Caught a mild case of MOD

MOD? Molly Obsessive Disorder! I'm not the only knitter following the lives of Molly, McGee, and their four owlets (Max, Pattison, Austin, and Wesley) and the unhatched egg named Dudley. Broadcast live 24/7, the feathered family hunts, eats, expels owl pellets, sleeps, grows, defends, and learns new things every day. The oldest owlet, Max, is 22 days old. Did you know owlets hatch in the order their eggs were laid? You can tell the owlets apart sometimes from their size, but not when they're in a huggle (hug huddle) or under Molly (increasingly infrequently as the owlets grow larger).


The Royal family in Southern California put this owl box up two years ago hoping to attract owls. It succeeded, and they started sharing the video stream with friends and family who told other people, and so on. So far over 7 million unique people/computers/IP addresses have visited Molly. What started out as one camera and one computer has grown to about 8 cameras, 2 computers, and 5 monitors (that I've heard about; it could be more) on the Royals' kitchen table. The latest night vision (infrared or IR) cameras were set up to try to catch the owlets fledge in a few weeks. The kitchen table is so crammed that Carlos says has to take Donna (who is a knitter, BTW) out to dinner every night!

Carlos has been narrating and answering questions for elementary students across the country, using Skype to connect to the classrooms over the Internet. Most of these events are recorded and available for playback at The Owl Box page. For a retired guy, Carlos has a more-than-full-time job for the duration; he is often up in the middle of the night resetting, chatting, and sometimes talking on the broadcast. He is a hoot in himself.

Volunteers from around the world are moderating the broadcast's chat room so it stays family-friendly. Other volunteers are collecting data, screen shots, and video and blogging much of it. There are cartoons, mugs, tee-shirts, jewelry, and an e-book. Portions of each purchase go toward funding bird habitat, and generous Molly fans can make donations without purchasing.

Oh, and now there's the LOWLcat in this post that I made from one of last night's screen shots. Turns out that it's hard to chat, take screen shots, and knit at the same time. So far, knitting is losing!

Oh, and the viewing schedule? Very flexible, but it's something like this:

Dawn Pacific Time to Dusk: Molly and owlets stay in the owl box, napping, preening, eating, housekeeping, and staying alert for trouble. Molly literally can sleep with one eye open. I've noticed that she often feeds the kids in the 8 AM hour and again around noon. The daytime camera is full color with sound, and you can see a lot, especially when Carlos zooms or pans. During the day, McGee, the male owl, roosts nearby, often in the neighbor's palm tree.

Dusk to Dawn: The owlets continue their daytime routine but stay closer together so they're easier to protect; they form an ever-growing "huggle" that often looks like a scrum as they jostle for position. Molly does go out at night to stretch and eliminate. Recently she's started staying outside longer, often sitting on the perch or roof, and she's been doing some hunting and bringing back food. The big difference is McGee's visits. They're usually less than 30 seconds! He comes in, gives Molly a rodent or rabbit, sometimes gives her a hug-equivalent that involves lots of screeching, and departs. Usually all we see is his legs because the night camera is set lower to the floor than the day cam. Views both inside and outside the owl box are now possible, so we get to see McGee on the box and in flight. His first visit can be anytime after about 7:30, depending on how dark it is, and as the owlets grow he will be making more visits; yesterday I think it was 15!

I'll stop typing now. Maybe my case of MOD is a little more than mild.

Turnabout is

Update on my Knitting Olympics: it's looking dim for a medal. My second sock is only about 3/4 complete and there are two vests to go. When I set my goal, I forgot some parallel projects! As many of the athletes say, it's being there and doing your best that's important!

Holiday Knitting: Done at Last!

Louise's Christmas present, this pair of (size 11!) socks, is complete, presented, and modeled for the blog. Knit from Lion Brand Sock-Ease in the Taffy colorway on size 0 US/2mm DPNs, the pattern is the Yarn Harlot's basic recipe with two additions: an extra long heel flap to accommodate Louise's high arches and 2x2 ribbing everywhere except the sole for good fit. The heel flaps are about 3/4 inches taller than my usual square flap, making the gussets extra deep.

