kmkat and her kneedles

Squared out.

I thought the deadline for the Newtown squares was March 1 so I finished up with them this week. Turns out the deadline is March 31, but I'm squared out after a dozen.

 

As you might be able to guess, the last three squares above are rather less pride-inducing than the rest. From the first of the close-ups:

• Diamond Brocade stitch from Barbara Walker vol.1  (or maybe vol. 2, I'm too lazy to go look it up). 
• Mitered squares with a centered double decrease (sl2tog knitwise, k1, pass slipped stitches over).
• Basketweave stitch.
• Stitch pattern from Yarn Harlot's One-Row Scarf. Problem was NOT the stitch pattern; problem was that I didn't cast on enough stitches and the square is barely big enough.
• Garter stitch, complete with errors (I seem to be incapable of working garter stitch without screwing up; although I used to be able to drop back and fix a goof, when I tried that on this square it looked terrible -- worse than the error), and a mitered square worked in seed stitch. It looks terrible -- apparently seed stitch and miters do not play well together.

All worked on a US#6 using Valley Yarns superwash DK (100% superwash merino; soft and totally machine washable and dryable). ±40, depending on stitch used.

Midwinter linksies.

photo credit: Chris P Dunn via photopin cc

Besides Posh Spice, he's also got OCD and Tourette's.

Bears as you have never seen them. And probably never want to again..

Anybody looking for an awesome mural to put on the black wall behind their tub? (via The Bloggess)

Stowaway.

Best knitting graph paper EVAH! (and it's free)

Crafty tats (even though #3 is labeled wrong...)(and all many some of us have seen #6 before)

This is fun. for some reason it seemed to work better on my iPad than on my desktop.

Awesome tat.

Want to drive a tank? Come to Minnesota.

Want to attack a castle? You'll need this.

This is why we can't have nice things.

First, a January thaw that apparently caused this poor, deluded daffodil to sprout.

Then, several blizzards to cover it with a protective layer of insulating snow.

Now, a morning temperature of 3°F and a wind chill of -17°F (I know that wind chill doesn't really apply in the case of a plant, but I want you to know just how cold I was when I took this photo).

And,  yeah, I see that the hose has leaked some water and that has encouraged the melting around the daffodil.

This is why we can't have nice things.

Ice.

We had a bit of a melt last week.

My office window.

Laundry room window.

Links from the salt mines.

photo credit: Almond Butterscotch via photopin cc

Knitting rocker.

Yessir, me and Lady Gaga. We're just like this. ::crosses fingers::

World Toilet Day?

Back to the salt mines. And a concert.

As of this week I find myself back at work at the accounting factory. I was supposed to start Monday, but we got hit with a blizzard on Sunday with winter storm warnings and travel advisories all the way until Monday evening.

So I stayed at home in my cozy bed and read mysteries and snuggled the cat and surfed the net on my iPad and played computer games with Smokey and occasionally got up for something yummy to eat. And to watch Downton Abbey on Sunday and Hawaii 5-0 on Monday.

No more of that for me. Now it is Spreadsheets! and Tax returns! and Get them out the door! until April 15.

::sigh::

Many years ago I opined that a good job was one that, once you got there in the morning, it wasn't so bad. That is definitely still true. I really wanted to stay at home this year and read mysteries, etc., etc., etc., but it was not to be. And now that I am at work it is not so bad. Almost fun, even. Almost...

[/whine]

* * * * *

Last Friday night Smokey, Matthew, and I saw C.J. Chenier and the Red Hot Louisiana Band at the Ordway Center in St. Paul. C.J. is the son of Clifton Chenier, the king of zydeco.

Smokey loves zydeco.

Good blogger that I am, I carefully tucked my camera in my tote bag. Bad blogger that I am, I left my tote bag in the car so had to make do with the camera in my iPod.

The Ordway is a lovely venue.

  My attempt at a panoramic view of the auditorium. 

Here are part of the street and mezzanine levels of the lobby.

They had set up a dance floor over the orchestra pit. First one brave couple, then a few more, then it filled up with people be-bopping their little hearts out.

   

I took a movie. Audio came out better than the video, go figger. The original was inverted because I was holding the iPod upside down, but when I uploaded it to YouTube, that fixed it. Enjoy!

During intermission Matthew let me try on his glasses. I may be getting new ones and I wanted his opinion on horn rims.

My nose is NOT really that big (quite) -- it was how I was holding the camera/iPod. There may be a pair of hornrims in my future...

Monopoly photo credit: Alan Cleaver via photopin cc

Happy Valentine's Day!

photo credit: erika.tricroche via photopin cc

Here are some hearts for y'all!

Linksie, linksie, who's got the linksie?

Got 30 minutes? Listen to a couple short stories by Ray Bradbury and James Thurber, narrated by Stephen Colbert and Leonard Nimoy, respectively, here.

I'd bet you have all seen this. Backstory. Made of awesome.

Want.

A tale of two raglans.

Where are those tweets coming from?

Um, pants?

Granola -- maybe not.

Upside Downton Abbey

True facts about the katydid (NSFW).

Thanks to soxanne and Girl-Child for this one.

"YES I AM WEARING A PANTSUIT BECAUSE IT COVERS MY BODY CAN WE PLEASE JUST DO SOME POLITICS NOW".

Slurp (wait for it).

Miss Angel, a truly heart-warming story (no sarcasm there).

The House band (pun intended).

I find myself singing a couple of lines from this song from time to time over the past several years but could never remember any more than I got a song it ain't got no melody // Let the bad guy win everyonce in a while. Finally googled it and got the whole song.

The original performer:

Just for the record: I quite like the Afros.

