kmkat and her kneedles

Outlaw chocolate! Crazy Aunt Purl!

Outlaw chocolate.

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Crazy Aunt Purl is coming to Barnes & Noble at the Mall of America on Thursday evening. I shall be there, knitting and library copy* of her book in hand. Yeah, I'm gonna have her sign the library's copy -- hey, it's not like I'm gonna deface the book, ya know? I'll be adding to its value.

So far I know that Dale-Harriet in WI and Cursing Mama will be there, too. I've never met either of them but I'm planning/hoping to. Anybody else planning to go? If so, look for me, overexposed and smirking, or underexposed and grainy:

Perhaps I'll wear that scarf, just to be recognizable...

* I'm a trustee of the regional library board, treasurer of the county Friends group, and an occasional librarian. In my own mind, at least, that gives me permission :-)

Delurk, darn it!

Discovered at blackbird's blog and shamelessly lifted from Schmutzie.

Comments, please! Let me know you are there!

Eye candy Friday III.*

For Deb. I am home alone**, reading blogs, and knitting on another Noro scarf. That's sourdough bread and blue cheese on the plate (already eaten by the time I type this), and Fisheye chardonnay*** (already drun--, er, consumed). Say it with me now: Mmmmmmm!

* I find a particular delight in confounding the rules and being an outlier. Everyone else posts a lovely Eye Candy Friday photo with some text to go with it. I post three ECFs in one day. Sorry, I can't help it; give me a precedent and I'll find a reason not to follow it. It's called creativity. Deal with it.

** Yeah. Who in their right mind has Happy Hour alone? But Smokey is working and Matthew is at a bonfire, and today is the deadline for Deb's contest. So whatareyagonnado? I sucked it up and dealt myself a Happy Hour.

*** A winery with one of the more annoying websites ever devised. How does one get beyond the third page, the one with four bottle of wine/text/2 more bottles/music? Maybe that is all there is? But why does my cursor turn into a little hand -- the universal sign of a link to be followed -- when it floats over the image? Huh? Why?

All the acronyms you'll ever need. And a contest.

From a weekly Circuits e-mail from David Pogue, technology columnist of the New York Times:

* GI -- Google it

* MOP -- Mac or PC?

* FCAO -- five conversations at once

* IIOYT -- is it on YouTube?

* DYFH -- did you Facebook him/her?

* BIOI -- buy it on iTunes

* CMOS -- call me on Skype

* GGNUDP -- gotta go, no unlimited data plan

* WLF -- with the lady friend

* JUOC -- jacked up on caffeine

* 12OF -- twelve-o'clock flasher (refers to someone less than competent with technology, to the extent that every appliance in the house flashes "12:00")

* SML -- send me the link

* RHB -- read his/her blog

* MBLO -- much better-looking online

* KYST -- knew you'd say that

* NBL -- no battery left

* CTTC -- can't talk, teacher's coming

* TWD -- typing while driving

* CMT (CMF, CMM, CMB) -- check my Twitter (Facebook, Myspace, blog)

* CYE (CYF, CYM, CYB)--check your email (Facebook, Myspace, blog)

And a few just for iPhone owners:

* SPLETS -- send pics later; Edge too slow

* CSVUI -- can't send video, using iPhone

* BPWMI -- boss playing with my iPhone

* SIK -- sorry, iPhone keyboard

* OOM -- out of messages (for iPhone users who haven't upgraded their AT&T "200 messages a month" plan)

Finally, it occurred to me: Why should the convenience of online shorthand be the province of teenagers and twentysomethings? There ought to be a list that we, their parents and employers, can use, too. And now there is:

* WIWYA -- when I was your age

* YKT – you kids today

* CRRE -- conversation required; remove earbuds

* WDO? -- what are you doing online?

* NIWYM -- no idea what you mean

* NCK -- not a chance, kid

* B2W -- back to work

* AYD? -- are you drunk?

* LODH -- log off, do homework

* DYMK? -- does your mother know?

* IGAT -- I've got abbreviations, too

© New York Times Company, 2007

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Becky is having a contest. Go tell her what she could make from her stash of Rowanspun 4-ply and have a chance to win 1600 yds of that yarn in the color Sludge.

Button, button.

I added some new buttons to my sidebar after listening to Brenda Dayne's latest Cast-On podcast.

             

If you have been listening to her latest series of podcasts, you know she has been talking about camping and Campfire Girls. We didn't have Campfire Girls or Girl Scouts or Brownies in the little town where I grew up. Every Tuesday, though, most of the boys in my class would come to school in their blue Cub Scout shirts in preparation for their weekly meeting after school. To make up for this astonishing, shameful, and disabling lack of badges in my youth, I have taken three of those provided by Brenda.

               

The first and last ones identify me as a Cast On camper. Just like an appropriate uniform would have back in the day.

The “Talking Knitting” Badge "Required for all Knitting Scouts. The recipient must conduct himself/herself in such a manner as to talk knitting whenever an opportunity presents itself. Not easily fazed by looks of disinterest from friends or the act of “zoning out” by well-intentioned loved ones."

