Plugging Away...

I'm still slogging along on the Print O'The Wave stole. I have grafted the two halves together, picked up all of the stitches, knit the miters, and started the knitted-on edging. I had to abandon doing it on the LIRR, as the trains shake so hard the stitches come off the needles. Has anyone else noticed the error in the edging pattern - it's supposed to decrease back to the original number of stitches, and the extra decrease isn't there. I added it in myself, but is it just me? (Please don't answer that...)


I'm not really loving this project - it's dull. The middle is a 12-row lace pattern with purl on the even rows. It should be easy/mindless knitting, but I have to pay strict attention because the yarn is incredibly slippery and likes to try to escape off the needles and ravel into a huge mess.


I still have a tiny bit of the first skein left. Loop Yarns came through again and sent me another skein of the silk so I know I can finish this thing. There are lots of other things I want to start, but I can't let myself do that - otherwise, I'll have 10 new projects (or more) sitting around gathering dust. I'd post pics, but I have no camera battery at the moment.


I usually have 2 projects going - socks for commuting and a large project for home, but right now it is all lace all the time. I'm afraid to start anything new because I'm sure I'll neglect the stole. Just keep going...

A New Kitty

Of course, after Humphrey passed there was a gaping hole left behind. I decided I didn't want to go the rescue route. Because we still have 5 cats and a 5-year-old, many of the rescues won't consider us at all. I knew I wanted a ragdoll, so I started checking for local breeders, and I found one in Peconic, on the North Fork of Long Island. If you know Catapano Goat Farm, they also breed ragdolls and cocker spaniels. We had a tough time finding the farm, but it was worth it. We brought home a male blue bicolor and named him Sir Isaac Newton.

My cats have odd names - we have Tiger, named by my eldest daughter when she was 6. He's a classic black/brown/gold tabby. Next is Oscar Wilde, who is also a tabby, but looks like a Maine Coon that got shrunk in the wash. He's small, attitudinous, a pain in the ass, and gay. Charles Darwin (Charlie) is next, an enormous black-and-white tuxedo cat, then Antoine-Laurent LaVoisier (Lovey), an all-grey longhair with green eyes. Finally we have Margaret Meade (Miss Moggie), a dilute calico-and-white, and our newest addition. Yes, they are named after scientists. I like a theme. Isaac is a bumptious boy, about 12 weeks old with all the kitten craziness that entails. He's settling in nicely, with a little hissing from Charlie, who's jealous. I'll post pictures of them when I get a new camera battery.

Some Spinning

I just finished spinning up @ 2 pounds of merino roving that I bought 10 years ago (yes, 10 years, be quiet) at MS$W. It looks black, but is really an incredibly dark green with bits of red and blue in it. It was absolutely amazing to spin, it felt like silk in my hands, and I'm sorry I finished it! I think it was an Ashland Bay roving, but if it was the color is since discontinued... The larger skein has about 530 yards, the smaller about 270. I planned on making a sport to dk-weight 3-ply yarn, and I think I succeeded. This yarn makes me incredibly happy, because it's what I planned on, it's NOT thread, and the plying worked! I'm thinking of making a Flower Basket shawl out of it. I know that 3-ply isn't supposed to be as good for lace as 2-ply, but I'll swatch and see how it looks. Maybe I can finish a shawl in time for Rhinebeck. Here's a lousy picture. The bottom skein is the one I spun first. It's OK, but I think it's too loosely spun and plied. The top one is much better. I'm spinning some Rhaphsody roving, the Barefoot Blend in "Fireweed" from Paradise Fibers (www.paradisefibers.net). It's a blend that's meant for socks, with superwash, mohair and nylon. It's a challenge for me to keep it consistent, as it's a little felted from the dying and there are some neps. I'm loving the color, though, and I can't wait to see if I can knit socks with it. I'll post a picture when I can - my camera battery decided to drop dead and since it it's an older model (Canon G5) I'm going to have to look for a new battery. It's so tempting to just buy a new camera!

Half a Wave

Finally, a knitting post. This is half of the Print O'The Wave stole from Eunny Jang's old blog, http://eunnyjang.com/. Here it is:

Right now, it looks, in the immortal words of rabbitch, like boiled ass. Here's a detail shot:


















The other half is on the needles, with 2 repeats out of 17 done. I am pulling my hair out because I am using Claudia's Handpaint Silk in Carribean Blue, a lovely yarn with 1100 yards in the skein, and I am convined that I will not have enough yarn; so convinced that I ordered another skein. Which, of course, means that I will finish the thing with inches to spare and have an extra skein. Now, I'm going to cower in a corner because I've probably incurred the wrath of the Knitting Goddess by trying to outwit her ....

We lost one...

My eldest cat passed away this weekend. He was a 14 years old sealpoint Siamese, and I am bereft. Thankfully, the dear daughters are NOT clamoring to replace him immediately. I don't know if I want to; I've had Siamese cats since I was 6 and it feels very strange not to have one now, but I really need some space to mourn. Humphrey (named after Humphrey Bogart) was very special and of course he cannot be replaced.

Regularly scheduled knitting posts will commence soon, but this took precedence. Rest easy, my friend.