Cat VS Shark

Mally breaking out the bunny kicks

Picture it:  Another day in the carpeted jungle, smellovision (aka an open widow) is wafting the seductive scent of catnip throughout the apartment.  Creeping around the forest of chair and table legs is the majestic and predatory fluffy panther.  Her prey?  The Land Shark.  It's call?  The high jingling sound of small bells just like the call all birds and small rodents make. Ok, so rodents and birds don't jingle.  Mally apparently did not get that memo.  To me it's adorable, but to her it's serious business.  She'll pounce and wrestle with it, and if she's feeling particularly saucy she'll throw in a few bunny kicks so that Mr. Land Shark knows who is boss.

We came to acquire our version of the SNL Land Shark after I made her those little blue balls.  I noticed that occasionally when Mally gets especially fired up her back legs begin pumping in unison.  Alas, these devastating attacks met no purchase with those too small spheres of yarn.  This tragedy had to be rectified, and quickly.  Her next toy needed to be something long enough for her to sink her clawed (and tufted) back toes into while being able to bite it in order to achieve maximum cat satisfaction.  Honestly, I think I was influenced by this:

Land Shark - still looking pretty good despite months of abuse

Onward to Ravelry!  Here, amidst my fellow fiber friends I found Erika Olimpiew's Sharky Stuffed Toy.  While being a delightful and fun pattern to follow, I was not able to complete the embroidery details due to intervention of an impatient pet.  Mally's lack of self control might have been influenced by the stuffing being 10% fiberfill with the remaining 90% being catnip.  As a sidenote, I acquired an embarrassing amount of catnip by going to Amazon.com and searching for "Catnip Herb" - it's not as potent as the more expensive stuff, but I received about 1 pound of it for around $15.  The jingle bells also came to the front door via Amazon prime and were rather inexpensive.  These things plus a bit of previously purchased acrylic yarn have made for hours of serious (very serious) fun.

Welcome Back!

Serious Blog Drought too... Make with the posts!

Today it's raining in Southern California.  I thought I'd take this auspicious occasion and commemorate it by doing something that happens just as rarely and *gasp* post a blog entry.  Me?   Neglect readers?  That's nigh unthinkable!...*cough* let's not point out the hypocrisy by citing the starting line of my last entry.

I hear ya Moe.

Curious as to why I've been absent?  Well, the TLDR (too long, didn't read) version is that I was being a good girl, studying my heart out; when I met a person who I was sure didn't exist - Mr. Perfect (for me).  One minute I was whining to my classmates that I was going to die cold and alone and dead (a la my mistakenly remembered Moe Sizzlac quote), and about three weeks later my future husband and I were discussing how to tell friends and family we were getting married without them thinking we had gone mad.  A year to the day after we met we tied the knot.  Unexpected ultra bonus:  NEW PEOPLE TO KNIT FOR!

These are a few of my favorite things

The Midwest thunderstorms are nothing to sneeze at, and I can finally understand why the Von Trapp kids were bolting to Maria’s beside.  While whiskers on kittens definitely calm me, I also have a few items that didn’t quite make it into that musical number:

My ball winder – how do I love thee?  Let me count the ways… you make me cakes; and yarn cakes are far less fattening than the red velvet kind.  Since they’re center pull I don’t have to worry about balls of yarn bouncing all over the apartment.  You’ve saved me countless hours by keeping my skeins untangled and organized.  The delicate wing nut which allows you to clamp to tables of so many widths; and your rubber foot caresses and keeps surfaces pristine.

Interchangeable circular needles – Your bright colors make my heart smile.  Flexible, adaptable; oh, if only people could be more like you!  Tucked away neatly in your case, I know you’re there waiting for me, ready to morph needle size so that my hat brims remain snug and the crown comfortable.  With your end caps and extenders, you make it so easy to knit a blanket in one fell swoop, instead of panel after panel with endless joining.

My mountains of bamboo dpns - I love the way you cling to my yarn, easing my anxiety of dropping stitches.  Be it socks, gloves or finishing a hat, you tempt me to make tubes, for feet, fingers, hands and heads.  Bringing stitches back and forth, thank you for being an ever ready cable needle of just the right size.  

Row Counters – You who watch over my project, who keep me focused and sane.  I admire how you gently guide me back into place after I’ve dealt with the mundane interruptions of life.   You congratulate me on every accomplished row by singing “click”, and tempt me to finish the perpetual "one more".

Magnetic Chart Keeper – so long did I lust after you.  Finally, this December you came into my life.  The attraction I feel to you is not just because of your magnetism; though I do appreciate not having to mar my patterns with holes or marks.   Propped open you handsomely display my complicated rows in elegant simplicity.  Closed, you keep my pattern safe in my knitting bag, with my place marked and ready whenever I am ready for more. 

We're ready! Now what?

I don't know if I can accurately describe how much courage it took yesterday for me to cut off dangling ends of yarn.  It's ridiculous, but it meant being finally done with my Hobbes project.  I've been done with the individual pieces for months now; but whenever I finished sewing on an ear I immediately looked at it, and unsatisfied, I'd rip out the stitches.  To give you an idea of how long Hobbes has been on my slab in Frankenstien-esque parts, here's a blog post from early August when we began our little journey together.

