I’m sure you all are very excited. Today is the day when I post random pictures.

For example, here are the totally kickass cracked canyon socks that Monica knitted for me. She used some Lightweight Socks That Rock in the Cracked Canyon colorway I bought at Stitches Midwest.

They were helping Laurel and I watch Buffy. Laurel found out that I had never watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer, so we get together most Wednesdays and I make fun of 1998 fashions. Monica knit these socks using the Zephyr sock pattern . I think its the perfect pattern for this yarn – they look like the swoopy walls of your typical canyon.

For Christmas, I made my mom a hat and muffler from Rowan Plaid. For the hat, I used the pattern from the Rowan Plaid book – its the same as the one I made my sister, but with a different cable. Here she is on Christmas, modeling it.

Oh, and Pinky the Flamingo is still in Colorado, hanging out. Here he is with Aimee on the way to Christmas Eve at Grandma’s. I guess he didn’t go in – he was too shy.

Finally, here is Aimee’s kitten frolicking in the snow after the massive blizzard they had in Colorado.

Laurel tagged me on this meme.   I’ve spent ever since then bugging people, asking them what is weird about me.  Most people  just start laughing hysterically.  Hrmpf.

1.  I keep my stuffed animals seperated depending on whether they are prey or predator.  The new guy actually offered this up as “weird”.  Personally, I think its just good sense.   Speaking of predators, here is Hunter, getting very close to grown up.

2.  Most of my stuffed animals have personalities and jobs.  Multiple people have offered this up as being “weird”.  I mean, if they don’t have jobs, what are they supposed to do all day?  Damn lazy stuffed animals.   As evidence, I present the following conversation, which Canadian Stitch and I had, after he was trapped in bed with me and the new guy.  Again, the new guy said this conversation was “Weird”, but he was busy playing Diablo II, so he can’t talk.  And, yes, Stitch sounded like Stitch.

Canadian Stitch:  I’m traumatized.

Me:  I’m sorry.  I didn’t know you were there.

Canadian Stitch:  I need therapy now.  It’s awful.

Me:  You’ll have to go back to Canada for that.  It’s free there.

Canadian Stitch:  But there’s a long line!  I can’t wait that long!

Me:  Well, my insurance doesn’t cover Canadian Stitches, and you don’t have any money.

Yes, I was attempting to hide the huge pile of clean nightgowns lurking on my dresser.

3.  I go places, I take my camera, and usually end up with one picture.  For example, today Laurel and I went to The Fold for their New Years Open House.  This is the only picture I took.

This was us, throwing our hands in the air, because we got lost, thanks to Google Maps instructions.  There were many things to take pictures of – huge lines, good deals on yarn, but I never took my camera out of my purse.

4.  If you say “Komodo Dragon”, I will immediately say “Gaping Jaws of Putrifaction”.

I took this picture at the Shedd Aquarium – the new guy took me, because honestly, if you want to impress me, take me to see animals and give me books to read.  He’s managed both.

5.  I’m an INFJ, which according to the latest internet meme, makes me a freak.  That’s the rarest personality type.

Katie is sitting on my printer.  I didn’t have an INFJ picture, and Katie was jealous of the Hunter pictures.

6.  I love cardigans, and twin sets in particular.  It’s not a comfort issue, I just love them.  I own a zillion, I knit them – I think its because it just seems so decadent to have two pieces of clothing when one will do.

Happy New Year! It’s 1:24 am, Central Time, and I swear to god, 2007 better be better than 2006, or I’m kicking 2007′s ass.

Anyways, while I’m awake and self pitying, I thought I better go ahead and finally do my Heartland Knitting Retreat wrap up.

First off, we had a nice big snowstorm the night before of the retreat, and into the morning. Luckily, Dee picked me up in her massive truck of the 4x4ness, otherwise me and the baby Saturn would be like this poor guy:

Notice Dee’s death grip there. The roads were actually just fine until we were in Wisconsin. Apparently Wisconsin has one snow plow.

