Archive for the ‘Poll of the Week’ Category
Coming soon to a house near you
21
May
If you live near us, that is.
Names are still under discussion…we’ve got it narrowed down to three choices, but… man!
Why is it so hard to choose?! All of these are great names! Maybe we can name one “Moya Rosie Calamity Jane” and the other one “Serenity Gilda Trixie the Whore”. … yeah… maybe not.
Both of the kittens are pretty relaxed and very friendly, with the darker one being the most easy-going of the two. She likes to take naps on top of people. They are in the process of being weaned now (a couple weeks earlier than expected, but momma cat has to take some medicine and she can’t pass it on to the babies, so Alexis is weaning them this week) so we could be new kitteh parents any week now. Which means deciding on names! Part of me is all “get them names now! don’t wait!” but part of me is “why not wait until they get here and spend a couple days observing them”.
The one where Knitty McCrankyPants gets all stabby with the needles
04
May
It’s like a billion degrees outside. OK, maybe just in the high 90′s. And I know I live in Florida and it should be hot but SWEET ZOMBIE JESUS IT HIT 96 ON THE FIRST DAY OF MAY! That’s too early to be peeling my skin off and diving into the nearest ice machine.
So I want to knit a tank top.
But here’s where my pickiness gets the better of me.
Requirements of a tank top that I will wear, knitted or store-bought:
- must have straps wide enough to cover my bra straps, I don’t care that that’s not a fashion faux pas any more, I still think it makes you look like a drunk hooker. Can have a built-in bra, if it’s supportive enough for the girls. And trust me, my girls need a lot of support.
- must not need me to wear a strapless bra, I hate those things.
- must not have some sort of open design over the boobs that either shows the bra through the design or is so open that you need to wear a second tank top underneath it. If that’s the case, why not just wear the single tank top?! OK, actually I admit there are times I like the layered look – I’m addicted to tank tops and thin long-sleeved thermals. But for some reason when I think about knitting a tank top in the next couple of months, I just want to knit a single-layer tank! Gah!
I’m having a lot of trouble finding a tank top that meets all these apparently crazy needs, that is also something of which I like the look.
Oh yeah, and specific knitting requirements -
- Must get the gauge, or close enough to the gauge that I can mess with it, to be able to use the yarn I want to use.
- Must either be a pattern I already own (in a book or magazine) or a pattern I can easily get.
After spending about two days looking through books I own and Ravelry, I think I have it narrowed down to five. I’ll try to link to someone’s Flickr pics for those that aren’t on Ravelry who might want to see what I’m talking about (you guys do still read this blog, right?). Some of these could probably be called loose t-shirts rather than tanks, but I’ve had to open my criteria a bit because apparently I’m too narrow-minded.
Pucker – Pros: blousy, cute. Cons: not the right weight yarn so would have to fudge gauge, would have to order the book. Normally I would consider ordering the book a deal breaker, but I have to wait for the yarn to come in anyway; if I ordered the book this week it would still come in before the yarn does.
Lillian – Pros: Straps and bust meet my requirements, calls for very close gauge to what I’ll be getting. Free pattern. Cons: don’t love the pattern on the bottom half, although I could modify it to one that I like.
Buttercup -Pros: blousy, cute, looks good on chesty girls. Free pattern. Cons: often shown in photos with tank top underneath; however, designer says recent update to pattern has taken that into account and modifications have been made.
Valpuri -Pros: this has been on my “want” list for a long time (y’all know how much I love the cables). Free pattern. Cons: not really the gauge I’m looking for, and if the math didn’t work out for me to be able to follow the directions for a different size, it could go badly.
Mud Flap Girl – Pros: Also been on my “want” list for a while. Already own the book that the pattern is in. Hmm, gets closer to the gauge I need than I originally though. Cons: straps are too thin, although that could be modified, perhaps.
Oh, hey! I should put a poll up!
So… anyone have any thoughts? Because actually, after writing all this out (hey, guys, thanks for listening!) I don’t feel nearly as cranky as I did before. I have some great patterns listed here and perhaps one day will get around to making all five…
Poll of the Week
21
Apr
So, last year when Chili died (and I can’t link to that because it was juuuuust before the Great Hosting Change of 2009), Tim and I started talking about getting new kittens. Backup Kittehs, if you will. But we wanted to wait until Rembrandt died, because she was old and cranky and granted that getting new kittens might push her over the edge… we wanted to wait. Then it just wasn’t really a good time, coupled with Buddha getting up there as well… we decided to wait until she left the party to begin a look for new kittens. We knew we wanted two (so they could play with each other and tire each other out, instead of constantly wearing out our 11-year-old sisters) and we wanted girls (no more boys peeing in the corners!). That was really all we had in mind. And we trusted that when the time was right, the universe would open up the magic kitten access door.
Saturday night we were having dinner with some friends and Rhea said, “hey, you know Meg, right? Her daughter’s cat just had kittens. I think they might be girls…” and… the rest is history. I’d been messaging with Alexis over Facebook and the end result is…
But, not so fast! They’re only about 10 days old, nowhere near ready to take away from mommy yet. Mommy, who, the same week she got knocked up also broke her jaw – so we were able to bring them two cases of Buddha’s uneaten wet cat food, solving two problems at once. So in about 7 or 8 weeks, these little baby girls will come to live with us, in the HaldeCon Menagerie.
And we’ll need to name them! Right now their names are Maggie and Mimzy (their brother is Monkey, and they all have an “M” on their faces) but I don’t know that we’ll stick with that. Below are some ideas that Tim and I have, coupled with some ideas from my friends on Facebook. Tim and I would love to hear your input (note to non-geeks: some of these are geeky references).
Multiple choices are OK, and there’s a line for “other”, so if you have great ideas, let us hear ‘em!
