Knitting, Randonymity, Reading

Just another Random Wednesday

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SRP update: Dating Can Be Murder by Jennifer Apodaca, 275 pages. Obviously inspired by the success of Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum, but not as well-written or clever. I got the book for $0.69+tax at the thrift store and it was worth every penny. 🙂

Jeanne’s been knitting bibs, bibs, bibs, too! Her four cats were just as unimpressed by bib modeling as Chaos was, but Jeanne might have the only “color true” picture of a Countryside Ombre bib in existence. Sydney (July 5 entry) had the same problem I did getting a decent picture of that color.

Mouse sent me some wonderful stitchmarkers! Her fimo stitchmarkers are extremely cute and clever – you can see them at her new store, Mousie Masala. Check out the the little red mouse, mini-mini Chaos, and tiny red tuna!

The markers received the Furry Black Paw of Approval.

I finished another bib. (Um, is anyone at all surprised?! Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?) This one’s from Sugar’n’Cream color “Playtime,” although I think the color looks more like a tropical sunset.

Chaos quickly took action to prevent any bib modeling.

“Hee hee. I am so tricky!”
Those Cats

Chaotic exercise?!

38 Comments

Thank you all so much for your support! I conveyed your well wishes to my SIL last night and she thanks you all. Her doctor thinks that her leg is “just” deeply bruised and might take up to six weeks to get back to normal. Still, better than the alternatives! My SIL is already hoping we can go up to the cabin this coming weekend, although they won’t be stopping at that Dairy Queen again…

Last week, I moved my exercise bike away from the windows so the windows could be replaced. Chaos became very interested in the bike in its new location…

“Let me just check out the controls.”
“Very intuitive. But those pedals look awfully far away…”
“Hmm, I’m really not seeing how this pedal thing is going to work.”
“Maybe if I take a quick bath, I’ll figure something out.”
“Oh, to heck with it. I don’t want to overdevelop my thighs anyway.”
Knitting, Randonymity, Reading

We didn’t make it to the cabin…

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This was not the weekend my brother, SIL, and I had planned. On Friday night, my brother and SIL were driving up to the cabin. They stopped at a Dairy Queen for supper and were sitting on the tailgate of their pickup, eating their burgers and enjoying a lovely summer evening when a minivan backed up without looking and trapped my SIL’s leg against the truck tailgate. Initially, it seemed likely that she had a broken leg, but so far it’s “just” severely bruised. She’ll have more tests this week to see if there’s nerve, ligament, or tendon damage.

So I spent my weekend at my brother and SIL’s house, helping them out. I got a little knitting done – this bib was knit from the Fiesta Ombre Peaches’n’Cream that Frarochivia gifted me with. Isn’t it wild?! I love it. (And I decided to spare Chaos, so didn’t entrap him to model it.)

I also read Cherry Cheesecake Murder by Joanna Fluke, 342 pages. The latest in this somewhat silly series set in the fictional town of Lake Eden, Minnesota, again features cookie baker Hannah Swensen, her giant orange tomcat Moishe, more romantic entanglement for Hannah, and lots of recipes. I’m a sucker for those Minnesota mysteries. 🙂

Anyway, this is going to be a week or so of craziness, with unpredictable blogging, erratic bloglines reading (I’ll probably never catch up!), and lots of family time. Send healing thoughts my SIL’s way, if you have a few to spare! Thanks.

“I hope you get better soon, Jess! Even though I sometimes hiss and spit at you when you come to visit, I know you took good care of me when I was a tiny kitten.”
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.

Randonymity, Those Cats

Decoupage

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Stop by and wish a happy birthday to Mrs Pao!

Ok, a show of hands – who remembers using Mod Podge for an exciting decoupage project as a child? (Gold leaf optional.) Well, AlterKnits has a clever grown-up take on that childhood decoupage using your yarn labels. Anyone remember Boobzilla? (One of the pictures in that post is messed up – click on it to see the larger, not messed up picture.) Boobzilla was purchased for the AlterKnits decoupage project, but I decided that she was too curvy for the yarn labels I have and I picked up a book-shaped box instead.

So last Wednesday, Jeanne came over with plenty of newspaper, Mod Podge, a box, and her yarn labels. As usual, we were so not prepared for the amount of work involved.

Wine purists might want to brace themselves – we had to switch to plastic glasses for our pinot noir (upper right, above), due to the amount of gooey glue coating our hands.

Here’s Jeanne, very focused on decoupaging (with our original “wine glasses” – I go with funky pottery that can’t be easily tipped over by a cat):

After much whining and a bit of cussing and a great deal of fussing about why I hadn’t saved certain particularly lovely yarn labels, I ended up with this:

Verdict: More work than we expected, but we were pleased with the final products. Layering is critical. Must keep saving yarn labels…

So where was Chaos during all of this? Fortunately, he was prevented from jumping on the table into a plate of glue. Still, he felt thwarted, so he took it out on Jeanne’s felted bag. (Fun fact – I knitted and felted this bag for Jeanne long, long ago, from some of the first yarn I ever dyed.)

“Hee hee – you are covered with glue, so there is little you can do to prevent my mischief!”
*sniff sniff* “Hmm, this smells like the oh-so-cute Kreature!”
“Mmmmm…. Kreature….”
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!

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