Because I always finish everything twice

I'm finished! Again it's the Cat's Paw Shawl and this time I'm finished with the fringe.




Both of these are pre-blocking, but don't worry, I won't be finishing this for a third time.

This is one of the few projects I'm actually quite happy with, ergo posting about it 57 times. I'm please with how it turned out and think the recipient will be pleased as well.

That's pretty much it. Like I said, I'm just pleased with this.

I suppose I might add that the European Striped Ass still lives. I haven't starved him or worked him to death yet. I might though if he doesn't watch it! :P

Aprés Weekend

The Cat’s Paw Shawl is finally finished! It was a fairly easy knit, as long as I was paying attention and the chart was right. We’ll just gloss over those two conditions and say it was an easy knit, shall we?. Good. *glosses* OK, when I say it’s finished, that’s not quite true. I’ve finished knitting it, but I want to put a beaded fringe on it to jazz it up a bit. The child it’s for is a girly girl and will love it. I spent several hours putting the fringe on last night and tonight I’m set to start the beads. I am under no illusion that that will be a quick process. There are two beads per fringe and there must be 100 pieces of fringe per side. I’m not even certain I have enough beads to finish. I can get more though. This is the project thus far:

The beads themselves are nice. They are blue, but an opaque, milky type blue that changes colour a bit. They give the otherwise plain shawl a bit of colour. I’m also planning on getting a cat pin to use to pin the shawl together in front. That should look good, I think.

As soon as I get the beads done, or get tired of doing them, I’m going to cast on the Candle Flame Shawl (link on right for those interested) and get that started. Then I need to think of something for a swap I’m doing. I won’t say any more on that since I don’t want my Swapee running across this. It’s a surprise. I also need to work on the current phone sock and I want to start knitting with the new cotton sock yarn I got last week.

That brings me to the SEX I failed to mention. I was only supposed to be a “go get yarn for Candle Flame Shawl” expedition, but I ran into a couple of skeins of sock yarn that were begging to be tried. *sigh* I am such a sap. Must not go to yarn store ever again. At least I got the shawl yarn on sale.

Oh, I also need to work on my squares. I’ve still got at least 5 to do. So much knitting, so little time.

The dog hasn’t yet been forgiven for the jacket incident, but I am speaking to him. I’m contemplating sending him out begging or making him give small children rides in a wagen or something to make up the loss of said jacket, which was virtually new. I was just going to cut out his food and treats until he made the cost up, but I’m afraid the animal welfare offices would not have taken kindly to that measure. If you see a Great Dane with a bucket and I sign saying “disgraced” on it standing on the corner any time soon, it will be T. Please give generously. :P

NB: The above was just for fun. I have no intention of starving my dog. I might throttle him, but I will never starve him.

Heated Knitting

Mariknits was saying in her last post that her knitting has slowed down. Frankly, I don’t wonder at this as the last thing I want to do when it is 100+°F outside is knit. Now you might be one of those people who think, “Oh! It’s 103°F out! I think I’ll pull out that sweater, put it in my lap and knit a while so I can feel just how heavy and warm it is and imagine the joy the recipient will get out of this when it’s -30°F.” I, however, am not and quite honestly feel that anyone who belongs in the above category is in acute and immediate need of psychiatric aid. In those temperatures, knitting itself is actually questionable and knitting with anything other than cotton is pure, unadulterated insanity, especially if it’s a large project. Summer, to my chagrin, is here and it’s time to break out those cotton socks, lace hats, and small Christmas ornaments which don’t cover you in a layer of wool. Should it be absolutely necessary that you knit with wool in summer, I recommend purchasing a large block of ice and sitting on it while you knit. That would at least make it bearable.

Even though we aren’t experiencing 100+ temps – it has mercifully, until today, remained in the upper 70s here – my knitting has slowed down too. This probably has less to do with the weather and more to do with my current obsession of loading all of my CD (20 years worth) onto my computer so I can toss the cases and save space. I swear, this action has nothing at all to do with needing more space for stash. Nothing whatsoever. My stash is contained. Honestly. - No, really, it is. Besides, the space being opened up is on a dog/cat accessible, open bookcase in my living room and is thus not a good place for yarn storage; that is unless you like knitting with tangled and slobbery yarn. Loading CD takes time and patience and is not conducive to knitting at a good pace or difficult projects, so progress has been slow. I have finished another blanket square (yellow with a tulip in the middle), the Twisted Tulips and made progress on my phone sock, but the lace shawl has suffered.

Which funnily enough brings me to, you guessed it, the lace Cat’s Paw Shawl. I found this scarf one day and have now nicked the cat’s paw pattern and started making it into a shawl. I made the huge mistake of not wanting it to look contrived, so I staggered the cat’s paw rows to make it look more like a lot of cats walking over the shawl instead of just rows of paw prints – this was only partially successful, but that’s not the point. The point is that having done this, and having made the shawl triangular, there are no pattern repeats so the chart grew to ginormous proportions. It’s was 4 pages wide by the time I got done. I managed to squash it down to three by making the squares smaller, but still, it was too difficult to work from. Ergo I spent yesterday writing the whole thing out. I still had to do it in abbreviated form in order to keep it all on one page and still have it legible, but at least it’s now contained to two consecutive pages. I’m also rather happy with the initial look of the thing (the knitted shawl and not the written out pattern!), so that makes it all worth it. Besides, work is slow and it gave me something to do.

