Friday, March 30, 2007
Until then, click here to read about the Knitterly Letter Swap and join!
Edit: Sign-ups for the KLS has now closed. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR PARTICIPATING. The response has been really amazing. Look for an email from me this weekend, and in the meantime get your writing muscles warmed up!
And here is some Eye "Candy" Friday for you to use as writing "inspiration" for when you start your letter.
Very little motor control when writing this.
I made a lot of mistakes in this letter to a knitterly penpal - that backspace key is awfully useful as it turns out - but sent it anyway. They're a part of the letter's "charm." Really. :-\
Filed Under: Letter-writing
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Just a few days after my post exploring the viability of lion wool, Duck was so kind enough to alert me to this article.
Scientists create a sheep that's 15% human.
The possibilities for wool are truly limitless.
Above: Artist's rendering of a sheep, lion, and sheep-person farm, for the cultivation of fine wools.
Filed Under: WTF
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
In between a little bit of this and a little bit of that, I finished up another pair socks.
Pattern: Child's First Socks from Knitting Vintage Socks by Nancy Bush
Yarn: Curious Yarns in Ocean, one skein. It came with Dottie. Thank you Hazel!
Needles: US1 dpns
These were originally intended for my BFF but halfway through the first sock I changed my mind, and now I'm giving these to my SIL. Baby blue is her favorite color (I think). These came out really tight but since the yarn has a 25% nylon component to it, I'm not too worried about it.
Just love this pattern. It knits up so quickly.
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Lately I've been thinking that I really need to change the url for this knitblog. When I first set it up I wasn't exactly thinking long-term, so I simply created a subdirectory under this existing domain, which I have used as an online photo album since 2001, and named it Clog.
I rather regret that choice.
It's supposed to stand for "Cat log." Weblog by Cat. When I see that clog in the url, or type it in, that's what I say in my head, and it's what a picture. Me, Cat, writing a log. Mew mew mew! Type type type!
But unfortunately that's just me and I alone have access to my brain, so for you, when you see the word clog, your mind's eye is probably conjuring something less savory.
A very unhappy toilet, perhaps? A drainage system gone awry? Arteries?
Dutch windmills?
Or maybe I'm overthinking this.
I do want to set up a dedicated knitblog domain though, if only to keep my original photo album site completely separated from this knitting one. A handful of personal friends and family have found this blog when they were googling for the other and hi if you are one of those people for the love of God please don't tell me that you're reading this. A good friend recently told me while we were socializing pleasantly at another friend's wedding that he had found this blog on G00gle, and suddenly it got real hot and my dress ripped off and there I was sipping my cocktail in the nude.
I have no problems being read (judged) by total strangers but in no way can I handle being read (judged) by people I know. (Unless of course you also knit. Then it's totally OK.) I feel completely open and vulnerable. The way I portray myself in this virtual universe is in many many ways completely antithetical to the way I am in real life, so having them collude out in the open is just all kinds of wrong. It would be like seeing Jerrica and Jem in the same room! Clark Kent and Superman hanging out! It just can't happen!
I know this makes little sense if any, but that is how I must live my blogging life in order to function properly in this universe.
Anyway. I'm thinking of possible domain names, and the obvious one is of course domesticat.com. Unfortunately it's already taken (and worse, it's not even being used) .net is also taken, and I don't want .org.
What name to choose, what name to use...I'll have to think about it more.
Filed Under: Completed Projects | Socks | Child's First
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
My BFF, the recipient of the red Monkey socks and the one who gave me my nickname "Cat," became engaged back in October. Since then she's kept me appraised of all details - the church, the possible reception locations, the food, the color scheme, her dress.
However there was one very important piece of information missing from all this. And it wasn't until yesterday that I found out what it was.
"We need to discuss what flowers you will have..."
"Me?"
"...and will need to pair with your dress. Yes you get some flowers - "
"Me?"
" - either as corsage or bouquet or hair."
"But...am I..."
"Are you what, kitty?"
"I don't know!!"
"I had flowers at YOUR wedding. You get flowers at MY wedding."
"Yes but - "
"Why are you worried kitty?"
"You were a bridesmaid. Am I a bridesmaid?"
"You are a matron of honor."
"HAHAHA YOU NEVER TOLD ME."
"YES I DID. First thing!"
"No you didn't."
"Right?"
"You did?"
"Didn't I?"
"I don't think so."
"OH MY GOD."
Flashback to October 2006 when BFF's engagement was first revealed...
"FINALLY!!! I can be BRIDESMAID! Heh."
"Yes you can!"
"HAHAHA!"
"I've had it in my head that I wasn't 100% bridesmaid because I invited myself. And then we never talked about it after that. So I just assumed I wasn't..."
