Oranges and Grapefruits

are what ya need when knitting baby hats. Preemie heads = size of oranges, Newborns = grapefruits. I've put PS on hold to knit up some remnants for this project. This standard baby hat pattern is incredibly adaptable for any yarn, needle, or size - I've made it with and without the eyelet row, out of wool, cotton, and novelty yarns, chunky or fingering weights, on straights or circs. Right now, I'm averaging one hat a day and using up some remnants while I'm at it. Try it, you might like it.

Objects in mirror

Are done.

Here's the finished Lucy Lu pic. As you can tell, Pip is excited by the completion process. Pattern: free from the Berrocco website. Yarn: Lion Brand Microfiber in French Vanilla, needles: #8 Addis. Started - the week before Easter. But hey, I got it done before July 4th.

Celebrating my independence

From the WIP list! I managed to knock out 2 of the 3 June projects and put a good dent in the 3rd. That's what 16 hours in a car with nothing else to do will buy ya.


From left to right - Denim sock #1, Baby hat in Salsa and Baby Ull (on #3 Addis), and a Bubby in Plush (on #4 Brittanys).


And what was I doing in a car for 16 hours? Why a round trip to here!

All the Catty siblings and their offspring were going to be in the same place at the same time (an event that has not happened in eight years.) So even though the CatMan had to work today, we pretended to be college students again and roadtripped to the flooded regions of PA. The Cattyparents didn't know we were coming - needless to say, they were very very suprised. Much beer and pizza (mmm...real pizza) were consumed. We also laughed ourselves silly many times over, especially when the neighborhood cat Ranger decided the top of CatDad's prize Benz was the perfect place for a bath.

Here's hoping your Fourth is as much fun as mine is turning out to be!

April PS project 2 is done!

Lucy is contentedly blocking, resting in her done-ness. I'm not entirely happy with the seaming job - I'll have to see what she looks like blocked out.

And the knitting bag is packed for our whirlwind tour to PA this weekend. All the PS June projects are making the journey - I'll be singing "Am I Blue" as we wend our way through VT, NY, and the flooded roads of PA (it's OK, the Toyota Echo is small enough to float).

May PS project 1 done!

A scarf in teal green Kidsilk Crack...er Haze, trimmed in ecru. Started over a year ago, stuffed in a drawer to be ignored until Project Spectrum came along to encourage me. Done on #2 Brittanys, the stitch pattern long forgotten.

Closeup of the picot lace trim. The pattern is a four row repeat I learned over 20 years ago when I started knitting. I needed over 8' of picot lace to trim the scarf. Why yes, I am insane.

Today's Lakescape

is brought to you by the color blue and Project Spectrum.

"Not some backpacker's hovel"

The title of this post is one of my favorite lines from one of my favorite movies - French Kiss (you get the humor when you hear it spoken with a French accent.) It was also the mantra I kept repeating to myself this weekend as I ignored the growing scariness of the ho-val in the attempts to make in-roads on the WIP list.

I'm excited to find I only need to finish Lucy's second sleeve and sew it on, the drop stitch scarf is long enough to wrap around my neck once, and the Kidsilk scarf's lace edging is 16" from completion.

At the risk of falling short yet again of deadlines, I'm hoping all three of these will be off the needles by the end of the month. This month. June 2006. Yeah, you heard me.

And since the digital has gone hiking with the CatMan, here's a treat from the archives.

Project Spectrum's April 1A is done!

Let's all heave a big sigh of relief and give homage to the completed Citrus Rib Bag as she sits on her throne. All stages of the handles wore me down and out. From finding the right handles, placing the grommets, finding a way to attach the handles, to actually attaching the handles - I was ready to toss it in the Lake by the time all was said and done. But I think I learned for the future if I do decide to "go there" again.

Here's a little look-see inside the bag: the fabric is a remnant piece of yellow cotton cut to the dimensions of the knitted pieces, fusible interfacing was ironed on, and then whole thing was handsewn by moi.

Project Specs: Orange acrylic of unknown origin, knit in 2 x 2 rib on #4 needles. The body of the bag was knit in one long strip, then side pieces were added. After bag was sewn together, a Bernat Boa cuff was knit onto the bag using #10.5 needles. Bag is lined with cotton fused with interfacing. Wood bead handles were attached using grommets and D-rings (placed only through the body of the bag, not the cuff.)

Don't blink!

You might miss the knitting progress. I've made the commitment to the WIPs to finish before I start anything new (quick and dirty pencil cup cozies do not count! Cause I said so!)

Citrus Rib is just waiting for the CatMan to help me close the D-rings that attach the handles to the bag.

Lucy Lu is getting seamed up tonight and then banded this weekend, thanks to this little gem

The drop stitch scarf continues to be the project I pick up when I have a few spare moments. (No, I can not hear you, Denim Socks...nah nah nah!)

I realized I have a Bubby and a baby hat due for the beginning of July. Luckily, it's (supposed to be) a boy, so I should get some blue knitting in the month of June.

Quick and pointless

Sometimes, a quick and pointless project is just what the knitting doctor ordered. Witness the pencil cup cozy. It serves no purpose other than to be pretty (Koigu!), fun and impractical. And it helps keep the "knitting is supposed to be fun" perspective.


Pencil cup cozy: 3" x 5"
21 stitches on #2 needles using a Koigu remnant. Pattern: 4 rows stockinette alternating with 4 rows of seed stitch. Bind off and stitch up!

When you can't knit...bead!

Here's (hopefully) a clearer pic of the citrine/turquoise hoops and the peridot/coral drops I've made for Project Spectrum combining the April/May colors. So I guess I HAVE done some green work. Woohooo!

Both earrings utilize preexisting bases (the hoops and the silver drops) - the rest is my add on using fine gauge silver wire and beads.

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.