Random thoughts Friday

Do you have those moments where you're walking down the street, and some random music starts playing from somewhere, and suddenly it's like you have your own soundtrack to life?
(No, just me? Hmmmm.)

No matter how many times I knit socks, they still seem a little bit like magic. (I knew I wasn't a Muggle!)

Blonde kitties are clearly trying to make up for their fur color with personality. And succeeding.

I find myself wondering how many blogs are fake. So many people seem to have nothing better to do with their time than create a fake, complete, and overly-detailed internet persona. Pioneer Woman--is she the real deal?
If she's not, I don't want to know about it.
On the other hand, I'm almost entirely certain that Shit My Dad Says is made up, but don't care so much. (He seems to have suspiciously and simultaneously gotten more vulgar and wittier over time!)

Apparently you're never too old for temper tantrums. And what's worse, you're never too old for temper tantrums to be effective--someone, somewhere, will always give in. Sigh.

Happy weekend, and Happy Father's Day!

You're killin' me, Smalls!

Sometimes I do things other than work, eat, sleep and knit, believe it or not. For example, I spend a lot of time dancing around people trying not to get squished on the subway, and tossing bits of trash around the condo for the cats to play with. The fun never stops!

Another thing I enjoy is watching baseball.

So I'm sure you can appreciate the supreme irony of me having been born and raised in Baltimore.

I heard a rumor we were once good. There are pennants hanging around Camden Yards, they must've come from somewhere. I'm told we even won a few World Series. Unfortunately, the last of these was in 1983, when I was still mastering walking upright and not drooling.

Since then, with few exceptions, the Orioles have been patently awful. In fact, while we usually hover around last place and can say things like, "well, at least we're not the Kansas City Royals," or "at least we're not the Washington Nationals," those days are gone too. Right now, we are dead last. We are the worst team in baseball.

So to celebrate, photos from the Yard:




Yes, we lost. By a lot. We're used to it, at least. And hey, there's always that draft pick thing.

Chuh.

Anyway, the brilliant minds behind Camden Yards offer a variety of in-game entertainment activities in what I assume is a desperate attempt to keep people from watching the atrocities going on on-field. One of these is a cutesy "this or that" interview with the players, where they choose between bizarrely random things. Like, say, Maryland Crab Soup and Boston Clam Chowder (er, I mean, chow-dah).

This time it was The Sandlot and Bad News Bears. And I'm happy to report that The Sandlot won.

"You're killin' me, Smalls!"

And the winner is . . .

And now, the moment you've all been waiting for: PRIZES!! Wheeeeeeee!


Who doesn't like prizes?


Now, I told you guys I would throw in a skein of Skinny Bugga if we met my personal fundraising goal, and though we didn't quite make it, we got pretty darn close. Plus, I missed my blogoversary in the midst of all this raffling. So I'm going to give the Bugga away anyway. I hope you can all appreciate the pain and suffering this will cause me. Really.

The hat o' many names

Now, the good stuff:


Betty of Los Altos, CA, you've won a copy of Norah Gaughan, V. 1!



Catherine of Montgomery Village, MD, you've got yourself a skein of Shivaya Naturals laceweight


Ann of Coral Gables, FL, you are now the proud owner of the Transition Gloves pattern and the yarn to make a pair, donated by the awesome Deirdre at Flocks of Yarn.



Shannon of Sandusky, OH, you'll be receiving some gorgeous roving from the lovely Leann over at Forbidden Woolery


Sara from London, Ontario, you've won a colorful skein of Creatively Dyed Calypso sock yarn


Heather of Coon Rapids, MN, watch your mailbox for a skein of Sundara sock yarn


and . . .














Stephanie of Schenectady, NY is the lucky lucky winner of a lovely skein of Skinny Bugga in Blu-- er, um, Lub-- uh, grrrr, this is so hard.



OK, a lovely skein of Skinny Bugga in Hologram Moth.

::sob::

Congratulations to all the winners, I'll be contacting each of you individually to confirm shipping addresses, and then get your prizes out (as soon as I find enough random packing materials to ship them).

