Category Archives: Those Cats

Alongs, Knitting, Those Cats

In which I have some setbacks and an alarming realization

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Jeanne has posted her pictures from Friday night! Head on over and check them out for a slightly different perspective on the evening – or if you’re morbidly curious what I look like when slightly tipsy and being menaced by the Bugman.

First, the minor setbacks of yesterday. I briefly left my Olympic knitting unattended and returned to find it partially off the needles. Hmm. A puzzle. I wonder how that happened. No culprit was in sight.

“Bwah-ha-ha!”

The sweater was easily returned to the needles. However, about 16 rows after changing to a new ball of yarn, I discovered that the extra skeins of yarn I ordered are nowhere near being the same dyelot as my originals. A dark and dramatic line was readily apparent. Argh. So I ripped back to where I’d added the new ball (losing about 2800 stitches in the process) and switched to one of my original skeins.

In the process of removing the sweater from the needles, I learned the source of a mysterious “drag” on the cable of my circular needle – some small nicks, similar to what one would expect from sharp little fangs. Hmm. A bit of work with some buffing emery boards took care of that.

But… Here it is, nearly Day 3 (I’m not even 48 hours into this) and… I’ve reached the armpits of the sweater. I’m about to start knitting the first sleeve. Oh oh. It appears that I’ve radically underestimated the time it would take me to knit this sweater.

Alongs, Festing, Knitting, Those Cats

There was baleful glaring last night…

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But only from the Malevolent Bugman… Jeanne swears it’s something I bring out in him. She also swears that he’s warming up to me. Hmm.

“You will submit to my will, puny human. Go get me some Kitty Kaviar and be quick about it.”

First we got comfy in our sweats and readied our cameras.

“Chris, if you post this picture on your blog, I might have to kill you.”

We loaded up on wine and snacks.

I was settled in with a cat on my lap – truly, all the comforts of home.

“Don’t be honored by my presence – it’s because you’re sitting in my chair.”

We watched about three minutes of the opening ceremonies, found ourselves wondering WTF, and switched to Shrek 2, The Princess Bride, and Pitch Black. We did manage to switch back right in time to see the torch lighting extravaganze.

“Let me know when they’re going to light the torch.”

And at the end of the night (around 2 a.m.), we both had respectable progress to show.

Randonymity, Those Cats

Countdown to the Knitting Olympics…

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“Hmm, there’s something happening up on the table…”

Chaos was right – there was something happening on the table – the pre-Olympic photo shoot:

“Whoa.”

Starting from lower left, we have

  • the corner of my pillow (Celestial Sheep flannel – we’ll talk more about those Celestial Sheep another time)
  • a cat (not part of Olympic preparations)
  • the yummy black Four Play yarn (including swatch on my beloved super speedy Addi Turbos)
  • the pattern in the book
  • some pinot noir
  • some brie (not pictured are several other fun cheeses) and Blue Diamond Nut Thin crackers (go check out the nutritional info on these – you can eat the whole box for less than 500 calories – amazing. Plus they’re gluten-free!)
  • my copy of the pattern (annotated with the many corrections and my own changes)
  • tips on the Hourglass Sweater gleaned from the experience of those who’ve knit it before me

The pinot, brie, and Nut Thins are all anxiously awaiting a trip to Jeanne’s house this evening to watch the opening ceremonies and knit. And, obviously, drink and eat fatty snacks (Jeanne’s providing cable, garlic-stuffed olives, and flourless chocolate cake). The pillow… well, let’s just say it has the potential (what with all that wine and frantic knitting) for being a sleepover knitting event. We could just start out by calling it an Opening Ceremonies Knitting Pajama Party and go with that.

“This is very interesting… I wonder how it tastes with tuna? Maybe while Mom is out tonight, I’ll invite one of those lovely furry ladies over for a midnight snack. Now, how to decide which one… I’d hate to start a catfight!”
Alongs, Those Cats

C is for…

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Chaos! (Like, duh.) Yes, I joined the ABC-A-Long. I’ve enjoyed reading what everyone’s been writing, but I thought it was closed… until a few days ago, when Heather posted that she’d just joined. I’m so there! (Thanks, Heather!)

I’ve missed A and B and I’ll go back to pick them up… after the Knitting Olympics. We’re going basic services for the duration of the Knitting Olympics. You have been warned.

Anyway. C is for Chaos, my utterly chaotic cat, whom I’ve known since his birth (and even before – I felt him kicking inside of Riley!). He became mine at a rough point in my life; having his warm, purring, busy self helped ground me then and now. He is an endless source of companionship, entertainment, and exasperation. What more could I ask?


“Psst… she means to ask all of you for more tuna, please. She just forgot.”
Knitting, Those Cats

Neon Muppet Lovechild Scarf

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I present you with a hitherto unseen project… the Neon Muppet Lovechild Scarf for Mama Tulip.

