Basically The Worst Blog, Ever

So I'm going to start with normal blog stuff and if you want to stop reading then, you seriously won't hurt my feelings.

I've finished the fifth bobbin of the Fireworks spinning.  I've started the sixth and final bobbin of singles now!  I'm all about celebrating the tiny wins right now.

OK, if you're not up for heavy, depressing, horrible news, go on about your day now.

On Monday Max had an episode of heart failure and we had to make the decision to let him go.  He was 8-1/2 years old and we had no idea this was even an issue when we woke up that morning.  Cats mask their symptoms and he had given us no clue.  He lived every day at 100% and loved and played with every single part of himself.  When we named him Max (Maximus), we nailed his personality.  Obviously, our household was already grieving and the loss of our beautiful, sassy kitty has just gutted us.  Mentally, I'm curled up in the fetal position right now.  We all are.  Logan is giving hugs and cuddles, but he misses him too.

Max Took A Bath

 

Cats are such elegant creatures.

The shoulder/arm is better but I'm still trying to stay off of it as much as possible.  This stinks.  (I don't do rest very well.)

A Tale of A Narwhal

 

Once upon a time, PinkLemon made a narwhal.  She used a free pattern, available on Ravelry, and she crocheted it using 2017's Yarnathon 10K Club exclusive colorway which reminded her of cupcakes with pink icing and sprinkles.  She used a 3.5mm (US E) hook for those of you that are curious.  When she had completed the narwhal, she placed it next to Maximus to get pictures for the blog.  Maximius sat very still with narwhal.  For about one minute.  Then things got a little weird.

I hope you have a better weekend than the narwhal did!

It Is Finished!

 

This is what I've been working on all last week!  The Meditative Blanket is finished.  I began this April 26, 2015 and I finished it this past Saturday, March 17, 2018.

The finished size is 52.5" x 66".  There are 720 squares total (24 x 30).  It's all done in fingering weight with a 2.75mm hook for the squares and a 2.25mm hook for the borders.

If I were to do it again, I might use a 3.25mm hook for the squares, just to make the blanket a little less dense.  It weighs 1433g, which if you assume 400 yards/100g means 5,732 yards of fingering weight yarn were used.  That sounds high to me, but maybe not.

I think the important thing to remember is that after almost three years, Max has a new blanket.  He actually woke up from a nap to inspect it after its blocking while I was getting the blog photos!

Gray

 

I've made some progress on the lower body of my latest Ravello.  I've also double checked length measurements on previous Ravellos so I don't have to try it on later.  (You'd think after knitting it three times I would have already made notes on the pattern, but no, apparently not.) 

Also, Max felt very strongly that he should be part of today's blog post.  I have no idea why, but he insisted on "helping" with the photos.

It is Finished!

 

I've finished the Carson Throw!  Almost ten months of work, thousands of stitches, and it is finished.  It's around seven feet in diameter and it took over the entire floor of my sewing room for blocking.  I didn't stretch it at all; I just smoothed it out flat, sprayed it with water and let it dry.

It's already received Max's stamp of approval - he took a full bath on it and then settled in for a nap while I worked out this morning.  Of course he assisted with the actual knitting as well, climbing inside it, nesting under it, basically testing that it would be a good blanket when it was finished.  It's nice and warm and will be perfect for snuggling under on a cold day.

I will be back next week after Thanksgiving, after the turkey coma wears off, and the stretchy pants are again optional.  Have a great Thanksgiving if you're celebrating this week!

Helpful

I pulled the Carson Throw out last night so I could get some work done on it.  I haven't done much with it this month between finishing up Loopy Academy (extra credit is blocking!) and the Mad May/ESK Free For All KAL.  Now that those are off the needles, I can get back to Carson - or so I thought.

After about one round, someone discovered that the Carson makes it's own cave, and promptly climbed in to explore.  Then he fell asleep.  I just went with it.  Maybe I can get some work done on Carson during his big daytime nap today.  I'm obviously not going to get the remaining 25 rounds for this month completed by the end of the month, but I was planning on dragging my Carson out an extra month to get the Long Haul Boosterthon badge anyway, so I'm still on track for that.

Max

 

Yes, he's even ferocious in his sleep!

Fuzzy Stripes

 

My newest Mohair Bias Loop is progressing nicely.  I apologize about the picture, the sun doesn't come up before blogging around here right now.  Also, it's cold outside.  Not like New England cold, but North Texas cold, and I'm cold (which has nothing to do with the picture, but maybe my iPhone is also cold and tired).  Max is cold too and he's started something new to get warm.  When he climbs into bed (he sleeps under the covers with us), he rolls onto his side and puts all four of his cold, little feet against my belly.  Once they're warm, then he cuddles in normally and goes to sleep.  This is something he's started in the last week or so.  Hopefully when things start to warm up around here he'll stop using me as a toe warmer.  Maybe I should knit him some socks!

A Fun, Fast Project

Last Saturday, I got the book Love at First Stitch from Amazon.  Sunday, I traced the pattern for the Margot Pajama pants, and by Monday, I had a finished pair of pajama pants!  I had bought this fabric years ago, before Caleb was born and it had just sat in my stash.  I thought it was pretty and I loved the 3-D realism look to it, but to be honest, it’s just too busy for me to wear and I use red in small doses in the house, so it was too much for a quilt.  It sat in the stash, moved from house to house with us, but finally, when I saw these pajama pants, I knew this fabric had a purpose!