Calvin would be ashamed of me.  Probably more accurately he'd be hovering near my elbow peering over my shoulder fretting that I wasn't working quick enough.  Then again, Calvin would probably relish his Franken-Hobbes while pretending to be a Mad Scientist.  Alas, I digress.  Hobbes came together while I was visiting California last month, not surprising considering he was the only project with me.

I'm afraid that this horrific neglect will continue, and may even get worse now that the tiger's all put together.  Daniel asked me yesterday what I was going to do with him now that he was done.  Honestly, I don't know.  I no longer have space adventures, go back in time or even play my own version of Calvin ball.  The kind of magic required to spark life into my little FrankenHobbes disappeared before I was 12.  Somewhere out there, Spaceman Spiff is exploring the universe, laughing in the face of peril, and missing a side kick who can be his best friend.  Where are you Calvin?

Thanks again to Sukigirl for providing a pattern to all us Waterson fans.  Thank you for making my first amigurumi project something so memorable (and good to learn on).

Something this warm and fuzzy only comes around once every leap year... or maybe light year (or maybe I'm full of it)

Daniel has an interesting sense of humor.  He loves shows where the characters are ordinary Joes, but with some really odd personal quirk (you know, just like real life).  Watch how these seemingly normal ridiculous people behave with each other and for him hilarity ensues.  Examples?  He likes watching The Office, Parks and Recreation, 30 Rock (ok, the characters there are more exaggerated), Modern Family, and now recently Bored to Death.

A recurring character on Bored to Death is Louis Green, played by John Hodgman; and it's him that I want to talk about, not the stars of the show (Jason Schwartzman, Zack Galifianakas, or Ted Danson).  One evening, while watching Bored to Death, and Hodgman's character walked on screen, Daniel paused it and asked me if I had ever seen the Ted Talk that Hodgman did.  Sidenote:  Ted Talks are amazing and inspiring; they achieve their goal of spreading ideas that deserve far more promotion than something like Jersey Shore gets.  Anyway, if you have a little over 16 and a half minutes, it's well worth your time.  Expect some laughs, a discussion of aliens and love.

Knitting for good

The Mossy Jacket pattern included in the book.

A few weeks ago I picked up a book from the local library.  It was buried in the 746's (Dewey decimal system baby... hey I worked at a library for a few months), with all of the other nonfiction books on the subject of knitting.  Amid all of the stitch-ionaries, teach yourself to knits, baby pattern books, vogue knits, and stitch n' bitches, was this little paperback called "Knitting for Good!: A Guide to Creating Personal, Social, and Political Change, Stitch by Stitch" authored by Betsy Greer.  So I tucked it into the pile of books I'd be keeping on the nightstand for the next few weeks.  

One of the main reasons I decided to look at this book is due to something my mother pointed out to me. She said that one of the best ways to feel better in your own life is to help someone else.  If anyone would know, it's her.  I swear, there will be an effort to canonize her even though she's not Catholic.  Not surprisingly that's one of the main messages in "Knitting for Good".

There's something kind of wonderful about putting purpose and meaning into the little things you do and the things we take for granted.  Most of us are wearing clothes where we have no idea where it came from.  Sadly, most of the time it's from a sweat shop in an impoverished nation.  Just a second... yeah, the t-shirt I'm wearing?  It was made in Haiti... (bought pre-earthquake) which according to wikipedia "is the poorest country in the Americas as per the Human Development Index."  Probably would have been a better idea to go get something through American Apparel.  The author of "Knitting for Good", Betsy Greer, encourages us to make more of an effort to look at our consumerism and the effects it has.

Along with these messages, the book also has a number of patterns of things that can be used as donation items, from pet blankets to hats for the homeless. Though I must say that my favorite feature of the book was the small vignettes from numerous contributors on their experiences with donation knits.

Wait? How can "Regretsy" be a warm fuzzy?

In the crafting community, if you're moderately computer savvy, and want to try and make a go of attempting to fund your chosen addiction by trying to sell the finished product, you've probably got an Etsy store.  That way, people who appreciate handcrafted goodies, can put their money where their mouth is.  Of course, Etsy makes my idea of what is a warm fuzzy feeling look like a Brillo pad.  They're so concerned with hurting the feelings of sellers (or perhaps their profits), they are willing to overlook their founding principle, namely to have a place where people can sell handcrafted or vintage items.

So, do mass produced non-vintage items make it onto the site?  Oh, like you wouldn't believe.  While you can voice your opinions about re-sellers on the Etsy forums, it's lacking something.  I don't know about you, but there's something that makes my heart pitter-patter at the thought of a person hand crafting something and sending it to someone who genuinely appreciates the fact that it is unique and not made in a sweat shop.  It's like the re-sellers have taken my warm fuzzy feeling and used it like a dog would use a fire hydrant.  I want vindication.

For this and so many other reasons, I have a special spot in my heart for Regretsy.  I love how they call out re-sellers, you can check those out under the banner 'Not Remotely Handmade'.  Side by side comparisons with the original product, nearly always using the same picture, it lets you see how much you would have saved.  Also this site does a great job of pointing out some items which are answers to questions that no one asked.  Aside from holding up a mirror for Etsy to see what it is advertising, Regretsy and the followers (April's Army) passionately support at least one charitable purpose each month (click here for examples).  Oh, I also forgot to mention how much unholy glee I feel reading the hilarious posts.