Let it snow

As the weather starts getting cooler days start getting shorter, it's nice to pick up a project in anticipation of snow and cold. Sally from Wicked Woolens has posted this amazing hat pattern on her blog (and IMHO, $3.00 is a steal).

eWAC, you totally need to be seen on the Nordic circuit in one of these...

Have a lovely weekend, all!

photo by Sally

What'd he say when?

Kidlet has been secured in the casa for the GOP onslaught this weekend. To kick off the RNC, let's sit back and enjoy some footage of the presumptive nominee in a 2000 interview:

Wouldn't it be fun to roll this clip over and over and over, maybe projected on the side of the Xcel Energy Center, during the convention?

Heh heh heh.

Who'd he say?

Really?

From where?

Well, then...

.

.

ADDENDUM: Go read WoolGatherer's post on this event. LMAO!

A well-travelled dream

On 28 August 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his most famous address on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

On 28 August 2008, Barack Obama will deliver his most historic speech (to date) on the stage constructed on Inesco Field in Denver, CO.

45 years and 1,688 miles; half of a lifetime, half of a continent. We have the privilege to witness an historical moment tonight.

Much has been gained, but there is much more work to do in uniting this nation. Georgia congressman John Lewis said it well on NPR this evening: Obama's acceptance of his party's nomination isn't the culmination of the dream, but "an enormous down payment on the dream".

Robert Kennedy was quoted in 1963 as saying he anticipated an African-American nominee in 50 years. His math was pretty damn good.

Crochet your piano pretty

Dear Going40 and eWAC,

Hi! How are you two? After seeing the varied offerings at the State Fair, are you still committed to only the knitted arts? Well, this may motivate you to start hooking (no, no that kind):

If you ask Joana Vasconcelos nicely, she may share her piano cozy pattern with you.

Have a good day at school and the office!

Love,
Meema

1978 was great

Now that's hair.
Try the website - it's good for many, many laughs.

Boys on the side

Looky what I stumbled across on the internets this evening! If this didn't butch up the visibility of knitting men in the 1970s, I don't know what else could. Who knew the Marlboro man could knit?

This would be a great addition to a knitter's library; the three listings on Amazon right now, however, are asking between $140-$170.

From the website Men Who Knit:

"The best part is the projects chapter: a dog blanket, a beanie, a wall hanging (for your horse’s best-in-show award), a saddle blanket for your horse (knitted circularly with sharpened garden hose and “jumbo” yarn), a slipover (jumper) and a rope hammock (knitted with either shovel handles or pool cues with manila rope)."

And now, a video offering of needle-wielding men. About halfway through there's a gent knitting a hammock out of rope on sharpened billiard cues (a pattern from the book above, I believe).

P.S. Congrats to all the ribbon- and award-winning knitters (women and men) at the Great Minnesota Get-Together!

Just waffle

Read a little, learn a lot.

That's The Meema Files in a nutshell.

Olympic spirit

Time to fire up your needles (or hooks) for another great cause!

The Special Olympics 2009 World Winter Games will be held in Idaho, and the organizers are hoping to gift a hand-crafted scarf as a gesture of goodwill to each participant. That's about 5,000 scarves. Read here on the World Games website for specific information on volunteering your talent, and here on Coats & Clark's site.

In their effort to create a unified look and easy-care result, they are quite specific about what yarn may be used. And yes, the fiber snobs among us might recoil a bit (me included, as I am the queen).

White and Delft Blue are the colors to match the logo.

Red Heart Super Saver Yarn is their weapon of choice.

I know, I know, my fingers can't breathe either. It's squeaky, 100% aaaack-crylic. But we can rise to the challenge - the athletes have risen to theirs.

ADDENDUM: There is a group formed on Ravelry if you're looking for that sort of community. And if you'd like to send your scarves in together, let me know; I'll gladly ship more than Mom's and mine.

Synchronize this

From their sick minds, to mine, to yours - a true Olympic classic.

Local shepherdess hits the mark

Love buying local?

Love knowing animal products come from happy animals?

