kmkat and her kneedles

The FOs, they just keep coming.

1. Avoid :: maneuver
2. Castle :: crenelated
3. Episode :: The Office
4. Limited :: edition
5. Nail polish :: remover
6. Dip :: onion
7. Share :: blog
8. Damage :: estimate
9. Improper :: procedure
10. Handle :: suitcase

* * * * *

Does anyone remember the faggot-y (that's a stitch, not a value judgment) scarf-y, stole-y thing I started last summer?

I didn't think so.

I barely remember it myself. During the intervening months I have knat upon it for the odd few rows, but mostly it languished. I sat down on Monday evening, however -- when I should have been at a meeting but couldn't get there because Smokey had my car and had forgotten to leave me a key for his -- and finished it.

Can I get a woo? and a hoo? And maybe a w00t for good measure?

Thank you.

Here it is looking all faggot-y and ass-y in its unblocked state.

I think I should block it.

* * * * *

Question: has anyone knit a pair of socks from Cherry Tree Hill DK superwash merino (with high twist)? Cathy-Cate gave me a skein of it in the Moody Blues colorway, it is gorgeous, and I want to make socks. But I know I will never "hand wash in cold water for best results " nor "dry them flat", as the label says. Somebody please tell me the CTH folks are kidding about that, that I can machine wash them inside out in warm/cold water and throw them in a lukewarm dryer with the rest of the laundry without felting them. Please? If not, I am thinking hat or scarf.

Mutterings and taxes.

(But not muttering about taxes.)

So. When a tax accountant has the weekend off before April 15, what does she do?

Why, she does her own taxes, of course!

* * * * * *

1. Animal :: vegetable, mineral.
2. Temporary :: loan.
3. Moan :: groan.
4. Rapid :: white water.
5. That’s for me to say :: dude.
6. City :: lights.
7. Bumper :: rubber baby buggy.
8. Eclipse :: moon.
9. Problematic :: huh?
10. If? :: When?

Counting ducks.

Sunday mutterings:

1. Road trip :: fun!
2. Pool hall :: smoky
3. Extraordinary :: item (It's a technical term in financial reporting.)
4. Jackson :: Michael
5. Heartfelt :: emotions
6. Wet :: cat
7. Strangle :: hold
8. .com :: bust
9. Touched :: by an angel
10. Insipid :: normal people

* * * * *

I bought a clever row counter on Etsy last week.

It also has a set of ten more counter beads for 10, 20, etc., for those impossibly long pattern repeats. M&Ms are fine, but I seldom have them handy. I do have several of those ordinary plastic row counters with the spinny dials, but my problem is remembering to move the dial before every row. This counter will hang right there on my needle in the midst of the knitting so I cannot forget. Yeah, I know there are ordinary plastic row counters with the spinny dials that will hang on your needle; I bought one and the first thing I did was break the plastic hanging loop. Such is the nature of plastic -- it breaks. This new one is sterling silver =  pretty much unbreakable. Not to mention clever and pretty and handmade and not plastic.

The seller's Etsy name is jeanettejed if you are interested.

* * * * *

This is how our lake looked three weeks ago.

 

The patterns on the snow were interesting as it slowly sublimated.

 

A week later, the melting continued. Appearances to the contrary, there was still no open water. What you see is melting snow on top of the ice. I have no idea why some of the rotten ice looks like it was peed upon by a giant dog.

 

Here we see the origin of the term "goose-step".

Well, there WAS open water, but it was the opening where the aeration system keeps it open all winter; that open water was not visible in any of the above photos because it was off to the left behind the trees.

We now have visible open water.

 

Whereas until a few minutes ago there had been only Canada geese hanging around the open water, now we have ducks. Mallards, to be specific.

 

I do believe spring may really come some day.

Random on Sunday.

New favorite: Fleet Foxes (the song, not the video).

#1 son turned me on to this group when he was home for Christmas; he copied over a bunch of music from his iTunes to mine. He has plenty to share:

* * * * *

Of Bacon and Buccaneers: A Sandwich Tutorial (by Melanie).

Hilarious. Hint: it involves Johnny Depp/Captain Jack Sparrow. While you are over there you might want to check out the rest of the newly-opened Women's Colony.

