Knitting Obsession

How to bathe a cat without losing a limb

Well, it helps if you have a pretty sedate cat to begin with. Chloe has a slipped disc in her back, and hasn't been able to reach her lower back/tail area for a long time. We've been managing with wipes and dry shampoo, but eventually we got to a point where her fur felt dirty and greasy, and she seemed uncomfortable (twitching her back a lot, etc.).

She looks like a dust mop anyways, but it was getting a little out of hand on her spine. So, armed with baby shampoo and a reading of the About.com's web page about bathing cats, I drew a euthermic bath of a few inches and gingerly lowered her in. I was expecting complete annihilation of the bathroom, myself, and my part time roomie Jess, or at the very least severe blood loss, but she just stood in the water. Admittedly, she did try to climb me a couple times, but overall she was so good!

(This is the "what did I do?" face). After she was all clean, I dried her off as much as I could and then I let her go out on the porch. I had already turned off the air conditioning, but it was 95 degrees outside so I knew she would be nice and warm. She marched right out and ate her Greenies (for being a good girl) and then commenced licking. Lick, lick, lick, lick. I expect a big gray hairball soon.

(Tootsie is trying to act concerned about Chloe, but she is really concerned about whether there are any Greenies for her.)

Oh my gosh....I couldn't resist the poor pink paw pads. SO CUTE AND PATHETIC. She was completely blase about the whole thing and was all over me much like her usual self almost immediately. I've been watching her closely since the bath and she seems much happier. Plus she smells pretty.

Knitting? Well, since I finished Desert Sun, I am getting ready to start a new project. The same designer is doing a new Mystery Shawl, and I joined that. I'm using Jojoland Harmony in HC06, which swatched on 3s to a small size, but the drape and feel are great. I'll add extra repeats to the last round if needed to get to a good size.

Cheers! Hope all is going well.

Even my brother wants to know why I haven't blogged

....and he has a kid and everything. I have no such excuse, other than the R word, which continues to suck my time continually but in A Good Way, and really I don't have any other excuses. I can't even say that I have kept up with other blogs because...I haven't...so I expect my subscriber list is rather skimpy right now. I'm flying out to California to see my nephew (and my brother and sister-in-law) soon and I think I will archive all of the blogs I am behind on so I can read them on the plane. I have many big plans.

So, knitting! I did finish all of my Christmas knitting, which was amazing. My sister-in-law loves bright colors, so I made her Haruha in a bright J.Knits sock yarn in colorway Kansas:

This is blocking. It is pretty wild, but I am very happy with it. It pooled in an interesting way, almost stripy. The knit itself was fast and fun.

For Mom, I finally, finally made her something out of the brown-gold mohair that she has been coveting. This is a simple wrap, which I think needs a little more length, but for now is working out well. The yarn is Misty Mountain Farm Brushed Mohair, in an unknown colorway, which has been marinating since MD S&W 2006.

I'm certainly glad I managed to take a great picture of the one BIG mistake, which is the double row of garter stitch from when I put the wrap down in a fit of "can't take anymore" and picked it back up weeks later.

Since Christmas, I've been casting on innumerable projects and have developed severe second sock syndrome. I think I have 8 single socks hanging about. I also have a bit of a lace fetish going, which is keeping me hopping until my sock mojo comes back. The Ravelry Helpers are doing a KAL, for Tiger Eyes (that is a .pdf!), and here is mine (well, now it has about 5 more repeats. But I don't have a more current picture):

This is Mountain Colors Bearfoot in Sierra. It is tasty. I love the slight halo the mohair gives it. The pattern is a lot of fun, but I am always a little thrown off by the row in which you create the eyes, since you end up knitting and purling into the same giant yo four times, and it's kind of tricksy (for me). But fun nonetheless and currently marinating.  PS-I love my new camera. I "lost" ("lost"= intoxicated at New Years Eve ball and left it on the table when finding cab-hi Mom!) my other one. I lurve this one. It has image stabilizer. Good for the trembling hands.

