By the numbers

There's a lot going on in the Wandering Cat world... so get comfy!

1) I've pretty much been concentrating on my Fable cardi.
I'm done the lace charts, so it's just knitting and increasing from here on out. Despite all the hours I've put into it, it doesn't seem like I've gotten very far(it's maybe 5 or 6 inches deep). But I have to keep reminding myself - it's fingering, and knit in the round. That's a lot of stitches.

2) I was up dying yarn at Mom's today.I got a lot dyed up (including several new bases) and we will most likely be having an update next weekend.

3) Some of the colours I dyed are our spring shades from last year - including Aurora, Breath of Spring and Forget-Me-Not.

4) New base number one: Aristocat!
A GORGEOUS single ply alpaca/merino/silk in a DK weight. Mom knew I'd go gaga over this one, so she ordered it right away. She dyed some up last weekAnd I did some more today (including creating a beautiful new colourway called "Champagne Kisses" one of which is MINE MINE MINE)


5) New base number two: Alley Cat BFL!The same awesome twist of our regular Alley Cat, but with the decadence of BFL instead of Merino (and nylon). This one came home with me (Pirate's Cove) and will be socks for Dad. I think this is going to be great sock yarn. Mom's done up some beautiful colours.

6) New base number 3: We need your help with this one.

As you know - we have our lovely Twinkle Cat and Twinkle Cat Gold in a fingering weight. When our supplier introduced a lace weight version we were all over that. But today, when we went to dye it up - we discovered it's not quite the same base (just lighter). It is 20% silk, where the fingering is 20% nylon.

Now this isn't a bad thing - the base is soft and beautiful and I have no aversion to silk. But it does leave us in a bit of a conundrum - what do we call it?

Mom says just go ahead and call it Twinkle Cat Lace as we'd planned - after all our Slinky Cat Lace isn't quite the same as the fingering (lace is 80/20, fingering is 50/50)

But I think we should meld the two - and call it Twinky Cat! Mom thinks I'm crazy. What do you think?

What should we name our new lace yarn
	Twinkle Cat Lace (Mama knows best)
	Twinky Cat (BossCat rules)
pollcode.com free polls

7) We have two other bases that I'm hoping to get up in the store soon as well. Our Sophisticat - a sport weight alpaca/silk blend I'm using for my Crow Waltz Shawl. (I know know if we have actually dyed any of this up yet....)

We also have our Tabby Cat. It's a mix of superwash and non-superwash merino with a nice tweedy look. We have it in both a fingering and worsted weight.

We've had some dyed up for a while - and I used some for my Christmas Nessies - but we've never put it up in the shop.

I will be honest - what's stopped us is the fact that it doesn't feel as nice as our superwashes (Stray Cat, Fat Cat and Big Cat). Those yarns are butter soft and its hard for other yarns to measure up.

But I think we should let you decide - so keep an eye out for it soon.

7) Wandering Cat Ravelry knit along ends on Thursday - so if you've got a WIP you want to enter - you better turn it into an FO quick!

Where's the lamb???

Because all I see out the window is one freakin' big white lion!!!(view from my front window 6:30 pm Wednesday - about a foot of snow).

Mother Nature is sitting up there laughing her ass off.

I've spent 5.5 of my 10-hour day in the car.... I think I'm going to go relax now. Hope you're all warm and safe!

Sweaters are "spring"ing to mind

Despite the impending Spring (not that you'd know it - they are calling for snow tonight) and all my hopes for flowers, I've actually had sweaters on the brain a lot lately.

I have so many sweaters and cardigans in my Rav queue, not to mention a stash of beautiful yarns in sweater amounts squirreled away in my studio (enough for 10 sweaters of varying styles to be exact). But lately - I've been knitting smaller projects - mostly socks and shawls.

The last sweater I made was finished in March of last year (Tea Leaves Cardigan) It didn't take me too long either - about three months. It was simple and worsted, but that's pretty good considering Dave's Leo took me about two years. Since I started knitting, I've only made 9 sweaters.

So I want to make a serious effort to complete at least three sweaters this year. One (my Sloppy Sweater) is about 1/3 done.

The other I have on the needles is Fable, which I'm knitting in Fluffy Cat fingering. I started it back in August - but got distracted by shawls, shawls and more shawls. Seeing as it's a small, light sweater, I figured it would be great to resurrect as "spring knitting".