* * * * *

Some recent chuckles. I sent this to the rest of the family:

#1 son sent me this in return:

 

And more with the lolcats:

One last chuckle. Remember Thursday, the day The Storm Of The Century occurred? In the afternoon I emailed #2 son that I wouldn't be coming to Minneapolis; we had planned to go out for dinner that night. Our subsequent email exchange:

#2: Tell me about it, I was biking out at the Guthrie around noon when mother nature decided to take a big white poop on me.

me: LOL! Poor baby, I shouldn't laugh, but "...mother nature decided to take a big white poop on me" cracked me up.

#2: Hehe, it's alright, I'm here to entertain.

* * * * *

Mutterings on a Sunday:

1. Pain :: in the butt.
2. Lego :: bricks.
3. Trooper :: Starship.
4. Flicker :: bird.
5. Character :: Disney.
6. Determined :: anxious.
7. Wing :: Bird.
8. Control :: Automatic.
9. Automatic :: transmission.
10. Yeah :: Oh, yeah.

Fetchings. Kittehs. Ice. Mutterings.

As soon as I finished the bright red Fetchings featured in yesterday's post, I cast on some for myself. The first one took about 20 seconds. Well, actually, it took one evening. The second took the rest of the week. Since these were knit from Plymouth Boku, a long-color-change yarn, I decided I wanted the stripes of the second one to match the first.

After starting and frogging twice, I gave up on that idea. Apparently the stripe sequence is not consistent. Or is so long that it doesn't necessarily repeat within a skein. My efforts were complicated by the fact that I cannot count rounds nor remember exactly how I screwed up the pattern what I did on the first mitt.

Anyway, here they are in all their non-matchy-matchiness.

The yarn is rather scratchy, but that does not matter because I plan to wear these over my leather gloves for extra warmth when the temperatures once again dip into Cold-Depths-Of-Hell-range. With luck that may not happen again this winter, but I am oh-so-ready for it next year. My gloves are dark brown and my coat is brick red; I think these will look quite *fetching* with them. Yeah, I crack myself up.

Yarn: Plymouth Boku, 38g (~80 yds)
Needles: Knit Picks Options US#5 circ, Magic Loop.
Pattern: Fetching from Knitty.com.
Mods: I cast on 35 st instead of 45 and used a slightly smaller needle.

* * * * *

The kittehs have been staying close to my office window.

 

The birds have re-discovered the feeder that hangs on the deck railing in front of the window, and the felines have re-discovered the birds. Kittehs are looking mighty lazy here, but they are very, very alert when there are birds on the feeder. Hannibal can only stand it for a certain length of time; then he has to attack, forgetting every damned time that he cannot pounce through the window. Although he tries. And every time he tries, a pile of carefully sorted papers flies off the desk -- arrrggghhhh!

* * * * *

We had unseasonably warm weather earlier last week. Lots of melting occurred.

That's the platform in front of the garage. The first day after the melt, I attempted to walk from the front door (off to the left, out of the photo) to my yellow car. I made it around the blue car at the left of the photo. Then I had to cross four feet of slightly sloping driveway with nothing to hold on to.

I could not do it.

Every time I took a step, I would slide downhill. I tried several times, same result. Even when I stood perfectly still I slid downhill. So I gave up and walked -- very, very carefully -- back into the house. If I couldn't walk to the car, there was no way I could drive up the hill.

Such is life in the wild...

* * * * *

1. Be mine :: Valentine
2. Ecstatic :: happy
3. Orderly :: hospital
4. Sebastian :: teddy bear
5. Sore :: back
6. Don’t need :: no stinkin' badges
7. Rockstar :: Cathy-Cate
8. Tinfoil :: hat
9. Addiction :: coffee
10. Where? :: is my head?

Mutterings. Sockz, hatz, and katz.

1. Take :: five
2. 350 :: 250
3. Stand :: take one
4. Raspberry :: pink
5. Turnstile :: subway
6. Infomercial :: TV
7. Dejected :: sad
8. What’s the word? :: senile
9. Awestruck :: Statue of Liberty
10. Smashed :: drunken

* * * * *

I bought a book.