This brings me to my chart holder. I keep meaning to mention how much I love it. It’s brilliant. It’s made life so much easier, especially with the improvements I made on it since the initial design -not that these are anything in themselves to boast about, but they are handy. I had ordered a few magnets from a place for an entirely different reason and they sent me a few samples of tiny magnets. At first I didn’t know what to do with them, but now I’ve got them lined up on the board and they hold my darning needles, Options keys, stitch markers and any other metal thing I might be using. I’ve also got a slightly larger magnet on there to hold my scissors. No more routing around for knitting paraphernalia! It’s great. If I need a needle, it’s on the board. A key? On the board. Scissors? Board. Since the board is also nearly always necessary for a chart or instructions, I never have to look for anything and nothing ever falls off onto the floor, between the couch cushions, or into the Black Hole of Random Knitting Items that opened up in my living room as soon as I started knitting. The Black Hole is like Sockmort (the evil Voldemort of the Sock World that comes to claim single socks as his evil helpers when knitters get Second Sock Syndrome – don’t ask. It’s best not to go there.), only on a much grander scale and with a wider scope. My magnetic board has, however, deprived the Hole of nourishment and it’s now wasting away. - I just hope it doesn’t get too hungry and decide to just suck me up as recompense for its losses. Should I not blog for more than 2 weeks, you can pretty much assume that that is what happened. - Finally, the board prevents 90% of all knitting accidents. Anyone here ever sat on the scissors or needles that fell off onto the couch? I rest my case. As for flinging circular needles into your eyes, glasses are still your best bet. The board won’t help unless you can hold it up in front of your eyes and knit at the same time. Should you be able to do this, please comment here and send a picture, or better yet, a video. That’s something I’d really like to see.

I’ll leave you today with a quote from my Stupid Quote of the Day Calendar:

On Ewe Lose

Weakest Link host Anne Robinson:
Andy, which letter of the alphabet sounds exactly the same as a term for a female sheep?

Contestant: Baaaah?

Of Lace, Stitch Markers and Other Things

Because I’m really not fond of knitting lace, the knitting gods are punishing me. I keep finding these lace projects that I really like and want to do for someone. Must. Remember. To. Stop. Angering. Knitting. Gods. Alternatively, I could try and learn to like knitting lace, but I’m afraid I wasn’t in line when God was handing out patience and care. I must have been off getting my double portion of stubbornness and orneriness.

Next one up is The Cat’s Paws Scarf from Cynthia, which is just too cute and is begging to be done for my “cousin” who really isn’t my cousin, but I like having them as a part of my family, so they get called cousins. Lisa is a really girly girl and loves animals so she’ll love this. I don’t know yet if I want to do it as a scarf or stole, but as she’s small it won’t make much of a difference in size. I think a stole would look better since you’d see the pattern better and she could wear that to church. In the end, it will probably depend on what yarn I find to do it in. I don’t have any lace weight at home (obviously as usually don’t volunteer to knit lace).

That won’t happen until after the North Star Stole though and I’ve just re-started knitting that after having finished the TBGA Socks for my aunt. Those turned out quite well, I hope. I had to improvise since the gauge on the stockinet foot was a lot bigger than on the cable leg. I think they’re fine though. I certainly loved the wool (Valore from Jakobs) and would recommend it to anyone. They are also super comfy and if nothing else, she can use them as around the house socks for warmth in the evenings.

I’m also going to be changing the cabled socks I will be doing for me into Deb’s Fensterl socks. I want to try the pattern out (no, I haven’t forgotten you Deb!) and that is a good opportunity to do so. As much as I love the other pattern, sock patterns tend to loose their shine for me after I’ve done one pair of them, so on to the Fensterl we go!

Which brings me to my new obsession: Stitch markers. I found some lovely stitch markers on Etsy (from Knittingpark (aran and celtic) and Sunneshine (paw print)) and have now become obsessed with them. Even more so since I got the aran ones I ordered (dog paws will hopefully follow soon, hopefully). I love them! They are so much better than the plastic ones I got at the knitting store. They don’t get caught on everything and fall off every chance they get. Love. Them. The only thing that scares me about them is that I am certain to actually knit them into my work at some point and wind up with a decorated work or having to frog the whole thing to get them out again. This will happen. It is only a matter of time. Knitting them in, however, would give me an excuse to go and find more cute ones :D

Oh to be knitting right now! Air conditioners, February. ‘Nuff said. Just y’all be thankful I’ve spared you my light bulb rant featuring knitting chickens (unless you’re on my LJ FList that is muhahahahahahaha!). That one got a bit bizarre. Like I said, air conditioners, February. *sigh*