Festing, Reading, Those Cats

In the company of knitbloggers

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Special thanks to Mouse for my newly modified sidebar avatar!

Scout’s launching a new sock (and more) club – read all about Scout’s Indie Swag Club, which is going to have a very limited number of members to start with. You can sign up Wednesday, September 13, 9 pm EST. Anyone want to take bets that all the memberships will be filled by 9:10 pm?!

Celtic Kelly is starting a Fall Equinox to Winter Solstice knitalong involving tweedy yarn – check it out!

Reading
Men and Other Mammals by Jim Keeble. Interesting twist on British chick lit – would you call it “lad lit”?! Not a life changing book, but I did read the whole thing at least. (Why, yes, I am utterly lukewarm on this book!)
Cue the Easter Bunny by Liz Evans. I think this is probably the most recent book about British PI Grace Evans. I much enjoyed this and wish the first book from the series would hurry up and get here!
Dating Dead Men and Dating Is Murder by Harley Jane Kozak. The only two books (so far) featuring LA greeting card writer Wollie Shelley. I am eagerly awaiting another book! Bless the serendipitous browse through the actual physical library – I usually come across some great stuff.

Ok, back to the Harlotation on Sunday in Eau Claire. We saw many more folks than I’m going to remember – so please forgive me and leave details in the comments! Vicki Knitorious (with Deb of Wound Too Tight here),

Jeanne of k3tog (really, she isn’t always so serious – trust me, and check out the cool striping yarn she dyed),

CursingMama and Mr Motorcycle (so brave to come along),

Beadslut (ohmigod, she has a decent picture of me!), KnittyMama and KnittyBaby, Catherine of Yogurt and Granola, Jess of Mikknit, kmkat,

Christy of Purling Away, Stephania of Moraie Knitting, Kelle of Knits and Giggles, and many, many more…

And now for something completely different, I thought I would try to illustrate the size difference between Chaos and Mayhem… Note that her collar hangs loosely on her neck… and that her tail is the same length as Chaos’ tail. Poor stubby-tailed Chaos!

*crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch*
Alongs, Contests, Those Cats

S is for…

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Hold that thought! 🙂

MrsPao is having a contest for her first blogiversary! Come up with a mnemonic for her cats’ names (Jasper, Ariel, Merlin, Perdita, Ophelia, Phoebe) by 9 pm GMT on Tuesday, September 12.

Jeanne is having a contest – guess the number of socks in her sock pile before midnight, September 15, CDT.

Ok, so where were we? Oh yeah… S is for Stephanie Pearl-McPhee.

Yesterday, Deb, Jeanne, and I (along with many other Twin Cities knitters) journeyed east to Eau Claire, Wisconsin, to see Yarn Harlot Stephanie.

First, we met a lot of great knitters and knitbloggers – more on that later this week. Then we walked to the Temple of Free Masonry to hear Stephanie speak.

She was, of course, terrifically funny. She showed off her Olympic sweater (the heap by her feet in this picture, as I was too slow with the camera) and her Icarus shawl:

Then Stephanie signed copies of her books at Yellow Dog Knitting (we provided the Leinenkugel Honey Weiss – thanks for the tip, Louise!):

And graciously posed for a picture with us (pretend I’m not in this picture, because it is a horrific picture of me! What the hell am I doing back there?! My simple photoediting program didn’t have a red X or dot to put over me – drat.):

Curious about Chaos and Mayhem? Chaos likes to keep a close eye on May, whatever she might be doing…

“What are you doing in there?!”

Um, yeah, two guesses, Chaos…

I’d like to say that May is unconcerned about Chaos, but she keeps a wary eye out, since he’s been trying to beat the crap out of her. She is safely shut in the bathroom when I’m not around to supervise! (It’s funny how sleek she looks in pictures, because she’s still got some kitten fluff and is amazingly gangly.)

“Man, that big cat is crabby! I wonder where he is right now…”
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!”
Tales of the Neighborhood

Ah-choo!

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I apparently have a summer cold. Blech. My brain feels wrapped in cotton wool… Hopefully I’m feeling livelier by Sunday, when Deb, Jeanne, and I journey east (along with many other Twin Cities knitters) to see the Yarn Harlot in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. I’m still surprised that Eau Claire is as close as she will be to a metro area of over a million people, with more than 20 yarns stores… although I know that her publisher has tried unsuccessfully to set something up for the Twin Cities. Oh well – I’m looking forward to meeting some Wisconsin bloggers, such as Vicki of Knitorious.

Anyway, since my brain’s a bit sloggy today, I will attempt to distract you with colorful architecture! In the purple series, here’s Dreamhaven Books and Comics, located a few blocks south of me on Lake Street:

Here’s the Rainbow Building, located on Lake Street a few blocks west, in Uptown – first from the front and then from the side.

Seems that Chaos is keeping the exercise bike warm until I feel healthier…

“Actually, I’m waiting for you and the camera to leave the room so I can get started with my workout.”

Alongs, Contests, Dyeing, Reading

Of yarn and keychains

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Heather of What’s Cluttering My Couch is having a contest. It’s different. And nice.

Celia of Unraveling is doing the Asthma Walk. If you contribute, you could win a pair of handknitted socks, tailored to your preferences!