I did also start the Kitri Mantilla, which is a kit I picked up in Rhinebeck last year. I got it with the Kitri sock pattern, but the mantilla has been calling me. This is truly my first large and real lace project, real in the sense that this is the smallest yarn I have ever worked with (unless I count crocheting doilies on size 20 yarn, which isn't that small really). It was agonizing the first two rows, and now I am getting a bit of a rhythm. I think I am going to wear this undraped, that is without the gathered area at the bottom, because really. I don't need to accentuate my booty that much. My booty is a little smaller since dropping 30 pounds, but let's face it. It's still there. The mantilla will still be gorgeous and as I am a fan collector, this really makes sense to me. Here's a pathetic cell phone blurry shot, with Bob as accent.

Let's see....I'm sure I have something else new on needles....oh! I started my first double knitting project. This was a wee challenging to me at first, but now it is humming right along.

I kind of love it. I love the bright colors. This is Uncle Argyle's Scarf from "Son of Stitch and Bitch" and the designer is Lindsey Hendricks, who I KNOW in REAL LIFE and who autographed my book. Sweet! Notice how I was able to cover up my mistakes with rotten duplicate stitching. Well, hopefully you can't notice it. Because otherwise what would be the point?

Tootsie is not impressed.

Hope to see you soon!

Long time no see

Hi! Wow, it has been a long time since I've blogged. I've been concentrating on my health (joined a gym and got a personal trainer and nutritionist) and that has taken up what little time is left over from the time suck of Ravelry. I'm a Helper there, along with a bunch of other wonderful women,  to help take the burden off the lone coder who is developing the site. The site is growing by leaps and bounds every day and it's amazing to watch. The organization of my stash alone has been great. The site developers are planning an Open House in January, since the site won't be out of beta for a while. It will be a chance for some of you to see what I've been yakking about for months (hi Mom!).

Needles-wise, I am slogging through Christmas knitting, and have one more gift to complete. It shouldn't be a problem, and I'll post those projects after Christmas. As soon as I finish Christmas stuff, I can get back to Jeanie from the most recent Knitty, which is entrancing. I'm using this gorgeous stuff:

which is Dream in Color Smooshy Sock in Black Parade, and I lurve it. I love the depth of this colorway. It is a little challenging to knit at night though! I need brighter light bulbs, I think.

My other WIP that is on hold till Christmas knitting is over is my first Clapotis, which I started to stave off my longing for Jeanie.

Lorna's Laces Lion and Lamb in Gold Hill. Mmmmmm soft.

The kitties are doing well....and here is Tootsie, snoring on the scraps from one of my Christmas gifts.

She is so loud....wakes me up sometimes. Chloe has arthritis, so she is on a multivitamin with glucosamine. She is not very enthusiastic about her chewable tablets. I have to hide them in her food and bribe her with Greenies, and she still eats her way around the pieces. She is as active as ever, so she can't be in too much pain.

I did make it to Rhinebeck, and it was amazing. I drove up with two good friends from Ravelry, (bunnysquirrel and booksherpa) and we had a blast.

It was beautiful, and we met Casey and Jess from Ravelry, a whole lot of other Ravelers, and the party was so much fun. Bob guarded our car, along with bunnysquirrel Jess's animals.

We were sorry to come home.

I'm gonna try hard to blog more...a friend suggested following WIP Wednesday and Yarn Pr0n Fridays and I may try that. I also have been spinning on Katarina off and on (more off while trying to get through the Xmas stuff) and want to blog that too, as I am spinning stuff that looks less like garbage and more like string.

I am so far behind on my blogs that Google Reader refuses to count above 1000. I am a little (a lot) ashamed about it and need to remember to do the thing where you can save up a bunch of posts to read off line while I am in PA for Christmas. That will help me catch up though I won't be able to comment. But know that I am thinking of all of my friends and hoping you are having a safe and blessed holiday season.

Cinnamon

1988 was a rough year for us with cats. My pretty orange boy Sunny, who had been with me from infancy, died of cancer and it broke my heart. I still get a little teary when I think about what a good cat he was and I have a big soft spot for orange cats now...just look at Tootsie. We then went through a terrible period as the kitten I got after Sunny died unfortunately brought feline leukemia into the house. We lost all of our cats that year...Sunny, Monu, Puddy, Friskie. Cinnamon came in the midst of that but for some reason did not get leukemia, and she was my new girl.

When I left home, I left Cinnamon at my parent's house as she was really now Daddy's girl, and I had Brynn and Tootsie now. Cinnamon was always there when I went home to visit.

