Category Archives: Randonymity

Contests, KALs, Randonymity, Those Cats

The contest edition

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Whew! Brace yourselves…

Craftlilly Jennifer has a nice list of KALs and contests for you to check out.

Keohinani is having a model your socks contest. Deadline is September 30, 12 pm, Hawaii Standard Time.

Celtic Kelly and her husband Moose will be Walking for the Cure on October 1. She’s awarding a prize (probably Fleece Artist) to a random sponsor for this good cause!

MrsPao is having a “What flavour crisps does James Bond eat?” contest to help her husband Pao make it to Google’s number one hit for that topic. A winner will be selected randomly after 9 pm GMT, October 31 – knitters can win some lovely Fyberspates sock yarn or non-knitters will receive other non-yarny goodies. (Hee hee, I just participated by posting that link! Woot woot.)

Teyani is having a “guess how many skeins of fiber she’s dyed since the beginning of the year” contest. The winner will get to pick a skein of Chasing Rainbows Superwash Sock Yarn; contest runs through September 24.

Andi is having a contest – she’s giving away a goodie bag to the first commenter to guess Baby K’s name.

Geraldine is having a caption contest and is giving away copies of her vegetarian cookbook. The deadline is September 30.

Check out Zimmermania – a knitalong that starts September 23 and features the patterns of Elizabeth Zimmermann.

Have I mentioned how impressed I am at the amazing breadth of contests and knitalongs y’all come up with?! Very cool. Keep on sending them in to chris at stumbli……

To finish off my crazy busy week last week (well, crazy busy for me at least), I went to see Greg Brown at the Fitzgerald Theater Friday night with my friend Wendy. Somehow Wendy scored amazing seats – 5th row, main floor center. Damn. I think the last time I saw Greg Brown at the Fitz, we were second balcony, obstructed (a genteel way to say the seats were behind a massive damn pillar!). This show was way heavier on the blues and less folksey than I’ve experienced at a Greg Brown show before. Good show, but I think both Wendy and I were ready for some more up tempo music that never arrived. Probably my favorite part was Greg’s second song of the evening, a no holds barred political song that had everyone laughing and cheering.

I spent the rest of the weekend lounging around, reading, not cleaning, drinking mochas, knitting up my pattern that will be in the December MagKnits (I need to finish tweaking and take a few pictures), and just generally recuperating from last week. I need to start getting things together for my Knitblogger’s Tour of the West – can’t believe I leave on the 30th already! Oh yeah, I stubbed the #$*^&!! out of my left pinkie toe on Saturday. I’ve never had a stubbed toe turn such amazing colors in such a short time…

Ok, ok, I know you’re all actually just here for the cute cat pictures! 😉

Mayhem is about as sweet and wispy as she can possibly be – to give you an idea, those little pokey hipbones there? About 1.25-1.5″ across! Awww…

*purr*

She and Chaos had a pretty rough weekend… Although poor Chaos is on a diet – he snuck a pound or two on while I wasn’t looking these past few months!

“Ha! I have the best spot! That big kitty is out in the cold!”

May also practiced her posing – the pressure of being a knitblogger’s cat!

“Because, really, aren’t I the cutest of them all?”
Contests, Knitting, Randonymity, Those Cats

SoC staff not responsible for any kittens procured as a result of this blog

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Kate is having an amusing contest: the Look Back and Cringe Contest. On your own blog, explain to her why you don’t want 80s fashions to come back. Leave Kate a comment with a link to your post anytime through September 24th.

Kate, I don’t need to tell you – I can show you. Just say no to big hair that took forever to achieve, high-waisted pleated jeans (Zena, anyone?), stirrup pants (fortunately, I was too tall to wear those successfully), knee-grazing tunics, shoulder pads (I already have a linebacker build, thank you!), and all that. Been there, done that, not going there again! 🙂

Thanks to everyone who’s been sending me contest and swap information! Keep it coming – send an email to chris at this domain.

Knitting update: Yup, I still knit. But gosh, it’s a bit challenging to knit with a kitten around – I’d forgotten about that! I’m about to bind off my first Regia Silk sock and I’m still plodding along on the border of my moderne log cabin baby blanket. Ummmm… Oh! Did I mention that I entered some socks in the Minnesota State Fair? Jeanne talked me into it and really, how could I refuse when she was willing to drop them off and pick them up from the Fair?! (Thank you, Jeanne!) I entered my Chaotic Black Lagoon socks (toe-up, using Maeve’s Cherry Blossom Lace pattern and Sundara Black Lagoon yarn). I got full marks for general appearance, color, design, condition (even though I ran out of time to block), and materials used, but only 35.5/40 for workmanship. Here’s what the judge had to say: “Beautiful Knitting – This was an extrememly competitive lot this year. Watch out for twisted stitches during grafting.” Interesting, since these were toe-up, no grafting required – but obviously I need to switch to the Turkish cast-on, as mine is leaving a row of twisted stitches.