The patterns look like something that could lure me away from my plain vanilla, I-can-knit-them-without-a-pattern, usual socks. Although I generally do not mind flashing and pooling in my socks, the designs in this book offer some nice alternatives. An item of note:

 

On the left, a photo from the book; on the right, my own feet in the same yarn, Colinette Jitterbug, #55 Toscana (the true color is somewhere in between the two photos). In case anyone is wondering, I am congratulating myself on my good taste in yarn. Those socks are long finished and have been worn numerous times; their completion has tragically gone unreported in these pages.

The other surprise to me was to connect the author of the book with Black Bunny Fibers and the Go Knit in Your Hat blog. Yes, I am a tad out of the loop...

* * * * *

I have knit seven preemie hats so far for Jeanne, and in the process will use up my stash of Knit Picks Shine Worsted*. That yarn seems to me to be perfect for this project -- super soft and knits up quickly. Last night I timed the pink hat (third from the back), and it took just under four hours from cast on to weaving in the ends. Number eight is OTN, and there might be just enough for number nine.

Speaking of ends, here is how much was left of the terra cotta color when I finished that hat in the middle of the row.

Hannibal was relieved.

Whew, I worry about these things. Not.

* Why are the clearance colors the same price as the rest?

Random.

1. Unwanted :: kitten.
2. You’d better :: shop around. (Channeling Smokey Robinson here.)
3. Woman :: man.
4. Weighed :: pound.
5. Upright :: uptight.
6. I feel :: good. (Now I'm channeling James Brown.)
7. Ill :: ness
8. It’s like :: honey to the bee. (...Marvin Gaye.)
9. Poor man :: rich man.
10. Great :: Gatsby.

* * * * *
I finished Maggie's pink Lamb's Pride fingerless mitts but forgot to take a picture. Picture a pair of Fetchings knit from fuzzy Lamb's Pride worsted the color of raspberry sherbet. That's what the photo would be. She seems very pleased with them.

* * * * *

When your cats decide that this bit of exposed Styrofoam insulation makes a dandy scratching post:

 

it leads to kitties who looks like this:

 

"Oh, this white stuff? Shut up."

Mutterings; cold; Jeopardy!

1. Arrival :: Flight
2. Vomit :: Drunk
3. Fit :: Wii
4. Stutter :: Engine
5. Lifestream :: Field and Stream
6. Tread :: Lightly
7. Desire :: Elms
8. Freezing :: Ice
9. Permit :: Fishing
10. Crinkle :: Foil

* * * * *

Warmer today, temp > zero, although not by much (+8℉). Snowing, of course. That's what always happens when it warms up. Perhaps I prefer the cold; we don't have to shovel cold. Oh, wait, we don't shovel -- that's what Da Yeep and snowblowers are for!

* * * * *

I got this a few days ago. I cannot take the January test because I am in their files until September as a potential contestant, but maybe some of you are interested. Imagine the headlines: Knitter Conquers Jeopardy!

Mutterings. New yarn.

1. Resolution :: break.
2. Break :: resolution. (Sensing a theme here?)
3. Tied :: up.
4. Suffering :: headache.
5. Instead :: of.
6. Slash :: dotcom.
7. Divorce :: ugly.
8. Cough :: cold.
9. Happy :: Dopey.
10. Sniffle :: sneeze.

* * * * *

 

 

 

15 skeins. I will not cast on. I will not print out the pattern. I will not even swatch. I will do none of these things until I have finished Maggie's second fingerless glove and knit the preemie hats for Jeanne.

15 skeins. I will not cast on. I will not print out the pattern. I will not even swatch. I will do none of these things until I have finished Maggie's second fingerless glove and knit the preemie hats for Jeanne.

15 skeins. I will not cast on. I will not print out the pattern. I will not even swatch. I will do none of these things until I have finished Maggie's second fingerless glove and knit the preemie hats for Jeanne.

And that's what I have to say about that.

Easygoing. Cthulu. Mutterings. Fred.

Your Travel Personality Is: Easygoing

When you travel, you're looking for a lot of downtime. Vacations are your chance to recoup. All you need is a scenic spot and plenty of time on your hands. You'll figure out the rest. You're not one to make lots of plans when you travel. You just follow whatever path seems right.