She was loud and bossy. She had no problem poking someone with her one orange paw when she needed to be petted.
Cinnamon has been battling breast cancer, diabetes and hypertension, and on Friday my parents made the brave decision to let her go. She had been deteriorating rapidly and it seemed that she was in pain. She was 18 years old, and was a good girl.

Sleeping it off

Tootsie says, Happy New Year!

My New Year's ringing in was glorious. I think it means that 2007 is going to be a wonderful year. My resolutions are the same as every year....exercise more, better diet, manage my money. Knit From Your Stash 2007 should help me with that last bit.
I'm working on the heel flap of my second Trekking sock, and my next pair of socks will be of the Austermann Step my mom stuck in my stocking this year. I'm looking forward to digging into my sock yarn stash this year!

In which she whimpers about Rhinebeck...

Yes, I am obviously a wee bit jealous of all of you that are going to Rhinebeck...I take solace in the fact that I live 15 minutes away from MDS&W when it comes around (usually right around my bday too) but I still would like to see Rhinebeck sometime. I actually was going to go to it this year, but the Head of the Charles regatta is this weekend in Boston so I will be there! I will console myself for missing NY by going to Wolcott and Co. and Mind's Eye Yarns as they are both in Cambridge near where I will be staying and watching the races. Brynn doesn't really care what I do, but she is sad that she won't have a lap to sleep on.... otherwise life is good for the girlies.
Would you like to see some progress pics? Of course you would! I mentioned a little while ago that I was a little sick of one of the scarves I was working on for the Red Scarf project...I think it was a combination of not liking the needles I was using and boredom with the stocking stitch. So....

say bye-bye to that scarf...and I cast on for a new one with the same yarn but in a twin rib pattern. I have made quite a bit of progress on the Soy Wool Stripes scarf with Stephanie's pattern from Oct. 12, which she assures me will block out to look like hers.

I also am making progress on Kerry...I decided that I needed to limit myself to one set of repeats at a time as all of the honeycombs sure do hurt the hand. I have, I think, 2 more repeats of honeycombs before I can go to the set up for the cables. Looking forward to that!
And my Trekking sock is coming along. I really like the yarn a lot...it is keeping my interest with the variegations...and at least I feel like I am participating a little bit in Socktoberfest!
Those of you trekking to NY...have a terrific time! Don't buy too much! I'll be back Monday evening and hopefully will have a nice post Tuesday or so about Boston.

Don't knit while watching "Dexter"

It' s hard. Can't take my eyes off the serial killer of serial killers, and can't take my eyes off of Kerry for a second...
or she will mess with me. I found a wonky cable which I cannot fix without ripping the whole dang thing and since my hands are aching enough with all the freaking honeycombs....it has become a design element. Can't really tell in this picture but basically it's an S curve rather than a honeycomb. It will be in the seam, so no biggie...I kind of like the thought of having a little boo-boo in there. The honeycombs are getting easier but I am waaaaay behind in the KAL....most people are on the cables and I am not even half way through the honeycombs...but it's all right. Pretty yarn, no?

I am doing very poorly in my Socktoberfest goals. I have not knitted a stitch on any of my socks in progress and in fact tomorrow I plan to cast on for another pair with my new Trekking. But, I am trying to keep up with Lolly's posts nonetheless, and so without further ado.....
my sock yarn stash. Click on the photo to go to the picture in Flickr where I have notes on most of these yarns...oh, how I love my pretty yarns. I wish I could knit more quickly!! I would love to see the patterns these would make.

Lolly's questions:

• Do you have certain patterns planned for some of the yarns?  Do you buy yarn and then choose a pattern?

I absolutely buy yarn with no idea what I am going to make with it in my head. The only time I have bought sock yarn with a pattern in mind is when I bought the Sunbeam St. Ives planning on making socks from Nancy Bush's "Knitting Vintage Socks." Otherwise I hope a pattern will come to me that will suit the sock...I had a misstep with the Shaefer Anne and hope not to repeat that.

• Does a certain sock yarn you have in your stash take you back to a certain event? (where you were when you bought/received it? what was going on in your life at the time!)
  

I have many yarn souvenirs, such as the Anne and some others that I picked up in California (the Lana Grossa and the Koigu in autumny colors).  Otherwise, nothing jumps out at me as memorable....I remember where I bought every single skein though!

