Today is a good day for a lolcat.

Your Score: Longcat

62% Affectionate, 40% Excitable, 35% Hungry

Protector of truth.

Slayer of darkness.

Loooooong.

Longcat may seem like just a regular lengthy cat, but he is, in fact, looong. For proof, observe the longpic.

It is prophesized that Longcat and his archnemesis Tacgnol will battle for supremacy on Caturday. The outcome will change the face of the world, and indeed the very fabric of lolcatdom, forever.

Be grateful that the test has chosen you, and only you, to have this title.

To see all possible results, checka dis.

Link: The Which Lolcat Are You? Test written by GumOtaku on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test My Dad's surgery went without a hitch, I'm knitting on the Dark Mark Scarf and MS36K and we have a one legged wild turkey visiting in the yard. It's a great day, what more can I say? Thanks Janice , Hockeymom , and blogless Leah and Laura for all your good wishes!

The unplanned road trip

Well, turns out we are going to go down to visit the parental units. I really don't look forward to the 71/2 hour drive each way, after work, over 3 days. But, I am really not whining about it. My Dad is having surgery Tuesday and I'd like to see him before. Just because, you know?

Nowadays, if you can manage to get a laser or laparoscopic version of whatever surgery you need, even pretty major procedures are far less trouble and risk than they used to be and recovery is way better. I remember as a kid when my Memere had cataract surgery she would have to live with us for at least 2 weeks to recover and wore huge glasses for the rest of her life. My mom had laser surgery and corneal implant and she healed over days and doesn't have to wear any glasses for it. My husband had laparoscopic gall bladder surgery and it took maybe 2 weeks for him to recover and the only scars he has make him look like he's been shot with arrows (which he thinks is cool - what is it about guys?) So when my Dad got the green light on the laser version of his surgery I was really relieved. But I still worry. It's only natural.

Alright, enough of the family medical history, I get to knit like a maniac on road trips. I will be bringing MS3, my Dark Mark scarf (thankyouverymuch Janice Ireallyneededanotherproject!) and my KPS Top Down Wrap Cardi which I am doing in the Fiber Company's worsted weight Khroma, in Cypress, which is the wonderful deep green of late summer. I will get some pics when I get back (or maybe in the car on the road, who knows).

And since my Dad is the theme for today, I present a FO from June. Fathers Day Socks!



Garter Rib Socks from "Sensational Knitted Socks" by Charlene Schurch
Yarn is Chomp (merino superwash) in Arial (fingering weight) from Meg of Twisted (also available at The Urban Knit which is where I bought this) Knitted on size 0 dpns

My Dad loves Andes mints and I thought these looked just like them. I love Megs' yarns and I have collected many of her colorways. The yarn itself is light and lofty and makes a very nice fabric.

Anyway, everyone have a good weekend and if you could send some good vibes my Dad's way, we would all appreciate it very much.

As God is my witness I shall never go blogless again.

When I first realized that I would have to choose between blogging or knitting, I chose knitting.

When I was on the Knitch bus to Stitch and Pitch and Claudia called for all bloggers to raise their hands and I couldn't in good conscience raise mine, I realized how much I missed being a part of the community of bloggers. I needed to make at least a little time to share what I was doing and take the opportunity to step away from the project long enough to get that photo. The photo that often helps give me a fresh perspective on a project. I also thought about why I wanted to blog in the first place. Sure, it was a bit of vanity, but it was also about cataloging my projects and my progress. It was also about sharing my journey with my family far away -

Oh, crap, did I just say journey?!

Mystery Stole 3 in Jaggerspun Zephyr color Mushroom with copper core smoke glass 8/0 beads.
Knitting with Addi Turbo Lace #4s and a #13 crochet hook
Boy I have missed this.

Otherworldly day

Yesterday I was fortunate enough to attend the New Year ceremonial shoot at Bi Toku Kyudojo where I have begun practicing kyudo. It was like stepping into another world. Here are a few pictures especially for Janice.




It is always hard to believe I am in Atlanta when I am here.




The heater was there in case we needed it, but it was a warm, comfortable day for shooting




After all the shooting was over, it was back to the knitting and petting of cats (and Husband).

New Addition to Sidebar

I thought it might be nice to add the list of my favorite internet yarn sources to the blog. There are a few international links there, each of whom I have gotten fast and excellent service from. I often price check the European shops for european yarns because even with international shipping the price is often better than what you can get in the US with free shipping. There are also some artisan dyers on the blogroll whose work I love. I will update these as I find more. Enjoy!