"Yeah I said yes you can and I thought that was it. Dude that's hilarious."
So at long last, hooray! I am officially BFF's bridesmaid! This will be the second time I've been asked to be maid of honor, but the first time that I will actually perform the task. The first time my relationship with the bride-to-be - who I'd known since 9th grade - completely dissolved months before her wedding. Needless to say it was ugly, and ultimately very sad. There was just no other way around it though. But that's another story for another day.
Right now I'm very excited to officially be my BFF's Cat of Honor. Thank goodness this comedy of errors has ended. During my recent trip to NYC in February she assumed I was there to shop for a bridesmaid dress. Ha ha! I wasn't! Which explains why she thought I wasn't really "into it." Imagine though if I had bought a dress, and it was all gold and shiny and low-cut and bedazzled with rhinestones. Imagine if we had kept up our assumptions until 2 weeks before her wedding?
Communication is key, people.
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In knitting news, at long last I am on the sleeves of Kooch! This thing is far from being close to finished though. After the sleeves there's the collar to knit and attach. Then the border for the front, including button holes. Then the buttons to sew. Then the belt. One day my friends, one day.
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The deadline - this Friday - for the Knitterly Letter Swap fast approaches! Thank you to everyone who has signed up so far. There are lots of you (yay!), and I am so pleased to have my organizational skills tested in this way. Heh. I have tried to reply to each person as "confirmation" but have lost track here and there. So if you haven't heard from me, don't worry. I have your info. Woot!
Filed Under: Letter-writing | Life | Rowan | Kooch
Friday, March 23, 2007
I was flipping through last week's Improper Bostonian last week when came across on article about Spark - the local craft studio where you can get all your crafting groove on, including jewelry-making, paper crafts, and of course knitting, and do it all in a social, collaborative setting. I've mentioned Spark way back when, and even though I was really excited about its concept back then, I found that it just wasn't for me. Not much of a surprise is it?
But the real issue is everytime I go in, I don't exactly get a cozy, inviting vibe from the decor and general atmosphere. All the plastic bins and cubbie holes of scissors and rulers and various crafting materials remind me of a first grade classroom or an after-school daycare center. I would know, as I have been both in first grade and in a daycare center. May your children never know the horrors of the latter. I can still see Bobby in the corner eating glitter-covered glue or David sticking playdough up his runny nose, amongst other things. Little children can be so vile, especially when there's more than 50 of them in one room.
And the piles of dog-eared magazines laying the tables, meant for crafting inspiration, are also how your doctor's waiting room is decorated. It's very bright, clean, sterile, uncomfortable. No disrespect to Spark, mind you. It really is a cool place. My reactions are all very unexpected ones, and entirely my own.
So anyway, Improper did an article featuring Spark, and there was one line that really made my day:
"Knitting supplies include inexpensive, colorful lion wool for beginners..."
That one little phrase is just so rich! So delicious! Lion wool! LION WOOL, with a lowercase "L"!!!
Can you just picture a non-knitter reading this line, and thinking, "Lion wool? Wool made from lions? Is inexpensive? And colorful? And for BEGINNERS?"
I am sure they meant to write Lion BRAND Wool, which indeed is inexpensive, colorful, and for beginners (I guess? Whatever "beginner" wool means), and in large supply at Spark.
But then I thought maybe I was missing something. Maybe there is such a thing as wool culled from lions, the same kind of lions who are usually caked in dried blood from eating wildebeests all day, and who use their ribs as toothpicks afterwards. I mean I am still rather new to the knitting scene, learning new stuff all the time, so why not? You get nice wool from rabbits, goats, yaks, camels...why not a lion?
And I could imagine a lion's mane as very amenable to being made into fiber. Afterall it is thick, long and lush. I don't know if it's soft as I have never had the pleasure of petting a lion, but it couldn't be any more coarse than the hair of a yak? (Never petted a yak either though.)
After much thought - probably too much thought - I realized that lion wool just can't possibly be. Can you imagine the logistics of it? Keeping a farm full of male lions, next to your merinos and alpacas? Shearing lion wool? Would you tranquilize them first? What to feed them? So many questions, not enough money.
However there's a market for everything, so perhaps cultivating lion wool is not entirely out of the question. It could happen one day. I mean through sheer force of imagination man has taken seaweed and turned it into yarn. For crying out loud, how is lion not the next logical step?
Lion wool, lion wool...There is something very pleasing in that concept. A lion is a cat. A very big cat. I like cats. I like it when they purr. Mmmm. I can just picture it now: Scout or Hello Yarn carrying lion roving in their shops. It wouldn't be cheap, oh no, but imagine yourself spinning lion yarn - from a real live lion's mane! - by the fire. How old-fashioned and wildly exotic at the same time! And wouldn't you just love to knit your own pair of socks made from Sundara Yarn 100% superwash lionwool?
