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!

Project Spectrum, Those Cats

Mini-Chaos

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I tie-dyed another onesie, this time in Project Spectrum purple. This was immersion dyed using Rit Purple and three rubber bands. My dye pot is black enamel, which makes it hard to tell when the dye is completely dissolved – hence the darker flecks.


front

back

RheLynn of KnitOwl sent me a wonderful package last week. She included a very cute button – hmm, wonder why she thought of me??

She also made a wonderfully cute and clever softie – go check out her Etsy store for more of her softies and art!. Allow me to present Chaos and his “mini-me“:


“What the…???!”

*sniff* “He sure is cute. His eyes are greener than mine. I hope Mom will still love me just as much.”

Not to worry, Chaos! Mini-Chaos is fabulously cute (he even has an embroidered black nose for authenticity), but he doesn’t purr or play fetch! Of course, he also doesn’t meow incessantly trying to will me to feed him 45 minutes early, either… Hmm.

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!
Knitting, Project Spectrum, Those Cats

Chaoudini

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I should warn you in advance that this bib thing? Way addictive. You know how so many people are knitting those clever MDK washcloths/dishrags and they just keep knitting more and more? The bibs are like that, too. I’m sure Jeanne will post her tale of many bibs any day now. And Sydney has already succumbed – one of her ferrets is modeling!

So, I present to you…. Bib #3!! Knit from less than one ball of Sugar’n’Cream, color Summer Splash, this probably will be the last Project Spectrum item I complete for June.

Once again, my model was too slow in his escape.

“Hmph.”

But wait, what have we here?!

*muffled* (probably best, don’t you think??)

“I’ve got my eye on you, Mom. I’m wise to your tricks now!”
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.”

Dyeing, Those Cats

Chaos’ dyeing exploration

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Jeanne has already covered our dyeing adventures of last Saturday evening on her blog. I’ll just add that we probably need to work on diluting our dye stock quite a bit more – and not with wine! But dang, that pinot noir sure went down smooth…

The skein on the left is 345 yards of GEMS Merino fingering weight from several years ago. It started out cream-colored and was dyed with a mixture of violet/black and red/black. The two skeins on the right are each 225 yards of GEMS Merino sportweight (also from several years ago). They started out taupe and were dyed with a mixture of violet/black and green/black.

“What have we here, sitting in the middle of my domain?”

“Oh, let me get up here so I can really check it out.”

“Maybe this isn’t such a good idea – that thing is awfully wobbly!”

“What are you talking about? I wasn’t interested in getting up there!”

“See how utterly disinterested I am?”

Anyway, I think that the skeins look a lot better twisted up.

Tales of the Neighborhood

Sculpture garden

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Twilight in the sculpture garden
We’ll walk around the place
Look upon the beautiful secrets
That all the artists made
– Semisonic

On Sunday, I also wandered through the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, just across the street from Loring Park. Probably the best known sculpture is Spoonbridge and Cherry, which is also a fountain (the water comes out of the end of the stem when the fountain is on).

Minneapolis is sometimes called the “Mini-Apple.” (Please note that the buildings of downtown are not slowly toppling over to the left. Whoops.)

I’m particularly fond of Woodrow.

And of Standing Glass Fish, which is located in a small conservatory on the west edge of the Sculpture Garden.

I thought that Paul Walters Piece looked like a very large ball of yarn.

Which reminded me to get out my Trekking sock and take another picture of it.

And then I headed home…

“I don’t think I like what you’re implying here.”

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?!!”

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