Stash Check!

I for one was not sorry to see 2006 go. Fortunately, since most of the hassle was connected with my job and that is making slow progress toward becoming more manageable, 2007 is shaping up to be far superior to its predecessor. And it's the Year of the Pig. How can that not be a fun year?

I am not a Pig, nor am I a Cock (which would have really been perfect for a chicken lover like me) but an Ox. Hmmm, not very romantic or feminine, an Ox. Last year was year of the Dog, and it was a dog alright. 2009 will be the next Ox year, though, and it really will be my year as it is the year we are planning our trip to Japan. We'll see if I actually get there.

So, some knitting, but lots of purchasing of the yarn type goodness. First, in keeping with the animal theme I seem to have going here, is the STR stash:


Colorways in order of appearance L to R: Lucy, Chanticleer, Henpecked, Rooster Rock.

Not only does Tina have an amazing talent for color, she has a thing for chickens of which I heartily approve. These are the most amazing color combinations. I am thinking of trying to get Ophelia to pose with them if I can figure a way to do that without putting yarn at risk. Oh well, we will see. Anyway, for the sake of completeness, here is the rest of the STR stash:

L to R: Cobblestone County, Queen Rock, Ruby Slippers. On order, Titania and Peasblossom.

So, as you see, I am utterly rejecting the whole knit from the stash thing that is otherwise storming bloglandia. My only joy when I am too busy working to knit is purchasing yarn. Also, remember that I have 9 evil friends who believe that the yarn gets way too much of my attention and do everything in their not inconsiderable power to get between me and the knitting.


They also love basking in the Ott Light. What's a knitter to do?

Next installment, my new obsession with Fleece Artist.

Regaining the habit of blogging

Well, the weekend came and went without a post, and that was mostly due to me forgetting about it. I have simply gotten out of the habit of thinking about blogging, so while I am thinking about it...

The finished Fair Isle Sampler Hat. I opted for the tassel instead of the pompom on the end, but this tassel is a little wussy. I will need to make a beefier tassel for it before I wear it. I mean, I want this sucker to induce tassel envy when I am done.

Then there are the socks for my Mom...

in a very seasonal color combo. All hail Trekking 143. These lovely picot edge socks brought to you by Claudia's pattern. I think she would also approve of the color choice. I sure hope my Mom likes them.

Then there's the in progress stuff. I am still going to town (slowly) on the Paistu Mittens, no in progress pics yet, but I have to say that I freaking heart color knitting. I have also gotten half a sleeve into this...

which will not look nearly as good on me as it does on this model, but there we are.

So that's the wrap up for now, more to come soon. ish.

Dude, Where's My Blog?

For all of you who still have me on your bloglines, thanks for being patient (or just too lazy to remove me). I have been in the unenviable position of having so little free time I had to choose between knitting and blogging. And I chose the knitting.

But tonight I cannot knit, so I blog. Why, you ask, can I not knit? Well, I got bit above the wrist by one of my cats, and it seems I got bit bad enough to get infected in a mere 12 hours from bite to doctor's office. Ah, well, left handed typing is my amusement now. Fun.

When last we met, I had eight cats and two chickens and a small handful of baby fish keeping my big pair company in the pond. I now have nine cats, one chicken (these events are not related) and a gazillion growing fish in a too small pond. However, the remaining chicken, Ophelia, is a real trooper, giving us our daily egg and plenty amusement. Will I get a second chicken? We will see next spring, for now, I'll be happy to overwinter Ophelia. One chicken takes lots less precious time to deal with.

So, for the knitting. Right now, all uni-handed, I am too spazzy to get pictures together, but I will post some very soon. Not 3 months soon, like this weekend soon, maybe sooner if the meds get on top of this stupid infection. But I have finished the Fair Isle Sampler Hat, which was really rewarding, and am 3/4 of the way through the Paistu Mittens from 2 Pieceworks ago, I am almost done with some Trekking socks, I am acquiring quite a backlog of Petals Collection Yarn from Sundara's club (which is almost too pretty to knit!) and I have scored some of the new KSH purple color. Which brings me to this question.

