Two memes

Please skip reading this post if you are one of those people who is morally opposed to memes. These are both 'tagless' memes which have piqued my interest of late. If you're interested in playing then please do so - don't wait for an invitation.

Meme #1 The JenLa scavenger hunt meme. Rules:
~ Your finds must come from knit blogs.
~ You may not use a blog for more than one item-all items must come from different sources.
~ Finds can come from current entries or archives.
~ You must post your answers with the title of the blogs they were found on and a link to the blog/item (permalinks where appropriate) on your blog. If no permalink is available, give us the post date.
~ Do not steal anyone’s bandwidth-which means you should not hotlink pictures.
~ You need to comment [on JenLa's site] and let [them] know when you have completed this meme.

My finds:

1. A blog which you think people have not discovered.

What about the Knit Obsessed? Any of you discovered that one? I enjoy it. Also, I bet no one has discovered my fellow SnB'er Susan's new blog. She told me on Monday that she had started it but it wasn't ready for public consumption yet. But I'll let you know once I discover it or she reveals her identity!

2. A blog whose author lives close to you physically. Just get as close as you can, it’s all relative.

Since I just moved house to a whole nother part of town I am not yet sure which bloggers live close to me but I have seen references and hints from a few who shall remain nameless until I can confirm their whereabouts because I would think it was seriously strange for someone to post that they know where I live when I don't know where they live. That's kind of unfair, I think.

So the blogger who lives closest to my LAST house, which is where I was living when I started blogging, is Rebecca of CravE. She has jogged the distance between our houses so she would be more qualified to say how close it is, but suffice to say, it was a JOGGABLE distance. Now unfortunately it is not, but I am trying to convince her to move back to within joggable distance.

3. An unusual or weird animal picture.

Well, having to use Rebecca as the answer to that last question leaves me a bit short on unusual or weird animal pictures because she's got a whole trove of them. It wasn't weird or unusual but Polly recently being chased by peacocks was pretty funny and is the most memorable animal picture I can think of!

4. An entry that made you laugh and got you strange looks from family or co-workers.

I think I was alone in the room when I read this but Mason Dixon Knitting's response to a popular meme of the time had me falling out of my chair. I can't go past the humorous use of haiku. It must be one of the highest forms of comedy I know.

5. An idea you wish you’d thought of.

I wish I'd have thought of Stitch Ya Neck Out. Even non-knitters that I told about it thought it sounded like a good idea. Since it wasn't my idea, I sometimes try to think of another way one could have a similar exchange which I could then claim as my own idea...like Stitch Ya Legs Out (legwarmer exchange) or Stitch Ya Wrists Out (Mrs Beeton exchange) or Stitch Ya Head Out (beanie exchange)...I'll stop, this is beginning to sound like the Hokey Pokey.

6. Something you’d like to knit.

I will tell you something I would like to knit that I have never mentioned to another person: the garter stitch wrap from Scarf Style. I know, it's completely impractical and I am way too cheap to use the Habu yarn called for. But it's one of those patterns that makes me think, 'wow, if I knit that, I would suddenly begin living the lifestyle I wish I had'. What kind of lifestyle is that? Oh, I don't know, maybe someone with a little timber holiday house in a quaint town who has nothing to do during the days except maybe a little pottering round the house in the morning and going to the cafe in town that serves Stella Artois (look closely at the background of the photo in the book) in the afternoon wearing a big huge wrap that I made for myself and even though it's really just a big blanket I look tres chic because of the non-chalant way I can throw things over my shoulders...oh and I must get back home before dark so I can pick the vegetables from the garden for dinner.

7. A picture of something you consider beautiful.

I loved Carolyn's photographs of the Slade Knitwear sign.

8. A blog whose author you’d like to one day meet in person.

Kris, for a game of badminton

9. A blog of someone you have already met in person.

Too easy! Jacqueline is the only blogger I've met in person.

Meme #2

Donni challenges us to spend an hour following links we've never seen before and report back with something interesting.

The Challenge is as follows:
1. Go to a favourite link
2. Surf through that link and find a link that you haven't ever seen/explored before and go there
3. Read through that link and find another link that you haven't ever seen/explored before
4. And so on till you find a link that you must tell me about.

Here we go:
First I looked at a link that the above-mentioned Jacqueline sent me:
100% Pura Lana. There I saw beautiful colour theory experiments, some memorable socks and a shot of a cloudy day in Lisbon. Why, here's a link to another cool bilingual blog with some very funny photographs of unfortunate knitting designs. Even without the translation, these are funny.
We even have a free pattern in English here for some really nice looking slippers by Minna.
Since I'm not sure where to go from here, I follow a random link from Minna's place to somewhere else on the Finnish Knit Blogs webring.
I end up somewhere where nary a word can be understood so I follow this link and discover that the word "Linkitys" appears to be Finnish for linking buttons. Whatever it means, these are some cute buttons. But I seem to have hit a dead end language-wise, so I backtrack.
Minna's profile takes me to the intriguingly-named Bunny A Long. I have never heard of that so off I go... (really, Minna, I'm not stalking you. Blame Donni, she put me up to this.)
Aha! How cute! Bunny A Long is about anyone who's knitting anything rabbit-related. Here we are getting to the six degrees of separation that we knew existed: Donni posted a photo of a bunny as her interesting find after an hour of following links. Also, my mum is knitting a bunny at this very moment!

I follow the link from my favourite recent bunny to Half Baked Objects. There I learn about For the Love of Yarn, a new online mag which Stephanie of Half Baked Objects is contributing to. Hmmm, that looks like it will be interesting, must bookmark that magazine.
And so the wandering continues. I will let you know what else I discover in due course. Now I'm off to go tell Donni about this magazine.