Happy New Year's!

I hope everybody has an awesome night and awesome new years day in the morning.

may all you wishes come true in the coming year, and may all you troubles melt away.

Snow Song (It's Coming Down)
from Striking 12 by groovelily (one of the most awesome CD's ever by one of the most awesome bands out there, go buy their stuff)
© Brendan Milburn, Rachel Sheinkin & Valerie Vigoda

Snowflakes fall like velvet
From iron-colored skies
Somehow I can’t help it
I feel my spirits rise
Street lamps aglow
Time to take it slow
It’s coming down

Crystal branches glisten
Like diamonds over me
Frozen in position
A silent symphony
Sidewalks white and clean
Perfect and pristine
It’s coming down

It’s coming down and all my
blues disappear
And this old town is
young again—
Roll back the years
Because the world looks
like new
Or at least that’s the view
from here...

It’s cold here by the river
But I don’t feel it much
The moon’s a silver sliver
Close enough to touch
Storm clouds drift away
A star comes out to play
And it’s
coming down

***

It’s coming down and all my blues disappear
And this old town is young again — roll back the years
Because the world looks like new
Or at least that’s the view from here

Snowflakes fall like velvet
From iron-colored skies
Somehow I can’t help it
I feel my spirits rise
Snowflakes glint and glide
Glad to be outside

On the first day
On the first day
ON THE FIRST DAY OF THE YEAR

Keeping things warm, and a pillow guy

the superman slippers I made for Bill back in October have already sprouted holes. This made Bill pout, so I decided to hand dye some pretty green yarn (his favorite colour) and make him a new pair.



Since these are slightly larger than the last pair I made they have a little 'point' at the toes, and since they are green they are now dubbed the elf slippers.

the pattern

mods made:
Cast on using magic cast on and knit slipper in the round = no seaming = YAY
CO 90 sts. with size 6 needles Knit 16 rounds in garter, then 1 round plain before decreases.
Double strand sole, used wooly nylon as well, last pair wore out very quickly.



Since its winter here, we have been drinking a lot of Tea, the best way to make tea? In a Teapot!
But we can't have naked teapots, so I made a tea cozy:



It's the bi colour brioche cozy by Megan Mills I've used her patters before to make hats ad gaiters for Bill and I, I love brioche stitch!



modifications to the pattern
I cast on 10 sts circularly then:
r1: kf&b around
r2: (&all even) k
r3: (k1, kf&b) around
r5: (k2, kf&b) around
r7: (k3, kf&b) around
r8: (k4, kf&b) around
R10: purl

I then began the pattern

I knit the beginning as for a non tubular cast on (6 rows all together) then knit an extra 4 rows after splitting for the handle but before splitting for the spout.

After I closed the spout hole I did the called for 5 more rows, but then skipped directly to stage three, closing the handle hole on round 3 of the decrease leaving me with 28 stitches total.

I knit 4 more rows after stage three, and then instead of binding off, I made a braided cord, and threaded it through the live stitches to use as a cinch.

I'm not completely happy with the way the decreases lined up, but it's still pretty and it works. I did a line of Single Crochet around the handle and spout openings to even out the edges, the pattern has you slip the first stitch of each flat row, but no matter how carefully I followed the directions I couldn't get them to look even or even the same on each side, but the crochet took care of it.



and finally, a Squarey!
I've named him Pillow Guy



I was inspired by all the adorable squareys out there, I don't actually have the book (Unusual toys for you to knit and enjoy by Jess Hutchison), but its a frikkin square!

To fit a 14x14 inch pillow gauge = 4.5 sts/inch
using magic cast on cast on 124 sts and knit in the round knit 3 inches in "pants" 2 inches in "shirt" (5 inches overall) knit back half onto waste yarn (a la thumb trick) knit rest in "skin" (8.5 inches)

Remove waste yarn, put stitches on holders.

Kitchener up top of pillow guy.

bo bottom held stitches, knit 1 inch in "shirt" on top held stitches, place button holes (k11, bo3 *k10, bo3 * rep, k9, on next row, co3 over bo bits) k 1/2 inch more, bind off. Sew edges of button hole flap to the sides. Embroider face.