In other knitting, I have become thoroughly sick of the red scarf I am making for the Red Scarf project (I think it's the needles) and want to cast on for another one. If you haven't noticed, I like to have several projects going at once!!!

AND check this out....all three, within tail lengths of each other, and no mayhem on my bed:

The world MAY come to an end. Just warning you.

Ahhh, Kerry....

Doesn't Tootsie looked blissed out? I just want to bury myself in her fuzzy tummy. Thankfully you can't hear the sound effects of her snoring inelegantly in my ear.

I've started the BWA Kerry KAL. If you asked me right now what I thought about the Kerry, I might respond with a vigorous eye roll. It feels like the stitches go on forever, and I've only done the three rows of ribbing! Next I increase (practically doubling the number of stitches) and will have 400-odd stitches on the needles (in order to accommodate the honeycomb pattern on the bottom of the sweater). Granted, to lace folk that isn't too much. But this is a lot more stitches than I am used to! The Weekend Pullover has a lot less than that...at least it feels that way. I think when I am doing more interesting stitches it will be better....I'll find out tonight.

For Socktoberfest, I've decided not to worry too much about new pairs of socks, but to learn from everyone else and try to complete the two pair on needles right now (BRC toe ups and Gentleman's sock in lozenge pattern). I do have a pair of Evelyn Clark lace socks on needles too but I may or may not pick those back up...still debating. I have so much beautiful sock yarn that I want to use, but I really feel I should complete some first.

This is where I am with the Weekend Pullover...I got a late start on the BWA KAL because I wanted to get to a point with the Weekend Pullover that I could put it away and know right where I am when I pick it back up. The back is completed up to the increases, ready to start armhole shaping. I still love this sweater and all of the different patterns. I do need some advice on how to get all of the lovely cat hair that I have knitted into it out! Hopefully it will come out with a good Eucalan soak. Or I can leave it in as a design element!

This is the closest I have ever seen these two mortal enemies...they are usually at least a tail's length apart.

Brynn's nose is cold again.....

Amanda Cathleen just had her blogiversary. Hopefully some of you stopped by! She had a little contest, and it turns out yours truly was the winner! Whoo! Thanks Amanda! I really enjoy reading your blog and am so glad I found it... It's amazing when you think about how big the knitting network is getting. I really hope some of you are coming to Stitches East (which is literally right down the street from my apartment) so I can meet you "for real"!

Grandmother Purl's squares, plus one cute cat.

While there hasn't been much blogging, there has been knitting.

These are the squares for CAP's grandmother. The white one is made out of Bernat Cotton Tots in white (der). The pattern is the leaf lace panel from 365 Knitting Stitches a Year...I think January 30. The variegated one is Wool in the Woods Lava in Juniper and the pattern is a bobble rib from Mon Tricot knitting dictionary. You can't really see the bobbles but you can feel them...and I surprisingly didn't mind knitting with the cotton when making these. I thought it would make my hands ache but it didn't...so that was happy news.

I also started one of the scarfs I am making for the Red Scarf Project. This one is in Caron Simply Soft Shadows, which I spotted at Michael's when making a needle run (I love Susan Bates aluminum needles!). It's supposed to stripe in shadowy ways (I'm guessing like Reynolds Fusion?) It looks like the color changes will be fun and it is indeed soft. I also found this new yarn....
Patons Soy Wool Stripes. I may be in love with this yarn. I may want to knit an entire garment out of this. There is something about the way it feels on my fingers...sort of a hairy softness....that makes my heart go pitter-patter. I don't know why I love it but I do! Bought two balls to play with and make a gender neutral scarf for the project. This is Navy Natural.

I feel like I haven't been blogging as much as I want to, and I think it's because I don't like Blogger much. I picked it when I started blogging because it looked easy. I really don't know anything about HTML or coding or CSS or what-have-you. Blogger has been somewhat helpful with that. But it's not that intuitive and I have problems especially with downloading pictures to the blog (the process). I would like to upgrade, and really like the looks of Typepad especially with the photo albums. I also really like the look of Pretty Posies but I don't know nearly enough to use it, I think. So, reader(s), what platforms do you use? Which one would be good for a non savvy person like me? And which one is EASY especially with posting pictures?
Thanks for your help!
                                                  Don't hate me because I'm beautiful.