What's Your Travel Personality?

Which creature of the night are you? Your Result: Cthulu Spawn   You are really an alien thing, aren't you? I can't describe you because you are beyond. We say "left field" and you say "Krn Grth Thchrang." You are the wild card of the bunch, the unknown quantity
Werewolf
Sorceror
Demon
Vampire
Incubus/Succubus
Ghost
Which creature of the night are you? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

Now that is one interesting combination. Easygoing and Cthulu Spawn. Huh.

* * * * *

Sunday = weekly mutterings:

1. Travel :: expense
2. Expensive :: good
3. Backspace :: key
4. Traffic noise :: New York
5. Now see here :: mister
6. Vegetables :: green
7. Chat :: IM
8. Your calling :: me?
9. Weekly :: Reader, My
10. Oh! :: My! God!

* * * * *

This portion of the original post has been removed by request of Fred. 

Mutterings and Netgranny.com.

First of all, this week's unconscious mutterings:

1. Love affair :: to remember
2. Bubble :: gum pink
3. Pimple :: ouch
4. Knocks :: wood
5. Persistent :: achiever
6. Infected :: pimple
7. Yay! :: hurrah!
8. Repaint :: barn
9. Daily :: vitamin
10. Quickly! :: now!

* * * * *

Netgranny.com, the brainchild of a Swiss fashion house, is just the thing if you want hand-knitted socks but can't or don't want to knit them yourselves.

At the site you click on the granny of your choice and choose your socks; she will knit them for you for €28.50, about $35 at today's exchange rate.

The website is pretty lame -- parts of it are only in German, and the English is... interesting. ("Click on the socks and order, pay with kredit card.") I couldn't find any socks to click on, so who knows what they look like. Given the lameness of the site, I sort of doubt if the grannies are still in business. Novel concept, though...

Happy Friday. More junk.

1. Sleepy :: time tea
2. Thanksgiving :: Day
3. Fifteen :: years old
4. Authority :: sucks
5. Bangs :: guns
6. Curled :: bangs
7. Young man :: old man
8. Surprised :: delighted
9. Mistake :: oops
10. Handle it :: please

* * * * *
The new improved Typepad now makes it more difficult for me to respond to my commenters. If you have a TypePad blog, please click on the "signout" option above the comment box when you comment.* Otherwise, your comment lands in my email with a sender of "noreply@sixapart.com." And I cannot reply.

Sux.

And now I find that I cannot change the font or font size of this post by using the handy font and font size buttons. It is too piddly to do it with html so you will get this post in this teeny size.

Sux x2.

* This was Cookie's solution. However, her TypePad blog is a step above mine, which is the $4.95/month El Cheapo version. I don't see the signout option on my blog. Arghhhh.

Ten random things.

Got nuthin; must do meme.

Ten Random Things (stolen from Knitiot Savant)

1. Magazines subscribed to:  Um. U.S. News & World Report. I have subscribed to lots of magazines -- New Yorker, Atlantic Monthly, Harper's Bazaar, Time, PC World, Fortune, Herb Companion, Fine Gardening, Green Thumb, Green Prints (The Weeder's Digest), Nation (not all at the same time) -- but I found that it had become a burden to read them. So I let them lapse.

2.  Aside from knitting, my favorite pastimes are - Reading, preferably with a cat on my lap/chest, playing around on the internet, hanging out with my family.

3.  If I were not an accountant (insert your own profession) I would be: Once upon a time my choice would have been dancer. Now, it would be forensic something-or-other or computer guru.

4.  I am irrationally worried about - I don't worry much. My only irrational fear is that the semi in front of me on the freeway won't quite fit under the underpass coming up, and its load will end up on top of my car. This seems especially likely to happen when the semi is a flatbed with a great whack of stuff strapped to it, like Christmas trees or huge bales of hay. How do I know the guy that loaded it actually measured to be sure it would fit under that bridge up ahead?

5.  If I were the opposite sex - I would make a terrible man. Too cowardly. Although I suppose if I were a man the testosterone would take care of that.