Legs (make two): co 20 in "pants" knit 10 rows, switch to "skin" knit until leg measures 9 inches, switch to "Shirt" knit 4 rows. Next round: k3 k2tog around, one row plain then k2tog around, then k2tog around again thread yarn through rem stitches weave in ends. Stuff legs and attach to body.

Arms (make two) co 20 in "shirt" knit 5 rows, switch to "skin" knit until arm measures 5.5 inches, on next round: k3 k2tog around, one row plain then k2tog around, then k2tog around again thread yarn through rem stitches, weave in ends. Stuff arms and attach to body just below where "shirt" turns to "skin"


ok, so I haven't added any limbs yet, and I'm not sure if I want to, so he's going to stay like this for a while until I decide.

Winter wonder wear

I finished my mittens!



I'm incredibly happy with how they came out, I wore them to knit night with me on Monday, and everybody commented on them. I had a problem with my last pair in that the wind was always blowing up my sleeves, and there was always a gap, so I made these extra long to stop that.



I had plenty of teal (and purple) yarn left over so I decided to make a matching tam (because I'm obsessed with tams and berets)



This is Tam C from knitty.com



it fits perfectly and I love the way it looks. I had a little trouble with the decreases on the top, for some reason they came out a bit loose and you can see the stranding behind them, this would bother me more if it weren't for the fact that it makes the top look amazingly snowflake like.



and just to keep myself busy the other day I decided to make a mug cozy:



The pattern is from the holiday gifts 2007 issue of interweave knits. It was incredibly quick, and very easy to modify to fit my mug. And it really works too; my tea does stay warm longer with it on.

This will probably be my last post until after Christmas, I hope everybody has an awesome holiday!

Another beret, and a mitten.

Chevron Lace Beret




I don't like it

I did the recommended double ribbing, and it's way too loose, I think it's not just the ribbing but the huge number of stitches it has you cast on, I probably should have cast on as for the smaller size and then increased way more. Then the weird increases to the middle, make it an odd shape while wearing, and it doesn't 'flop' right.

Ah well, a learning experience.

I used my own hand dyed wool, and AM very happy with the way the semi solid variegation worked out, very neat. I liked it so much I dyed up another skein in teal.

Then worked up a mitten pattern to use the leftover blue/purple, and the teal together.



I'm really; really happy with the way these are turning out. I finished the first in one day, and have already finished the ribbing on the second.



I used the generic Norwegian mitten pattern from Hello Yarn


(click on the picture for a bigger version to print if you'd like to make them too.)

a knitting book even my husband would like...

While reading through his monthly issue of SIAM news Bill noticed a book review for a book that we both might like: Making Mathematics with Needlework: Ten Papers and Ten Projects

It covers many different crafts, and looks like both of us will find it a fun and informative read.

I can't wait until after Christmas so I can get it!

How to read

While knitting?

Ok everybody, I need opinions here.
I need something to keep my mind occupied while knitting, usually I would just go get an audio book, and those do rock, but sometimes the book I want to read isn't available on audio from my library system.

So I need other alternatives. I know at least one person who reads my blog does this already, and maybe there are more of you, so here's my question: how do you read a book while knitting?

Most of the books I would get from the library would be hardcover of course, but I have tons of paperbacks here at home waiting to be read too. It needs to be mobile, my knitting spot moves with the sunlight. It also needs to be easy to store for times when I have a good audio book or when company is coming over.

to sweeten the pot, lets make a contest out of it:
everybody who leaves a suggestion (along with their e-mail so I can get a hold of them if they win) will get their name put on a list, and in a couple of weeks I'll use a random number generator to pick a person from the list to win any item they choose from my etsy store

another tam

Gramma K's Fair Isle Tam



after knitting and falling in love with my first beret, I decided my life would not be complete without several different types of tams and berets to wear. this is the first on my list.

this was an incredibly fun and easy knit, I had an awesome time making it and can't wait to wear it out! It was a little touch and go for the yarn. I used the grey leftover from knitting Bill's squirrel and oak mittens, (I had roughly 65 grams left after the mittens). The purple was a test skein I bought to swatch for a sweater I decided I didn't really want, so I started with slightly less than a full skein. I finished the hat with barely 10 grams left of the purple and only 15 grams left of grey. whew!

next on my list I think will be one of the Three Tams from Knitty
but first I need to get more yarn, and I definitely want to try it with the self striping Noro, I really like that look.