So, we get there, and all is well. Look how gorgeous the rooms were!

No, the stuffed animals did not come with the room. You have to bring those yourself. I bought the squirrel in the resort gift shop.

Oh, and the bathroom:

If you look close, you can see my bottle of Nyquil. I was nasty sick the entire weekend, but I made sure to show up, always happily spreading germs in my wake.

Friday night, Lesley from Wool and Company taught us how to needle felt. I made a freaky purple head, which my thrift shop bear, Henry, is holding. I cut out the background because it made me look like a very very bad housekeeper.

I managed to drag myself out of bed the next morning, to this beautiful view:

That’s the steam rising off the lake. Dee has some gorgeous sunrise pictures, because unlike me, she actually wakes up early.

While there, I got to meet and see many people, including Christine:

It turns out that Christine and I both have weird food issues, which includes not liking textures to mix. Like, I’m kind of fine with chicken noodle soup, but do not understand at all any sort of minestrone soup. I like pretty much everything that goes into a nice Minestrone Soup, and yet, I do not like it.

Oh, here are Christine’s kickass slippers:

There were many other knitters, including the Other Gail, who thought she managed to stay out of all pictures. Muahahahaha.

We learned many things at the retreat, thanks to Beth Walker-O’Brien. I was going to post lovely pictures of what I learned, but well, I’m kind of lazy. We also had a great yarn tasting – I knitted a weird rectangle with all the yarn samples we got – that really deserves its own post.

It was a ton of fun, and Dee did an awesome job again. I managed to control myself with the vendors, although I did buy lots of roving to do more needle felting. I’ll have to take pictures of some of my finished projects – at least the ones Hunter hasn’t eaten yet.

I’ve been having blog performance anxiety.  Yes, that’s my excuse for not updating.  With the holiday season, my general anxiety level goes through the roof, leading to random crying jags, and apparently, losing all ability to write blog entries.

In fact, I had a whole post planned out, but I left my camera at home.  So, you all will have to wait on Heartland Knitting Retreat reports (although Dee, Christine and Laurel have covered it admirably).  I do have one picture to show – my birthday present from my knitting friends!

It’s a bracelet made of Native American Bone Fetish Beads.   I love it – I originally saw it at the Briar Rose open house – there was a jewelry vendor there, and sadly, I can’t remember her name.   Anyways, I desperately wanted the bracelet, but the price tag, while reasonable, was a bit out of my budget that visit.

Dee asked Lynette if there was anything I had wanted, and Lynette remembered me drooling over the bracelet.  So Dee hunted down the vendor, and happily, my kickass bracelet arrived.

While we’re not talking about knitting, I thought I’d post the following pictures of me almost being eaten by animals at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, in Colorado Springs.  My cousin Tina, who works at the zoo, arranged for me to feed the otters, which was incredibly awesome.  Afterwards, I petted the hippos and got hippo snot on me.

I also fed the giraffes, and he tried to eat my glove.

My cousin Tina is apparently much better at feeding them.

Oh, and here are the otters.  They are a bit old and crotchety.

Oh, fine, you can see some meerkats too.

I swear, I’ve been knitting.  It’s just been little Christmas stuff, mainly.  I’ll show pictures afterwards. 

I am proud to introduce the world’s first felted Clapotis!

I totally meant to felt it. Because only a complete dumbass would put their 100% Alpaca Clapotis in the washing machine. That’s because it turns out that alpaca felts even on delicate, with cold water. Which I totally knew, because I totally meant to felt my clapotis. You aren’t calling me a dumbass, are you?
On the up side, it still works as a shawl, and its nice and warm. And no longer sheds. Which is why I felted it, of course.

In other news, the Chicago area got its first meaningful snow, which means its also Hunter’s first snow! He’s freaked out.

Dee is picking me up soon for the Heartland Knitting Retreat, which you all will be very sad you missed. Except for those of you who are going. Hee.