Knit Red!

With the Stray Cat shawl all wrapped up, and the yarn still packed, I turned my attention to my other WIPs.
I have two sweaters, Dave's Hero socks, the Cranberry Bonnet, a new shawl design, and a scrappy afghan on the go.

I did a little work on the Hero socks, but as I gave Dave the Business Casual socks just last week, I'm not overly motivated to work on more socks for him.

Instead, I turned my attention to the Cranberry Bonnet. If you remember, I started this hat back at the end of January, with a skein of Skinny Bugga I purloined from Mom's stash. I started it thinking, "A hat won't take that long, it will be off the needles in no time!"

And... here we are two months later.... Now it's true part of the the delay was due to other, more pressing knitting commitments.But another part was my tools. The hat is knit on 2.0mm needles. With 224 stitches to a round at its widest point, it was too much for dpns - that meant a round needle with magic loop.

I just figured out magic loop a few months ago (when I was working on Bumble) and I find it quite useful. I have found however, that it's only really helpful when you have the right kind of needle - one with a nice flexible cord.

My only 2.0 mm was a Crystal Palace bamboo needle. The cord wasn't bad, but the ends are fairly blunt (being bamboo and all) and the join is not all that smooth, slowing the knitting progress immensely. ( I hate snag!) I needed a better needle!

A while back, Mom and I invested in a couple of sizes of Chiaogoo's Red Lace circular needles.

Normally, I prefer a wooden (I do love my knit picks dpns) or bamboo needle (very helpful when knitting with silk - my fave fibre!), but I have to admit, I've fallen in love with my Chiaogoos! The cord is awesome (it's a a flexible, multistrand, nylon-coated, steel cable - if you're a jewelry maker, it's similar to tigertail wire) - wonderfully flexible and nigh un-kinkable - you never have to steam these cords straight!

The join is smooth... and the tips... soooo pointy. If you do a lot of lace knitting, you know how handy this is.

Anyway, when I was up at Mom's yesterday, I checked to see if she had a 2.0 mm in her set - and she did! There's no lace in this hat, but the pointy tips make working those tiny stitches so much easier. This hat is just flying now.

If you haven't tried Chiagoos, I do recommend them. (No I'm not being paid or anything, I really do love these needles). We got our from Grandma's Handknitting on Etsy. Keep your eye out, because they frequently have sales.

FO: Stray Cat Shawl

I was up at Mom's today, using up the leftover dye from the little monsters' adventure, so I took the opportunity to get some pictures of the Stray Cat shawl.

This was a fun little knit. I've never made a shawl with this construction before. But the directions are really well written, and once I got into the swing of things, it was easy.  The pattern has four sizes - this is the medium - and I think it would be really nice in one of the larger sizes.

I love the two-colour design, and the lace border is so pretty. The increase rows are cleverly hidden by twisting the stitches - a new technique that I love! The designer gives you two options for the bind off. There's an i-cord bind off, which is really cool - or a simple garter edge, which is what I did. The only mod I made was in the blocking. As you know, I love to block the bejeezers out of lace, so I did so, giving it nice pointy egdes. The designer keeps a nice smooth rounded edge on hers - which works to - but I like pointy!

This one was knit in Slinky Cat - colours are aqua and peacock. You really lose all the colour changes in the peacock, but it's still an nice complement to the aqua. The Slinky is one of my favourite shawl yarns - with 50% silk it has fantastic drape and a gorgeous sheen.

I've already got my next shawl picked out, but it's going to have to wait till after the move... now where are those WIPs...

Night creature

It's 2 a.m, my eyes are drooping, the cats are circling, and my bed is calling... but I'm pleased to say...

...the Stray Cat shawl is blocking!! I'll do a proper FO post when it's dry.

I have to say - packing up all the yarn has really helped me bust through the WIPs. I'm down to six! If I didn't have to do more packing, I could totally get at least one more done before the end of the month. But those boxes aren't going to fill themselves. Too bad I can't train the cats to pack, but they just want to sleep in the boxes.

Princess Nora models in Stray Cat

I just got some new pics of Miss Nora from her Daddy.

The cardigan she's wearing is one of Mom's designs.

It's knit with Stray Cat (colour is Magnolia). It's one of my favourite yarns for baby clothes. It's soft, squishy and washes so well!

Hopefully this weekend we're going to get the pattern together - a few people who've seen it have asked for it.

Nora shouldn't be the only baby spoiled enough to have such a pretty cardigan!

Down to Business

 With no boxes left to put anything in, Tux and I decided to take today and get down to business...

 While he kept my feet warm, I worked away on my Business Casual socks. The deadline for the KAL is tomorrow - and since I have to work late tomorrow  - that left today.

But they are finished! I was really getting worried near the end. I made the large size (72st) and for men's size 11 feet. Halfway down the foot, the remaining amount of yarn was looking bleak. I've never run out of yarn on socks before, but these were a little longer in the leg that I normally do. As it turned out, I had to cut the toe on the second sock by two rows. After grafting,  I had four inches of yarn left! Yikes! If I make these for a man again, I'll make sure I have a larger skein (House Cat only has 400 yards)

I love the stitch pattern on these. It's so cool, and so easy to do once you get moving. Expect to see it in some of my future designs. As mentioned - I used House Cat in Cafe au Lait (stolen from Mom's stash).

So... now I have the whole evening to work on a shawl... my new design.. or the Stray Cat shawl? Decisions, decisions....

It's not easy being green

Here's a sneak peek at the new shawl design.

It's hard to say how much progress you'll get to see on it in the next few weeks. Knitting time is going to be severely limited until after May 1, as Chez Wandering Cat is on the move.

It's not a huge move - just a couple of towns over and 20 km closer to work. But it means I have just five weekends to get this whole place cleaned and packed.

I started today with my studio. I figured I'd get the toughest room out of the way first (It's scary in there!). So - almost all the craft stuff is packed. All the yarn is packed.... yep - ALL of it. (Now I need more boxes!)

I considered leaving some out - just in case - but seriously - I have more than enough projects on the needles to keep me going for five weeks. And, I did discover that I don't need to buy any more green shawl yarn any time soon.....

... what can I say? I like green!

My sock drawer over-floweth

As some of you already know, Mom has a circular sock machine. That means she can whip up a pair of plain vanilla socks (ribbed or not) in just a few hours.

It's great for knitting up colourways so we can see how they'll turn out. Or getting the stripeys out of the stash quick (cause you're usually only going to knit plain socks anyway) so you can buy more.

But it does have one downside....

... I may need another dresser soon, just for socks....