Je suis le sexy

...or something.



slouchy cabled beret

I LOVE THIS HAT!!

omg, I wasn't sure if I would like a beret or not, but man, this thing rocks!

I am totally going to have to make more berets and tams in the future, hee!

I used worsted yarn, and size 6 and 7 circulars. I magic looped the whole thing since I didn't have any thing shorter than a 40". even with using bigger yarn and needles than the pattern called for I still had to block the crap out of it to make it fit right.

Since the pattern was a little vague about the seed pattern and how to do the decreases, this was how I did it:

The first round of the pattern I started the seed stitch with a knit, this mean that I was crossing the cables on purl beginning seed rows, this isn't really important, but I felt like putting it up here as well.

After I got to the desired length, I did one more cable cross but instead of doing normal seed after the 2 purl stitches I did this: move beginning marker one stitch to the left, * p1, c4f, p1, p2tog, seed st, (sl the first st, then the second, knit wise, replace on the left hand needle twisted, ptbl)~,* rep

Since the decreases are to occur every other round, on non cable rows my decreases looked like this: * p1, k4, p1, p2tog, seed st, (sl the first st, then the second, knit wise, replace on the left hand needle twisted, ptbl)~,* rep

I did this until there was only one stitch left in the seed section, and then I moved the marker to the left one more stitch and did: (sl the first st, then the second, knit wise, replace on the left hand needle twisted, slip these two stitches together, through the back loop onto the right hand needle, purl the next stitch, pass the slipped stitches over )~.

Then I did that again on the next decrease round. So that there was one purl stitch left between the cables.

Through all this I maintained the cable crossing on every 4th row.

The next decrease round (which was not a cable row) I: *ssk, k2tog, p1* rep
And then on the last decrease round: *(Sl 2tog kwise, knit one, pass slipped stitches over)~* rep

8 sts remain.

~ I LOVE balanced decreases and symmetry. These decreases look long and complicated when you read them, but they are wicked easy to do and memorize.

Saturday Sky

boy it was cold today, my face was numb and i only went out for a second to take this picture!
tomorrow is the Christmas parade, we will definitely be bundling up!



Saturday Sky, taken Saturday December first, at 1:45 pm out front of the Platypus Nest.

last day

YAY!

today is the last day for NaBloPoMo.
I can hear the collective sigh of relief.

I did this to see if I could do it. and I could. but I'm not really happy with the results, in order to have content I needed to pull a lot more from my personal life than I really wanted too, and I STILL had a lot of sad one or two lined posts made at the last minute.

ah well.

I learned a lot and I now know that that I can indeed actually post more than I did before and still have an interesting blog. just maybe not post quite as much...

I'm probably going to take a few days off from posting now (besides tomorrow's Saturday sky) and come back with some actual knitting content later in the week.

actual knitting content

Christmas knitting is going well, I've finished a lot of dishcloths and I think I finally have enough.



I really should move on to finishing the snowflakes I want to put in peoples cards, but instead I have decided to knit a beret.



The slouchy cabled beret

I have never worn or knit a beret (or tam) before. but I really liked this pattern, and hey, you gotta start somewhere! I can be picky about the hats that I wear, so if I don't like it I know my cousin probably would, so I'm not too worried about it finding a home.

the pattern was written with DK yarn and size 5 needles, but I couldn't get the specified gauge (5 sts per inch, no listed in the actual pattern but is listed on the ravely page) so I switched out worsted and size 7 needles instead. otherwise I'm sticking to the pattern.

nothing to see here

move along.

today has been filled with gruesome sights, and I'm having trouble thinking about knitting...

first there was the gutted dear the the gas station on the way to Watertown, then there was the gutted mole on our living room carpet when we got home.

eeeewwwww.

new favorite Book

yeah, I went straight from catching up on web comics to reading my new favorite book: Heirloom Knitting by Sharon Miller

I ordered this book way back in September, and it just now arrived, I chose the free super save shipping, and the shipping estimates were all over the place, and I see now that amazon isn't even claiming they have it in stock.

no matter, because I finally have it in my hot little hands, and besides a trip to knit night last night I have been sucked into it's pages gleaning all I can about traditional Shetland lace knitting.