Check out the new Icelandic wool being carried exclusively by The Yarnery. From North Mankato, this heavy worsted yarn comes in an array of jaw-dropping handpainted colors, as well as lush naturals. It received a glowing review in Knitter's Review this week (woo-hoo!), and Shelly said orders started coming in immediately.

Go read the review and get to the store.
Now.

Hurry before it's gone!

Slice of the Big Apple #10

OK, this isn't really from New York itself, but on the way home we stopped at Chix with Stix in Forest Park, IL. Great LYS, and friendly, too! We ran in the door about 15 minutes before closing on a Sunday afternoon, and still the two women behind the counter never made us feel rushed (Mom and Dad at the counter below).A large space, open and (fairly) bright, with yarns clearly displayed and several work areas.

I came away with three in-house souvenir patterns from this shop - adorable boy and girl booties (left), and a market bag (right) with both short and long handles. I'm working the bag in Cascade Sierra as you read this. OMG - I might have actual knitting pictures in the not-so-distant future!

And this, my knitting friends, is the mother of all ball winders (a BFBW, according to Papa) - smooooth! You can't see from this photo, but it requires two clamps, one on either side of the counter corner. This winder means serious business.And for $200, you can have one, too.

Icarus envy

blogger's note: lofty post to follow (pun not intended)

It's hard not to be amazed by the power, grace and discipline exhibited by the Olympic athletes this past week. But of all the ways we (and so near the previous statement do I loosely say we) can locomote our body machines, one mode will always escape us - independent flight.

As Kidlet and I were driving to church this morning, a bird momentarily flew parallel with my Civic's trajectory down the interstate. As effortless as the bird's flight looked, it was equally foreign and fascinating. I feel the same awe - and earthbound lament - watching hummingbirds hovering in flight at the feeder.

What would possess a human to think, "Yeah, I'm gonna fly like that"? Thankfully there were mechanically-minded others before me who could build what we weren't genetically given; left to me, we'd still have to set aside a week to cross the continent.

ADDENDUM: On a related note, go check out Susan Rainey's completed Icarus Shawl- it's almost as good as wings.

(Had to share the runner-up graphic when I searched "Icarus" on Google Images:I added the modesty bar. You're welcome.)

Holy chlorine, Batman!

So how 'bout that Michael Phelps?

Crikey.

As overheard on Word World

"The letter 'J'? That's one of my 26 favorite letters!"

Sometimes life is just that simple.

Have a good day!

Ode to Joie

I get very nostalgic over The Muppet Show; don't ask how many times my hand has been on the phone (never dialed) when "The Best Of" infomercial comes on the tube. At any rate, this video was brought to my attention by RM, our sole female member of St. Paul's Parish Choir's tenor section.

Love the Beaker in your life!

Slice of the Big Apple #9

(This ain't no wimpy slice of fruit - it's a huge careful-you-don't-choke-on-it-and-if-you-do-I-don't-wanna-hear-about-it chunk.)

Friday in Manhattan was just Nana, Papa and Meema. Despite getting shut out of our first two chosen activities (#1: not having the correct portions of receipts for the harbor tour, and #2: not reserving tickets ahead of time for the Tenement Museum, which had THE BEST LOO IN THE CITY - I swear I took pictures of it), we made our way uptown. Lunch was taken at an amazing Greek family-run restaurant on Madison Avenue. Then...

Ah, Le Guggenheim.

Leaving the museum, we took a really fast cab ride across Central Park to catch a train to our next destination. Good timing, to be on the Staten Island Ferry at sunset; I'd love to say we planned it that way, but we owe it to good tourist karma.

The last stop on our last night in NYC was Grand Central Station. Dang. What an impressive structure, to say nothing of the thousands of people sifting through it each day.

Anyone else a fan of The Untouchables? Couldn't help but remember the movie as we walked down those stairs. (That's red-shirted Dad, heading down them much more uneventfully than did Mr. Costner.)

Whew. Big chunk of apple, that. Thanks for playing.

92 and ready for more

My paternal grandmother's birthday falls at the end of July, and the Norwegian clan gathers each summer at my aunt's home on Forest Lake to celebrate it - and summery goodness. We couldn't have requested a more perfect day for her 92nd birthday party today.

