KnittyOtter

Prize #3: 200th Post Contest

The Third prize for my 200th post contest is a limited edition sock yarn from SWTC and a print off of the pattern that was made for this sock yarn. It was on a CD with other patterns for their limited edition sock yarn but I am not giving you the CD. :P (I have a few of the yarns for the patterns on the CD. Sweet!)

50% Superwash Wool
25% SOYSILK brand fiber
22.5% Cotton
2.5% Chitin (made from shrimp and crab shells!)
8 sts  = 1"
needles:       US 2 (2.75mm)
425m / 100g ball
machine wash and dry

Pattern: Pedal Pusher

This yarn reminds me a lot of the Russian Sage we have growing in our yard.

Clickety Biggety!

I love this stuff. It smells sooooo good. It's weird though. Most people around here think it's Lavender. I guess I can see that, but some of them are total asses about insisting that it is Lavender. Trust me, I know lavender. This is not it, though lovely it is.

I like this yarn a lot, but I have several skeins of the Tofutsies and I just can't have that much stash right now. It's become a burden. A weight on my shoulders to be knit up. In fact today I returned $270 worth of yarn to a local yarn store today. Granted they gave me store credit so it's still out there in the void, dollars waiting to be knit up. But at least I can use it for specific projects... or Winter Holiday Presents. Not for me to knit up mind you, but to buy my knitter friends their. ;^)

That's what this week is about to me, Stash Reduction. All the yarns in this giveaway are from my stash of yarn. After this I will have a few yarns that if anyone is interested in a swap, so long as you aren't some kind of socially and interactively challenged nut job that is, that would be cool.

Speaking of the socially and interactively challenged nut jobs of the world, if you come to my blog and post rude and completely clueless remarks or even say something to the effect that my blog makes you want to vomit I can pretty much guarantee you will not be winning any prizes here. Random generator true, but I don't have to include you in the mix.

I would also like to address the issue of some other blog out there announcing my contest as their own and then changing the rules of my little contest here to suit whatever delusional fantasy they have in their head about how this works. I never said I would be choosing a favorite for the second place prize thingy or that I was doing a co-blog contest. (WTF?!) Whatever y'all do on someone else's blog will not effect the outcome of what I do here. The second smaller prize will be randomly generated as well. It's not that hard to see what I'm doing here and if you want to reread what I said I would do, please see this post.

This was supposed to be fun and easy. I hope it's still fun for y'all.

In order to play along you'll need to go read this post and answer that questionnaire. Post the answers to the questions on your blog and then link your post into the comments of Saturdays post or leave your answers on Saturdays post in the comments.

In other news Cookie is right again. She is ALWAYS right. It fucking boggles my mind. I must never forget this. Ever.

(Isn't Zarzuela's roving that Cookie posted today just gorgeous! I need to learn to spin...)

Also Dave is a true fucking sweet heart.

And in Monday Loves, I love the rain that fell here a bit ago. That was a nice change.

I still hate stupid people though.

See Otter's can be cranky too. I'm feel'n down right smackety to be honest.

Prize #2: 200th Post Contest

Well post 201 doesn't feel any different than any post prior to 200. Or it could just be that I feel like hell today. *falls over dead* (Trust me it's better this way)

Anyway the show must go on, though brief it will be.

The second prize after the ultra fabulous Duet Sock Yarn is a Della Q bag. It's just the perfect size for socks in progress. :D

Pretty Nifty eh? Very bright and colorful. So that's the second prize for the 200th post contest.

In order to play along you'll need to go read this post and answer that questionnaire. Post the answers to the questions on your blog and then link your post into the comments of yesterdays post or leave your answers on yesterdays post in the comments.

In other news this is the mutant carrot we pulled up a few days ago.

He's not so much of a mutant, just a bit naughty looking. He was pulled up to make more room for a tomato plant. The tomato plant already has 4 little babies on it. I'm going to eat them raw when they are ready. I love tomatoes!