*Cue Evil Laughter Here*

Seven things meme

I got tagged for this via NaBloPoMo, but it's not really an official thing, so I'm not going to tag anybody else, especially since this had gone through most of the blogs I read already, if you want to do it, go ahead.

I wound's usually do a meme like this, but Bill did it a while ago on his blog too, and has been poking me to get around to do it as well. So I guess I really should now eh?

"Tell seven random or weird things about yourself"

1) I have flat feet and my leg bones are twisted so that my feet point out perpendicular to each other instead of straight ahead. I'm hard on my shoes in places most people aren't because of the way I walk, and it makes certain dance steps very dangerous. On the plus side I can really freak people out by turning my feet around to point behind me while standing.

2) I'm a classically trained vocalist and took piano and flute lessons for several years as a child. I held one of the highest reading levels in my class in high school and have two associates' degrees, one of them in Math/Science - one of the more difficult degrees and the one with the fewest women graduates at my college. Despite all this I work as a line cook at a seasonal restaurant and am unemployed for half of the year. But I am incredibly happy.

3) When I was very young, - either first or second grade - I threw a small wooden heart at my teacher, both making my parents proud, and upset at the same time. See, our class was decorating ornaments for Christmas time, girls were given little wooden hearts, and boy little wooden stars, and we were given paints, girls red, boys sparkly blue. Now I wanted to paint my heart sparkly blue, but the teacher wouldn't let me, because blue was a BOYS colour. This upset me greatly, and no matter how much I insisted that things like boy colours and girls colours were stupid, the teacher just would not let me paint my heart sparkly blue. So I got very, very angry and threw my heart at her. My parents were happy that I was standing up against stereotypical gender rolls and colours so young, they were not happy that I did it in such a fashion that ended up with me in the principles office.

4) I like cauliflower, could live off of broccoli, and fancy a brusselsprout or two now and again, my husband insists that this is very weird.

5) My husband and I met over the internet, we lived only a few miles away from each other, so we got together, dated, fell in loved and got married, and I'm the happiest I've ever been in my life. When I was preparing for our first date, I was telling my mother about him, she was worried that he may be some kind of weirdo psycho killer. I told her not to worry; he was no weirder than I was. For some reason this did not reassure her.

6) I grew up with cats, and when I was a little girl, when one of the cats would die or run away my parents would tell me that they got a letter from them saying that they had fallen in love and run away to get married, and that they were very happy.

7) I love baking, I love making new types of pies and cakes and muffins, and all things sweet, and really bad for you. Unfortunately nearly all my family (on both mine and my husband's sides) are either diabetic or at very high risk of becoming diabetic.

I got nothin'

yep, nothing.

My parents came over to visit yesterday, and that on top of my obsessively catching up on Schlock Mercenary, I've done practically no knitting, and really should get off my but and do some, because I have a bunch of dishcloths to make for family, and I really wanted to make snowflakes for cards.

argh!

Saturday Sky

Sorry this is so late, i actually took it this morning. I've been catching up on several years of Schlock Mercenary and it has been a major (but fun) time suck.

Also? it's been snowing all day, so the sky isn't allt eh exciting. ah well.



Saturday Sky, taken Saturday November 24 2007 sometimes in the late morning/early afternoon, out front of the Platypus Nest.

Post thanksgiving fish?

I hope everybody had a good thanksgiving, ours didn't exactly go as planned, the freezing rain and snow conspired to keep us home.
So instead of dinner with family we stayed home, ate tofurkey sandwiches drank hard cranberry lemonade and watched Serenity.

