Another weekend bites the dust

It's been a quiet, albeit productive, weekend here at Chez Wandering Cat.

Most of it has been taking up with some stealth sewing that I can't show you yet. But that doesn't mean I've got nothing to share.

There has been cleaning - I finally tackled the studio.

Which of course means the door is now left open and Rocky has re-discovered the box of Christmas knitting:I hope everyone wants cat hair for Christmas!

There has been knitting:While I should be knitting socks, I couldn't resist the urge to crack open a skein of Slinky Cat in the ever-so-popular "peacock" and start a new shawl. Mom has been busy dying up some more of this lovely colourway so there will be more available soon.

There has also been some outdoor time:
Tux has been driving me crazy this week - just itching for a chance to get outside (and frequently trying to escape under my feet) but it's been too stinking hot.

Friday brought some cooling rain and the early evenings are much more comfortable so I took the fat boy out for a jaunt around the yard Saturday night.

Rocky was none to happy with me, as I waited until he was asleep upstairs before I took Tux out on his own. It makes me a bad cat mommy, but Tux likes to explore, while Rocky prefers to hunker down in a corner, so it's hard to take them out at the same time unless I have another person to hold a leash - and it's hard to convince Dave to participate.

I did make it up to Rocky with an extra long ear scritch, so I think he's forgiven me. I'll take him out later this week and we can spend sometime reading under the tree.

So, it's another weekend that's gone far too quickly, but I've still got a few hours left to knit, knit, knit!

Do you believe in Sea Monsters?

Well... if they do exist I hope they are as cute as this!I've spent the last two evening knitting flippers and horns. And once again I am astounded at how awesome Hansi Singh is! I love this pattern (this is my fourth Nessie!).
While the other Nessies you've seen have been for others, this one is mine all mine! I still have to make at least four more - but I have until Christmas!
This is a great way to use up left over yarn and I love the mottled effect the hand-dyed yarn gives it.

Now I better get back to knitting socks!

The Eyes Have It!

They safety eyes came in for my latest Loch Ness Monster, so I snapped them on, finished the belly and stuffed her up!She just needs horns and flippers which I hope to do this week!

As mentioned before, the body is knit with our Fat Cat in Kaia - left over from baby Kaia's Helena. For the belly, I doubled some Fluffy Cat (in Pink Pearl) left over from my Artemis. It made a nice soft and shiny underbelly for my Nessie.

A note about the eyes. I've had a heck of a time finding safety eyes. I don't know about where you live, but around here all we have is Michael's the (craptacular) Arts and Craft Superstore. They used to be great, but now they don't carry half of the craft supplies they use to. It stinks. And there are very few independent craft and hobby shops left - and most of the ones around here carry mostly model trains and cars - no crafting supplies at all.

But if you're looking - check out Etsy. I got mine from 6060, she has a great selection (and noses too!) I got them really quick and I thought the prices were quite reasonable.

Wee x2

As promised, I finished up the Baby Socks last night - so that's one pair done in my Summer of the Second Sock!I gave them to my co-worker today but he was waiting to open it until he got home to his wife. I hope they like them.

In non-knitting but utterly adorable news. Rocky has claimed the coffee table as his new territory.But for some reason, he wants to claim the couch at the same time.
I think it's all a ploy to get near the yarn.
It may look like he's keeping that Stray Cat yarn safe for me, but don't be fooled, he's waiting for me to turn my back so he can steal it!

Summer of the Second Sock

As I mentioned before, I have a lot of socks-in-progress.

My way to treat the dreaded Second Sock Syndrome is to immediately cast on for a different pair. Usually this works and by the time I've finished the first sock of the second pair, I'm ready to go back and knit the second of the first.

Until recently.

Mom and I have been dying so many pretty yarns that I've gotten a little carried away - and I now have six socks that need mates!

So, as of today, I am declaring this the Summer of the Second Sock and will devote the next two months to making mates for all these lonely socks.

