Close to my Heart

Catch Up

I should have posted much sooner than this, but the last few days I've been knitting somewhat obsessively on my Adamas Shawl (Ravelry Link).  I have 3 1/2 pattern repeats to go before starting the edging.  There are 10 rows in each repeat, and hundreds of stitches on the needle, so it is a bit slow going at this point.  I am hoping to have moved onto the edging by the end of the coming weekend.  It is fairly simple lace, and I'm enjoying knitting this a lot.  I haven't even spun this week since I'm so into this shawl!

I am still however behind in blogging my handspun, so this post will be a bit of a summary.  For more details and pictures, please visit my Ravelry handspun stash page here.

First up is my current favourite handpun.  It's pink, soft and smooshy and I can't wait to knit it:

I have a pattern picked out and plan to cast on tomorrow. 

A few weeks ago, I finished spinning this:

And below,  my worst spinning job yet.  I loved spinning top on my spindle, but it took a lot more getting used to on the wheel.  I would either draft too much and break the fiber, or not enough and it would be too thick:

The only good thing about this handspun is that I learned a lot while spinning it.  I changed how I drafted by the time I finished spinning this yarn (I later learned from one of my spinning books that I am now doing a backwards draft) and as a result, am now spinning significantly thinner yarn, so it's all good!

And for all you kitty lovers out there, I'm happy to report that Frisbee has become much more brave and has moved further way from the doorstep:

TGIF

It's been a busy week and despite my best intentions, I haven't gotten around to blogging.  I thought I'd do a very quick post while I wake up with my coffee this morning.

Here's what I've been up to this week.  I listed something new in my Etsy shop:

I finished a pair of socks (only my second pair this year, shamefully):

Details will be up on my Ravelry page sometime this weekend, hopefully.

And yesterday morning, I was unable to make our bed before leaving for work:

A Little Kitty Explores

If you are looking for knitting, spinning, or even paper craft content, sorry, none of that here today.  Today's blog post is all about kitties.  We are enjoying some nicer weather here the last little while, so we've been able to enjoy our little backyard park. Our cats are normally indoor cats, but now that there is a fenced in area right out the living room door, we've been able to open it up and allow the cats to explore.  Well Buttons has surprised us with curious she has been.  She is a little kitty while her "brother" Frisbee is a much larger more muscular cat.  The little one has been much more brave about exploring her new surroundings, as these pictures will show you:

Meanwhile, Frisbee looks on from the more secure setting of the door step:

Regular crafting content returning here soon.

A Winner, a WIP and some Cuteness

I'm pleased to announce that the winner of my contest was Lissette, who blogs at Crafty Girly.  Her name was picked using a tool found at Random.org.  Lissette tells me that she never wins anything, so I'm happy to have drawn her name.  Her package is on it's way to Florida, sure hope she likes it.  I had fun looking around her blog getting an idea about her tastes.

In other news....an unanticipated busy weekend meant that Kauni never got started, in fact, minimal knitting occurred.  I ended up assisting one of my friends with childcare, so did get some sock knitting done at a soccer game on Saturday, and Sunday I didn't pick up the needles until the evening.  I worked a bit on the Leaf Lace Shawl, which I am really enjoying.  It's fairly simple lace (I'm somewhat reluctant to say that since I now may screw things up royally) and I think yields a very pretty result.  I'm tempted to work on nothing but this, but the deadline for the Red Scarf Project is rapidly approaching so I really must pay some attention to that.  I also need to finish my September socks for the Sock a Month KAL 4. I think this is the third one of these I've participated in, and I really do like the goal of a pair of socks a month.  Anyhow, I digress, here's a picture of the Leaf Lace Shawl in progress:

Yarn is Sweatermaker Lace Weight Yarn purchased some time ago at Fun Knits.  I've been saving this a while now, feeling that it would be a great Fall shawl to knit using this leafy pattern.  I think I will call it my Autumn Leaves Shawl.

And finally, I leave you with pure cuteness:

Rainy, Relaxing Weekend

What a difference a week makes!  Last week I was blogging about our wonderful summer weather.  Not long after I wrote that post, things changed.  It's been overcast, rainy, and yucky ever since.   Sadly, I'm back to wearing my flannel nightgown again, which I think is just SO WRONG for almost the end of July.  Sigh.  I even dug some soup out of the freezer for dinner tonight, one shouldn't be eating hot soup this time of year either.  I think I'll be casting on for Kauni very soon (maybe it will indeed be necessary to knit a wool cardi during the summer months), I finally printed out the pattern while at a friend's house this afternoon.  Our Epson printer seems to have bit the dust, and a Google search revealed problems with ink clogs for this particular printer.  Printer recommendations, preferably for those that use inexpensive cartridges and/or cartridges that can be refilled would be much appreciated.

In an attempt to allow Mother Nature to mock me yet again, I FINALLY have blocked the Pinwheel Cardigan that I finished knitting almost a month ago. 