The Carrot was a little early but tasted pretty damn good. We made a wish and pulled him apart. I imagined the crunching sounds he made were tiny screams. *evil grin*

:P

Okay that's as much weirdness as I can exude today. I'm going to go knit on a sock and try not to feel as crappy. The sock will help with that right? ;^)

Sunburnt Peas & Dealing with Catnip Addiction

I was feeling pretty good about my peas last week. But they weren't quite ready. Then Bam-O! They were out one day too long. It was a hot day. My peas suffered some losses that day. o.0

Here's what I was able to harvest yesterday morning.

All Photo's in this post are Clickety Biggety!

It's not as bad as it looks... though yeah it does look pretty bad. Especially compared to Norma's Peas. But I'm not jealous. I'm not jealous a damn farking bit. Not one damn bit. I swear. Feh.

Okay maybe a little bit. :P

But it's not as bad as it looks. I separated the burned peas from the lush plump green ones and only about a 4th of them were burned.

I shelled them and have a cup and a half of the good ones. I'm wondering if I can rehydrate the dry burned ones. Anyone have thoughts or tips on this?

I'm hoping the next crop of peas will be better. We still have carrots, onions, tomatoes, mini bell peppers and pumpkins growing out there as well. :D

There is also a very special stash of catnip growing out there. *dances*

Little TKK is LOVING this stuff.

She's not just on the other side of the catnip. She is right in the middle of it. :D It's so cute when she gets in there rubbing her wittle face up all other the nip. I never thought I'd say this, but my cat is a NipHead. She can't get enough of the nip. Even gets antsy if she can't get out a few times a day to inhale some of the glory weed. So with the smoke situation that's been going on we've had to keep her inside more so she doesn't breathe too much nasty stuff. Let me tell you having a cat smack you in the face at 5:00am because she wants a fix is not the best way to wake up. *L*

If this keeps up we may have to send her to Kitty Rehab. I hope it doesn't come to that though. I wouldn't want her to meet any of those skanky celebrity cats that are always going in and out of rehab. You know who I mean. :P

Just to the right of the catnip is some Orange Mint we picked up this year. Can you say super yummy Mojito's, cause that's what's going to become of some of it once it gets big enough. *dances* We also got some chocolate mint. Not sure what to do with that yet. I don't think a chocolate mojito sounds very good.

Tune in tomorrow for Adventures in Cat Shaving Or perhaps a Recipe for Super Yummy Garlic & Ginger Shrimp... but not both at the same time.  Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!

Saturday Sky, Snow & a New Year Oh My!

It's the first Saturday Sky of the New Year! (Clickey Biggety all photo's in this post!)

A little after I took the top photo the snow started to move. You can see it moving towards us in the next photo.

*blink blink* If the rest of the year is like the first week of the year you can have it back.

I hatez the stupid people... and that's all I'll say about that.

*sigh*

So on top of the life stuff I've been dealing with (mostly work and such) the weather people here have had their panties in a bind over the white death that we were expected to get. After a TON of rain, in which I got soaked through and through while out running some errands, it finally came. (Yes, the same rain/precipitation Cookie's dealing with.)

The white death, it is here. o.0

This morning the honey and I got up and ran outside to play shoveled the driveway and sidewalk. He wanted to wait but I wanted to get out in it before the sun made it slick and caused me to fall down a million times. (Otters have more grace in the water than on land, dontchaknow.) We only have one shovel so we took turns. It looked really nice... until a few hours ago when more snow fell. But at least we removed the snow soon enough so that the sun melted any ice that was hanging around.

Here's an action shot of the Honey shoveling some of the snow in our driveway.

It was kinda fun to shovel snow... I'm betting it won't be as interesting tomorrow or Monday. :P

The kitty made a brief visit to the backyard. I mostly held her, but she was allowed a brief walk from the fence to the door. It soothed her curiosity fairly quickly. *L*

After "playing" in the snow all morning we decided to go out into the world to the book store. I got a book on socks, Stitch Style Socks. It has skull socks in it. :D Not that I need another book on socks or anything... but there you go.

Speaking of knitting, yes I knit. Shut Up!

I have a few finished knits I comeplted in 2007 I need to post. Need to take their picture first.

Here's the iPod Sock I knit for Rendogg this past Autumn.