Here they are in her clogs. Her pants aren't high-water; she's holding the legs up so you can see the socks. LOL

Mattie was very interested in the new socks; she loves wool, especially if there's a squeaker inside. I admit to making her some wool squeaker toys out of failed felting projects and from heavy wool fabric. They're guaranteed to please!

Speaking of Mattie, she and I have a game we play in which she earns treats by begging, "talking", barking, and rolling over. Yesterday I got her to roll over a total of 13 times, 4 per treat and one extra. Once she figured out there wasn't a treat in my hand, she wouldn't do any more. She's not stupid!

Magnetic Cat and Lots of Fluff

A little while ago, Jumper jumped onto the desk with this


stuck to the magnet (which unlocks the cat flap) on his collar. Kind of like a bow tie. He's getting better at not freaking out and coming to me so I can detach whatever he's picked up (spoons, tuna cans, etc.). At least he's not bringing in mice!

In the Fluff department, here's an angora bunny offered for sale at the Spring Fiber Sale (see sidebar for link) on Saturday. Only $30, and a very sweet, extremely soft bunny getting close to molting/plucking time. No, I didn't bring him home. The vendor told me how two bunnies escaped their cages for a brief while and, because they were opposite genders, increased his angora inventory.


A list of my fiber stash and a wish list on an index card (yeah, small stash still) help keep my acquisitions in check. I was looking for a sock-appropriate fiber blend and found this beautiful fluff.


Ten little bumps of wool and 25% mohair in reds, pinks, and oranges. Only $12 for 8 ounces. The vendor was wearing mis-matched socks showing two blends (one was Sunset, the colorway I got) and a vest from a third. She has batts for sale online. There should be enough for 2 pair of socks, so I'll spin one with stripes and one blended. I'm looking forward to it.

Dick Duncan was there with one of the electric carders he manufactures and a bunch of fiber on which to demonstrate. A nice guy, he understands about beginning spinners on budgets wanting to hold off on purchasing a drum carder. The batts he makes while demonstrating are offered for sale for $5. This 2.2 ounces of almost black mohair with a few bonus wool streaks came home with me.


I plan to blend it with more of the dog/wool/alpaca roving. It should come out better color-wise than the Six Breed blend using yellow mohair. Dick doesn't have a web site, but his contact information is Duncan Fiber Enterprises, 21740 S.E. Edward Dr. Clackamas, Oregon 97015, (503)658-4066.

The third thing I got was a couple packets of Cushings Perfection Dye (navy blue and bronze green), thinking ahead to those two brown shetland fleeces I have. I got a chance to talk to several people about the fleeces and ways to prepare the fiber. I had been considering combing, but it turns out that carding will work better as most shetland fleece has both hair and undercoat. Combing would separate the two; carding will keep them blended.

Here's the last fluff picture for today:

If the coloration looks familiar, don't worry. I was unhappy with the mega bulky yarn I respun from my attempt at spindle spinning. Couldn't make myself start knitting it! So I ylped it and nupsed it (if knitters can tink, spinners can nups and ylp, right?) and spun it and third time and plied it a second time, doubling its length to 68 yards and halving its diameter to bulky weight. The new calculations come out to 777 ypp. I've got it on 10.5 US needles now, and I'm happy!

As for the ylping process, it was awkward. Thankfully the ball measured only 34 yards. I plied the ball backwards onto a spool so the two strands weren't twisted around each other (much) and then put one strand on the ball winder and wound the other strand manually as I unwound the spool. I don't know that I'd do this again, but, darn it, I wanted to knit something useful from my first handspun yarn, even if it took three passes to get it knit-able!

Enhanced Computing & Spinning

A few weeks ago, I actually did upgrade my RAM, so this strikes my funny bone especially well. I went from 256MB to 768MB and I'm very happy with the result. I ran across the sale-priced half-gig stick of DDR at the office supply store for just under $30 and I'm very happy with the result.

