While the Humans are away

The cats will play.

And play.

And then play some more.

Holding pattern

I'm in a holding pattern - projects started, nothing finished. Progress is measured in rows knit...make that 'row'. Yep, that's how slow it is here. Almost 2 months and no FO.

The Citrus Rib Shopping Bag is almost done except for adding the handles (which require a different sized ring to thread through the handles and the grommets on the bag.) Grommets? Not as much fun as I thought they would be - I think it has something to do with the dense rib I had to hammer through.

Lucy has not been out of the bag since I took her picture a few weeks ago. Maybe tonight.

And the scarf? Well, it's gonna be a car project for a while.

So Project Spectrum May comes and goes with nary a green touched. I see a pair of socks in June's future.

Persnickety and Matt ROCK!

Persnickety Knitter and Matt rock my casbah, baby! The progress bars are back and better than ever thanks to Java instead of flash.

Thank you sooooooo much for making this blogging fool happy again (And Matt, thank you for taking the extra effort to show me why punctuation marks can be my friends!)

Ayep, that's orange

Citrus Rib Purse - this is the front/bottom/back portion, one side panel is on the needles, and the Bernat Boa for the trim (and to give your eyes something to focus on).

What's wrong with this picture?

"How is Lucy", you ask?
Well here are her hems (sans picked up seed stitch border.)

And then there is the top of her panels. I guess I was in such a rush to finish her by Easter (yes, I can hear you cackling. I'll wait til you are finished), I really didn't check the length of her panels very well. As you can see, there's some 'splaining (and fixing to do).

And did I say Easter? I meant Memorial Day.

Current Car Project

Dropstitch Scarf in the Burgundy Alpaca Cone That Will Not Die. I've offset the 'holey-ness' of the scarf by making it wider - since the yarn is so lightweight, it can be wrapped several times around the neck without a lot of bulk.

A whole lot prettier than the knitting situation

It's dang dismal on the knitting front, so here's some Vermit pretty in
May's Project Spectrum Green -

Non - Progress Bars

It's so sad. My little progress bars have disappeared. Long story ... the short version is the server where I stored the link is no longer active and I can't find any way to access the file to save it somewhere else.

I loved my little progress bars - changing their colors to match the WIP, seeing the increments grow...

*sigh*

Got any ideas?

Naptime

Sunday afternoons are happy nappy time here at the CattyAbode. Is it any wonder that I don't wake up with permanent neck cricks?

Hope springs eternal

So maybe I'm not knitting so much right now, but rest assured...I'm THINKING about knitting. A lot. I scored these little skeins of cotton sockweight yarn at a local Big Lots. Never fear - I'm not abandoning my LYS. I'd stopped in for some spring cleaning supplies and ta da - there be yarn here. Who knew? Not me. This is the only stuff that screamed "Stash me" - I am heeding the voice of knitters before me who have warned of the woes of money ill-spent on yarn never knit.


Wedged in between the skeins are the citrine/turquoise hoops for this month's Project Spectrum beading project. Draped across the skein are a cute pair of coral/orange beaded drops I picked up yesterday (you know me and my inordinate love of the orange!)

(I'll try the jewelry pics again after I heed the little "batteries low, stupid!" light on the digital!)

Spring Cleaning

I've got spring cleaning on the mind. But only on the mind. No physical work has been accomplished. I need to let the concept meld, roll around, congeal in my mind for at least another week. Then, I will take a day off from work and begin the ritual.

I love the spring cleaning. I love purging, I love the tidiness and the organization. I love everything about it but the beginning. The start. The actually picking up of the mop, cloth, or vacuum and doing it. There will be moments of frustration when I think I've bitten off more than I can chew. But that's part of the fun. And it really is fun.

So for now it's the planning stage. The preparations include making the list, buying some new cleaning supplies (the new vacuum won't be here until May 5) and perhaps some preliminary purging. For those of you looking for knitting content, I can't promise anything for a bit. But it's happening quietly in the background.

Happy Spring to all of you!

Coffee, Yarn, Cat on my lap

And you thought I was making up my tag line and Yahoo avatar?

Just like his brother

This is Purrcival, the siblings' half brother. As you can see, he's also of the "in is better than on or under" school of exploration. He and his sister, Sassafras live with my landlady and are a tad more sociable than my three (but mine are cuter. It's what a mom is supposed to say, right?)

The Crows ring out winter

 

Here's a pic of the crows in their scarves. It was a little thrill for me to drive past them one morning last month and see them bedecked for winter's last hurrah.

Spring Sunset on the Lake 

More orange

I find toothbrush travel cases make great crochet hook holders. This one is a soft orange rubber and has room for about 6-7 hooks.

One search over

I found handles for April's PS Intarsia bag! I think I had looked on every website known to crafters for the perfect handles and finally decided I didn't KNOW what the perfect handles looked like. I kept changing my mind - beads? cording? webbing? bamboo? So I checked out the local Joann's and ended up with these for a whopping $4.00. Ayep. I can live with that. While I was there, I noticed a rack of discontinued upholstery samples for $1.99 each. So I picked up this Liz Claiborne ultrasuede sample in Maize (it's a little more orange-y than the pic shows)- it will cover a piece of cut-to-size cardboard to reinforce the inside bottom of the bag.

Love of the Orange

I think I have made my love of the orange pretty clear. While I don't wear orange (except for my Splash scarf), I love having it around me. Even right now, where I'm sitting I can see orange everywhere. For example, right here. Cat with orange markings. Orange knitting bag. Happy!

Project Spectrum - April Project 1

Here's a fast and satisfying knit thanks to Kaity! This little slippers are an early birthday present (94 years!) for my beautiful grandmother. Since I didn't have the yarn Kaity used, I fudged a bit by using 2 strands of Lion Brand Magic Stripes in the "Bright Spring" colorway. Yes, I know the stripes don't match location for location, but hey. It was fast and fun and I don't think Gram will mind a bit.

And to find Kaity the rest of the time, be sure to check out her new location here.

Flashing the Stash

To check out the CatStash, skip past the next post down. I knew today would be a busy day, so I prepared the posts ahead of time. I thought posting them today would give them today's date, but nopeys. So just think of me operating in another time zone. Or alternate universe. Or maybe it's just Blogger's April Fool's Joke on me.