Dear Mr. Thompson

This particular "creative jacket" may cause the Sweet Baby Jesus to cry. And he's a much stronger soul than I.

Sincerely,

Catty

I gotta stop!

...taking these tests. First Merino Wool, now white hair? A girl could get a complex.

Your Hair Should Be White

Classy, stylish, and eloquent.You've got a way about you that floors everyone you meet.

What's Your Funky Inner Hair Color?

Now this one makes a little more sense -

Your Power Color Is Lime Green

At Your Highest: You are adventurous, witty, and a visionary. At Your Lowest: You feel misunderstood, like you don't fit in. In Love: You have a tough exterior, but can be very dedicated. How You're Attractive: Your self-awareness and confidence lights up a room. Your Eternal Question: "What else do I need in my life?"

What's Your Power Color?

Who opened the can of Whupass?

Hello? Bueller?... Bueller?

I'm just now recovering from the week that was. And when I find the culprit, it's gonna be whupass right back at ya.

Amount of knitting this week? 3 rows of the CatMan Aran and about 6 rows on Grammie's Hearts. At this rate, they should be receiving their knitted items in about a year.

The weather is turning along with the leaves. At some point this week, I have to enter the Black Hole Cubby to bring out the fall/winter clothes, the down comforter, and the flannel sheets. I'm already tired just thinking about it.

So maybe I'll just veg out with a cup of tea and the new In Style. Tomorrow is Another Day.

Goodies

The pretty sock yarn is from Dorchester Farms in MA (purchased at the Sheep and Wool Fest) and the T-shirt and Suede ($4.00, baby!!) is from my LYS's annual tent sale. I really tried to restrain myself since there are so many items on the to-make list and stash space is limited. (No I'm not putting skeins in my planters/oven/microwave!)

"Leggo" says Lego

Somehow Lego wasn't bonding with me like she was with the CatMan. Maybe she knew I was eyeing up her coat.

Can I bring him home?

At the Sheep and Wool Fest, there was a "Llama Walk" where llamas were led through a series of obstacles. After the kids did their thing with the llamas, it was our turn to "Lead a Llama". Here's the CatMan bringing Lego out of the trailer.

This was for DRINKING?

Here's Joe after his runabout. He decided he wasn't thirsty, but still needed to cool off.

Penning

Belle is penning the sheep. Right after this picture, it turned out the attempt was unsuccessful.

Herding

At the Vermont Sheep and Wool Festival, the CatMan and I enjoyed watching the herding demonstration. This is Belle moving the herd.

Photo Extravaganza

Lookee! The camera's back and do we have pictures. First up: Completed Bubby.

And here's progress on CatMan's Aran.

(Note to self: remember to flip page to verify continuation of pattern repeats. Just saying.)

And a close-up of Grammie's Hearts.

Insert picture here

As you can see by the sidebar, Bubby is done. He's received many oohs, ahhs and offers of women sleeping with him. [This would be where I'd show you a picture, but the CatMan is holding the camera hostage.]

I also started an Aran scarf for the CatMan - hey! maybe we can have a hostage trade! I'm using a cable pattern from Debbie Bliss' Cathay book. [ayep, another picture goes here]

Driving into work today, I was mentally listing knitting to-dos: a black, 3/4 sleeved alpaca sweater, the Leaves shawl, Java socks, Lucy Lu, Oat Couture T-sweater... *sigh* Just not enough hours in the day.

I'm not procrastinating!

Really. I'm just updating you all before I clean my house. See how kind I am, thinking of you and your needs? Work progresses on Bubby and Grammie's Hearts. For the lap throw, I decided to go with a design pattern of 2 garter rows/yarn over - dropped stitch combo rows/2 garter rows interspersed with stockinette panels, edged with a seed stitch border, thus eliminating the need for a bazillion stitch markers.

Bubby's head is done, stuffed and the ears are on. But before the ears, he bore a strange, kinda creepy resemblance to this:

To allow the rest of Bubby knitting to go smoothly, I purchased some birch Brittanys doublepoints. Let's not make this harder than it has to be, eh?

And on a sad note - remember the Yard Crows? Seems someone stole 4 of them! Bastahs! So the Crow lady has hidden them away until she can figure out a way to keep them safe while on display. Why do some people insist on ruining other people's fun??

Bubby's Bod

Why do I always forget this? Chinchilla and metal needles = bad. Not like the devastating effects of Katrina or a death in the family. More like someone pulling out in front of you at the last minute or your husband drinking your last bottle of tonic and all the nearby stores are closed. I sucked up the first few rows (which are always the hardest on doublepoints) and I'm this far into it (about 2 hours). I'm sure if I had used a different needle material or different yarn, I'd be close to finished.

This lovely skein is one of two from my friend Annie's own sheep. I'm debating whether to leave it natural (and do a fisherman scarf for the CatMan while also fulfilling my desire to do more cabling) or to Kool-Aid dye it . Annie has no idea how much is in each skein, so I'll be measuring as I wind.

