this weekend as I journey “up nord to da cabin.” (Yes, yes, poor Chaos will be left in the care of my trusty cat-sitting neighbor. Hopefully he doesn’t rip open all my tampons in revenge this time.)

Frarochvia also sent a great cat stamp to aid in my onesie projects. Thank you so much!!

Of course, Chaos had to check things out (the object on the left wrapped in kitten paper is the box of cookies).

“Oh no!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

I knit a very basic critter comforter for Basil and Abner’s Critter Charity Drive – double-stranded Encore Worsted on size 13 needles. It was a very fast knit and produced a nice squooshy comforter. I set the comforter down to photograph it and…

“It’s for me, right? You better be saying yes.”

“What do you mean, it’s for homeless kitties who live in cold steel cages?! What sort of barbarism is that?!”

“Ok, ok, since it’s for a good cause. Let me help you fold it up.”

Have a great weekend, everyone! I’ll be back late Monday.

Alongs, Knitting, Project Spectrum, Randonymity, Reading

In which I read more books and knit more bibs

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SRP update:

Twelve Sharp by Janet Evanovich, 310 pages. I like a mystery series that makes it easy to tell what book is next. Number twelve in the wacky Stephanie Plum series is Ranger, Ranger, Ranger, which to me equals hot, hot, hot. *fans self*
Dead Beat by Jim Butcher, 396 pages. Book 7 of the Dresden Files. Both suspenseful and funny – I was laughing out loud at times. As always, many plots twists and turns. If you like well-written fantasy novels, I can’t recommend this series enough.

Monkeemaven is having a contest to celebrate her second blogiversary. Here is my entry for the A category (share a favorite path) – this is another photo of the amazing bridge between Loring Park and the Sculpture garden. I love walking on this bridge. It has spectacular views of downtown and I never tire of reading the John Ashberry poem that graces the bridge.

Chaos is much calmer this morning than he was last night – some idiots in my neighborhood were setting off fireworks (big stuff, not just sparklers and firecrackers) in the street in front of my building until nearly midnight. Plus this morning I had to move all the furniture away from the windows and take down all the blinds, since I’m getting new windows installed! Great for me, but nerve-wracking for the jumpy Cat Chaotic… and the window installers haven’t even arrived yet.

In knitting news, I finished two more bibs… The first was in Sugar’n’Cream “countryside ombre” – a bad name for a lovely variegated sage green and purple yarn. It would be more Project Spectrumish if I had been able to get an accurate picture of the color!

I think my model’s goodwill on the bib thing might be exhausted. I’m sure no one is surprised!

“No!!! Not another bib!! Run away!!”

“Hmph. That didn’t work so well, did it?”

“Well, I did get one leg free. Maybe if I keep running away from it…”

I took it off him at that point. Sorry, Chaos! The extra kitty treats seemed to go a long way toward earning his forgiveness. Plus, when I finished this belated June Project Spectrum bib in a denimy blue ombre and didn’t even menace him with it, he seemed relieved!

Alongs, Reading

Poetic lace

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Two more books completed for SRP:

Tomb of the Golden Bird by Elizabeth Peters, 381 pages. I have no idea what number this is in the series, but the latest episode finds Amelia, Emerson, and the rest of their quirky family once again in Luxor. It’s the fall of 1922 and Howard Carter is poised to discover Tutankhamon’s tomb…
Dead Days of Summer by Carolyn Hart, 280 pages. The latest Death on Demand mystery sticks to the predictable formula. I’m actually not sure why I keep reading these, but I do… They’re a little choppy (cutting too quickly between too many perspectives) and a little too sweet for my taste.

And now, the The Amazing Lace Challenge #3…

Cabernet bemoans
she is not yet becoming
an Adamas shawl
Chaos lurks and waits
Opportunity will knock
He is sure of it
Alongs

Saturday sky

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My Saturday sky is unsettled. We had storms before dawn. The wind is whipping along at 22 mph, temperature is 86F, and we might have storms again later. Or we might not. These pictures were taken from the roof of my building around 1:15 pm CDT, first facing NE to downtown, then east, then west.

Alongs

If you really want to know…

Here’s my info for the Knit Sock Kit Swap. This may or may not be different from what I posted for Dye-O-Rama…

What are your favorite colors?

  • Black, purple, forest green, cobalt blue

Are you a new sock knitter? How long have you been knitting socks?

  • I’ve been knitting socks for four or five years. I’ve knit over 40 pairs.

Do you prefer solid or multicolored yarn?

  • It depends. 🙂 I have a lot of multicolored yarn, but I sure would love some black Regia Silk. I found black Regia Silk locally!! Woo-hoo!!

What fibers do you prefer in sock yarn?

  • Not acrylic. If it’s cotton, it needs to be blended with wool. I hate Cascade Fixation with a passion.

Where do you usually knit socks?

  • Everywhere – I always have a sock project in my backpack.

