Hair of the Cat

Tis the Season to Make Dishcloths

 

Every year I make my two bosses some dishcloths. The first year I made them they made it clear they definitely wanted more, so now it's an annual thing. It's nice to have your projects appreciated by someone not related to you.

This year's batch:

 

I somehow ended up with a lot of blue and green this year ...

I also made this afghan for charity:

Via Ravelry (of course) I learned of a mental hospital in California that distributes donated afghans among their patients. Normally afghans take me a couple of years to complete (did I mention I'm a slow crafter?) but this one only took a month. The pattern is called "The 5 1/2 Hour Throw". It took a liiitle longer than that, but much less than my normal time.

Our trip to New Glasgow.

Mike and I spent last weekend in New Glasgow,  a little town in northeast Nova Scotia.  We actually wanted to visit a vinyard in the area.  It was a lovely scenic drive near the ocean to Jost, a winery in a wide spot in the road called Malagash.  It's a great place for a cottage (if you live in the general vicinity); it's a picture-perfect area.  In the summer at least; I can't imagine living there in winter.

After filling our wine bags with cheap wine (cheaper than the liquor store anyway), we passed a sign that said something about Earth and Farm and ... Cashmere.  Then we passed another one and I noted that it definitely said Cashmere and had a picture of a goat.  Well that settled it, off we went in search of cashmere yarn.

Earth Art Cashmere is a beautiful little farm with lots of geese, ducks and chickens, a dog with curly hair that looked shearable, and I'm sure there were some goats hiding somewhere.   The birds were all of special varieties, the names of which I can't remember, but the geese looked like turkeys and the chickens looked like they were ready for Fashion Week.   All were very friendly and not the least perturbed by our car.  In fact some of the chickens approached us, but since I value my fingers I didn't try to pet them.

I did find what I was looking for, mainly yarrrrrnz.  Unfortunatley I could only afford one skein.  This is what a $52 skein of cashmere/merino yarn looks like:

 

This is also what our TV remote looks like apparently.

The owner threw in a free pattern for a scarf for which I will use this very squishable yarn.   First I have to finish another one-skein scarf I just began, plus finish Mike's scarf I started last winter, then there's the cat bed that's been on the needles for about a year ... knitting is my kinda hobby.

 

It's Sprouting

As mentioned a few posts ago, I have a pretty brown thumb, literally and figuratively.  I've killed many a plant in  my life.  My poinsettia is still doing well, which is a pleasant surprise.

In a knitting swap I recently received a cute little daisy grow kit (no idea what type of daisies).  It came with a soil pellet, seeds and a little blue pot.  I followed the instructions and planted the seeds about a week ago, then watched anxiously for a sign of life.  It only took a few days before tiny little sprouts began pushing through the soil.  They are so cute and I'm so excited!  May these little sprouts grow into beautiful daisies and not fall victim to either my brown thumb or a kitty with a taste for little green shoots.

 

I've also recently completed an afghan I've been working on since I learned to knit three years ago.  Did I mention I'm a slow knitter?  So how did I celebrate the completion of this blanket?  By beginning a new one of course, crochet this time.  My completed-just-in-time-for-summer heavy creation:

 

That's Mike hiding behind the blanket.  Check out our lovely array of remotes in front there.

And lastly, a gratuitous photo of Tubbs.  She was perched on one side of the barbecue on the balcony, wondering what-all we were up to inside:

 

 

My First Granny Square

 

This square is for a Ravelry group that makes blankets and shawls for people going through difficult times (The Amazing Flying Squirrel Karma Team).  For this particular project, I had to make a mitered square, a squirrel square (a square with a squirrel in it) or a granny square.  Having never made any of these, I chose the mitered square.  The pattern I found called for sock yarn.  I quickly discovered it would take me five weeks to complete an 8-inch sock-yarn mitered square, so I tried my luck at a granny square.  I stuck with one colour so as to not confuse myself further.  However, after only two false starts, I had completed this square in about two hours.  Which is amazing for me, the world's slowest knitter/crocheter.  I'm off to make another one in purple.   When I have time I'll have to try multi-coloured squares ... but first I have a cat bed and a scarf for Mike to finish.

What have I been working on?

This:

This is my almost-obscene tank top.  I just got tired of knitting it after awhile so I made it just long enough to cover the essentials ... and that's it.  Obviously just for around the house.  Mike likes it, that's all that matters.

Also a cat bed:

 

Yes, that ugly green thing up there is a cat bed.  It's this one, actually.  I'm making it extra-large to fit Tubbs, although I don't expect she'll be too interested.  Buddy, on the other hand, sleeps on anything I happen to be knitting. He LOVES yarn.  Wool, acrylic, doesn't matter.  He's already knocked several stitches off the needles by lying on his unfinished bed.  (Don't worry, I saved them.)  So I expect at least one cat will get use out of it.

Busy Bee.

So when not being the recipient of dead insects, yes, I do knit and crochet.  I made this little scarf for me:

See how nicely it keeps my water bottle warm.

I also made this larger scarf for my mother:

I found the diagonal stitch pattern in an Interweave box of flash cards (essentially that's what they are), but there is an error somewhere in the pattern so I winged it.  Any my winging it took me six stinkin' months to finish this scarf.  Counting is not my forte.  But it did look nice upon blocking.

I've sort-of completed a shawl for my MIL ... just in time for weather too hot for shawls.  Ahem.  It's a simple double-crochet triangular pattern, so it's a bit dense, and I'm wondering if I should just give it to her anyway to never be worn or try again with an "airier" pattern (but not lace, I'm anti-laceweight).  Tough decision.  In the meantime, I've started a tank top in bright pink Sirdar Juniper.  Yes, I will sweat in it if I complete it in time for summer.  But knitting and crocheting are more about the journey than the finished product, right?  Right?