Just a little bit...

You may have noticed the silence in the little corner of the blogsphere.

As mentioned earlier in the week, I hadn't picked up the needles. That trend continued right in to Saturday. Blame a crushing workload and a crapton of other stress and tasks last week that left me with no time what soever to knit.

Of course, that might have been a good thing given my state of mind at the time. If I had picked up the needles, someone might have lost an eye.

But Saturday morning came, and after a decent night's sleep, I was feeling relatively calmer (or at least not homicidal) so I turned to the needles. But I didn't want to work on anything I already had on the go. I need some instant gratification.Baby socks to the rescue!

As you know, I'm not one of those women who gets all gooey over babies (unless they have fur)... but there are few things cuter in the world than wee, knitted baby socks. And stressed or not, they certainly bring a smile to my face.

These will go to our web designer at work - his wife is due with their first child in a few days.

And Monday is back to hell.. I mean work... but hopefully I'll be able to snag a few hours here and there just for myself.

Taking a break

I have no knitting to report. I haven't touched the needles since Sunday. The last three days have been work, work, work....

But Sir Tux decided I'd been working too hard. So he enforced a little down time...
....and persuaded me to play a few hands of Spider Solitaire.
(Yeah... you know you're a sucker when you have to move your keyboard out of the way so your fat cat can make himself comfortable.)Of course, he then decided that even just clicking the mouse was too strenous (try taking a picture with your left hand when your a righty if you really want to talk "strenous") so he did his best to deter me from that as well.
"What?!? you mean all this 'Tux Love' isn't melting your stress away?!?"

Snug as a bug

It's been another quiet weekend here at Chez Wanderingcat. Lots of lazing around for cats and human alikeIt snowed again - nothing crazy - but enough to make me want to stay inside and knit all weekend. Okay - admittedly, it doesn't take much to make me want to do that.

It completed another chart on Bitterroot. I'm about half way there now - almost through the first skein of Fluffy Cat. This is going to be a nice big shawl (it's probably about 40 inches wide already.)
You'll also noticed that I cast on for the second Black Rose sock. Minding my own stitches is challenging herself to clear out some WIPs throughout the month of February. I think that's a great idea, so I'm going to try to do it to.

But Sunday's almost over, and Monday is back to cold, snowy reality... at least the days are getting longer!

Who's the Queen of the Castle?

I told you she'd get her turn...

Spoiling the Grandkittens

As you know, I don't have children. Well I do, but they're the furred kind.

Mom would much prefer, the whiny, poopy, hungry kind (wait... that sounds like the cats too) but until my biological alarm clock kicks in, she has to make do with three Grandkittens.

And, like any good Grandma - she's got to spoil.

There is a certain curved scratcher I've wanted to get them for a while. Mom's cats have one, and I've seen several other blog cats with them, and I thought my babies would like one too. But I just never had the money to spare whenever I saw them at the pet store.

So Grandma stepped up to the plate.
You may notice the absence of Miss Peno (except in the background of one pic). Have no fear - I'm sure I'll hear her scratching away after the boys and I go to bed.

Thanks Mom! Once again - you're the best!

Watching snowflakes

I did, indeed, get my much anticipated snow day. My manager called at 7 a.m. to let me know that work would not be open and to stay home. No argument from me.

I hung up and snuggled back under the blankets, soaking up the luxury of being able to sleep in until 9 a.m.

I woke up at noon, buried under a pile of very happy cats. (But can anyone tell me why the heaviest cat always has to lay right across my knees, effectively immobilizing me)

In defense of my laziness, I didn't get to bed until 1 a.m. the night before (I'm usually asleep no later than 11 on work nights) and then I tossed and turned until well past 3 a.m. I was thinking about all the things I would do if I did indeed get a snow day and my brain just didn't want to shut off. I'd also indulged in far too much caffeine that evening.

Anyway, among my plans were to:
1) Clean my studio (it's still in a terrible state, and I keep putting it off)
2) Sew some jammie pants (from the fabric I got just before xmas)
3) Maybe tackle my quilt
4) Finish sewing the Summerlin I started for my niece MONTHS ago.
5) Bake cookies
6) Clean my fridge
7) Do the eleventy billion loads of laundry that have annexed my closet
8) Knit most of the charts on Bitterroot
9) Finish Beaker (needs legs, arms, a lab coat and tie)
10) Start my second Blackrose sock.

So, yeah, not exactly a realistic goal, but had I not slept half the day away, I might have been able to accomplish at least half of it.

Despite sleeping so long, I could have made some serious headway if I had really tried.

Instead, I made some hot chocolate, plopped my butt on the couch and watched the snowflakes fall as I knit away on Bitterroot. I'm now done Chart B. It's easy to look at a shawl chart and think - hey.. that's only 20 rows, it can't take that long, all the while forgetting that each row is getting longer and longer. Only four more charts to go.

I did manage to get a couple of loads of laundry done between rows, but the invasion force of underpants, tights and towels is still in full control of the closet.

As for the storm, it wasn't quite as bad as they predicted, but obviously still bad enough to put a temporary stop to things. All the schools were closed, as well as many government buildings. Mom and Dad both got into work, but got sent home when the mail truck couldn't make it from the sorting plant to the post offices.

The wind was really howling through most of the night, and as I understand, that's when the worst of it came.

At 7 a.m. it was still blowing strong, but by noon the wind had mostly died and Environment Canada had called off their "blizzard" warning.

Snow continued to fall throughout the day, and from my window, it was pretty and peaceful. Out on the roads I'm sure it was another matter.

I'm not sure what the final snowfall was, but judging from my lawn, it was about a foot.

By tomorrow morning, the roads should be plowed and sadly it's back to the real world, where I can't sit around in my pajamas all day. (Unless I win the lottery tonight, of course!)

Bitter Sweet!

The storm has been officially upgraded to a blizzard - it's suppose to start at midnight and continue right through to mid-day tomorrow. Here's hoping the roads are total crap in the morning and I can stay home.Tux is on blizzard watch - so far it's just wind.

I've been working away on Bitteroot and so far it's progressing nicely.There are six separate charts to this pattern, but despite that, it's not complicated. I'm almost through the final repeat (of four) of Chart A. The rest of the charts are only knit once, so I've only got 100 or so rows to go.

As always, knitting with the Fluffy Cat is a dream! It's soft and silky, and creates such a nice light airy fabric with beautiful drape.

I'm still debating on to bead or not to bead. I think the beads are very pretty, but I don't know if I can be bothered. By the time I get close to the end of a shawl, I really just want to be done.

What are your thoughts? Do you like beading your knitting, or is it too much of a pain?