Those were the Cantaloupes that didn't start growing until Autumn was almost done with. They didn't get much bigger. The yarn is some kind of wool in the Gryffindor colors. Helpful, aren't I. I really should take notes on these things I suppose. :P

Maybe tomorrow I'll see if George wants to go outside into the snow for a photo shoot.  We'll see, his been such a Drama Whore since Christmas.

:P

Now to go knit on one of my nine unfinished projects while we watch that Knocked Up movie.

I think I see Hot Cocoa in my near future too. ;^)

Eye Candy Friday: Garden of Delights

So far this year all we've been able to harvest is a handful of peas and more green onions than you can shake a stick at. Though why I'd be bothered to shake a stick at them is beyond me. :P

The Pumpkin Patch has yielded one whole pumpkin this year. That's one better than last years patch.  The honey doesn't think we should bother with Pumpkins next year. Our backyard gets way too much sun for Pumpkins I'm thinking. I dunno. We'll see.

Here's the Pumpkin known as PIE.

Pie isn't all alone in his patch though. There are 4 baseball sized Cantaloupes hanging out right next to him. I didn't know the honey had planted those. They're kinda sneaky things. First there were two, the two shown below and then BAM-O two more appeared overnight. I hope they have enough time to grow up before the frost sets in.

The Golden Bell Peppers have 4 medium sized peppers on the plants. There are a few other smaller ones. They are supposed to be eaten when they turn golden yellow. Although you can also eat them green.

Finally I'll show you the Tomatoes. :D

We have LOTS of green tomatoes. I hope they have enough time to ripen, though it's already getting pretty cold. It even snowed up in the mountains Wednesday night.

These two little guys were picked up at the store.

This weekend one of them will fall under a knife to become a very tempting batch of my yummy Pumpkin Cookies. *Mwhahahahahaha*

Give Peas a Chance... and other assorted veggies

Despite the recent high temperatures the garden is doing well. We've started moving the lawn chairs in front on the veggies to give them shade from the sun during the worst of it.

Yesterday I harvested our first haul of fresh veggies even. PEAS! They are the super yummiest peas ever.

Lookie!

We ate them raw. *GRIN*

Here's the plant they came off.

It seems like we'll have fresh peas for a while, unless the heat gets them. Sorta planted them late I suppose. 

We have several other plants in the veggie garden this year.

Here's the tomato plant, no sign of any tomatoes yet though.

The Onions are looking pretty good. The little plants next to it are some of the pepper plants. They will grow up to be green and yellow bell peppers. Yum!

The Pumpkin plants are looking really good. Keep your fingers crossed. I may very well have a successful Pumpkin Patch this year after all!

Devorah, how is Your Pumpkin Patch doing? :D Mine's gotten a bit larger and greener since last I posted about it. *L*

Here's a photo of the kitty I took yesterday afternoon. She's not allowed to go outside until the smokey air clears up more. She's a delicate wittle fuzzy head and I don't want her feeling sickie from all that.

It's been so smokey we haven't been hanging outside much either. Well other than to briefly grab some peas and photos yesterday. ;)

I will admit I've been using the smokey air thing as an excuse not to weave in the ends on my honey socks. They are done. I just need to weave in the ends and wash 'em. It's not even a big deal. I dunno, it's weird over here. I'm going to have to finish them, wash them and dry them inside now though. I'd hate for them to get that nasty smell stuck in them. So maybe I'll go finish those up in a bit and wash them so I can post them tomorrow.

Finally I'll just say Many Many Hugs to Crazy Aunt Purl. That was a hard post to read as soon as I noticed that she was using past tense. :(

I'm gonna go hug on my kitty some more and cherish every moment we have. I don't really like talking about her in person much anymore. Anytime you say anything about anything it seems like people just want to go for the most negative thing they can think of. I don't know if it's stupidity or a lack of class and common sense with people these days. You mention your cat is going to the box and drinking a lot more water than normal and they immediately tell you how close to deaths door she is. Nevermind the fact she gets that way every time the weather changes and has so for years. Nope, everyone else think they know best. Even when they don't know shit. In some cases it's extremely outrageous. One dumbass woman told a friend of mine horror stories about women losing their babies after finding out she (my friend) was pregnant. The day before I had told her, knowing what a yappy ass she was, not to say anything untoward to my friend. Cause nothing is as special as some old cunt* trying to scare the fuck out of a pregnant woman. When will people learn to shut their gaping pie holes. It's ridiculous. I'm quite frankly done with not telling those types what I really think. Hmmm I sense a theme in my life right now. *L*

*the most offensive word I could think of and it still doesn't do that clueless git credit for how stupid she was

I wonder if the last part of my post counts towards a WTF Wednesday. *L*

Hello Darkness, My Old Friend...