And I knit fish.



Yes fish.



As you can see:



Esme was quite happy by this.



The pattern is my own, and I plan on selling the extras in my Etsy store

So, you know, no selling of products made from this design yada, yada.

Felted Catnip Fishies:

Materials:

• Small amount of worsted weight wool
• Size 10 1/2 DPNs (or long circulars for magic loop)
  
• Darning needle
• Poly Fill
• Catnip
• Cat

CO 30 sts, join in the round, careful not to twist.

Knit 1 round

Tail:
R 1: (K2tog, K11, SSK) x2
R 2: (& All even) K
R 3: (K2tog, K9, SSK) x2
R 5: (K2tog, K7, SSK) x2
R 7: (K2tog, K1) x6

Body:
R 9: (K1, M1, K4, M1, K1) x2
R 11: (K1, M1, K6, M1, K1) x2
R 13: (K1, M1, K8, M1, K1) x2
R 15: (K6, M1, K6) x2

R 16 – 18: K

Head:
R 19: (K11, K2tog) x2
R 21: (K4, K2tog) x4
R 23: (K3, K2tog) x4
R 25: (K2, K2tog) x4
R 26: (K2tog) x6

Break yarn, thread tail through remaining sts, felt, dry, stuff with poly fill and catnip, sew up tail, give to cat and enjoy!

gobble

Happy US thanksgiving y'all!

we're going to my parents today, so I don't have much time to write, theres a Tofurkey calling my name!

see ya!

stash

I talked about reorganizing my stash the other day, so here it is:



The drawers hold most of my yarn, the 70's style bag with the license plate cover holds my spinning, behind it are a couple boxes of crochet and tatting thread, under it is some embroidery stuff, the patchwork looking bag-stand-thingy on the right holds my kitchen cotton, and above that is some embroidery floss and a few of my quilting things. The black binder holds all my printed off the internet patterns. The soy garden container on top of the tallest pillar of drawers holds my tatting shuttles and work in progress. Beside it is an old set of BOYE interchangeables under my Tupperware full of blocking pins. To the far left are my blocking wires.

Before I go any further I have to make a disclaimer: I did not buy the majority of my stash, three relatives over the past five years have passed on and left me their stashes, I am sad to have lost them, and hope to do their supplies justice by creating as many beautiful things with them as possible.

Let's take a look in some of the boxes and drawers shall we?





leftmost box is mostly size 10 crochet thread, rightmost box is full of size 70 tatting thread, top box holds some embroidery things, next to it is a bag full of embroidery floss, the things on the bottom right are blank hankies ready to be embellished.





Kitchen cotton, the bag holds mostly ombres and prints, the basket mostly solids.





Bottom rightmost drawer: needle felting supplies and novelty yarns.





Bottom leftmost drawer: Acrylic, acrylic and more acrylic.







Middle leftmost drawer:
On top:
Leftover sock yarns, wooly nylon and blank sock yarn to be dyed.
Underneath:
Sock yarn, acid dyes, and in the far back, Lion brand wool ease (wanted to keep it separated from the 100% wools)







Top drawer:

On top:
Grocery bag in back leftover lace weight, Purple gossamer on right, to the front is bare lace weight from knit picks, bag in the middle is leftover knit picks.
Underneath:
Random wools the purple skein and the brown and whit skein in front are the only two full skeins, leftover from last year's NY sheep and wool.

out of the hermitage

Yesterday's knit night went really well.
I talked about the sock class some more, (it's half full already!)
there were two new women there who we were trying to teach how to knit, it was interesting, one got it right away and was knitting and purling right along like crazy, the other as having a little more difficulty, but we got her going eventually.

Overall I had a great time, I don't get out of the house much, especially during the winter, both Bill and I get quite hermit like with the cold weather, but it's always nice to go out and spend time with other women that share the same interests.

the measurement of heat lost or gained

calorimetry

I needed a new winter hat, but I have long hair, calorimetry sounded like the perfect solution.