Tink and I are doing a mix cd exchange and Tink is way ahead of me (I’m still working on the mix). Along with the cds, she included some lovely little shells from Florida. Thanks, Tink! Chaos was intrigued by the shells.

“Mmmm… oceany…”

Big thanks to everyone who’s provided info and handholding during the cat acclimation process!! Here’s another picture of May and the catnip mouse:

*kick kick kick kick kick bite bite bite bite bite*

But eventually… the mouse flew from her grasp.

“Oh oh…”

And though she be but little, she is fierce. – William Shakespeare

“Take that, big kitty! I’m not afraid of you!!” – M
“Good grief!” – C

Contests, Randonymity, Those Cats

Wandering through WTF Wednesday

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Cherry Tree Hill Yarn is having a contest to create designs for their solid sock yarns. Socks must be received by Thanksgiving.

I’m clueless about this tv show (you know me and the “doesn’t watch television” thing), but there’s a Grey’s Anatomy knitalong starting if you’re interested.

Ok, for WTF Wednesday, from the misguided advertising campaign files… Is coffee the first thing you think of when you see this sign?!

Me either.

I swapped some yarn with Danielle for one of her very cool little jars – imagine my surprise when I opened the package to discover not just the jar, but other goodies, too! Danielle included a ball of Peaches’n’Cream cotton from the MDK bag o’ yarn she received (bib or dishcloth with this yarn from the source of all such cottony madness?!), as well as some tasty chocolate, a cute card, lovely stitchmarkers that she made (they’re in the jar), and a package for Chaos. Thanks, Danielle!

When I presented the package to Chaos, he got busy.

“I’m sure this would be easier with opposable thumbs.”
<
“Probably much easier…” *mmph*

But with some assistance, he eventually persevered.

“Neener, neener, May, I got catnip mice!”

And so of course May got right up there and took one, because all the mice are all for her now…

*fight fight fight bite bite bite*
Randonymity

It came from 1946…

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Stephania of Moraie Knits is giving away some unmatched knitting needles – Lantern Moon and Brittanies. Maybe with her help you can create a new full set of unbroken dpns or turn that lone needle back into a pair!

Thanks to everyone for the health wishes of yesterday! I’m still sick, but at lunchtime I’m going to pick up some of the wonderful Yogi Cold Season Tea – I had some at home, but it had expired in 2002… Ewww!

Remember the funky old knitting booklet I found at the thrift store last week? Turns out it’s from 1946. I thought I’d share a few pictures of the wondrous things that await inside. Why should I be the only one having nightmares?! 😉

First we have Loopy Doll. Personally, I think an entire horror movie franchise could be fashioned around Loopy Doll. I really hope no one ever made one of these for a child. You can so tell that Loopy Doll is Up To No Good.

I can’t decide if this is a promise… or a threat:

This baby seems to be leaning toward threat.

While this baby is obviously in hysterics that his parents could be so cruel.

And this girl seems to be getting her revenge be killing the family pet.

Probably best that Chaos was preoccupied during this photoshoot after that last shot, don’t you think?

“That Sparkly Orange Mouse can run, but it cannot hide from me!”
Randonymity, Those Cats

Chaos tagged

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Chaos was tagged by the Meezer to list 5 weird things about himself. Let’s see if he can come up with 5 things that aren’t on his list of 25 things…

1. I love my wand toy. You know, the kind that’s a stick with a string and a cool toy attached to the end of the string? I get really, really excited when Mom brings out that toy. But she says it’s boring to play with me with the wand toy, because I get so excited I just quiver and can’t even move.

2. I love to lie on Mom’s lap, but only when it’s less than 70F in our condo. When it’s warmer, I lie under her chair so I can still be close.

3. When Mom hits snooze in the morning, I come in and lick her eyelids or tap her face with my paw. I’m just trying to help her get up and feed me, so I don’t understand why she pulls the covers over her head. When she does that, I hop onto the nightstand and stare at her balefully.

4. If Mom manages to leave one of her armpits uncovered while she’s in bed, I will lick that! Mmmm…. armpits.

5. I love to shred and eat toilet paper. Mom is mean and hides it under the sink so I can’t get it. It was a lot of fun when toilet paper used to hang in the bathroom on that neat spinner.

*burp*
“Ok, I tag any cat, ferret, bird, dog, rabbit, or other pet who thinks this sounds like fun and needs more blog exposure!”
Randonymity, Reading

Manic Random Wednesday

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Mostly because I’m feeling wildly disorganized!