Yesterday after the honey took me to see Transformers (LOVED IT) we encountered a dust storm on the way home. So in place of Saturday Sky photos you'll get those. It's always something these days. All three photos are clickety biggety.

Recently my sweet little kitty TKK has had a string of bad luck. It started last week when she was sitting in her living room kitty bed near one of the coffee tables. While she was cutely minding her own business she had a sudden and brief storm of tea and ice cubes rain down upon her. Naturally she was startled and jumped up looking confused. My honey who happened to be sitting on that end of the couch jumped up started as well. He had a sudden and brief loss of a glass of ice tea.

Meanwhile I dropped my knitting and grabbed some towels.

Laughing and laughing and laughing all the while.

I laughed while I dried off the kitty, the cat bed and the carpet.

The honey accused me of being cruel towards the kitty. He felt very bad for giving her an ice tea bath. It's not that I'm mean it was just really funny.

After she was dry she got up on the couch and sat very close to me looking a little paranoid, but I guess she figured she was safe near me.

So you'd think it would be less funny the next night.

It was not.

This time she just lay there in the cool puddle that pooled around her.

And I laughed and laughed and laughed some more.

I dried her and the bedding off and told the honey to stop doing that. Though I laughed while I said it so I wonder how seriously he took me. She moved to sit next to me and has been sitting there whenever I'm on the couch.

She's been dry for several days now. heh.

This morning she had a different kind of shock. One that woke all of us up in a most unpleasant manner.

She fell between the bed and the night stand, about a 3 or 4 inch space. Between that space I have a narrow waste basket. Yup, she fell right into it. Her wittle head and front paws sticking up were all you could see. As you can imagine she yelped out in a very unhappy and scared way. 

I'm fairly tuned into her activities at night and the moment I heard her slip and the coaster fall off the night stand I was awake and had the light on. I scooped her up out of the waste basket quickly and made sure she was alright. Within a moment she was on my pillow purring and happy for the early morning company.

I did not laugh.

That was around 4:30 am. I tried to go back to sleep, but I was pretty much awake. The honey was awake too so we had a philosophical discussion on the principals of cat butt. If she is licking my face in what direction does her butt point and is it close to another's face. He thinks his argument proves she should not be on the bed.

Just about that time several high pitched howling sounds pierced the air and we both got up to explore the source. Well explore it was much as we can from our backyard. The Coyotes were on the other side of the fence, across the road a ways. They howled for a bit and then went on their way. After that I was pretty much up for the day.

*zombie face*

I have not been getting enough sleep. It's too hot and weird. Plus I just have too much on my mind. I'm kinda stressed and just about ready to snap.

Lemme tell ya, when I do I'm taking out all the stupid people who have been irritating me. I am so fucking sick of biting my tongue when someone says or does something stupid.

I think perhaps holding in my feelings for so long has me a bit on the edge and the irritation and frustration is seeping out in unexpected ways. I'm starting to say what I think to people who really shouldn't have to hear it and some who should. I'll give a few examples.

Recently I was at a yarn shop visiting with a friend. She pointed out some colorful and loud textured yarn someone else we know might like. Without checking my head filter I just blurted what I thought of it. Which happens to be that I thought it looked like something a cat might vomit up. Classy I know. o.0

In my defense it actually looked like a cat had gone through someone's stash and eaten a bit of this and that. Maybe some merino, fuzzy mohair, ribbon yarn and a mix of anything else you can imagine. Add in some other kitty tummy contents give it a whirl in the old blender and you had this yarn. Bloody awful.

BUT I shouldn't have said anything, certainly not in front of some lady who worked there. I apologized for blurting that out but the damage was done. But at least I didn't say HEY LADY.