At first I couldn't get gauge with recommended needles, at least I don't think I could, what the hell does "slightly stretched" mean? Why can't people just give gauge in stockinet?

Anyways, went down to size 6 and also used only 100 stitches, as my head is not 24" around, more like 22"

And it fits perfectly! I braided my tails instead of weaving them in so that I wouldn't have to use a button. I don't know how everyone else manages it, but I would never be able to wear a button there without my hair getting hopelessly tangled in it, a nice simple knot works much better, and I like the way it looks.

Yarn!

A funny story about his yarn: The other day I decided I wanted to dye some yarn, so I soaked the yarn, mixed to colours, and while I waited for the yarn to finish soaking I decided to read my friends list on LJ. Where upon I saw that one of my friends would like to receive some sock yarn for Yule, and her favorite colours just happened to be the exact colours I had mixed up!

Since I didn't really need any new sock yarn right now, I decided that I was meant to be and will be sending it too her as soon as I get an appropriate box.

I hope she likes!

Saturday Sky

winter is on it's way, it's definitely getting colder out, all the puddles were frozen today, and there were patches of frost in the grass.





Saturday Sky, taken Saturday, November 17, 2007, at 8:00am, form the lawn out front of the platypus nest.

Yep, hand still hurts, but that's ok, I have balls

Wow, hat sounded wrong. But it's true!

See, my hand still hurts which makes it difficult to knit on Tasha's socks, because the tiny needles just make it worse.

But that's ok, because my brand spanking new ball winder arrived in the mail yesterday!
I've been very busy winding all sorts of balls last night and today.

It has given me a very good excuse to sort through and re-organize my stash.
Now everything fits neatly into its drawers and I have a better idea of what I have. But then I don't exactly have a huge stash, I have the sock yarns I brought home from Rhinebeck, a few worsted yarns left over from last year's Rhinebeck still to find a suitable project, and a whole lot of partially used balls of random wool or wool/acrylic blends.

I also have a full drawer full or random worsted acrylic yarns. Most of which were half un-wound, so I spent a lot of time re winding the acrylics and deciding what would stay and what would go, since I hardly every use acrylic anymore. So I placed the few full skeins I had up on Ravely for trade or sell, and I'm not sure what I'll do with the rest.

I have also decided I really need to think of a stash busting project to use up all the partial skeins I have.

I'm not quite sure what to do yet, a lot of it is feltable, but not all of it, and I don't really think I have enough feltable yarn to make anything very big or interesting. Lots and lots of felted kitty toys? Well, Esme would be happy...

If you have any ideas let me know!

now were cooking

hand still hurts, not much knitting for me today. :(

instead I've been cuddling the kitty and doggy and baking!

I have a new O.M.G. Favorite cook book.
Mom's Big Book of Baking
the recipes are simple quick and turn out soooo goood!!!

today I made apricot almond muffins, I'd made the cranberry orange last week (omg, to die for yummy!) and several times have made the macaroons (although I always need to double the whites)

I really suggest everybody and their mother go out and get this book, I haven't been disappointed yet.

hand injuries

Monday when Bill and I were hiking I chose a very long and hilly trail for us to trek, and by the end I had a death grip on my walking stick as I was very tired, and it was keeping me upright. by knit night my hand was very sore, and i couldn't knit very much.

yesterday I took Bill's lunch to him at work and they hung around to keep him company as it was dead and he was working late. I could barely knit though because my hand was so sore.

today is Watertown day where I have to spend half an hour each way in the car while Bill drives, keep your fingers crossed that I will be able to knit, other wise I will be taking a nice nap.

those socks have CLASS!

knit night was cool as always, there were a lot of new knitters there last night.
also last night I got to announce my super secret plan: I'm going to teach a sock knitting class!

there will not be a 'sock pattern' per se, what I'll be teaching are the several different elements of socks, like different heels and toes and ways of making socks, like toe up or top down or magic loop. then I'll talk about the math of gauge and making socks fit right. once I'm done they should be able to knit any kind of sock they want and way they want. or at least have the knowledge to figure it out on their own.