Goodnight!

Lullaby is done. I haven't mastered the art of self-photography, but you get the gist. Of course, it's now a bit chilly here for sleeveless, but Lullaby will be ready for Spring/Summer 2006. And for all my pattern tweaking (including yarn substitutions), I had EXACTLY enough. Yes, you read that right. EXACTLY. I'm just so pleased I could spit. I must be absorbing alpaca traits.

Next on the needles? Bubby in the chocolate Chinchilla leftover from SerendiPatti.

How do you spell relief?

F-R-O-G. The Grammie Hearts lapthrow was just not working for me. Stitches were dropping left and right, the heart pattern was not showing up like I thought. It was giving me heartburn. So it's frogged. I cast back on with the burgundy and rose alpaca held together. Bing, bing, bing - we have a winner (so far). I've added the extra rows of seed stitch on the border and I'm thinking of a purled argyle-type design alternating with rows of stockinette. Here's a pic of the new cast-on.

And the sticky, hot, non-September in Vermit weather? Is just now starting to go away. Thanks, Ophelia!

Hit with an ugly stick

Ayep I was. It started off a great day - up in plenty of time, legs shaved, the Catman made the coffee and I was at work before the bell rang. Then? A sharp careen downhill after that. 8:15 AM: Mystery zit #1 appeared at the inside crux of my right nostril. 9:30 AM: Mystery zit #2 surfaced near the right corner of my mouth. The hair? Flatter than a crepe. Somewhere about 4:30 PM, deoderant chose to stop deod'ing. The comfy flowing dress? Stuck to skin surfaces I didn't even think it touched. So now, hot, sweaty, stinky (to me), pustule-ridden, and humidity-trodden, I go grocery shopping.

The upside? Tonic water and Paul Newman's Limeade freshened with a good snort of Bombay. And a shower.

We can all just get along

If it's cold enough. Witness this.

Senor El Cinco and Jackablope = mortal enemies. Bellie and (thebigfat) Shew= bane of each other's existence. Yet, happy nappies abound here at the CattyAbode when the weather starts turning cooler. Is the solution for world peace as simple as just buying everyone an air conditioner?

Baby Mac Hat. It almost makes me want one. The hat that is, not the baby.

Hold your applause

Until the pictures are posted. The BabyMac hat is done and so is Lullaby! Well, Lullaby is almost done. I finished the neck, seamed the shoulders, and tried it on. And I love it...except for the length. Seems the rolled hem took up more length than I bargained for. Fortunately, it's easy enough to undo the edge, pick up the stitches and knit a few more rows. Since the rest of the sweater is done, I'm motivated to finish.

Which is a good thing since the new fall knitty is out. And I'm eyeing up this little lovely for me and maybe this cutie to go with the baby hat.

WIP

So I labored over Labor Day and this is all I have to show for it. (And no, I haven't finished Lullaby, but thanks for asking!)

This little cutie is for a virtual baby shower coming up in the next month. Once again, I've defaulted to my favorite baby hat pattern. I love it because you can use any gauge yarn or size needle - you just can't mess it up! Of course, it might not be newborn size, but a hat is a hat is a hat! I'm using Plush in celery green with Salsa in the pastel colorway. Better yet? It's all from the stash, baby!

Progress slowly continues on the Grammie Love lap throw. The alpaca is not being very cooperative with my Addis. The edge is curling a bit in this pic - I should have thrown another couple of rows of seed stitch on there. I'm just about to place the markers for the heart motif. The color in this pic is closer to the true color, but it's not quite this bright.

Fresh start weekend

I love fall. I love the colors, the cooler temperatures, the clearness of the air, the lack of humidity, the increasing excitement that leads up to the holidays. And I love the fact that as the days get shorter, the knitting time seems to get longer.

I got the new Patternworks catalog, eliciting the same response as the JCPenneys Christmas Toy catalog did when I was 10. It's next to the bed, so it's one of the last things I peruse before I go to sleep and have lovely knitting dreams.

In keeping with the time of year, (another reason I love fall - school supplies!)I did a little organizing of my knitting patterns. My patterns are currently kept in pockets or sheet protectors in a large three-ring binder. I sifted through them, throwing out the ones that I knew I wouldn't knit (a lace patterned scarf written in 1890's knitting code - I know I know, I thought it sounded cool at the the time) and the cat-chewed (I just can't get Cinco to chew in a graphed pattern). I found some patterns I had forgotten about and got excited all over again.

I've also started a throw for my grandmother with the burgundy alpaca. I'm making it up as I go, right now I'm doing a seed stitch border all the way around, and am thinking about a heart motif knitted in alternating bands.

And finally, just a reminder to support relief efforts for Hurricane Katrina victims. Here are just a few:
Red Cross
ASPCA
Christian and Missionary Alliance CAMA Relief Fund