Category Archives: Knitting

Alongs, Knitting, Those Cats

Sunday, sunny Sunday

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Thought I would include several more pictures of Chaos in the hat. I don’t think he was annoyed… Don’t forget that this is the cat who likes to walk around with a paper bag on his head. The hat was probably just a warmer, fuzzier, more colorful paper bag from his perspective!

Just hanging out on my…er, his chair.
Note that he’s licking my hand, not biting it!

Yesterday I drove down to St. Peter to have lunch with a friend. It was a gorgeous, sunny day – something we’ve had all too few of in Minnesota recently. After lunch, we always wander over to the Tangled Skein, which has a very nice yarn selection (but no website, alas). Notice the lovely hot pink and orange Noro Kureyon on the right, Mama_Tulip?!

The Tangled Skein also had loads of Malabrigio, which I’ve heard a lot about but haven’t ever seen before. It was wonderfully soft.

Here’s a close-up of the orange for you, Mama_Tulip:

Alas, I remained true to Stashalong and took only pictures from the store…

Knitting, Randonymity

As my mind flits hither and thither

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It’s just one of those really unfocused days… You know the saying “she jumped on her horse and rode madly off in all directions”? That’s me today. You have been warned.

First, some knitting.

(“Where are the cat pictures? What’s with this knitting stuff? I’m here for cat pictures!”)

Ok, Snowball, how about a quick cat story instead?? I forgot one very important part of yesterday’s tale. When the kittens were born, it was very obvious that Diablo was a boy. Very obvious. No question at all. None. Chaos/Hoho didn’t look like that at all. So, we figured we had a little black girl kitten, who would grow up to be just like her mom… until about week eight, when they arrived. Oh. My. I guess the kittens weren’t quite as perfectly Yin and Yang as we’d first thought.

Back to the knitting. I’d like to get some feedback on my not-so-red Anne Jaywalker. I’m not sure I’m loving how it’s knitting up. What do you think? Of course, in the interest of self-preservation, it took a lovely photograph.

Anmiryam has been staying very focused in the comments, always asking for more detail about what I’m tossing around for the Knitting Olympics. (I know that she’s looking for ideas for her Olympic project – if you have something especially in mind for her, you should definitely drop by and let her know.)

Edit: mrspao has created a brilliant button for Team GB! (Hmm. I wonder if I could move in time to use it??) If you’re a British knitter and have been contemplating the Knitting Olympics, now you’ll be able to proudly compete againt Team Canada.

Um, I briefly contemplated an Eris pullover, but after some swatching, it turns out I don’t have enough of anything in the right gauge in my stash. Since I’m in Stashalong, that takes Eris right out of the running. (Hi Kim! I haven’t purchased any yarn since December 31, 2005… alas, it was delivered last week, so I don’t have that to look forward to anymore.)

Some other things I’ve been tossing around… I have a Woodlands Tunic kit from several years ago. The yarn with the kit is scratchy, lanoliny, purple Briggs & Little stuff. I so do not like lanoliny yarn. I might bathe the skeins this weekend and see if that helps. Oh, and the pattern no longer really appeals to me. But other than that…

The St. Seraphine Knits Simply Stunning Lace Shawl. It’s knit from the point up, so I can use up all of whatever yarn I pick. It’s more complicated lace than I have ever done. I wouldn’t be able to read while knitting it. I have 500 yards of black/green/blue Brooks Farm Harmony or 800 yards of a laceweight black/grey silk – neither of which will make a very big shawl.

The Hourglass Sweater (I am apparently the only knitter in the blogospher who hasn’t knitted this yet). It’s a simple sweater, but looking back over my project list, the fastest I’ve finished any sweater is one month – and that was from bulky yarn in the round. I have some black Brooks Farm Four Play (I just love the name of that yarn – so clever!) that I have to swatch to see if I can get gauge. I also have enough Dale Svale in black or lavendar for this sweater, if I can get gauge.

So, this will be a swatching weekend (it’s all training, right?!). Doesn’t that sound fun, Chaos?

Knitting, Those Cats

Apparently, there can be no blobless pictures

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I finished the not-so-red scarf this morning. I decided to take a few pre-blocking pictures and got out an old black velvet dress for a backdrop. Unfortunately, by the time I had the scarf laid out on the black velvet, I had company. (I intended to do a completely cat-free post today. Really, I did.)

“Hmm, what’s this on the living room floor?”
“Looks like sparkly red mouse’s larger, less red, less mousey relative.”
“Oh, very cushy.”
“You may proceed.”