And the links go on?

Note: I found this in my drafts folder with a scheduled posting date of February 9. Clearly, I wrote it before Christmas but did I ever actually post it? Can't find it on the blog, but I'm SURE I remember someone commenting on the time zone thing. 

Whatevs. Here it is, enjoy!

The autism advantage. I have seen something like this firsthand. A young woman with Asperger's Syndrome, an autism spectrum disorder, started volunteering at our county library several years ago. Initially she never spoke unless spoken to and never ever met anyone's eyes. The director has worked with her to improve her social skills and she has come a long way. But my point is that the young woman is a master at many of the skills needed in a library -- organization, attention to detail -- and is delighted to be working there. It has been a tremendous win-win for her.

Force your children to listen to this weekly.

We just sent this to our kids. (Thanks to martinimade.com for those last two.)

Random House + Penguin = anarchy. (link via TheBloggess.)

Sometimes you just have to play the music.

Something else from TheBloggess.

Movember winner.

Life of Pi re-enacted.

OCD in the wild.

Time zones where you never thought you would see them.

A little something for Crazy Aunt Julia for Christmas, guaranteed to keep the CIA out of her head.

Knitted floor pillows and baskets. (Yes, you could make them for far less and save on the shipping from Denmark!)

Lastly, a bit of humor from @neilgaiman, @amandapalmer, and friend.

Lots of linkies this week. I'm making up for last week.

 

Life is random, why not me?

1. Baked :: Alaska.
2. Excited :: to go.
3. Print :: out of,
4. Obstruct :: -ionist.
5. Bladder :: full.
6. Matrimony :: wedding.
7. Car :: many.
8. Reconstruct :: Civil War.
9. Lenses :: contact.
10. Best for last :: save it.

* * * * *

I got to thinking about John Sandford and his Virgil Flowers novels because I noticed a new one had come out, Mad River. Love John Sandford, love Virgil Flowers. Maybe not quite as much as I love Lucas Davenport of the Prey series, but close. Couldn't remember which of the books I had already read so I requested all of them (five plus the newest one) from the library. Have been reading them one after the other, kinda like 350-page potato chips. Just started #4 AND got the email that the newest one is waiting for me at my local library.

Heaven.

Edited to add: the reason I like Sandford's novels and characters so much is that they are the most intelligent but down-to-earth ones I have read, amen.

* * * * *

Speaking of books.

I sit on the board of trustees of the regional library system, which is currently embarking on its [latest] long-range planning process. Members of the board were tasked with visiting all the libraries in their respective counties and chatting with the directors about the services they get from the regional system. On Friday the other board member from our county and I visited four municipal libraries and had four wildly varying discussions. Wildly varying in a good way, mind you -- their experience in the library system ranged from 1 to 29 years and their education/library size/community demographic varied almost as much.

It was an interesting and informative and fun way to spend a day. Which is good because next Wednesday we are going to do it again with four different libraries.

* * * * *

I liked the yarn I knitted the fingerless gloves out of so much (it's been sitting in my stash since 2007, why haven't I used it before?) that I decided to make myself a hat from it, the Twisted Toque from 60 Quick Knits. 

Fail.

Sorry, I should have taken a photo to show how terrible it looked. If you scan the projects in Ravelry you may notice that on some, the non-stockinette portion of the hat sort of... sticks out. Mine looked like the one in the link but much, much worse.

Ribbit.

In hindsight, I think the problem was that the pattern was written for Cascade 220, which is a light worsted, and I knitted it from a plump worsted. Perhaps if I had gone up a needle size all would have been well. 

But we shall never know because I am NOT knitting that pattern again.

So there.

Not that I am bitter or anything...

 * * * * *

(something I commented on another blog that seemed so revolutionary and astoundingly awesome that I had to include it here)

The possible long-term effects of global warming have been endlessly reported upon, but the day-to-day effects have been downplayed. I have concluded what the latter means for us in the northern latitudes is that our weather will change more quickly than we are used to. The past few weeks, with fronts blowing through seemingly every other day, are what have convinced me of this. Makes sense meteorologically, too -- globala warming is basically just more energy in the atmosphere = more volatile weather.

Kinda fun, actually. Every morning is a new surprise. Can I go into town minus hat/scarf/boots or will I need long underwear and three pairs of socks? 

* * * * *

Have any of you been watching House of Cards on Netflix? I started last night, got annoyed in the first 30 seconds*, so annoyed in the next three minutes* that I stopped watching. I eventually went back and am now ready to start episode 2.

But it is not nearly as good as the British original with Ian Richardson, imnsho. I blogged about that once twice before. When Kevin Spacey delivered that line -- You might very well think that. I could not possibly comment -- I actually groaned. He is a great actor, don't get me wrong, but this whole thing seems kinda flat compared to the original.

I will continue to suffer through it, though ;-)

* They broke a primary law of good writing/movie-making: show me, don't tell me. When FU kills the dog, that is showing; when he expounds to the camera to give every bit of background information we may need, that's telling.

 

Linkie, linkie, here come the linkies.

Bates would approve.

Makes me wish I had a panda hat and worked in a library.

Helen is gonna give away surprise presents to five people who comment.

Heating mercury thiocyanate looks like you've opened a portal to hell. (via Jeri Ryan on Twitter)

Inuit sunglasses. (The phrase caribou antlers makes me smile every time I say it. Throw in Inuit and I'm gone.)

Coolest window washers in the universe. (via The Bloggess)

Break in case of fabulous.

Video to cure the winter blahs. (via Etherknitter; definitely NSFW)

The most dangerous game. With tweets.

What the heck is going on in the Benelux countries and northern Italy?