She's just gotta be free!

Cast off the shackles of domestic bondage!
Join in the feline nudist revolution!

In preparing our cats, Xena and Junebug, for the cross-country flight, we outfitted them with collars. Yes, we're bad CatParents, we let our kids grow up as nudists. They're indoor only cats, so we just kept their vaccination tags on file. There was a brief period of time in which collars were used, but they quickly trained us against them.

So, I think it probably took a little wrangling around an empty house to get 1)the collars on and 2)cats into their carriers (I can't recall completely as my mind has blissfully blacked out the gorier details, though there are scars... ) but they were collared and carriered, and made it after 20 hours (!) of travelling to Portland.

Almost immediately after being set free in our new apartment, Xena shed herself of her annoying collar. For whatever reason Junebug didn't seem to mind too terribly much. So she's kept it on for the last two months or so.

Until this morning.

Her collar is in such a state of disrepair (though in a certain light, and a certain angle, it does look a little Fun Furish) we were concerned she'd start getting snagged on things. So I freed her. No more warning jingle before being attacked in the middle of the night by Kneady McBladderstomper. No more aural clues that she Might Be Up to Something. We'll just have to rough it.

And I'm following suit. My Kepler is turning out... not quite right. The cable bands have a thicker "bead" of slipped stitches on one side than the other. While Logic would dictate that the thicker band be used at the terminal end of the sleeves and body, my backwards wired brain thought "You know, this yarn is a wee bit too thin for the pattern, maybe I should pick up stitches from the thicker side to hide the weird little gaps in the first few rows of stockinette" because I'M STUPID. So. Two sleeves and half of the front later, I'm frogging back to the cable bands.

Because it ain't a SnarkySweater unless I've knit it at least three times.

Gah!

Until I can muster up enough courage (and vino) to do the ripping, I remain nude and free. It's only natural, baby.

Ketchup

In the interest of avoiding tear-induced boredom while I am vacationing on Sleeve Island, here's an update of my (paltry) summer knits. Like a lot of you out there, I was hit hard by the Summer Knitting Blahs, so my FO list for 2005 is a short one.

The Bitch

Pattern: Bonne Marie's Gigi
Yarn: Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece, MC=Candied Apple, CC=Caramel (I couldn't resist!)

Technically, this is a Fall/Winter Ought Four project. Technically, it was also an easy project. But in My Little Knitting Universe, cotton just happens to be my Kryptonite. Even a lovely blend like Cotton Fleece had me crying for my mamma. Add to my ongoing gauge woes (resulting in me knitting right handed rather than my usual leftie stylee) my sudden need to make tubular cast ons and cast offs in 1x1 ribbing and size 2 and 3 (!) needles... and Gigi quickly became known as "The Bitch".

I knit this sweater five times before getting it right.

Bitch.

But now I love her.


It's always the quiet ones, I tell ya!


Tubular cast on hem in 1x1 ribbing


Tubular bound off edge in 1x1 ribbing

The I'm Moving to Portland! Shawl,
Take Two

Pattern: Charlotte's Web Shawl, Koigu
Yarn: Koigu's Premium Painter's Pallette Merino (KPPPM) in various purty colorways.

Both pattern and yarn purchased at my old LYS Yarn Paradise

This was my second take on the shawl. The first one went to my friend/real estate guru SuperAwesomeNatureLady AKA "C". She helped me to sell our house back in Asheville FSBO, and AS IS. AS fracking IS. So I knit her a "Thank you, you kick ass!" shawl and included little silver letter block beads in the crochet border that spelled, you guessed it: "A-S I-S" etc. etc.

I loved hers so much I knit one for myself. This is a great pattern for keeping you occupied enough to not worry (too much) about selling a house, moving across country, and finding a job, while being easy enough to also allow you to watch things like "Queens of Comedy" uncut at one o'clock in the morning (while sitting on an old futon in an abandoned house with nothing but a teeny tiny TV and a box of Special K Red Berries).



Take Two lounging after over an hour of futzing


The Glamorous I-Can't-See-Any-Details-You-Twit Shot


That's more like it...

The Manos of Fate

Pattern: Glampyre's One Skein Wonder.
Yarn: Manos del Uruguay kettled dyed heavy worsted weight yarngasm in reds/purples/blues, purchased at my other LYS Earth Guild.

I bought the yarn on a whim February of Ought Three (I think, it was snowing) because... well it's Manos. For the next two years I'd take out the skein, rub it against my body in suggestive ways, and put it back in my yarn cabinet. I didn't want to make another scarf or hat or something out of this, I wanted to make something special. Then Glampyre came up with this super fantastic pattern and you could almost hear the stars clicking into place.


Eet ees to swoooon...


So that's it. It seems the more experienced I become at this craft, the s-l-o-w-e-r it's getting. The result is fewer projects, but I think I love them a little more as well.

Eh?

Made my first post on the Kepler-a-long blog (link in sidebar). Der. I'm a dork. I dork that cannot write. There's a fine line that is struck between being friendly and helpful and being just plain creepy when you're dealing with complete strangers... and I'm a weak ankled trapeze-trainee windmilling for my frilly pink umbrella all over the subtle difference.

Or, conversely, maybe not.

After more than two years of lurking all over the web, zipping form knit blog to KAL to Knitty.com to whatever else would feed my new knitting need, I'm finally trying to give back to the community that has inspired me so much and I find myself... at a loss for words. Or at least the appropriate ones.

Sigh.

It's a lot harder than it looks.

In the meantime, whilst I endeavor to "find my voice", I'm slowly reacquainting myself with all things webby. I'll be updating my links in the sidebar to other people who knit and write so much better than I. They are the ones that inspired me to do this. So, in effect, you can blame them. But they're all way too cute and witty and talented for scorn. Darn it.

A Brand New Ewe

Oh dear. Bad punnage. This must mean seven more years of dropped stitches or something.

OK. Hello! Darkitysnark of LJ infamy. This is going to be my official kntting blog since the LJ blog is more a "keeping up with the Snarks" kind of deal.

I'm actually starting this sucker so that I can legitimately hitch onto the Kepler-a-Long that's getting started.

I've gotten the first hip band and sleeve band (the hip band was a sleeve band with an aversion to ending promptly) done and I think this is gonna be niiice. Off to re-tweak the new blog!