And again, a big, big thank you to everyone who donated or helped spread the word. I hope to do this raffle again next year (so if you're ever wandering by and think, "hey, I'd like to donate a prize," send me a message!).

And now, maybe I can get back to my (semi-) regular blogging about knitting.

Team Mary Kate Recap: $1000+!

I probably forgot to mention to you guys that I'm Internet-challenged right now--the condo building is no longer offering building-wide Internet service, and I haven't gotten my self-install kit from Comcast yet, so nights and weekends are an Internet desert. Hopefully the kit arrives in the mail today!

I'm going to gather up all the donor info I have while at work today (that's what they pay me for, right?) so I can pull names tonight and announce raffle winners tomorrow.

But in the meantime, know that you all helped raise over $1000 for the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America!! The "official" tally for Team Mary Kate is $1051, but I know my sister received some cash and check donations that aren't included in that, so it's actually a bit higher. And you guys were a big part of that total.

So, a big thank you from me, and my family.

(That's my dad, my sister, and our boys)

Last dance, last chance for loooooooooove

No, it's not your last chance for love or dancing, but it IS your last chance to enter my charity raffle.

You know the drill: 6 prizes up for grabs, earn an entry for every $5 you donate.

Now, we've raised over $200, which is GREAT, but well short of my $500 goal.

So, I'm going to try to bribe you. If, via some miracle, we can get that number up to $500 by midnight (EST) tonight, I will throw in a special 7th prize.

OH, I won't tell you what it is.

But, I will tell you that it starts with "B", ends in "A" and has an "ugg" in the middle. And it's on the svelte side.

And I will give away one of my very own precious, precious skeins of it, if we hit that $500 mark.

So, tell your friends. Tell your neighbors. Tell your friends' neighbors. Tell your neighbors' friends. Just spread the word, and kick in your $5 so you have a chance to win the Teh Precious too.

by Tuesday, I meant Wednesday

But you already knew that, right?

Time is just escaping me these days. Where does it go? Does it have a corner it hides in somewhere? If I find it, can I keep it, and have more time than anyone else?

No?

Hmph.

What if I promise to use it for knitting?

Speaking of time spent knitting, you'll never believe how many FOs I have for 2010 already.

Go on, guess!





ELEVEN!

That's right, 11 FOs, and the year's not even half over yet. And that's not including a few mini projects here and there (cat toys, tree ornaments, etc.), that's just "real" projects.

Like this darling little baby shrug.

Pattern: Whirligig Shrug by Stephanie Japel
Yarn: Spud and Chloe Sweater in popsicle, 1.5 skeins

Ravelry link

There are many babies in my life these days, though fortunately none of them are mine. Two friends had babies last year, and another is due in a few months, which is ok by me, because I really love baby projects. They look like people clothes, but they take so much less time.

This bright pink ruffly dealie will be heading to North Carolina for baby Ella, who loves--I mean, whose mommy loves--all things pink. Pink pink pink everywhere. God forbid she had had a boy.

The instructions for the neck trim weren't quite clear, I wasn't sure if I should carry it all the way down both sides or not. But doing that seemed more like a cardigan, so I stopped it at the underarms.

The Spud and Chloe yarn was lovely to work with, nice and soft, and only part wool, so not too heavy to have in your lap on warm days. Of course, in the future I hope to work with a less . . . pink . . . shade. Or at least less neon.

Lots of other projects on the move, and I'm lately finding myself obsessed with the idea of having a fair isle vest for the fall. Like this one. Or perhaps this one.

Just a few problems with this:

1. I don't know how to knit fair isle. Not really, anyway.

2. I've never steeked anything.

3. I'm clueless as to how to go about picking colors for such a project. (Check out the gorgeous colors in this version of the Ivy League vest. Stunning, huh? HOW DID SHE DO IT?)

So, what's a knitter to do? Well, for starters I ordered a copy of Alice Starmore's Book of Fair Isle Knitting. And I printed out all of Eunny Jang's steeking chronicles. So, you see, I am determined to learn! I just hope those ladies can teach me.