martinimade

Turkey Dubstep.

I hope that you and yours are well-fed and content, on this day.*

*(And every day, really.)

Once upon a time, Lisa and Adrienne worked for the same alternative newsweekly. Now, both spend their respective days mining their creative souls and leading hermit-like lives. And so an idea was hatched. Every week, one would send the other a sketch - either in illustration or word form - and the other would make a companion sketch. The result would be posted on both their blogs every week, just for grins. Even if the result isn't award-worthy, the exercise might make both minds more nimble. Hopefully.

Let this serve as a reminder that we are limited in what we can perceive. From the surface, using nothing but our human eyes, all we would see is something that looks like a gray stick. But where we can’t see is where the magic is.

Because of that, I am sticking to my conviction that there are nocturnal gnomes in the house who steal all of our pens and ride the cats like grouchy horses.

Text ©Adrienne Martini; illustration ©Lisa Horstman. Until the end of time. Or something.

* Writing is a war of inches.

* For the next time.

* No matter what you might think of Adam Levine vis a vis "Sexiest Man Alive," this is pretty dang funny.

* There have been cutbacks.

* What mentally strong people don't do.

* I love everything about this story.

* This should scare you.

* I really struggle with #8. I'm trying to be better about it but, man, it's hard.

* The title really says it all: Corgi Twerk.

* A design primer.

* What every holiday table needs.

* My accent was never quite that pronounced but I honestly didn't learn about part participles until I was a sophomore in college.

I've been diligently knitting away on my Chimera sweater. The back is done and blocked:

(Yes, there is a cable error on the back. I'm going to fix it in post-production.)

Also done but not blocked is one sleeve. The other sleeve is about halfway knitted. Also done and blocked are the fronts. Except:

While pinning the fronts out for blocking, I noticed that they were identical, rather than mirror images. Which means that I have knitted to right fronts because I fail at directions. And given that the Tween was with me as I was pinning them out, I couldn't swear for hours on end about it; not because she can't handle swearing but because I'm trying to model pragmatic behavior in the face of adversity. Or something. 

At some point this week I'll be ripping out one of those fronts and trying again. Whee.

The corgi would like you to know that it is snowing here, which is her favorite precipitation, even though this picture doesn't really convey that:

"Wanda Mecklin's entire existence is geared toward making other people like her, and in a thick dose of irony, that's the one thing that keeps everybody from liking her. She doesn't just want it. She needs it."

-- Chuck Wendig, Under the Empyrean Sky, which isn't a great book but is a pretty good one.

First, the mittens:

Anj handed them to me at the recent Knitter's Review Retreat (which was the awesome!) and I put them in my bag, which I promptly failed to unpack all the way until yesterday. Ooops. Sorry Anj! The mittens are gorgeous and will go in the pile. One short week until I start to build.

(If you're wondering why mittens, click here.)

I did, however, pull out two finds from the stash lounge shortly after I got home. Have you ever come across a yarn that you find so very unattractive that it goes all the way around past hideous, then back into kinda lovely again? Curiosity got the better of me:

All in the house affectionately dubbed this the "road kill" yarn. What the picture doesn't tell you is how soft it it. The Tween fell in love with it, so took an evening and knitted her a scarf.

I love this picture, too, and couldn't chose between them:

The scarf met her approval. One skein - the yarn is Pagewood Farm U-Knitted Nations in "Fuzzy Purls" but I don't want to link to it lest the maker gets ticked that I called it ugly* - makes a scarf that is too short for an adult but perfect for a kid.

The corgi is thrilled by all of this knitting:

Thrilled, I tell you:

* Remember that ugly is in the eye of the beholder. And I honestly think this particular yarn has a quirky charm that is definitely not for everyone but ideal for my 11-year old.

Once upon a time, Lisa and Adrienne worked for the same alternative newsweekly. Now, both spend their respective days mining their creative souls and leading hermit-like lives. And so an idea was hatched. Every week, one would send the other a sketch - either in illustration or word form - and the other would make a companion sketch. The result would be posted on both their blogs every week, just for grins. Even if the result isn't award-worthy, the exercise might make both minds more nimble. Hopefully.

I know this makes me a horrible, horrible person but it kinda nice to see a Canadian politician in the news for a change. 

Rob Ford’s story is tragic, I know, and the dude needs some help. And it’s got to be irritating to Torontonians, too, because there’s not a whole lot they can do to force him out of office. Plus, it’s kind of telling that they don’t have a procedure in place for this already. 

Still. When you live in the U.S., where politicians behaving badly is an almost daily occurrence, it’s a lovely change of pace to see our sensible neighbors to the North cope with uncouth behavio(u)r by an elected official. 

I have zero doubts that by this time next week someone will catch Lindsey Graham running around the House floor wearing nothing but a speedo, a clown wig, and six-inch heels. Just for example. 

The crazy spotlight will be back on us soon enough. For now, though, I’m just going to lean back and enjoy.

* Thanks a lot, Jenny McCarthy.

* How to say no. (Warning: the graphic design gives me fits.)

* Oh, Yoko.

* On words.

* In case you've wondered.

* Hypnotic.

* Well, crap. Now I'm going to have to get HBO.

* On bodies. One. Two.

* Stupid moon.

* Apparently, I have some serious thrill issues because I kind of want this.

And the mittens keep rolling in.

These are fresh from Jen Anderson in Brooklyn. Hooray, Brooklyn!

I'll be building the tree on the Friday after Thanksgiving. If you're local and want to watch me crawl around in Project Anthologies' front window, come on by.

(If you're wondering why mittens, click here.)

And for your viewing pleasure, a gratuituous corgi in a nest:

Scott was pruning our pines a few weeks ago and Lucy decided they made the perfect nest because there is nothing as lovely as pine sap in dog fur. 

"Why is x sticky?"

-- me, daily, with x = doorknobs, tables, the dog, etc.