SRP Update
Sick as a Parrot by Liz Evans, 327 pages. Ok, ok, I only picked it up because it had a weird title… But now I want to read the rest of the books about British PI Grace Smith… and read them in order!! It was cleverly funny and it kept me guessing up to the end. What’s not to like?

Options to Blogger
Lots of people have been switching from Blogger recently, because of the ongoing frustrations. Carrie K just switched from Blogger to TypePad, and I noticed some questions in her comments about cost and such. Here’s the pricing information for TypePad. You can test drive it for free for 30 days. The basic level ($4.95/mo) includes 100 mb of disk space, and 2 gb of bandwidth per month. For comparison, I’m currently using about 150 mb of disk space (I do use a lot of pictures, but I edit them so they don’t take up as much space as “raw” pictures), and 8 gb of bandwidth per month.

WordPress.com offers free blogs. I poked around their site and couldn’t find any information about disk space and bandwidth restrictions for the free sites – can anyone point me to that information? I do know Frarochvia, EvaLux, and Heather have all recently switched from Blogger to WordPress. I have to say that I really like the look of WordPress blogs better than Blogger blogs, but you know me – I read ’em all! 😉

I’m using WordPress through Dreamhost, which offers an awful lot for $7.95/month: 20 gb of storage, 1 tb (terabyte) of bandwidth/month, free domain registration, up to 675 email accounts (um, yeah, I’m really not taking advantage of that one), free software such as WordPress, and a 97-day money back guarantee. I would recommend that you be at least a bit techy if you go this route.

I’m not sure how Blogger/Google can afford the amount of disk space and bandwidth required to support so many free blogs, so I have to wonder if the problems will get worse, or if storage and bandwidth restrictions will be applied.

Further Rambling
I found two fun books of knitting patterns yesterday at the thrift store. Which baby picture is more odd?!

And here’s where Chaos spends his mornings – from this corner of the living room, he’s able to keep an eye on birds outside the windows:

“Mom! You gave away my secret spot!! I can’t believe you’d do that to me…”
Contests, Randonymity, Reading

This one’s for Marina, who has been ever so patient

38 Comments

SRP Update
Ok, somehow I didn’t realize SRP ended on Thurday (August 31) and not on Labor Day. D’oh!
Repair To Her Grave by Sarah Graves, 291 pages. Yet another Home Repair Is Homicide Mystery. I might have finished them all now. Or maybe I have one left. Hmm.

Janelle of Eclectic Closet is having a reading-related contest. Leave a comment before September 15 to enter.

I won a contest! It was a surprise contest – apparently I made Valerie’s 100th comment, so she sent me a wonderfully thoughtful package – it’s almost eerie how well she knows me. Check out the purple and black tissue paper and the crazy cat lady card! 😉

A skein of lovely purple Sugar’n’Cream (although, since Valerie suggested it was for a dishcloth and not a bib, I now suspect she’s yet another of y’all on Chaos’ payroll) and some very cool pen bookmarks. Thank you, Valerie!

Ok, poor Marina has been reading for months, waiting for the answer to a question I posed back in January, when I posted this picture and asked if anyone could figure out what was going on here. The cats in question are Chaos’ mom Riley (black) and his brother Diablo (white), taken at my brother’s house last summer – and nope, my brother wasn’t trying to make pressed cats.

These naughty cats jumped between the screen and the glass on the breezeway. The first few times they did it, they were able to push out the screen and escape the house. However, in this picture, they have just discovered that my brother cat-proofed the screens from outside with blocks of wood. These cats are very trapped.

Here’s the the little wooden ledge that my brother had to build to keep the cats from jumping down between the screens:

Sorry you had to suffer through so much purple for that, Marina!

I’m not sure Chaos remembers he has family…

“Just feed me, dammit, and be quick about it! The service in this place is abysmal.”
Contests, Knitting, Randonymity, Those Cats

In which Chaos receives a love letter

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Argh! I screwed up the link to Danielle’s contest yesterday… Thanks to Jeanne for letting me know. Here’s the contest info again: Danielle won a big ol’ bag of yarn from Mason-Dixon Knitting and is celebrating by having her first contest! Leave a comment for her, guessing what she’s knitting (toadstools maybe??) before noon on Tuesday, August 29.

Ok, Marina alerted me to one of the most mind-boggling garments ever, as photographed by Susan of therainysisters.com. You’ll scroll down through many lovely pictures of Susan’s award-winning State Fair knitting, but keep going until you just have to stop and say, “WTF?!” You’ll know which picture. I’ll wait……….. Ok, wouldn’t that be fun to wear someplace dressy?? Hee hee. Sock monkey insanity…

Deb and I took Annie Modesitt’s combined knitting class at Creative Fibers last night. (Amy couldn’t make it because she was sick – get better soon, Amy!) So I often knit combined (picking/continental) already – you cannot beat it for speedy seed stitch in the round. Or, as I realized last night, ribbing back and forth. I picked up some tips on combined knitting decreases and we also learned to cable without a cable needle, which is very slick indeed.