I am sure that someone, somewhere, someday, will make this lion wool dream of mine a reality. I myself would totally turn this blog post into a business plan, but alas. I am too busy organizing a penpal club.
Above: Artist's rendition of a sheep and lion farm, for the cultivation of fine wools.
Filed Under: General Knitting | WTF
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
The squirrels and the Chevron Scarves have come out to play.
Pattern: None really. Used a chevron stitch pattern, details here.
Yarn: 1 skein Sundara Yarn in Troubador and 1 skein Gems Pearl in Willow
Needles: US3
This is a fresh and skinny scarf, perfect for spring. It measures about 5 1/2 feet long. I could have kept going but decided it was long enough. I'll use the remaining yarn I have for sock toes and cuffs.
Both squirrel and scarf are courtesy of cynicthelamb, who just might have produced an award-winning praying mantis. Love him! I might need one of those too!
Dottie cozying up to her new friend.
Filed Under: Chevron Scarf | Completed Projects | Postcards from Dottie
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
30 March 2007: THE KNITTERLY LETTER SWAP SIGN UP HAS NOW CLOSED! THANK YOU FOR ALL WHO SIGNED UP!
I got started on writing a couple of letters and it's a little harder than I thought it would be! I mean physically. My hand has forgotten how to hold a pen...I hope when you guys receive my letter you're able to read it :-\
OK then, since it takes only two people to successfully swap letters, and since there have been at least two people who are interested in doing so, I have decided that there enough participants to warrant a letter swap club for knitters, and that I will organize it. (!!) I'll be real creative and call it...The Knitterly Letter Swap.
So if you have a stationery stash that rivals your yarn stash, and the idea of writing a letter pleases you as much as receiving one, just like the good ole days before the Internet took over our lives, then the Knitterly Letter Swap is the thing for you!
THE HOW AND THE WHAT
1) E-mail me your full name and address by March 30, 2007.
Subject: Knitterly Letter Swap
- Include your name and address.
- Also include the url to your blog if you have one.
It would be preferable if you have a blog, just so your penpal can have a little bit of context before they write you. But if you don't have one, please include a very short summary or bullet about yourself - your favorite yarn, favorite color, food, etc.
2) Each person will be assigned another person to write to.
In other words, each person will initiate a letter to someone else.
Everyone's penpal will be selected randomly.
I will notify you of yours by April 2, 2007.
More clarification:
Amanda just asked: Since
every person is assigned one person randomly, this means that the
person I initiate a letter to is NOT the person initiating a letter to
me, correct? Correct! Therefore, this little project should net me 2 different pen pals? Correct again! All said, you will have 2 different penpals: one you initially write TO, and another you RESPOND to.
JUST TWO SIMPLE RULES
1) Write to your penpal within 2 weeks. Just so people have a timeframe of when they might expect a letter.
2) Respond to whomever initially writes to you.
Again, within two weeks.
So when all is said and done, you will have written two letters to different people, and received two letters from different people, all appoximately within the month of April, depending on the speediness of the postman of course and where you live. Ta da!
(Seriously, does that make sense?)
KEEP IN MIND
This is about bringing the art of letter-writing back (if not for just a few rounds)! It's meant to be low-key, and for fun, and for people who love paper goods and love writing letters.
This is just a way to jumpstart the penpal process into motion. Whatever
happens after this initial round is up to you. If you find true love with your
penpal, you can of course keep writing.
Though I am no enforcer of the law, if you join and somehow don't write, I will grrowl and your penpal will cry.
You might receive an overseas penpal. Which is COOL! But I thought I'd throw that out there in case you're adverse to licking an extra stamp.
What you want to write about is up to you, but I liked the idea of including a few personal items with your letter. You could:
1) Attach a snippet of your favorite yarn, or yarn from your current project (as if it were a lock of hair, haha).
2) Snip the current weather forecast from your local paper. To my penpal in sunny California: see how cold it still is in Boston!
3) Include a pressed flower from your garden. I can't do this because everything is still dead.
4) Include a copy of your favorite recipe.
etc. etc. etc.
And, of course the prettier the stationery, the better :)
Looking forward to hearing from you fellow letter-lovers!
Filed Under: Letter-writing
Friday, March 16, 2007
It's always nice to get flowers for no reason every now and then, isn't it? When Duck remembers this rule, he stops by the local flower shop after work, where the nice lady florist likes to come up with a medley bouquet such as the one above. Roses, hydrangeas, tulips, irises, orchids, apple blossoms...anything goes! Although I'm not sure if they do go. Hm. Anyway the flowers are still very lovely and very much appreciated, particularly on a day like today when we're getting yucky, wet snow.