Why do I keep buying KSH when I have yet to successfully knit with the stuff? Does anyone else have this sort of yarn problem? I can't stop buying it, I want all the colors, I love it, I adore it, I have big dreams and plans for it, and I can't make five freaking rows of lace with it without having to unknit it. Because you know it absolutely can't be frogged in the conventional manner. What is my problem here? And, to make matters worse, I buy it 3 balls at a time like I am going to knit a Birch in every flippin color. I have no idea. It is just a romantic dream I guess, but even I think it's weird.

Well, this is short but this is all I have energy for now. While everyone under the sun is at Rhinebeck this weekend I will be blogging (for real, with pics, finally), knitting (hopefully), and nullifying my antibiotics with a beer or two (definitely). What the heck.

I never would have thunk it.

Well, it has been a snakes on a plane kind of weekend here at the Mount Olympus of chickendom. Saturday started with my weekly date with the needle guy. My left shoulder was acting up big time (post migraine, 2 lost days of my life) and I decided to tell my TCM doc about it in case he had a suggestion to help ease the pain. Well, all I can say is that even if I hadn't been an acupuncture convert before, which I was, I would be now because the man whipped out some Chinese magic or something, and next thing you know I was fixed. Fixed! No pain, nothing. Freakin amazing. And you know what he did? One needle. In my right ankle. For my left shoulder. Magic, I tell you! I don't understand, I just believe.

So now I am ready to use my nifty new spindle at the demo for the Fayetteville Library that was scheduled that afternoon with my SCA group. Here is a lovely picture of me all rentarded:

That's me in the middle. Do you see the spindle? No, you don't. And do you know why? Because it rained, cats and dogs, and then the ground steamed gently for a good long while after that. Somehow it never occured to me that wool was hair and that the same weather that would cause a bad hair day would bring about a bad wool day, but there it is. I did try to spin, but the roving was sticky and kept frizzing out in my hands. I mean blow out kit frizz. Almost like static electricity would do, only more soggy and less shocky. So I packed up the spindle and the wool until a friendlier atmosphere could be found, and joined the rest of the ladies under the dayshade-become-sweat lodge while our men fetched us cool drinks and ice cream. Not so medieval, the ice cream, but very very welcome.

From there we headed off to Grantville, to have dinner with an old friend who opened a pizza restaurant there.

This is Nick Sasso, who along with his wife Kim owns Nick's Pizza Stop which has the best pizza I have eaten since I moved to Atlanta 13 years ago. No joke. I would make the drive again for more of that, and the dessert we had of fried brownies, bananas foster and cheesecake would bring peace to the world if we can just work out the distribution plan...

So no spinning, and very little knitting, no exciting impromptu knitblogger meetups like last Sunday when I met Mouse, Jane and Sandy in person at Knitch, but deep fried desserts have their own charm, I can assure you.

There is plenty of knitting in the future, though, as I have a date with Amtrak next week, and all the fixings for a 22+ hour knitting extravaganza. Look for train knitting reports to come. And next time you're in Grantville Georgia, head over to Main Street for some great pizza, and tell Nick hi for me.

Fox in the henhouse.

Todays' plans were all cancelled by 11am and I found myself with a free day. Knitch, the new LYS on the block is about 3 blocks away from my TCM practitioner's office, so that was the first stop in my newly liberated schedule. It is a really wonderful place, and like last week I went right after acupuncture, which leaves me really woozy for a few hours after. That must be why I found myself leaving the shop an hour later armed for a brand new battle. At least that's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

Don't ask me how this happened. I am not a spinner. At least this morning I wasn't. Now, though, I think I just might be. Plus, there is something delightfully perverse in being a chickengoddess and spinning on a spindle named the Fox. Actually there's a really good reason why this happened. Next weekend I am helping with a demo for a library down in Fayetteville. Their summer reading program has adopted a medieval theme this year and the SCA group I belong to agreed to do a demo for them. I had originally planned to knit in the round, which is perfectly medieval, but it is too freaking hot to have a bunch of wool in my lap. I also thought that knitting would be mighty boring for kids to watch, but spinning (even bad beginner spinning) would be more interesting, and I could let kids try it too. Anyway, I am having fun practicing and I can see where I might like to take a spinning class at some point.

So that brought me to lunchtime, after which I picked up the old Fair Isle Sampler Hat and went to town. Made a good bit of progress and man, I am loving the colorwork.

Wish I had a few more days like today, but alas, I must return to my regularly scheduled insanity. It was fun while it lasted, though.