How do you usually carry/store small projects?

  • I have a very cool sock bag from Trek that holds one of my sock projects. The other is in a purple stuff sack in my backpack.

What are your favorite sock knitting patterns?

What are your favorite sock knitting techniques?

  • See previous! 🙂

What new techniques would you like to try?

  • Maybe some more lace socks.

Do you prefer circulars or dpns for sock knitting?

  • Two circulars all the way. I’ve tried dpns and I’ve tried magic loop.

What are some of your favorite yarns?

  • Sundara, Regia Silk, some of the superwash sold by ebay seller lotusblossom, Trekking

What yarn do you totally covet?

  • I covet the green Trekking colorway that’s numbered in the low 100s. More Sundara. More Regia Silk. Maybe some Mama-E or Scout. Strangely, I’m not a big fan of Cherry Tree Hill. Koigu is ok, but there are lots of great microproducers out there doing stuff just as good.

Any pattern you would love to make if money and time were no object?

  • How about skill?! Probably some stunning, elaborate lace shawl out of black cashmere. It’ll be a while before I’m up to it!

Favorite kind of needles (brand, materials, straights or circs, etc)?

  • Addi Turbos. I always use size 0 for fingering weight socks, but if they made 00 Turbos, I’d have those.

If you were a specific kind of yarn, which brand and kind of yarn would you be?

  • Regia Silk – there’s a pun there, but you’d have to know some very specific things about me to get it!

Do you have a favorite candy or mail-able snack?

  • Dark chocolate! Interesting gluten-free, lactose-free snacks from exotic locations.

What’s your favorite animal?

  • Hee hee… um, cats. (Are you surprised?! I didn’t think so.)

Do you have pets?

  • Two blackcats

What are their species/names/ages?

  • Chaos, born September 28, 2003, and Mayhem, born May 31, 2006

If you were a color what color would you be?

  • Black. It’s simple, it’s elegant… Purple would be my second choice, for when I’m an old catlady!

Describe your favorite shirt (yours or someone else’s).

  • Black v-neck tank top with a hint of lycra but not form-fitting, hitting slightly below the hip bone

What is your most inspiring image, flower, or object in nature?

  • Egrets for their snowy whiteness, their simultaneous awkwardness and elegance

Tell me the best quote you’ve ever heard or read.

  • “It is not easy to find happiness in ourselves, and it is not possible to find it elsewhere.” – Agnes Repplier

Do you have a wishlist?

  • Nope

Anything else you’d like to share with the group today?

  • Nope!
Alongs, Tunes

M is for…

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Mixes. (Heh, did you think it would be my beloved Minneapolis?! Or mammal for Chaos?)

Got your tape and it changed my mind
Heard your voice in between the lines
….
Now I’m falling in love too fast
With you or the songs you chose
….
I can hear you singing to me in my sleep
I can hear you singing to me in my sleep

I’ve been living in your cassette
It’s the modern equivalent
Singing up to a Capulet
On a balcony in your mind

– Semisonic, Singing in My Sleep

I love making and receiving mixes. It used to be mix tapes, but these days it’s mix cds. For me, mixes are incredibly evocative – they can instantly transport me back in time. I’m not alone in that. In the book Liner Notes, author Emily Franklin says of protagonist Laney that “each mix tape brings her back to a specific time in her life” and that she herself “use[s] music as a kind of time-travel device whereby I choose songs sometimes just to think about the times that go with them.”

Here are some mix tapes from 10 years ago. I made the the top one so I had something fun to listen to in the car. Probably the most memorable song on it is “I’m Ugly and I Don’t Know Why” by Butt Trumpet. 🙂 The next two tapes were from a guy I dated. The first one was named after two of his fish, while the second one was named after his musical influences during that later part of the mix tape making process! The final tape was a friend for my birthday in (I think) 1992. I remember two songs particularly from this tape – “Pretty as You Feel” by Jefferson Airplane and “I Wanna Be an Engineer” by Pete Seeger.

Onto mix cds. The most interesting thing about mix cds is that, although I had made mix cds for people, until I started blogging I had never received a mix cd from anyone! Boy, has that ever changed and I am very happy about it because mixes also serve as musical cross-pollination for me – not only can I share what I’m listening to with others, I get to hear music new to me.

From the top left, the Project Spectrum May Mix from the Crafty Modster, the Soul Gardening Mix from soul gardener TB, the Meow Mix from MrsPao, and Cats in the Garden from TB.

Again from the top left, the B-List Compilation Mix: Songs to Blog By (compiled by TB, but featuring favorites from an assortment of bloggers), Needle Tunes from Just a Knit Wit, and Eileen’s Mix/Just Silly Stuff from Eileen.

Notice anything missing from these pictures? No Chaos! He was completely disinterested in the mixes and chose to lie on top of his litterbox instead. He had this message for y’all:

“Yeah, baby, you look look totally scrumptious.”