I finally decided to do this class after the millionth person acted all amazed at how I knit my socks two at once toe up, and how they always fit, and how I always find such pretty patterns. and how they could NEVER do that on their own. I got sick of it, they ARE smart enough, it's just that most of them don't have the internet (and far too much free time) that I do to go out and dig up and read about all these different techniques and figure out what I like and what works for me.

so in this class I will give them a little background, a few different ways things are done, and the ability to take that information and run with it.

it's going to be a two hours once a week for four weeks type of thing, and since all of the practice swatches I'm planning won't take nearly a whole skein I'm going to dye up and bunch of smaller skeins for them to play with, other than that they will only need to buy needles and bring int he normal tools any other knitter has like darning needles and scissors.

I'm totally stoked, I already have all the outlines written up and am working on the handouts, and making swatches in my spare time. kinda sad really since the class won't be until January.

owies

Bill and I went hiking today up on Wellesley Island, we had a great time, but I am exhausted.

tonight is knit night, and while there I'm going to announce my super secret plan. I'll probably write about it tomorrow when I'm more coherent and awake.

socks: done!

Bills socks are finally finished...

but first...a pause:



I mean some paws.
sorry, couldn't help myself, she's just so darned cute!

now the socks:


as you can see I changed the pattern a bit, they were originally going to be the cable top socks from Cat Bordhi's Socks Soar, but my first mistake was panicking about her percentages for when to start the gusset shaping, I jumped the gun and started the heel before the gusset was done because I was afraid it was going to be too long, when in fact it would have been just right, oh well, you live and learn, they still fit him, and that's what matters.

I cast off on the first sock as Cat directs with the twisting i-cord bind-off but it was awful, it flared out horribly and kept rolling over on itself. I immediately ripped it out and sent it to time out for a while.
I really didn't want to knit ribbing, I mean, that's one of the reasons I picked these socks was that it was something other then the usual ribbed cuff. I could have done a picot hem or bind off, but I thought that would have just been too girly (yeah, I know, like a cable top wasn't girly, shut up) I really liked the applied i-cord thing though, so I decided to just do a simple applied i-cord and call it a day.



the top still rolls a little bit, and they really want to slouch, but Bill is happy, and that's all that matters I guess.

Saturday Sky

ok, so I lied, I forgot about the Saturday sky today, that and while the socks are finished I need to get pictures of them on their recipient, who is very busy today, so I won't be able to get pictures until tomorrow.

so instead you get a picture of the perfect sky today and the Willow from next door.



Saturday Sky taken Saturday November 10, 2007 at 11:50am, out front of the Platypus Nest.

Friday cat blogging, or day two:

After I posted yesterday there was a bit of a ruckus when Cayenne got a little too excited near Esme, and somebody got a claw full of fur and somebody else had a small scratch by her right eye. (Don't worry, she's ok, no damage)

We decided to close the bedroom door last night so Esme had the living area and Cayenne was in with us, that way there could be no accidental bothering in the middle of the night.

Photo journal of Esme's first two days:

Napping in her safe spot:



We had to move her food up onto the table because Cayenne kept trying to eat it, we don't actually use that table for eating, and it's easy to clean if we need to:



After we moved Esme's food we were watching TV and we heard a loud "MEOW" from the bathroom, Esme had apparently wandered into the tub looking for water. We have one water dish down by Cayenne's food bowl, but apparently Esme was still a little too timid to go to it, so we put a small bowl of water up on the table next to her food, and everything was good. Or so we thought. Apparently Esme prefers human spit in her water, and insisted on trying to drink from my glass when Bill was doing his homework:



"This place is great they have 'Bird TV'!"



Watching birds is sleepy business:



After inspecting the Bedroom:



Even sleepy kitties read SIAM news!



"I can has box"



And one of Cayenne so she doesn't feel left out (She's been such a good girl, and we have been giving her so much love. She seems more jealous of us than of the cat, she really wishes she could be friends, but Esme isn't ready to cuddle just yet.)



One more for the road, I love her colouration:



tomorrow should be a return to normal knitblogging, including a pair of finished socks, stay tuned!