My qualifications: I'm kinda lax on this one, actually. Must resolve to Talk Knitting more often.

The “MacGyver” Badge (Level Two) "The recipient must demonstrate clever use of a knitting tool in a non-knitting-related scenario. For instance, recipient has used a strand of Regia Bamboo to slice cheese, or repaired a small appliance with an old metal knitting needle."

My qualifications: I have used a 14" US#8 aluminum straight needle to prop up a sagging houseplant. More than once. And I have used yarn, stretched between two stakes, to mark straight lines in the dirt -- for planting rows of seeds, for laying out landscaping ideas, for marking the edges of possible flower beds. Never fear, though, it was always acrylic.

I wonder if there are Eagle Scout troops for knitters...

 

PostSecret and OMG! knitting.

Have you discovered this website? New secrets posted every Sunday.

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This is, of course, for the Red Scarf Project, Norma's favorite cause. If  you look carefully you can see that the non-red stripes are two colors, purple and navy. I'm hoping that this can qualify as a guy's scarf, since they are often short on those. The colors are a little deeper than they show on my monitor. Here is a more accurate picture of the reddish yarn, from the Smiley's site:

The reddish yarn is Puno (100% alpaca) from Filatura Lanarota, bought on sale last year from Smiley's Yarns. I thought it was lovely soft until I felt the purple and blue yarn that I bought this summer to go with it. They are KnitPick's Andean Silk, "55% Super Fine Alpaca, 23% Silk, 22% Merino Wool," in the colors called hyacinth and navy, and that yarn is unbelievably soft. I bought some in the sangria colorway, too, but it turned out to be too close to the color of the original alpaca to make an effective combination. The KP is very strong -- when I need to change colors I can break the Puno alpaca with my hands, but I need to get out the scissors for the KP blend. Must be the silk.

Anyway, between the lusciousness of the yarns and the knowledge that scarf will keep a college student warm next winter, I am enjoying this scarf project a lot. I think I will have enough yarn left for another red scarf.  They are due between September 1 and October 15, so I should have no trouble finishing (she said blithely).

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Thanks for all the birthday wishes on Friday. We ate humongous steaks Thursday night and today Smokey and I went out for a fabulous brunch here. I am now officially 29... times 2.

Stuff, random.

Y'know the sci-fi plot about the person who wakes up one day to discover that about a gazillion years have passed since s/he went to sleep? I had a moment like that on Friday when I opened Bloglines. I had something upwards of 500 unread posts. WTF? After I worked up the courage to start clicking on some of them I found that Bloglines had decided to  pick up random numbers of posts dating back to January. Whew. I'm still working my way through. Down to 95 81 83 at this moment.

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My favorite part of the parade yesterday was when an alert parent would spot me in my Shrek getup, nudge the 3-yo kidlet in front of her (it was almost always a mom doing the nudging; I guess the dads were more interested in the beer), and say, "Look, honey! It's Shrek!" And the kidlet would look and his or her little eyes would get big as saucers. Sweet.

Although I soon discovered that I should only go about one step toward the kidlet to wave. Any closer and said kidlet would be overcome with terror at the weird smiling lady in the box who was clearly intent on eating him/her.

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We had a bit of fun making the books, too.

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I took advantage of KnitPick's 40% off all books sale. Three books came to live at my house.

I don't knit lace. I have to intention to knit lace. Why I bought two books on lace knitting is beyond me. Clearly something is at work. Although I have to say that Victorian Lace Today is chock full of patterns, as many as one would normally find in two or three books.

"I don't understand why you did it, either."

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Back when I was a sophomore in college in the late 60s (yeah, I'm older than dirt) I discovered Leonard Cohen. Had one album of his and played it to death. Then I got into harder rock and sort of forgot about him. When Closing Time hit the charts circa 1992 I smiled in remembrance but that was all. Ditto Hallelujah.

And then I found this on Scalzi's blog*.

Next thing I knew I was in iTunes downloading The Essential Leonard Cohen, apparently the equivalent of a 2-CD set. I've been listening to it constantly ever since because:

1. I have always been a sucker for a gravelly bass voice. I also happen to love the singing of Leo "Goose Farts on a Foggy Day" Kottke.
2. Cohen's lyrics are so wonderfully poetic  and obscure...
3. ...that the occasional [satirically?] trite song totally cracks me up. Ain't No Cure for Love starts out with a sax riff that would have been happy in 1962, although the 1962 version probably would not have contained the line, "I need to see you naked / In your body and your thoughts."

This YouTube of LC singing Hallelujah is pretty good, too, if you ignore the fact that he looks like a half-dead cross between Jeff Goldblum and Dustin Hoffman. And how the chorus can't quite manage to keep hidden behind the set.

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Time to change the litter box.

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Also time to shut down the 'puter. It's all fire and brimstone outside, dark as 4 pm on a November afternoon, except for all the, like, green. Thunderstorms a'comin'...

TTFN!

* Erika led me there a while back.