Did you know I once aspired to be a florist? In fact I quit my first job to do just that. My aspirations died the second I realized what I was going to be paid. Or not paid. Former co-workers still laugh at me because I'm so good with the follow-through.
Just as I'm not surprised that most knitters own at least one cat, I am not surprised that most knitters enjoy paper goods. Duck doesn't knit and therefore does not understand the hoopla surrounding paper, and I cannot explain it to him. But there it is, and as a result of my last post, I have many letters to write, to send off to all parts of the U.S. and even Australia! I am so pleased. I will definitely follow through with writing letters, don't you worry. (If anyone else out there is interested in a handwritten letter, drop me an email with your address and I'll get write to it. Heh.)
I was very very intrigued, however, by a very intriguing comment left by blogless reader Dana, who suggested that
Someone should most definitely start a pen pal club for knitters. We could include a little snippet of yarn from in the envelope from our most recent project. Or pictures...or free patterns...or recipes...oh, my head, the possibilities are endless.
It seems like a great idea! A penpal club for knitters! I love those ideas! Only, who is this mysterious Someone that she mentions to jumpstart them into motion, that's what I would like to know. I would do it except, and there's no getting around this, I am horribly, UNBELIEVABLY PASSIVE. It is my greatest weakness. That, and bacon. If you have not yet noticed, I have joined no clubs, no knit-alongs, and worst of all, I barely leave comments. I am so ashamed! But no matter how I try, it is just not my nature to participate. It's an odd thing I have this blog, isn't it. But maybe now you wouldn't be too surprised to learn that I was Girl Scout for all of 10 minutes before dropping out - couldn't stand it! - and one of the most hateful activities you could ask of me is to play boardgames with you. Especially Monopoly. I will play Monopoly for no one, under no circumstances. Not even if you were Br@d Pitt and as Br@d Pitt your dying wish was that I play Monopoly with you. While naked.
Here's a more recent example of my reticence to participate, and this one even got me laughing at myself for being such a twit. Last weekend the cable guy paid us a visit. I was in the middle of watching a recorded episode of Jane Eyre from Mahstapiece Theatah, and just getting to one of the steamier scenes in the story: Jane had just seen Mr. Rochester for the first time in his night shirt, a very thin and gauzy and wide open down the front night shirt, revealing bare English skin and curly English chest hair. Also, he was on fire. It was all very sexy. Anyway they were just getting to putting out the flames when the screen went blank and the cable box froze, and I did what any rational, educated adult person would do, and that is to press every single button on the remote control, then press them at the same time, then with increasing speed and pressure, and then to do the same on the cable box when the remote stopped working.
So the cable guy paid a visit. I was upstairs working on some stuff while Duck watched the cable guy in the basement. I don't know how much time passed before I realized that a lot of it had, and the cable van was still idling in the driveway. So I went downstairs to check on the progress.
And can you believe what I saw? Down in the basement? I saw Duck. Playing video games. With the cable guy.
For how long the cable box was fixed, I don't know. He still had on his little tool belt and everything. They were in the middle of their second? third? match when the cable guy turned around and called out to me, "Hey came and join us! Come and play!" And you know what I did right? Because a stranger just asked me to Participate in Something, I instinctually hesitated. I demured and I turned red, I wanted to get out of it, run up to my room and hide just like I did when I was 10-years old and my parents had people over and demanded that I play and talk with their children, as if socializing with other people my own age were a normal, enjoyable thing for me to do!
Unfortunately I'm not 10 anymore and as I was watching him jot down his personal phone number on the invoice (so we could call him to come over and play, haha!) I finally got a grip on myself. I just got asked, by the cable guy, the so not shy cable guy, if I wanted to play my video game in my house, and here I am shaking in my boots. IN MY OWN HOUSE. Pathetic! Get over it and grow a pair! He's not going to bite!
But right as I was on the verge of participating, his mobile rang and the client on the other line wanted to know where the hell he was, so he had to go.
Ah well. I tried.
And at long last we get to the point! I want get over this passive attitude of mine and attempt to organize this penpal club thing for knitters. Even if it's just a handful of participants, even if only a couple of letters are swapped. Like me maybe you're a little nutty and you're just dying to write a letter, about anything, to anyone, but especially to someone who enjoys receiving letters as much as you enjoy writing them. Maybe.
Hmmmmm.
While I ponder about this some more , another commenter wanted to see another sketchbook doodle. Here's one I did a couple of weeks ago for Duck. He had to get up outrageously early one day for work, so I left him this scribble to find in the morning. And in case you were wondering, I really do address him as "Duck." I follow-through with that cat/duck metaphor of ours and take all the way.
Filed Under: Life
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