The picture below is of the scarf after I soaked it in Orvus and water, scrunched it dry in a towel, and stretched it out on my blocking board. The blocking board is 48″ long and I had to curve the scarf to get it on there. Why is the image such a funny shape? Um, because until I was resizing the picture, I didn’t realize how messy my bedroom was… Whoops.

Here’s the scarf after blocking, back on the black velvet. It became amazingly drapey and the colors spiraled appealingly. I’m very happy with it! It’s just too bad the I could never get a good photo of the color, because it goes from scarlet to red to hot pink to fuschia to rusty orange to scarlet…

“Let me tell you what I think of this scarf. Back when I was a kitten…”
Knitting, Those Cats

An update and a fickle tangent

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I’ve been making good progress on the Chaotic Black Purl Jaywalkers. Yup, lookie there – it’s the black blob again! I must have a camera setting screwed up or something.

Of course, being as fickle as any other knitter, when I read Norma’s post about knitting red scarves for “’emancipated’ foster children who are in college,” I remembered that one of my knitting resolutions for this year was to do more knitting for the community and immediately scrounged through my stash for suitable yarn. I discovered that I had no red yarn. Hmm. I’m in Stashalong, so romping out to a yarn store wasn’t really an option. I considered dyeing some yarn with Wilton’s cake dye, but I’ve never been able to get the reds to set. Norma gave me a tip on resolving that problem, so I was digging through my stash for yarn to dye when I discovered a lovely skein of Anne in reds and pinks, with some orange and rust bits tossed in for fun.Since using stash yarn “as is” seemed much better than filling my condo with fumes from wet wool and hot vinegar, I found an easy garter lace scarf in Last-Minute Knitted Gifts and got started.

The scarf will be much more lacy and open after it’s blocked. Deadline to drop scarves off for this project is January 31 at any Einstein Brothers Bagels. (For the curious, I’m doing surprisingly well knitting with a color that’s so far off of the Chris acceptable color chart, which includes deep greens, purples, and black.)

“Things are gonna change around here, you betcha. This photography crap is making me very cranky.”
Knitting, Those Cats

Chaotic Dance of the Jaywalker

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Some more photos from yesterday. In the comments, some have noted that their cats don’t get to play with knitting projects. Neither does Chaos, usually. However, when I bring out some bit of knitting to photograph, things just seem to gett out of hand quickly…

Sorry about this shot, Chaos… (It shows off the spot on his tummy that doesn’t have any guard hair. I think this spot is supposed to be white, based on the stray hairs nearby.) Anyway, I’ll let him take his bow:
Alongs, Knitting, Those Cats

My Stashalong begins

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Thanks, everyone for your kind words on my Falling Leaves socks!

To start my Stashalong, I’m going to knit… Jaywalkers. Hey, I feel kinda left out – I’ve seen so many gorgeous Jaywalkers that I want my very own pair.

I started out winding some well-aged yarn from my stash. With help, of course…


“What’s this nifty new toy on my favorite chair?”
“Is this edible? Hmm, let me just find out…”

After the help was dismissed to the bathroom for a few minutes, I ended up with two lovely balls of Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock in Black Purl. This yarn was purchased in 2001. Told you it was well-aged! 🙂

The really funny thing was me discovering that I have nearly the same shade in Koigu KPPPM (color P305) and in Koigu Kersti. Hopefully no one doubts my need to be in Stashalong. Anyway! I started my Black Purl Jaywalkers during a two-hour staff meeting this afternoon and made good progress, as assessed by Chaos:

“Tastes like… sheep. Mmmm…. sheep.”
Knitting, Those Cats

The leaves have fallen

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At long last, I’ve finished the Koigu Falling Leaves socks, making them my first finished objects of 2006… notwithstanding that they were started October 9, 2005. Moving right along, here’s a photo of them nearing completion earlier today – can’t you just feel the excitement?

Here’s the rest of the cat, if you were curious (and even if you weren’t):

“Huh? You woke me up for what?!?!?”

I meant to follow this pattern as written and do the short row toes and heels. In fact, I tried the short row toe from the pattern, but I didn’t get very far into it before the cursing started up (are you having a flashback yet, Ana?!) and I decided I would just use my regular old toe and heel. Whew. Much happier.

I also decided to do the lace pattern the opposite direction on one sock, but you have to get pretty darn close to my feet to detect that they’re the socks are mirror images lacewise.

Top view
Side view (featuring my regular old heel)

I do all my socks toe-up because those are womens size elevens you’re looking at… running out of yarn is a constant worry for me and toe-ups let me maximize the yarn. Good thing I don’t like tall socks, because this is all the yarn I had left:

Tomorrow I’ll reveal what my first Stashalong project will be.