And to show you how serious I am I spent all day knitting socks (okay that's mostly because the dragon shawl is in a time out... but... I was still productive)

First, I finished the toe of the the first Glow Bug sock.Then (because I realized his birthday is only 16 days away) I cast on for the second of Dave's Birthday socksI got several inches done before I realized I hadn't finished the second baby sock yet - so I've spent the evening working on that and I'm to the wee toe (so cute!)

Now despite this commitment to socks, that doesn't mean that's all you'll see here this summer. There will be shawls still, and I have three Summerlins to make. But you won't see me cast on for any new socks until September...

I promise...

Most likely anyway....

Enforced downtime

It's been a pretty lazy few days... but not by choice.

My back has decided that I've been far too busy lately, and has enforced a little downtime.

So, I've spent much of my time in bed, while Dave has been busy hunting radio active zombies and taking frequent breaks to make sure I'm well watered and fed.

But the good news is I have some great company...

(when he's not eating the patterns) ... as well as a hobby that I can do laying down.

I decided I should make good use of the time to tackle that pile of socks needing mates. So I got a few rows done on my Glow Bug socks, and then I got a little sidetracked.

You see, I have some yummy yarn that's been calling to me despite the fact that I buried it in the studio....

But there are several new projects on Ravelry using our lovely Fluffy Cat, and that has kept it foremost in my mind.

So I dug out my two skeins in Teddy Bear and cast on.

Well actually I cast on several times. I cast on for Haruni, Luna Moth, Melusine, and host of others, but none of them seemed right. Oh they are lovely shawls, but just not quite what I wanted. I considered casting on for another Zetor, but I've still got the Starry Zetor on the needles.

So I hoped on Ravelry and pulled up my favourites, hoping to find just the right pattern.

And I did - in the Red Dragon shawl. You may remember that I had intended to make this pattern with my Sea Silk. But the Sea Silk ended up becoming a Frozen Leaves shawl.

And I do love the look of the Red Dragon shawl. So I thought, "What the heck, I've cast on for just about everything else, lets give this a whirl."

Several hours later, I'm about 30% of the way - several inches further than the picture shows and into the second chart.

It's going well, but I do have to say that this is one of the hardest lace patterns I've ever done. It's not complicated, and the stitches aren't difficult to execute, it just doesn't have a rhythm - like Frozen Leaves or Daenerys - with this you have to pay attention to every stitch. But I think it's going to be worth it.

I'm hoping to get through all the repeats of Chart 2 tomorrow, and then I can take my time with the edging. I will probably end up wearing this to my brother's wedding instead of the Angora Daenerys I started a few days ago.

If you're interested in making your own Fluffy Cat shawl there are some great new colourways that will be going up in the shop tomorrow afternoon. You'll also find some Top Cat and Alley Cat both of which make beautiful shawls (and socks)

This update include all of that beautiful yarn we had hanging on the laundry line the other day. Stop by tomorrow and let us know what you think!

Wee

It's no secret that I'm not a big fan of babies (my nieces and a select few others excepted). Babies are noisy, time consuming and... well... kinda yucky.

But I do like knitting baby stuff.

One - it's knits up quick
Two - small things are just darn cute.
Take this wee sock for example
A co-worker welcomed a new baby boy to his family on Wednesday, so I decided to knit up a pair of baby socks. I was hoping to get them done for tomorrow, but mom and I got a little side tracked today.Since we had today off, Dad was going fishing and Dave was busy in a Canada Day parade, we decided to have a little mommy-daughter dye day. And we might have gone a little crazy... but it was fun.

We dyed some Alley Cat, Top Cat, Fluffy Cat and a little bit of Slinky Cat Lace. The results will should be in the shop next week and I'll try to preview some in the coming days.

And of course, I did manage to bring some home for myself.

A while back, Mom managed to score some naked Skinny Bugga - they are just small skeins, most under 300 yards, but that's perfect for ankle socks!

I dyed a skein up today in my new Spice Trader colourway
Spice Trader is one of those skeins that looks much nicer when the colours are all mixed up, but since it's just for me there was no point in re-skeining it.

Sadly, you'll probably have to wait a while to see this knit up. I have quite a pile of single socks going, so I need to knit them some mates before I start casting on for new ones.