As much as I am looking forward to wearing this, I'd much rather it be too hot for even a cotton cardi!

Well I'm really not as miserable as I sound here!  At least lousy weather provides a perfect excuse to stay inside and relax, and that is what I've done today.  I'm past the gusset decreases and therefore on the home stretch of my current sock WIP.  And I just frogged the Sweatermaker Yarn that I bought at last year's Filberg Festival, and immediately abandoned because I didn't like the pattern I had started with it, and am about to cast on for Shelley's Squiggle Shawl  instead.  I recently read the brochure for this year's festival and that reminded me of this lovely abandoned yarn.

It's been a long time since I've shown kitty pictures here.  Frisbee has just been so cute the last few days, and I've been able to capture his cuteness with my digicam.  First, here he is in one of his favourite sleep spots, next to my big stuffed lion. 

The way he often thunders around this house, I'm sure he fancies himself as a mighty lion!  He also can't resist planting himself on top of my clothes, seen here just before I was going to hang them up last night:

So tired, and so cute!

Better go check on that soup now.  Hope you're having a good weekend, and I hope the weather is better where you are then here on the Wet Coast!

Where'd it go?

Weekends always seem to fly by SO quickly. Did a bit of sleeping in, papercrafting, knitting, household chores (although not as many as I really should have done) lunch out with hubby, online surfing, and poof it was gone and it's Monday morning again.  Yawn.  Busy week ahead too.

Knitting-wise, I cast on for Baby Cable Rib socks (from Sensational Knitted Socks) using Tofutsies Yarn.

Really loving the yarn (so soft and pretty), which I think works well with the pattern stitch.  You can actually see the stitch definition a lot more clearly in real life than in this picture.  I've since cast on for the second sock.  This will be my take-a-long knitting this week.  I also started a new Lace project last night, but will save pictures for another post when I have a bit more progress to show you.

Finally, I leave you with a picture of Frisbee.  I suspect he'll be spending time in this spot today.

There is another kitty bed on the couch (this one's on the floor) but lately he's been choosing this one, where he can lounge next to his toys.

Have a great Monday!

Vacation Fun

Thanks for all of the nice comments about Ariann.  I did replace the buttons, and unfortunately, it still gaps.  It is definitely still wearable if I don't button it, but I guess I need to accept that I knit too small a size.  That didn't stop me from wearing it to Fun Knits today though.  I went over to check out Shelley's new store, and it is going to be great.   Kind of nice that it is a couple doors down from a restaurant that serves the best pizza.  I see lots of Saturdays in my future sitting at Fun Knits, eating pizza and knitting.  Sounds good to me!

I came away from Fun Knits with some lovely new sock yarns, Trekking 107, and the new Opal Hundertwassers #1434:

But these will go into my much too large sock yarn stash for now, because I have some gifts to make, with these yarns:

The Regia Loop will be socks that will be given as a Christmas gift, and the Bravo Baby will be for a quick baby gift (hat and booties).

Some of you commented on how quickly I completed Ariann.  A lot of that is because I've been on vacation for almost two weeks.  I've been a lady of leisure, sleeping in, and relaxing with my knitting.  I could really get use to this!  As a result, I'll have another FO to show you by the end of the week (it was started back in August though, I'm not THAT fast!).  Here's Frisbee relaxing on the blocked Ribby Cardi Back:

Kitties in our household do indeed love them some knitwear!

Sad

This is a hard post to write; it's taken me a week before I could even try.  Here I go (deep breath)....

Last week, we made the hard decision to put our Bambi to sleep.  She was very sick and in a lot of pain.  Although I couldn't bring myself to blog about it, she'd been ill for about six months, and really deteriorated in the last week.  I'm not going to say much more about it, I don't want to cry again.  There's been a lot of tears in the last week, and the last few days I'm finally coming to terms with it all.  Let's just say that she gave us great companionship and love for over eight years and Joe, myself and Buttons all miss her a lot.  I'd post a picture in tribute to her, but it just makes me too sad to see right now.

When we adopted Bambi those eight years ago, we had just lost another kittie, Sniffles.  He was just over a year old, and was hit by a car.  We already had Buttons and didn't want her to be alone.  We adopted Bambi right away, and it was definitely the right thing to do.  We really liked the idea of adopting an adult cat, everyone wants the kittens.  So we've done the same thing this time.  I'd like to introduce you to Frisbee, adopted from the SPCA, born October 2004. 

He's also had some losses.  His previous owner was an elderly man who passed away, and the poor kitty was returned to the shelter.  He's a wonderful cat with a fun personality.  Frisbee really wants to play with Buttons, but she usually growls and hisses at him.  They've come a long way though, Buttons is tolerating more and even checking him out a bit too.  Hopefully they'll become friends eventually. 

I've changed my template today, this time to a generic Typepad one.  Just seemed to be the right time to make a change, I had the other one long enough.

Regular blogging and knitting content to resume soon.  Ditto for the overdo e-mails I owe some of you.