BTW, lolcats aren't always cats!

In fiber news, I'm about half done knitting a hat out of the sheep/goat/alpaca/dog/cat/human yarn. I was showing the yarn to my Scrabble buddy at the coffee shop the other night and a couple of people overheard and came over to talk about spinning! Fiber lovers are everywhere.

The gal who sold me my wheel included a 2.8 oz batt of wool/mohair she'd drum-carded. I've spun half on the first spool and started the second. It has a lot of neps, but I'm pretending they aren't there. The single I'm spinning is showing some improvement. I also practiced pulling a roving out of the batt with a button/diz; there was less fiber stuck to me and the roving is more consistent in size than the torn strips.


Here you can see the dized roving and the first spool of singles. They're over twisted in places (see the cork screws? LOL). The purple bit is an experiment at the end ; I carded some tapestry yarn and tried spinning it. I won't leave it there, I promise!

A Harlot Booster Shot

Last year I heard the Yarn Harlot a.k.a. Stephanie Pearl McPhee, speak for the first time. She was entertaining, funny, and kept me in stitches (both knit and purl) for a solid hour. My face hurt from smiling so hard for so long!

Last night's talk, sort of a booster shot of Stephanie, was just as entertaining. We had more chairs, though still not enough for the 300-ish knitters there. Almost everyone was knitting! Even while Stephanie was talking!


People like me who arrived early were visiting, knitting, and fondling each others' yarn. I started a Horcrux sock with my koolaid yarn. I saw this Argosy shawl and decided that while lace isn't really "me," I could wear this, though maybe not in sparkly mohair. LOL Unfortunately, I didn't get this woman's name or blog URL, but she was really nice and told me the name of the yarn and let me play with the shawl. Thank you! ADDED LATER: And thank you commenters for sharing her link and identifying her as Bobbie. Go girls with "boys'" names!


People kept arriving and chairs started getting hard to find. People started propping up bookcases, pillars, and walls and then started sitting in the aisles. It was pretty noisy and getting warm. Even so, we knit.

The Harlot came in and we cheered so loud the whole 3-story complex of buildings that fills the block and is known as Powell's rocked. The staff were being conservative calling us "a bit rowdy."


I forgot I had a zoom, I was so excited.

Afterward, we lined up to get our books signed and have very brief "conversations" with Stephanie. Here she is, waiting breathlessly to meet me. See the travelling sock?


And here I am, grinning like an idiot and holding an Oregon dishcloth I designed and knit just for The Yarn Harlot's States and Provinces Hand Knit Dishcloth Collection. Upside down and backwards. I forgot to ask to hold the sock. The most brilliant thing I said was to point out that the catnip mouse I made for Millie was crocheted, not knit. Stephanie replied, "That's OK, Millie won't be able to tell the difference." Here's the dishcloth right-side up and front-side forward.


Did you notice my t-shirt? I scanned a circa 1945 ball band from Red Heart WOOL yarn. I learned to knit with Red Heart and have fond memories of it. It does bother me that its current acrylic incarnation has a bad reputation in some quarters; among the acrylics, it has IMNSHO its place as a durable, washable, colorful, well made, inexpensive yarn impervious to moths. Now really, is that so bad? End rant! LOL

It took me a few hours for the excitement of the event to dissipate enough to sleep. Poor Louise got a call from me as I was driving home. Could I stop by and show her my shirt and signed book? I rattled on for a very little bit and got Mattie a treat. Thanks for listening, Louise! BTW, Mattie is a Peke & Lhasa mix and one of my biggest fans. I usually get to give her a treat, and I make her roll over or talk to me before she gets it. She's fascinated by my cats, who often follow me across the street, lurking just outside of or on the fence and under the car until I come back out.

OK. Enough globbing. Er, blogging. Ta Ta for now!