I dug it from the dark depths of WIP purgatory tonight... only to discover - I have no idea where I left off... or even which size I was doing! (and of course, I'd neglected to record it on Ravelry).

So.... Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiibit!

Yep.. I started all over. This is how much I got accomplished in 3 hours....
This one is going to take a while....... good thing it's small.

Forget the showers I want the flowers

Well I caved and cast on for another pair of socks...
Forget-me-not anklets - a nice lacey spring-like pattern in Top Cat - colour... Forget-Me-Nots!

This yarn is knitting up much more green than blue as I planned, so Im going to have to adjust the dying proccess... but it's pretty nonetheless.

Bring on spring!

There's a reason they call it "Sun"day.

That's how today started - three friends snuggled up in a sunbeam... nice and lazy - a perfect Sunday.

Saturday was spent getting a jump on spring cleaning and it was quite an impressive leap, so I rewarded myself with self-indulgent Sunday.

As you may have guessed from the lack of blogging, I haven't been doing a lot of knitting lately. There has been some, but not enough to really share progress.

Mostly, I've been working on Hypernova - it's coming along nicely, but it certainly doesn't grow very quickly - a half circle/crescent shape is definitely more work than a triangle.

I was also getting a little ancy about the number of WIPs I had, so I took stock this weekend to see if there was anything I could finish up in short order.

Sure enough - there was a sock just waiting for its mate.
You may remember the "Another Faery" socks I'd started in Stray Cat. I'd meant to start the second sock ages ago, but had been distracted by shiny things (like new yarn!)

So Saturday night, after most of the house was sparkling clean, I snuggled down on the couch with a movie and the cats and cast on. By the time Dave hauled me off to bed, I was done the cuff (ankle-length and sport weight make for a nice quick knit)I did the heel and gusset this morning and the rest of the foot was finished this afternoon/evening.

I made several mods to this pattern (and not because there is anything wrong with it -it's a lovely pattern as written). The first is obviously the length. I shortened the cable because I only made one skein of this colour and it's not quite enough for full-length socks. The pattern also takes the ribbing down the heel, but I just did my usual heel.

And while I didn't rib the heel - I did take it right down the toe - just for fun.

All in all, these are a comfy, toasty pair of socks. The Stray Cat gives great stitch definition, so it's perfect for cables.

And now I have no socks on the needles... but I should cast something else off before I cast on another pair... should... but probably won't....

Time is running out...

Only 15 days left to get your entries into the Year of the Cat KAL....

A mild cast of startitis

This morning, I decided to be a good girl and not give into "temptation" and cast on for the Crow Waltz shawl first.

And I did pretty well. The Sophisticat I'm using for the edging is nice and soft (alpaca/silk blend) and it creates lovely, full leaves, just like I was hoping. For those interested in trying Sophisticat, we haven't yet put it on the market, but we will be soon, so keep and eye out.

As you can see, I got six leaves done this morning, before I decided I shouldn't waste the whole day laying about on the couch watching movies (well, knitting means it's not really a waste, but you know what I mean).

I got up, threw in a load of laundry, scooped some cat poop and when I got back, I got distracted by something shiny....

Yeah - you guessed it. I left the Temptress Jungle Cat sitting out on the coffee table and in no time, I fell under it's spell. At the suggestion of Mom, I decided to cast on for the Hypernova shawl.

It's the perfect pattern for a busy yarn like Temptress. While the yarn is really only two colours (plum and rose) it has several shades of those colours, and I was really worried about choosing a lace pattern that would just get lost.
It doesn't look like much right now, but I think it's really going to work out well and I haven't put it down since I cast on.

A word of caution though - it's not really a pattern for the faint hearted - it's not technically hard, but you REALLY have to pay attention. And when you first look at it, those charts are darn intimidating. Looking at the finished project on Ravelry though, I think it's going to be worth it.

So... now I have TWO shawls on the go. And if that weren't enough, before Dave and I went to run errands yesterday, I reallized it didn't have any car knitting.

I grabbed the rest of the orange handspun I made my beret out of last fall, and cast on for a pair of my Turner mitts for myself
And now I have seven WIPs on the go, when I resolved to have no more than five. So, if you'll excuse me - I have some knitting to do!