Mossy Cottage Knits

I IZ ON YR COUCH EATNG YR BLNKET

Lest anyone was afraid my Ultra-Special Blanket O' Love (otherwise aptly known as the Crazy Quilt) was mouldering in a closet somewhere, here it is, beautifying my loft bed. True, the day I brought it home, Benny tried to eat the entire thing (but miraculously learned how to fly a nanosecond later) so, also true, I put the blanket safely away for a while. About three months ago, however, I pulled it out and put it in my favorite place in the house, the loft, gracing one of my favorite things, my copper-colored duvet cover. And, yes, those are the tags, still very much on. I say they give the blanket provenance. And, yes, I have used the blanket with the tags on. Granted, they rattle annoyingly about my face, and I look as if I'm one sandwich short of a picnic when I'm lying under it but what else is new?

The knit-in for the Women Studies program was a success, to the tune of $855, leaving Elaine--who had been cautiously aiming for $380--touched and flabbergasted. The donations mean that Elaine can now petition the University to increase the amount of the awards made. Thank you to the 30+ of you who came and who made the event so much fun!!! Join us next year?

I Am Not Hopeful...

Budget- and job-wise, things have gotten ugly here in Washington state—especially when one is employed by an organization which reports directly to the State legislature—so by way of a pre-emptive strike, I went to the State unemployment-benefits Web site to see what I could see. Something about their home page just did not leave me feeling reassured:

I did discover after the fact that this jumble had something had to do with how I had gotten to the page, not the page itself, but the damage was done.

RLY? That's It?!

I’ve seen the musical “Cats” two times, and have each time been annoyed by these lyrics in “The Naming of Cats:”

    But above and beyond there's still one name left over
    And that is the name that you never will guess
    The name that no human research can discover
    But the cat himself knows, and will never confess

As Empress of All I Survey, it pisses me off that my cats—whom I house, feed, entertain, cuddle, spoil, and go regularly bankrupt for—have names they won’t tell me. So, on the assumption that “will never confess” was used purely for dramatic effect, I conducted a test. I picked up Benny, looked deep into his golden eyes, and asked him seriously and with great cat-centric respect what his secret name was. I picked up Joon, looked deep into her golden eyes, and asked her seriously and with great cat-centric respect what her secret name was. Then I waited for the answers.

Blossom and Larry. Who knew? I, for one, am unimpressed.

Ask your cat what his or her secret name is and let me know in a comment, would ya’? It’s not anywhere near as Skull-and-Bones sub rosa as T. S. Eliot would have you think. Your cat will tell you.

Work continues, but slowly, on the Good-Enough Gansey. Am almost to the neck on the front; back and arms await. Right now there's a nail-biting race going on between how fast I can knit and how fast I'm gaining weight. When I'm eating and knitting at the same time, the Off-Track-Betting reader boards go into an absolute tailspin.

Elaine's fund-raiser tomorrow! Be there or be...well...somewhere else, I guess.

Reminder About the Knit-In!!

A reminder that the Knit-In For Feminist Scholarship will be held this weekend!

The details:

Per our hostess, Elaine, this event "will fund undergraduate scholarship through awards for activism, service, and academic rigor by the students of Women Studies" at the University of Washington.

Location: Phinney Neighborhood Association, 6532 Phinney Ave. N (map), Room 2, main floor

Per Elaine, there will be great door prizes, including:

lace weight alpaca
Cascade 220
Noro Silk Garden
rustic handspun yarn from New Zealand
hand-knit socks and mittens
hand-knit scarves
fun project kits
cherry wood “niddy pinny”
Inkle loom

I haven't been able to get out and about much this year, but I will be at this event, and there are a lot of you out there that I miss and would like to see, so come on down (or up, or over)!

The Battle of Wills Continues

So, I tried the tax thing one more time and...

So My Tax Guy finished them. He has a dog. He has no cats.

While Tax Guy was doing whatever voodoo it is that Tax Guys do, I concentrated instead on my knitting, specifically, the Good Enough Gansey. Took it out, laid it out on the armrest to measure the length, went to get my measuring tape, and...

I wonder if my Tax Guy knows how to knit?