6.  The thing I miss most about childhood is - always being The Special One.

7.  I like to collect - I don't like to collect things, although I do seem to have acquired a collection of coffee mugs from places I have visited.

8.  Though I've never been there, I feel inexplicably homesick for - Tahiti.

9.  I've never really liked to eat - peas or beans. Especially lima beans. Or baked beans.

10.  When I have nightmares, they're usually about - being in some public situation and not knowing what to do.

* * * * *

Here's a random photo, taken at the hotel at Wisconsin Dells. I must have at least one picture in every post.



* * * * *

More nuthin'; random mutterings.

1. Spit it out :: I don't have all day.
2. Shadow :: dancer
3. Database :: computer
4. Expression :: of distaste
5. Boss :: jerk
6. Baby :: kangaroo
7. Mystic :: River
8. Kate :: McGrew*
9. Boobies :: birds
10. Raid :: bugs

* After a little IMDb research I discovered that I was really thinking of Kate Mulgrew, the actress that played the captain on Star Trek: Voyager. These random muttering things are challenging.

Yarn fast? What yarn fast?

Early in January of this year I decided that 2008 would be a year of Not Buying Yarn. My stash had achieved a magnitude that was troubling to me. Although I cannot say that I have purchased zero yarn since January, I have bought very little, and everything I have purchased has been project-specific, like the superwash merino for the Red Scarf Project scarf and for Connor Caps. None of the "Oh, this is pretty/on sale/! I want some!" kind of buying.

But I know that confession is good for the soul. So here it is.

On Friday morning I had to go to an appeals hearing for which one of the committees on which I sit will be the jury. This was Smokey's weekend to work so I was on my own for transportation. In the absence of a beam-me-up-Scotty machine, I am sadly confined to an automobile and walker with which to venture into the world. The ankle is still supposed to be non-weight-bearing, but I figured out last week that I can cheat a little when I use the walker. This has emboldened me tremendously.

After the hearing I set out on my adventures. First to the supermarket. Oooo, how exciting! The supermarket!

My excuse was that I was out of coffee, never mind that small bag of beans in the freezer and the canister of decaf. First, I drove past the front of the market, peering through the glass doors to see whether they had an electric cart. Check!

Fifty bucks later -- yeah, I bought a few other things, too -- I was on my way again. Across the river into Minnesota, then I tried a back road I had never followed for more than a mile. Ended up in Center City.

Hmmm, thinks I, might as well keep going to Chisago City and see exactly where my physical therapy appointment will be on Tuesday. That appointment is at 8:30 am, at which time I am usually still asleep. If I find the exact place I need to be, I can sleep an extra three minutes on Tuesday! Check!

Then I turned homeward, and as I drove through Lindstrom -- remember Lindstrom? -- I recalled this place.

(I thought I had a photo of the front of the store somewhere on my hard drive, but I couldn't find it. Use your imagination. Thank you.)

It's a cute yarn and craft shop with a big table in the center of the yarn section. There have been knitters, crocheters, and/or rug hookers around it every time I go in.

Weird thing, though, apparently their sock yarn is capable of jumping right off the shelf and onto my credit card.

This is 4 oz/450 yards of Chugiak superwash merino from Pagewood Farms. Mmmmm. It seems to be a bit overspun...

...but I don't care. It is soft and yummy and has gorgeous colors and will go splendidly with that green sweater I am going to knit for myself someday.

* * * * *

The Yarn Harlot linked to me on Wednesday! I just checked my stats, and my blog had a total of over a thousand page views Wednesday and Thursday! That is about 800 more than a more normal two-day period. w00t!

This seems like an appropriate time to see how much the blog is worth ;-)

My blog is worth $9,597.18.
How much is your blog worth?

Heh. The last time I did that it was worth about $3.97. It's all about timing.

* * * * *

Time for unconscious mutterings.

1. Please stop :: that.
2. Move over :: and share the covers.
3. Sweet as :: honey.
4. Bet :: your ass.
5. Mad about :: Helen.
6. It’s over :: the mountain.
7. Intend to :: do well.
8. Blame :: myself.
9. Jefferson :: nickel
10. Heartless :: bitch

You may now resume your normal Sunday doings. Have a great rest of the weekend!