The other incident took place last week when the honey took me out for dinner. I ordered a Mango Daiquiri and when it arrived at the table it tasted awful. Too bad to drink even. It was way too strong and you couldn't taste the mango at all. I didn't feel like saying anything, cause most of the time I wouldn't. Though you can be sure I made the honey taste it. *L*

A bit later the waitress asked if the drink was okay. I said it was fine and then she said how she was asking because they were trying out a new recipe. I kinda blurted out, "Oh you really wanna know, you weren't just asking." Then I told her nice as I could what I thought with some constructive criticism. She asked if I wanted something else and at that point I just wanted ice tea so I got that instead. I don't like being the lab rat to some bartender who thinks they are bing creative. *icky shivers*

But mostly I just want to tell those assholes in my life to knock it off. Who knows maybe I'll start being more direct.

I think I'll start by telling anyone who gives me unasked for advice to go suck it. Or maybe I'll tell those people who act out in attention seeking ways to knock it off. There's a bunch of other things that are currently irritating the fuck out of me.

Mostly I just want the clueless to get a clue. Life is just too short to deal with that shit.

Another thing that annoys the fuck of of me... Have you seen that damn visa commercial with the people buying flowers at a nursery or something using their stupid ass fast pay thingy? The music in the commercial is from the movie Brazil. *head 'splodes*

o.0 They are trying to make the commercial seem like if you do the "paper system", cash or checks you are slowing down the system. In the commercial the system breaks down when something very slight goes out of place for a moment, much like in the movie Brazil. When I first saw that commercial I was stunned for a moment and my honey asked what was up. I pointed out that they were using the music from Brazil in the commercial and then he was stunned too.

Did they not see how fucking Ironic that is. Not in a good way that favors them, but that proves how the system should be more flexible. If you have this rigid one way only system that punishes people for doing one little thing different then we're all fucked. Feh. The world is irritating me on so many levels right now. I love that song, how dare they sully it. Fuckers. (yes, yes I know...)

Well I've been a bit long winded here this morning so perhaps I should end this and be on my way.

But before I go I'll just say this, the next time someone asks me what I really think I may very well fucking tell them.

Morning Hike, Wild Horses & a Golden Eagle

This morning the Honey and I got up early and went for a hike. We decided to do this after having gone for a walk through part of the area on Sunday. It was truly more of a Hike today. *L*

Here is the view from the top of the hill we were on. It's actually the backside view, which I hadn't seen before. Looks like it might be easier to get to from the backside actually. heh.

All Pictures Clickety Biggety, except the birdie pics at the end

This is currently my favorite peaceful place. No not that particular view. Just the general walking around area. Sometimes I go by myself, but mostly I go with my honey or sometimes with a friend. You can do a lot of thinking up there. I'm surprised I haven't knit up there yet. Maybe I'll drag Rachel or MonkeySocks up that way sometime.

Today the honey and I got an extra wonderful surprise as we walked around soaking in all the beauty. We saw Wild Horses. Kinda came up on them while we were looking at various birds. I was looking at some little birdies with yellow tummies and some others with bright red throats when we spotted the wild horses. There were a total of 35 spread out in the area. I snapped a few photos before we backed out quietly leaving them to enjoy the crunchy green sage they were snacking on.

Lookie that one has black socks in the front and white socks on the back feet... err hooves. It's such a wonder to see the wild horses doing their own thing. Totally made my day.

A short while after that I spotted a Golden Eagle sitting on a rock. Got him taking off too. :D

The Golden Eagles sometimes drop bits of their dinner when they fly. A few times we had dead mice/voles/something smallish and furry drop into our yard. Thankfully TKK is way too big to be a snack for these birds of prey. Though I'm always careful of her when she's in the backyard with us. You never know. o.0

Speaking of the fabulous TKK she was sitting here in front of the keyboard as I typed this post out. She was trying to lick my hands and get me to pet her, which was fine until she reached up and licked me on the lips. So now she's on the floor thinking about what she's done. Cause no matter how much I love that cute wittle kittyhead that is just wrong. :P

Hmm I wonder if I should go kiss my honey and then tell him what she did. *evil grin*

Nah, I'm not that cruel. One of us having the cat cooties is enough for today. *L*

I Hope you're all having a fun safe 4th of July.