Alongs, Reading, See the Sights

Pride trekketh

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I’ll start with a quick SRP update…

Blood Rites by Jim Butcher. Book 6 of the Dresden Files. 372 pages. Once again, Chicago wizard-for-hire Harry Dresden faces tough enemies and deals with startling revelations. I love this series.
Dark Tort by Diane Mott Davidson. 284 pages. The latest mystery about Colorado caterer Goldy Schultz – what else can I say? 🙂 It’s light reading with recipes.

Amy of Knit Think sent me an email a few days ago, mentioning that she would working at the Mother Bear Project booth at the GLBT Pride Festival in Loring Park yesterday and that, since I live in the neighborhood, I should stop by and say hi. Okey dokey.

I haven’t ever been to the Pride Festival before. I was amazed at how large it was. Thousands of people and hundreds of booths surrounded the lake in Loring Park – this picture is only a tiny portion of the Festival.

Fortunately, I stumbled on the Mother Bear booth very quickly. I saw Amy (left) and met another local blogger, Julie (right).

The Mother Bear Project has sent nearly 11,000 bears to children in emerging nations whose lives have been touched by HIV/AIDS. There’s definitely going to be some bear knitting here at Casa de Chaos over the winter! It doesn’t hurt that these bears are seriously cute. If you’re interested in helping the project in some way other than by knitting a bear, there’s information here.

I had my purple Trekking socks with me, so I snapped a few pictures in the lovely Loring Park garden. Yes, I finally made it past the yarn vomit!

Out of all the benches in the garden, I was pleased and saddened to chance across this one:

I know you’re all worried about Chaos. He wasn’t too happy with the Pride Festival’s fireworks, but I did come back from the festival with a silly little toy that seems to have puzzled him…

“You’re not going to make me play with this in the tub, are you?!!”
Alongs, Project Spectrum

Sunday sky (whoops)

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Ok, so the day I take as completely computer free turns out to be the first Saturday Sky day. Alas! But then I noticed that Beck was also running a day late, so I figured what the heck. Besides, today it’s sunny. Yesterday was very rainy in these parts.

This picture was taken on the Irene Hixon Whitney Bridge. The text is from one of my favorite poems, the specially commissioned John Ashberry poem that graces the bridge. And it’s rather Project Spectrummy, too, isn’t it?

Alongs, Knitting, Project Spectrum, Those Cats

Bibbed redux

40 Comments

Way back on June 7, I participated in A Day in a Knitter’s Life. Sort of. If you’re curious about my rather pathetic effort, you can check it out.

In more current news, I finished another Project Spectrumesque MDK bib in Sugar’n’Cream color swimming pool. I’m 2/3 done with yet another bib – these things are speedy and much appreciated by parents, since they are significantly more absorbent than most of the bibs you can buy.

My model’s curiosity overcame his good sense (how could he forget so quickly?!) and he was quickly trapped for a photo shoot.

“Again, I’m so ashamed…”
“How could I forget so quickly?!”
“I would so rather be playing with Midnight Mouse.”
“Release me, oh evil bib!”
“Ok, ok, I can do this – one shoulder free! Hah!!”
Alongs

Dye-O-Rama yarn and more!

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One of my blog projects is to replace pictures from old posts that got messed up when I transferred them from blogger. If you’re reading a post and the picture looks weird, click on the picture to see a larger, not messed up version. Edit: A huge thanks to Amy! for the code snippet that should make commenting much easier.
Yesterday was a very, very good mail day. I received three very fun packages, two of which I’ll talk about today and one that I’ll save until tomorrow.

First, I won a contest at Craftlilly! Jennifer sent me a fun card, Beatrix Potter post-its, a fabulous princess mirror (no, you can’t have it for Kreature, Jeanne!), some of her lovely stitchmarkers, and a skein of yummy soft Malabrigo! (Click on any picture to open a new window with a much larger picture in it.) Thanks, Jennifer!

Next, my Dye-O-Rama yarn arrived, from my Dye-O-Rama pal Celtic Kelly! This was funny, because I recently (not knowing that she was my pal) sent Kelly a skein of yarn I had dyed that I knew she’d appreciate (she loves bright colors) much more than I would. Kelly sent me two New Brunswick-themed postcards, some maple syrup and maple candies, a gluten-free chocolate cake mix, two bars of lovely dark chocolate (one with espresso beans – look out, coworkers!), a candy bar that appears to be the gluten-free equivalent of a Kit Kat…

…a gorgeous handmade black cat card, a pair of Chris and Chaos stitchmarkers, and two lovely skeins of yarn in the Chaos colorway (one light, one dark). Check out the label! Hee hee. Thank you, Kelly! What a fun and very thoughtful package. I’m looking forward to knitting up that yarn and the stitchmarkers are going to make me smile every time I use them.

I did receive a third package yesterday, but this picture will have to tide you over until tomorrow:

“Tasty!”