Kitty needs love

Just a few days until I fly out....

And as you can see.... someone is not amused.

As you can also see, behind him....

Color Affection is off the needles and blocked. No pinning for this one - I just soaked it and laid it out flat. That's the nice thing about garter stitch.

Those of you with eagle eyes will note that it does not have a 2 inch border, as the pattern calls for. I got an inch done.... and I was done with it. I had to cast off. I think it looks just fine.

I'll do a proper photoshoot and FO post when I have more time. In the meantime, I've got a certain kitty to snuggle.

On the edge

Almost there...

It's hard to tell, because I've only done two rows, but I'm onto the edge of Color Affection. Just two inches of knitting and this one is done! (And a good thing too - we're in the middle of another cold snap - I need all the layers I can get!)

Of course... it's two inches of REALLY long rows..... but it's nice to be down to just one ball of yarn. There was a lot of tangling and untangling going on for a while there!

Under the sea

Apparently there's something about octopi in my life right now....

A few weeks ago, I entered a contest over at Yarn-A-Go-Go. It was a kit to make Opus..... a giant couch octopus.... because who doesn't want a couch octopus? I fell in love with Opus the minute the pattern cam out in Knitty, and into the queue he went. So when I saw the contest, I just had to enter!

And I won! The prize arrived today.... and look what it contained!

Yep...that's right - the prize was a SPINNING kit! Look at all that luscious green fiber! I don't know exactly what it is, but it looks like there may be some silk in there. And did you notice something else?

SPARKLES!!!!  Now chances are, any yarn I make isn't going to be good enough for Opus just yet... but I'm really looking forward to trying... I can always use something else if doesn't work out.

There were lots of other goodies in the box too. It had all the bits and pieces needed to make Opus - including the safety eyes, stuffing, dpns, stitch markers, and the cutest little pair of scissors I've ever seen!

There were also some samples of some pretty hand-painted yarn

Each skein has about 50 yards - I'm thinking they'd make some nice colourful mitts!

And if Opus wasn't enough... there's another Octopus in my life....

Mom and I we're invited back to the Iron Dyers for the February challenge... which is Sea Beast.... This is the picture that was chosen

I've already dyed up my yarn inspired by it, but I can't show you until the big reveal at the end of the month. But I did it on Twinkle Cat..... because.... SPARKLES!

Perhaps someone is trying to tell me I need to take a trip to the ocean.... or at least the aquarium....

Too tempting

You knew it wouldn't take long for me to crack into that skein of handspun, didn't you?

Almost as soon as I got it home, I wound it on and cast on. Just a simple toque. I've only got 128 yards, so I'm just knitting straight until the ball starts to look low, then I'll start decreasing. With any luck, I'll get a little bit of slouch to it.

It always amazes me how much fibre changes in the spinning process. From the braid, to the skein, to the knit - each step looks so different

It's knitting up nicely! And I think I'm going to have to dye up some yarn to make some matching mitts... or maybe I can get Mom to spin up another braid for me...

No.Sock.Love

It doesn't look like Dave will be getting socks for Valentine's day.

Giant man-feet, combined with a lack of knitting time (I'm helping coworkers plan events for when we are in Chicago, and it's eating into my lunch hours) means I'm not even through the first sock yet, And V-day is only four days away. These are definitely not going to be done in time.

But no worries, we actually already exchanged V-day gifts last week. I was out shopping (I needed new boots) and I picked him up a new dress shirt. He was in bad need of new dress shirts, so I gave it to him when I got home instead of waiting... he, in turn, handed me the money for the boots I had just bought...

We are so romantic!

Simply knit

With all the shuffling of renting a car, getting back to work, getting my own car back, and running all the errands I couldn't do when I didn't have a car, there hasn't been a tonne of time to knit over the last few days.  At least it hasn't seemed like that. But magically, Color Affection is growing...

So much so that I can't spread it out on the needle to show you the whole thing (and it's a LONG needle!)

Each short row eats up four stitches. And as you can see, there's not that much left to eat up. After that - it's just a few rows of straight burgundy and this puppy is done!

I can't stretch out the whole thing, but I can stretch out the middle to show you how nicely the colours are playing together.

It took me forever to decide which colours to use (and I even made some last minute changes), but I'm so glad I chose these ones.

I figured I'd be bored out of mind with this knit. I'm not a huge garter stitch fan. But the colour changes and short rows are keeping me from going batty. And I think perhaps, in the face of all the chaos going on elsewhere in my life, I needed a bit of simplicity.

Four pieces of happy

1) Stella is home!

She's in sore need of a bath. But the engine sounds great.... nice and growly and sounding like a car! Not like the Nissan rental I had that sounded like an electric lawnmower. It took three weeks  - a week to diagnose, a week to wait for the part, and a week to fix... but if this keeps her going for one more summer, I will be a very happy girl.

2) A little shopping therapy!

After picking up my pretty, pretty car, I stopped at the local grocery/clothing/housewares mega store to stock up on tights. I had some loyalty points saved up, so after I got my tights, I thought I'd take a little mosey over to the toy department to see what they had on clearance....

Meet Cleo De Nile... Number 8 for my collection. As usual - the details are awesome.

Scarab purse? Yes please! And as always... the shoes....

If I do one thing this year... it's going to be publishing my Monster High knitting pattern book!

3) YARN! (There had to be yarn!)

Remember the lovely braids of fleece I dyed up? Well this one....

Is now this...

128 yards of worsted weight loveliness... all thanks to Mom! I have no idea what I'm going to knit with it - but I know I want to cast on!

4) Pattern sales for pretty kitties

This adorable foursome is now $60 closer to coming to Canada

Thanks to all of you, I was able to send this generous donation off to the rescue this morning. As always, you guys are fabulous!

What's making you happy today?