As modeled by Chaos:

“Thank you, thank you.”
“Wait, what is this stuff?!”
*sniff sniff*
“I don’t like the looks of this – let me arm the Paw of Death…”
“I will save us, Mom!”
“Whew! I need a nap…”

Enjoy, Mama Tulip! And remember, black cat hair is very insulating and definitely complements the lovely neon colors.Edit: For the knitters, the scarf is made from two skeins of Lana Grosso Tiramisu, 16 stitches – altho I’ve already forgotten what needle size I used! I made it with pointy ends because I hate bottom-of-scarf flare.
Knitting, Those Cats

Some finished objects to report

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I didn’t spend the weekend sitting around watching the cat yawn (can you believe he was already closing his mouth when I snapped that picture?!) – I actually got a lot of things done. In knitting news, I knit a bowtie scarf (shamelessly copying Pink Rocket and Irene; pattern here) for a friend’s birthday:

“I hate to break it to you, Mom, but I don’t think your friend here is… normal. I can’t quite put my paw on the problem…”

I used a stray ball of Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran Tweed (black) from my stash for the scarf. My, what a lot of vegetable matter was in that yarn – I felt like I was knitting with Noro! The Silkroad was kind of scratchy while I was knitting with it (unexpected for a yarn that contains silk and cashmere), but softened up considerably after a good soak and blocking. (Why am I not in the picture? Well, I was celebrating International Pajama Day and was not looking particularly photo worthy.)

I finally finished the NSR Anne Jaywalkers:

But wait… something’s missing from that shot… Oh yeah, there’s no blob! Said blob was otherwise occupied with erstwhile blobby behavior:

(presumed not dead)
Project Spectrum, Randonymity, Those Cats

Is this the end of my Stashalong road?

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This week, while I was sick, several packages arrived for me at work. Three, to be exact. In the interest of not boring you to tears, the arrival excitement has been distilled down to this:

“Oh boy, someone sent me toys!” (shhhh… I’ll break it to him later that this isn’t for him…)

The first two packages were part of stuff swaps. I sent Anmiryam copies of some very obscure out-of-print patterns and she said she’d send me “something fun”! Indeed – it’s the gorgeous Cherry Tree Hill Supersock on the right below (color Dusk). Thanks, Anmiryam! (Please ignore the blob, which was not received in any of the aforementioned packages.)

After I got my new digital camera, I swapped my old digital camera with Eileen for “something fun.” What she sent me is on the left side of the picture above. (Mostly – the two amazingly decadent looking Legacy Chocolates truffles are tucked into my freezer, waiting my return to tiptop health.) Near the top, you will note a lovely reddish-pinkish ball of Cherry Tree Hill laceweight mohair silk, which will handily take care of the first color challenge (red & pink) in Project Spectrum!

The pattern and Clown sock yarn are for a sock yarn baby sweater – I’m on a quest to find the perfect sock yarn baby sweater, as Eileen is well aware, since that quest led to our “meeting” here in blogland! Additionally, that Clown sock yarn might take care of the second Project Spectrum color challenge (orange & yellow). Bless you, Eileen!

“This isn’t really what I thought a Clown was. How puzzling…”

And the last package… Well, Kim, this is the one that might have me out of Stashalong. Two skeins of black Brooks Fiber Farm Four Play wool silk blend.

I had five skeins of this yarn, ordered at the end of December with the rough idea of making a sweater for myself from it at some point and without realizing that I had the bare minimum yardage to make a sweater from it. When I started swatching for the Hourglass Sweater (my project in the Knitting Olympics), I started with yarns that I had plenty of in my stash. Alas, I either couldn’t get gauge or couldn’t get a pleasing fabric with those yarns. Finally I wound up a skein of the Four Play, swatched, and knew I would be using it for this project.

By the pattern, I would have exactly enough yarn for the sweater. Unfortunately, even the pattern corrections mentioned that some people found themselves running significantly short on yarn… Oh oh. When Kim posted a list of Stashalong clarifications, I thought, well, maybe it would be ok… I contacted Brooks Fiber Farm to see if they had any skeins of the same dye lot left. They did, but just two or three, making it pretty much then or never to get more yarn for this project… So I ordered it.

Do I stay or do I go?

Knitting, Those Cats

Rejoining the living (more or less)

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Thank you all so much for your well wishes!! Who wouldn’t feel better after reading that? 🙂

I did manage to spend a bit of time upright, working on my Not-So-Red (NSR) Anne Jaywalkers.

(please excuse the amazing clash between my green sweatpants and the NSR Anne socks)

Chaos was apparently feeling a bit camera shy, but possessive of the socks.

“All the Jaywalkers are mine! Mine! Bwah-ha-ha!”

Notice anything missing in this picture? (Besides all the tails I had to rip off the mice in an attempt to make them acceptable, of course.)

“But… where is my SRM??”
Those Cats

*beep*

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“Mraow mraaaaow raooow! *chirp* Rrrrraow rraow mmraooooww! Mraow mmmmrawor. *chirp* Raaaaaaow mraoow mraow.”
Translation: “Hi, this is Chaos! Mom can’t come to the blog right now because she’s been sick. She’s eating a lot of strawberry jello, when I keep telling her that tuna jello would be better for me… um… her.”