It’s Furious Balancing

Every year for the past 8-10 years, I’ve given up buying books for Lent, and every Easter Sunday for the past 5-7 years, I’ve gotten up at dawn and logged onto amazon.com to break my fast.

This year’s selections are:

• The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream, by Barack Obama
• How to Cook a Wolf, M. F. K. Fisher
• Something from the Oven: Reinventing Dinner in 1950′s America, Laura Shapiro
• Moleskine City Notebook: Seattle

Every Easter morning after my book buying spree, I sit and write a check for an equivalent amount to a charitable organization. Lent isn’t just about self-denial — it’s about almsgiving. So what, Laiane, if you’ve not bought a book in 40 days; what have you done for other people?

This year, my donation was to Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres.

Welcome back, Jesus. Pass the Cadbury Creme Eggs.

…beggars would ride.

The Finished Object is the Top Down Raglan Sweater in Malabrigo Marron Oscura. The wish is that we have a serious cold snap — at least one day when the temperature doesn’t go over 32 degrees Fahrenheit. I want to wear this lovely F.O. to the office to show it off, but, lordy, that sweater is warm!  I have reason to hope; I live in Michigan.  We had snow in April last year.

Sorry for the awkward posing, but I was wearing a bulky t-shirt underneath and I was (subconsciously) hiding my Old Lady Poochy Belly. I intend to wear this without an underlayer, so perhaps I’ll get better pictures up later — or not. I’m terribly self-conscious about having my picture taken. Suffice it to say that this will serve as proof I’ve finished my fourth sweater as a Real Knitter and that it fits… and that I can wear it in public.

The brown Malabrigo sweater is more or less done; I just need to re-knit the cuffs. The sleeves stretched an awful lot during the blocking, so I need to rip back 30+ rows and carry on from that point. Easily done, and I should have a Finished Object Photo up soon.

But right now, it’s LOLCat Friday! Then back to knitting…

As every self-respecting geek knows, Gary Gygax died yesterday. For those of you who aren’t Old School Gamers — you know, back in the days when gaming meant paper, pencils, dice and graph paper, and the most sophisticated piece of technology in the room was a calculator — Mr. Gygax was the co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons.

D&D was my first foray into fantasy role-playing games. Many of the gamers I’ve met online, whether in EverQuest, EverQuest 2, Vanguard, or Lord of the Rings Online, have their gaming roots in D&D. It was the ur-game for many of us.

I’m hardly qualified to write a tribute or obituary for Mr. Gygax. To be honest, I didn’t know much detail about his life or background until I started reading the obituaries and blog posts yesterday. There were many.

He was, directly or indirectly, responsible for my love of RPG’s. There probably wouldn’t be a Laiane Wolfsong without him. Oh, the Real Life me would be here, certainly; no argument about that. But my Ranger alter ego? That’s a different story altogether.

I’ve been waxing nostalgic over my D&D days in high school when five of us would squeeze into the 1976 Ford Pinto my brother inherited from Mom and wend our way to our DM’s basement. We’d scarf down Cheetos and Mountain Dew, roll the dice, and have the time of our lives.

Me: Bridget, the elven assassin. Being Chaotic Evil means never having to say you’re sorry.

My twin brother: Graymaus Jamin Eroquil, half-elven Neutral Greedy thief extraordinaire.

And our friends:

Trebos the magic user. He had issues with casting area-of-effect spells on the monsters and killing his party members in the process.

Seymour the fighter, whose intelligence score was in the single digits. He would lose to his war horse when they played checkers.

Ged Lefto, illusionist, and creator of the songs we would sing on our car ride home. We called them D&D carols since many of them were set to the tune of Christmas carols. I had the Orcish Pirate Sea Shanty in my head this morning:

We love to hear the cannons fart
While we blow your ships apart!
Upwind in battle are we!
Our victims run in fear; they smell us coming near!
Victory – We fight to win!
Victory -We smell like sin!
We are the scum of the land and sea
Oh, Orcish Pirates are we…

Did I mention we were really, really nerdy teenagers?

I found this tribute to Mr. Gygax on an online RPG forum. I think it captures what a lot of Old School Gamers (and Not-So-Old-School Gamers) are feeling at the moment:

No matter what the edition, no matter the ruleset, no matter what the genre, all of our differences aside – in the end all that matters is that we play on. Next time you belly up to the table (even if your table is a computer desk) and have a laugh, next time your heart skips a beat on that saving throw, next time you’re down to the last hit point and the dice come up 20, think of E. Gary Gygax and play, play on. It’s the best way to pay tribute to the man that got us all at the table.

Thanks, Gary.