Reading
Proven Guilty by Jim Butcher. The most recent Dresden Files novel. This series about Chicago PI and wizard Harry Dresden continues to be enjoyable, funny, and unpredictible. Definitely recommended.
Danse Macabre by Laurell K. Hamilton. The most recent Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, novel was ok. The bit about unpredictible being good re: the Dresden Files? The Anita Blake books are seeming awfully predictible these days. I ripped through the book, but I can’t say that I really enjoyed it.
The Ritual Bath by Faye Kellerman. Kristi recommended this book so highly a few weeks ago that I had to check it out. This is the first book in a series about LAPD Detective Peter Decker and Jewish widow Rina Lazarus and I already have the next book on my library list. For a more eloquent review, head on over and read Kristi’s.
China Trade by S.J. Rozan. MrsPao recommended this book to me and I’m very glad she did! Another enjoyable read that’s also the first book in a series about PI Lydia Chin, based out of NY’s Chinatown, and fellow PI Bill Smith.

I did a few things besides read this weekend. I knit – I’m now on the borders of my Moderne Log Cabin Baby Blanket! I did a tiny amount of catsitting. I touched up some dyed yarn. I rode my exercise bike and watched it rain outside. I walked around my neighborhood on Monday when the sun came out and took a few pictures. I played with the Chaos Kitty. I contemplated getting him a little sister… but maybe that should wait until after my epic vacation this fall. Anyway!

The sky was so dreary on Saturday and Sunday, I wasn’t tempted to get my camera out. But on Labor Day, I was. So here’s my Saturday Sunday Monday sky.

Last week I mentioned that I was saving the pictures of my dyed yarn and fun stuff from Deb until this week. Here’s the nifty keychain sock blocker and skein of Online Supersocke from Deb. Thanks, Deb! I hadn’t even seen the Supersocke before and that keychain is amazingly cute! Must knit minisock for minisock blocker…

“Hee hee – you think you’re going to knit a teeny little sock like that and keep it out of my clutches?! Don’t you remember the miniskein?”

I dyed more than one skein of yarn, but the self-striping hot pink and black not only defies photos, it’s also drying again – I had to redye the black because it was blotchy after the first time around. I think the skein below is my favorite so far of the skeins I’ve dyed, but I just couldn’t capture the colors. This is the best that I managed, but the colors are more intense in reality:

“You can drop that yarn, Mom. I promise nothing bad will happen to it…”

I also picked up some Silk Garden DK, inspired by Julia’s gorgeous socks.

“Um, excuse me? You put this on my why?! And you expect me to not rip it to bits?!! Hmph.”
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!”
Contests, Dyeing, Reading

Frantic Friday Finale

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Domesticat is having a contest to celebrate her second year of knitting and that she and Duck are moving. All you have to do is send email or leave a comment with your guess as to where she and Duck are moving before 8 pm EST, September 4.

Cookie (yes, that Cookie) of Knitters Anonymous is having a contest. Entries must be submitted by 11:59 pm PDT, September 10.

Final SRP Update
Although this is it for SRP, I will continue to log what I read, as I’m definitely enjoying that. I must admit that I didn’t read a single blog Thursday night – I went home and knitted on my Regia silk sock and read and read and read…

Charmed and Dangerous by Candace Havens, 261 pages. Fluffy light chick lit mixed with a spot of magic, as witch Bronwyn protects a prime minister and a shiek from magical attacks. I enjoyed it and will be reading the other books in the series.
Blue Screen by Robert B. Parker, 306 pages. The fifth Sunny Randall mystery intersects with another Parker series, which I haven’t read, about Jesse Stone. I don’t like Parker’s Spenser mysteries, but I definitely enjoy the sexy, hardboiled Sunny Randall stuff.
The Dreaming Place by Charles de Lint, 138 pages. One of de Lint’s early books about Newford, this teen novel (and this specific copy) is the first or second de Lint novel I ever read.

Last Saturday, Deb and Jeanne and I got together to dye some more yarn at Casa de Deb. Deb has some pictures up already – that first one so flatteringly features my baggy shorts and saddlebags, heh. (No pictures of the yarn I dyed or of the thoughtful goodies Deb gave us for braving the drive west – should we tell her we don’t mind the drive or not?! Anyway, pictures and details on all that stuff next week. I can feel the anticipation from here.)

As Deb notes, Jeanne is very serious when she dyes yarn.

Although Deb’s pretty darn serious, too…

And we all puzzled over what this dye was up to – can you see the strange aggregates forming on the yarn?! If one of you more experienced dyers could shed some light on that mystery, it would be much appreciated. I believe the color in question was Ripe Tomato (Country Classics).

What dyeing event is complete without noshing? (Hmm, I just noticed that the chips and wine were almost gone, but there were still plenty of vegetables left.)

And I stalked Deb’s cat Tig for a while, until he ran away at the sight of me with the camera. (But don’t you just love Tig’s curly whiskers?!)

“Mommy?! Help me!! Your friend is weird. She follwed me under the dining room table with that camera!”

Chaos didn’t appear thrilled about sharing blog space with another boy cat…

“Hmph. You’re going to push me too far, Mom. I’m warning you…….”

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