The six eldest great-grandkids were there (my AZ cousin just had her first son two weeks ago), and it was interesting to see how some things never change. My cousins, sister and I frequently ran up and down those spiral stairs as kids ourselves; we have many a photo of our plaid pants and Holly Hobbie sweatshirts posed just like our girls today. Those were the days...

Happy birthday, Grandma!

Just coffee for me

From the Manhattan division of Just Say No, this was not on our menu in NYC: The Golden Opulence Sundae served at Serendipity.From the online review:

There is a lot that the Golden Opulence Sundae has to offer to anyone who orders it. With five scoops of the finest Tahitian Vanilla Bean ice cream, 23 carat edible gold leaf, expensive chocolate, rare chocolate, exotic candied fruit, a dessert caviar, various types of fruit, truffles and so much more. It is served in a baccarat Harcourt crystal goblet with an 18 carat gold spoon, a mother of pearl spoon, and gilded sugar flower by Ron Ben-Israel.

Price tag: $1,000. 48-hour notice required to prepare.

Not in this lifetime, thankyouverymuch.

Wow.

Just finished watching the opening ceremony of the 29th Olympiad.

Wow.

P.S. For all you numerology fans out there, take note of a baby girl born this morning in Fergus Falls, MN, who apparently has significant cosmic destiny or something.
You would, too, being born on 8/8/08.
At 8:08am.
Weighing 8 lbs, 8oz.

Slice of the Big Apple #8

We started our Big Apple Thursday in divide-and-conquer mode: Ness and Dad trained over to visit Shea Stadium, and Mom and I headed south downtown for our second yarny indulgence, purl soho. Ooh, it was nice.

See the storefront photo? See the little metal cellar doors in the sidewalk on the right? That's their stockroom. Yes, it was quaint and very Soho on a lovely summer day, but I can't imagine it holds as much charm in a rainstorm or blizzard.

See the (negligible quality) self-portrait of me and another in the shop? I was looking for souvenir yarn and heard a voice behind me mention something to the effect of "we used to carry this at The Yarnery..."

"Excuse me? The Yarnery in Saint Paul?"

Yup. That's me with former Yarnerista Kristi. It's a small yarny world out there.

The souvenir which leapt out of the cellar and into my bag was Lorna's Laces sock yarn, exclusively dyed for the shop.

Slice of the Big Apple #7

The 'Buck stops here... and here, and here, and here. I had no idea how far a company could take the concept of market saturation until we took this trip. Starbucks is freakin' EVERYWHERE. All the way out and back again. I will say this: their omnipresence in Manhattan provided delightfully predictable opportunity for a certain physical relief.

The first of many 'Buck moments, this one in WI Dells:

Here we see Ness modeling her purse-turned-headwear in a freshly caffeinated moment; M&D are bedecked in South Park shorts (yup).

God only knows where this one was on the night bus tour.

Bear witness to the (frequent) frappuccino carnage.

At least in the Twin Cities there are a couple other coffee chains with a strong presence, and some seriously fabulous indies. Me likes home.

This got a triple take

From the Just Say No department's regional office in Scary, Indiana:That's right, they're pre-frayed for your immediate casual enjoyment. And you spindly mama's boys will have to shop elsewhere - these beauts are available only in L-3XL.

What I learned from my sister on The Trip

Always visit the loo in any tourist destination you can; you never know what gem you may find.

taken by 'Ness in the WC of Lettuce Knit, Toronto, ON

Love your yarn right

I've never been good at translating the fabric care symbols on yarn labels, so I was thrilled to find this chart from the Soap and Detergent Association (yes, it's a real organization). I may just print this bad boy off, laminate it, and slip it in my knitting notions bag.

Hope it helps you, too!

A break

So Papa and I spent about five hours scrolling through photos of those damn beautiful buildings last night, trying to identify what we could. Google helped in a few situations, but there is a deplorably large puddle of "assorted" edifices. I am on skyscraper overload right now, so the apple slices are sitting in some lemon juice for the night; tomorrow is another day.

p.s. It's nice to see that, via the sidebar poll, there isn't much that rattles the readership. I knew I liked you guys.