Sheepishly, I Offer Knitterly T-Shirt Links

Threadless sells t-shirts in a very community-oriented way. Shoppers can submit designs to be reviewed and rated by other shoppers, and they can earn points toward free shirts by referriing still other potential shoppers. I wish I'd known that before I found a Scrabble tee that was out of print and mentioned it on a Scrabble mailing list; enough people were interested that the shirt was reprinted! I coulda had a free shirt.... So if those designs appeal to you, click them to go to their pages at Threadless.

And yes, those links have my ID in them so I might possibly get a few points. Sheepish indeed.

Oh, and the Scrabble shirt is here. And several more sheepy shirts out of print (but click the Reprint Me link to be notified when they're reprinted).

Black Sheep All Over

You've probably had similar experiences. You're surfing the internet and see something. Sometime later you see something else and your brain does its synaptic magic and connects the two things. But can you find the first thing again??? Maybe. It happened to me yesterday, and it took until a little while ago to find the first thing...

Thing the first: Etherknitter's blog entry showing some cute and a snarling sheep sculpture. Not being particularly good at creating captions, I didn't enter the contest.

Thing the second: Habetrot's entry about a new horror film called Black Sheep. Now the snarling sheep makes sense. I wonder if the artist knows about the movie?

Thing the third: Eugene, Oregon is the home of the Black Sheep Gathering, Oregon's biggest sheep show. Wouldn't it be great if the movie could be shown in conjunction with the gathering?

Goats Seek Sofas on Freecycle!

Freecycle - Changing the world, one gift at a time.

Keeping things in use and out of the landfill (or your shed!) is a good thing. When you have something you don't want, you can give it away easily on your local Freecycle list. I'm a member of several local Freecycle groups (they sometimes overlap, and I live near the city limit), and have given away, recieved, and requested things with varying degrees of success.

The kinds of things that change hands include animals, vegetables, and minerals in just about any imaginable condition. Broken appliances get claimed by metal recyclers or repair people. Fabric scraps by quilters. Baby clothes by new parents. Extra food by the unemployed. Knick knacks by people who don't mind dusting. Broken pottery and glass by artists. Bricks, rocks, and plants by gardeners. Upgraded computer gear by trailing-edge computer users. Books, tickets, parts, furniture, linens, building materials, cars, bikes, toys........

Giving away something is the easiest unless the item is truly worthless, described poorly, or has odd terms or attitudes attached. LOL After posting a message you wait for responses. Then contact your first choice of recipient and make arrangements for the transfer.

Getting things from Freecycle is a little more difficult, because when something is posted, many people reply quickly. It helps a lot to tell the giver generally where you are (closer is often better), when you can pick it up (faster is better, or when the giver specifies), your phone number, and even a brief (and truthful!) reason why you want the item. You can also ask the giver to contact you if the people ahead of you change their minds or don't pick up promptly.

Asking for things on Freecycle is, unfortunately, sometimes abused. A few people ask for multiple items (e.g. furnishing entire apartments), or make unrealistic requests (e.g. a new widescreen plasma TV). It's interesting to note that often the offer of a "cool" item is followed by several requests for similar items as people think to themselves "Oh, a free DVD recorder! I want one too." I have responded to requests without successfully giving anything away. In frustration, I often delete "wanted" posts without reading them. Maybe other people do, too, because the couple of requests I made (for oddball items, I admit) received no responses.

Some posts are wonderful entertainment, like this one:

Subject: [freecycleportland] WANTED: *Old* sofas for goat barn

Something you wish you'd already thrown out. Smaller sizes preferred. West Beaverton, NW Portland. My goats are really depressed by all the rainy weather, so I think they'd enjoy a nice comfy sofa, but they'll certainly poop on it, and maybe even pee, so it will have a limited time of toleration, even in a barn.

My local Freecycle lists are very active, so I have filters to sort messages into a couple of folders to make reading (and bulk deleting!) easier.

So if you have something you'd rather not have, Freecycle is an earth-friendly alternative.