But the most exciting part of the class? Getting there. Right as I was about to leave, a mighty storm assaulted Minneapolis. It didn’t look like the sort of weather I should go out into, but darn it, I had a class to get to… Memorable images from the drive include water geysering several feet up out of a storm drain, people with their pant legs rolled up and carrying their shoes wading across streets in knee-deep water (when it’s raining that hard, I’m not sure what the benefit to carrying your shoes is), and having to turn around and take a different route because the water was too deep for my low slung car. No pictures, because I was far too busy clutching the steering wheel and peering out past the flailing wipers, looking out for deep water.

So, you’re probably all curious about the aforementioned love letter. It was sent anonymously, signed only “Miss Kitty,” and reads:

My Dearest Chaos, For some time now I have been reading your blog on-line and each day I fall in love with you a little more. You are so handsome and regal, even when you are subjected to cruel tortures such as modeling bibs for your mommy. I know we can never be together, but I shall always love you from afar. Always, Miss Kitty. P.S. I hope you like the gift. I saw it in the store and of course thought of you.

The gift is a little collar tag that says “PURRfect.”

When asked who this could possibly be from, the Chaos Kitty merely looked coy and a bit smug.

“Hard to say. Chicks dig me, you know.”
Festing, Knitting, Randonymity, Reading, See the Sights

Eventing

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If you’re in the Twin Cities and you’re planning to attend the Mountain Goats concert at the Triple Rock Social Club on Thursday, September 14, please let me know! Right now I’m going alone.

A while ago, I asked if anyone was going to be at the Taos Wool Festival (October 7-8), as it will be one of my stops on the Knitblogger’s Fall Tour I have planned for myself. If you are on the path between Minneapolis and Albuquerque and going to be around from September 30 – roughly October 15 or so, please leave me a comment or send an email to chris at this domain. I’m trying to get my exact schedule and route figured out – currently, I have stops planned in Ft Collins, Boulder, Denver, Colorado Springs, Albuquerque, and Taos (for the festival), although not specific dates yet.

SRP Update
He Huffed and He Puffed (250 pages), Good King Sauerkraut (214 pages), and You Have the Right To Remain Silent (249 pages) by Barbara Paul. These were the second, third, and fourth NYPD Lt Marian Larch mysteries. The second and third Marian Larch mysteries are described on the covers as “mysteries with Marian Larch” – she is definitely not the main character. In fact, in He Huffed and He Puffed, I wasn’t sure it was a Marian Larch book for the longest time! You Have the Right To Remain Silent is the first book in which Marian Larch is as important as the crime she’s investigating. This book could also be described as The Apostrophe Thief, part one.
Love Is Murder by Linda Palmer, 275 pages. This is the first Morgan Tyler (soap opera writer) mystery and even though I have absolutely no interest in daytime drama, I’m definitely enjoying this series (which I am unfortunately reading out of order). I’m about to start the third book in the series, which I hope will feature the black kitten she acquired in book 2. 🙂

Belated Saturday Sky… So belated that I took the picture Sunday evening! This is a view of downtown Minneapolis from the south shore of Lake Calhoun.

And to prove that I actually do knit sometimes, here’s my charcoal grey Regia Silk waffle sock for Project Spectrum – now with more cat butt than ever!

Contests, Randonymity

Wednesday, randomly

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I’m a little slow this morning. Damned migraine. Feeling better now (bless the Imitrex), but I’ll have that slow, slightlly groggy feeling all day. Onward to our regularly scheduled program!

Just a Knit Wit is having a contest, collecting Las Vegas-themed songs to make a mix for an upcoming trip.

Gromit is having a contest to guess the number of WIPs/UFOs she has. Send her an email with your guess by 8 pm Eastern, Thursday, August 17.

And Kristin of Yarn and Order is having a contest. Leave a comment before midnight CST, Thursday, August 17, to participate.

Sign ups for Craftlilly’s KnitFlix swap end at midnight tonight!

Remember that retro black cat fabric I have? Well, Trek and I worked out a swap and I sent her the fabric to make me a DPN holder and a sock bag. They arrived yesterday, along with a cool little notebook for me and some catnip for Chaos! Thanks, Trek!

Chaos was definitely interested in the nip…

*sniff sniff* “Hurry up and get this into a mouse for me, Mom!!”

…but he was also very interested in the other things that Trek sent.

“Whatever could this be? It’s not quite what I would expect for a cat bed.”

“I know what this is – it’s a place for me to hide! I am such a good hider. They won’t see me here, either!”

“Wait, why are you all still there?”