Cat Tested-Cat Approved

It has been a cold and windy week here on the prarie. But I must be feeding the birds well because they stand in line to get to the feeders!! I have been having White Headed Sparrows, Red Winged Blackbirds, Meadowlarks and a few non discript finches. The cats love to sit at the back door and watch the birds, twitching with that special "bird" twitch that cats do. I have to go out no matter how cold it is and fill the feeders and add warm water to the birdbath, often more than once a day. Even tho I enjoy watching them come and go, I wish they would post just a little better for the camera. Or I could maybe spring for a better telephoto lens!!

Last week I mentioned that I was making a Kitty Pi bed for the above kitties. I was using Lion Brand Wool yarn in 2 colors, a blue and a strange green. I followed the directions to the "T" although I chose to make it in the 33 stitch size to allow for fat Jack to have room to climb in. I thought that I had a winner going when Lexi decided to lie on it before I had it anywhere done. But once I finished the knitting and felted it I was so disappointed. The Lion Brand Wool was not the softest yarn while knitting and felted-IT SUCKED!! It was not nearly as soft as my Cascade 220 felted samples, it was a weird fuzzy texture and picked up some sort of white lint that stuck like glue. Then the shape of the basket looked good coming out of the washer and I stuffed it tight with plastic grocery sacks to dry, but it quickly collapsed to almost flat and has stayed there ever since. But Lexi still sleeps in it every night if I put it on her chair so all is not lost. After all kitties aren't too fussy about perfection, are they? But I decided the overall idea was worth giving it another try. So this time I am working in Cascade 220, using up all my scraps. And I am altering the design just a little bit and hoping for a better outcome. Again Lexi is not letting me finish without giving it a test drive, or sleep would be more accurate. I should be able to finish the knitting tomorrow and get it into the washer for felting tomorrow evening. I just need to be able to keep Lexi out of it long enough to put the last bit of knitting into it. By the way-I learned another new skill. I can do an iCord bind-off now and love it. But on the cat basket it is lost in the felting so I will not finish off basket #2 with it. Just a normal bind-off for this one.

I also managed to get Cable/Rib Sock #1 completely done. I am half way down the leg of sock #2. They have turned out really nice although I would change a few little things if I make them again. My only worry is that I will run out of yarn before I am done with the last sock. Oh well, if I do, I will finish with a little bit of some wild crazy Jitterbug yarn leftover from a different project. It would sure make them unique would it!!

I also did some sewing this week, working on blocks for the final stage of the progressive round robin. The blocks I am working on now belong to Diane, Stevenson who is living all the way in N. Carolina. She sent quite a bit of fabric with one peice designated as "focus" fabric and another as "background". Other than that we could do what we wanted. I had blocks from 2 other participants to lend me inspiration so it didn't take me long to get started. I have done 1 fairly complicated block and 4 easy ones so far. I am now working on another very difficult block but should be able to finish up with that tomorrow. So I think I will save the pics to post next week. Meanwhile I will try to stay warm with toasty socks and cozy quilts. It pays to enjoy the fruits of your labors!! Everybody else hang in there-Spring is just around the corner in this part of the country at least!!

The New Me!!

It has been a whole week now since I have been unemployed and the routine is setting in. I am trying so very hard to be better at the mundane housekeeping chores and being a good cat momma. I am working at being a more productive knitter and of course trying to do at least some quilting. I am enjoying the ability to get 8 hours of sleep every night and I feel my health is really improving because of it. A lot of my time is still being taken up by the packing for our move. So I guess you could say I have transitioned quite well to my new lifestyle.


I do have to say there is one downside to being retired. I don't get to see alot of other human beings during the day. And when DH gets home he is not the most interactive person on the planet. But luckily this week I got to go back up to the city to see Carol, my dearest quilting/knitting friend and go to the OKC quilt show. Now the last few shows I felt like I had to run thru to get to work on time. I would shop and see the quilts in about 1 hr. So I felt pretty good about having all the time in the world, and guess what? We saw the show and shopped in a whopping 1 and 1/2 hr!! This show may just be put on to often to have alot to see and neither of us needed to shop much so why linger. There were a few great quilts to see but most were ordinary and most were machine quilted. We both still love the beauty of hand quilting and appreciate anyone who still makes the effort. My favorite quilt in the show was the Kimono Crazy Quilt although I never got back to vote for it as "Best of Show". I also loved the quilts by former Lawtonian, Cindy Squyres. She had several show stoppers entered and I think they both won ribbons. Yeah Cindy!!

I have been somewhat productive in my knitting this week. I did an awful lot of knitting and ripping while trying to work on my scrap rug out of Cascade. I think I am just going to let it lie for awhile and use the Cascade for other projects. But I was determined to make something felted and so I am making the Kitty Pi basket for my babies to sleep in during the day. I did not have enough Cascade 220(hard to imagine) so I ran to Hobby Lobby and bought cheap(NOT) Lion Brand Wool in 2 colors to hold together instead of using bulky yarn. I only bought 5 balls because it seemed so expensive but already I need to go buy at least 2 more skeins to finish the project. But I think it is turning out great and it is a cool project to work on. It is based on EZ's Pi shawl pattern where you knit contiguous wedges to form the bottom circle. It made me want to see her pattern for the shawl but for some reason I can not find my copy of Knitter's Almanac but I am sure it is here somewhere under all the mess and packing boxes. I should be able to finish up with the bed and get it felted by this weekend and I am sure the kitties will be fighting over it in no time so I am sure another one will be in the works by next week.

I also made it past the heel on my Cable/Rib socks and managed to get the pattern written down on the computer. I know I can understand what I have written and making the 2nd sock will be no problem for me but it is not something I can put out for others to use until I go back over it and standardize the dialog to what other pattern writers put out. But the sock is pretty and I need to get going on it because my stash of other sock yarn is calling out to me as is some of my sweater stash. It is saying...Central Park Hoodie....Central Park Hoodie........!!

Well other than looking on line for a new house and researching our summer trip to Disney World, all is quiet and calm. The weather is supposed to be back to winter starting tomorrow so I will have plenty of good cozy knitting time over the next few days. So until next week, keep crankin out the woolies!!