Amen to that.

moar LOLCats

It’s Furious Balancing is well-nigh tickled to death to be participating in the Kitty Knits Blog Tour.

I heard about Kitty Knits over at Ravelry on the Cat Knits Group and ordered my copy from Donna Druchunas right away. The description certainly piqued my interest:

Kitty Knits is the first knitting book entirely devoted to the funny, furry felines in our lives. Discover creative ways to knit up practical projects for kitties to love and cat-themed designs for owners to enjoy. Just like cat batting at a ball of yarn, it’s a perfect match. Over 20 projects feature items for cats, their people, and their homes — along with adorable photos of cats with their knitted treasures. Choose from toys, beds, mats, and more for cats, plus feline-inspired sweaters, hats, pillows, and bags for cat-loving knitters. Find projects in a variety of styles and skill levels, from felted designs to Fair Isle patterns.

Considering I’d already made three felted cat beds at this point in my knitting career, I knew this book would be a big hit at Laiane’s Cat House. Knitting and cats go together like Peanut Butter and Jelly. Abbot and Costello. Gin and Tonic. Sam and Frodo.

Well, you get the picture. I think Franklin described the Knitter/Cat Connection best:

Knitters, on the whole, enjoy the company of cats, some to the point of idolatry. Perhaps it’s the common bond of Yarn Fascination. I like the pretty string, you like the pretty string. Let’s be friends forever.

In any event, when I got my hot little hands on the book, I found several things I “just had to make.”

The first project was super-fast and yielded immediate gratification — the Felted Catnip Mice (who made their It’s Furious Balancing appearances here and here). I liked the mice because they gave me experience in a technique I hadn’t tried before – bobbles. It took me a while to get the hang of making bobbles, but I feel they’re a most excellent choice for felted mouse ears.

My next project, however, is going to take me longer to complete and will be my largest knitted object to date.. I fell in love with “The Cat” Afghan and knew I “just had to make it” as soon as I saw it. The center of the afghan is an easy lace pattern and the words for “the cat” in several languages are duplicate stitched around the borders.

Since I’m only 4 repeats into the lace pattern, I think Donna’s photograph gives you a better idea of the finished product. My afghan is currently bunched up on my 40” inch Lantern Moon Destiny needles and resembles ramen noodles more than anything else at the moment.

The afghan will give me experience in other new-to-me knitting techiniques: lace knitting, reading a chart, and duplicate stitch embroidery. Learning new knitting techniques makes my Inner Knitter jump up and down with happiness. I remember when I had a fear of double pointed needles, but I can’t do without them now.

But I digress.

I decided on Cascade 220 Superwash for the yarn. For the curious, the colors are Aran (817) for the body of the afghan and Gray (816) and Mocha (818) for the duplicate-stitched parts. My test swatch became even softer after a Eucalan bath and didn’t stretch out as much as other superwash wool I’ve worked with in the past.

When all is said and done and knitted and stitched, this will be a wonderful, cozy addition to my Knitting and Sitting Spot on the sofa. I’m sure I will get plenty of Cat Help breaking it in.

That’s my segue into the Cat Picture portion of today’s blog post. Since I’m sure there are a few first-time visitors here, bear with me while I introduce the four feline members of my household. If you’ve made it with me this far, you’re up for a few Cat Pictures.

The Grand Old Dame and Top Cat is Emma, a twelve-year old tuxedo cat with an attitude. The Husband and I call her She Who Must Be Obeyed. Yes, she almost always looks this disgruntled. She claims we don’t feed her enough.

Thomas, our marmalade tabby, is about 8 years old, a big cuddler, and perhaps the most photogenic of the bunch

Aaron and Christopher are the Recent Additions to Laiane’s Cat House. They came to us from The Ann Arbor Cat Clinic in December 2007. It’s been a while since I’ve had a kitten in the house, let alone two kittens – kittens who like to play Mouse Hockey in the upstairs hallway at 3:00 a.m. at that.

Here’s Aaron:

And here’s Kissy-Fur, er, Christopher:

My last word on Kitty Knits: The thing that impressed me the most was that Donna pointed out the dangers of cats eating string and gave clear warnings in the projects that called for eyelash yarn. Not “tucked away in the fine print” warnings, but separate text boxes saying that kitties can be seriously injured (and even die) from eating strings. It’s not a pleasant subject to think about as a cat owner, but an important one (especially for knitters).

Thank you, Donna. Our Cat Critics give Kitty Knits a rating of Four Thumbs Paws Up!

Tomorrow, March 4th, is my day in the spotlight for the Kitty Knits Book Blog Tour. I’ve been working on a long-ish post and hope to have it up for your reading enjoyment some time in the evening. Cats! Yarn! Cats and Yarn Together! Stay tuned!