I slept in them Monday night and they’re cute and comfortable, but I will be making an adjustment later today.  You see, Maximus sleeps under the covers, usually beside my legs, but sometimes as low as my feet.  Sometime in the night between Monday and Tuesday, I was woken up when my pants got attacked.  I was asleep, so I’ll take Max’s word for it that the pants started it, but there was mayhem and craziness under the covers and I finally ended up stuffing the drawstring ribbons down the front of the pants.  I didn’t have time to deal with them yesterday, so I slept in some pajamas Max is more comfortable with (that he doesn’t attack in the middle of the night).  Today, I will be removing the drawstring ribbons, replacing them with elastic, and tacking a tiny bow over the buttonholes I made for the ribbons.  I’m also going to be checking my fabric stash for anything else that might need to be pajama bottoms!

As to the book, it’s geared for beginners, and while I’m more of an intermediate sewist (I hate the word sewer, that’s where toilets go, not a person who sews), at least when it comes to garments, there are still things that I need to work on.  The book is wonderful, walking you through one (super cute) project at a time, building your skills as you go with great tutorials and lots of photos.  Here is a link to all the patterns in the book.  You’ll definitely be seeing more projects from this book!

More Crochet, Now Even Wider!

 

The last time you saw my crochet blanket spread out like this, it was only five squares wide.  Now it is seven squares wide!

In other words, it’s wide enough for Max to snuggle under and take a nap.  It’s not finished yet, but it’s already serving a greater purpose in the world - keeping the kitty warm.

Something New

 

In May, when I finished my Loopy Academy extra credit project (Ondine), I knew I wanted to use those colors again.  Together.  In stripes.  In fact, when I ordered more of the Natural to finish the crochet edging, I also got more of the English Rose.  I got enough of both colors to do a pullover.

This past weekend, when I finished sewing up my Alpengluehen, I started on a Seashore pullover using Malabrigo’s Mechita in Natural and English Rose.  (Yes, that is the same designer of the Alpengluehen and also Ravello.)  I’m using the same striping sequence I used on my Tea With Jam and Bread.  That is: 1 round pink, 9 rounds white, 2 rounds pink, 8 rounds white, 3 rounds pink, 7 rounds white and so on until I get to 9 rounds pink, 1 round white and then the rest of the sweater is pink.  I’ve got two balls of the English Rose and being hand dyed, there are differences, so I’m alternating them for each stripe.  If I’ll be knitting an odd number of rounds for the stripe, I knit from Ball One.  If I’ll be knitting an even number of rounds for the stripe, I knit from Ball Two.  I have the balls in marked ziploc bags to keep them straight.  After the striping sequence is finished, I’ll alternate the balls every other round.

Yesterday afternoon I got to the point where the sleeve stitches are divided from the body stitches, so the rounds are faster now.  Also, I’m really amused at watching the colors in the pink stripes, which makes the knitting seem to fly.

How is Max dealing with all this striping excitement?  With his usual style of course.

Crochet Kitty

Yesterday afternoon I sat down to crochet a couple more squares onto my blanket, but before I could get the first one finished, this happened.

Then he fell asleep.  Obviously, the Crochet had to wait.  Max needed cuddles!

Some Knitting and a Birthday!

 

I’m working on my third color in Carrie.  I’m really happy with how this is looking so far.  It’s a nice, easy knit that doesn’t require a lot of concentration.

In other news, today is Max’s 4th birthday!  He doesn’t spend anywhere near as much time here on the blog as Ramius did and I’ve realized that it’s because he’s almost impossible to photograph.  When Max is awake, he’s doing things.  Busy things.  Cat things.  In the last 15 seconds, he’s raced out from under the sofa to slap at Logan, looked at the level in his food bowl, tried to get into the dishwasher, inspected several things, thought about climbing behind the refrigerator (he won’t actually fit - for a reason), and is now attempting to get into Mickael’s coffee.  This is pretty much how he always is if he’s awake - zoom, zoom, zoom!  He never walks anywhere if he can gallop.  Photographing a moving object isn’t very easy.  He does stop moving when he goes to sleep, but Max doesn’t sleep the same way Ramius did either.  Ramius would sleep in sunshine, or on beds, places I could drape knits on top of him and snap a photo.  Max sleeps under the covers on our bed or under a sofa upstairs.  He will only sleep in his bed (or Logan’s bed - it’s barely big enough for his personality) if someone else is in the room.  I think this is partly due to his eyesight.  We don’t know for sure what’s going on, his eyes themselves are healthy, but if Max was a person, he’d wear glasses, and he might also have depth perception issues as well.  It’s not really a big deal in the day to day, but we’ve learned not to move the furniture around, particularly things he likes to jump off of.  He’s a very fun little cat, but completely different from his predecessor who practically owned the blog.  Maybe Max will slow down a bit as he gets older, but I don’t know.  My phone has taken hundreds of pictures of a pale gray blur.  Happy Birthday little blur!

Row Five

 

Another row is finished on the blanket.  It’s definitely wider now and Max can get mostly underneath it as long as he curls up tightly and doesn’t move.  I’m weaving in the ends on this row now, before I start the next.

I know that you can weave in ends in crochet as you go (by crocheting the tails into the next round or row), but this pattern doesn’t seem to give me a chance to get them woven in really well.  At least I don’t feel like I can get them secured.  That could also be because I caught Max trying to disembowel the blanket-in-progress, so I feel like things should be tucked in really well.  I did crochet the ends in as I went on Caleb’s blanket and it worked well, but he uses it as a blanket, not as prey.

The Third Row

 

I’ve completed the third row of my blanket!  I obviously haven’t woven in the ends yet.  (I’ll get those all woven in before I start the fourth row.)  Also Logan wanted to have his leg in the photo, so you get to see a furry doggy leg complete with his fuzzy muppet foot.

The funny thing about this row is that Maximus has figured out at this point that it’s going to be a blanket.  Now that he knows this, he wants to sit under it while I crochet.  Unfortunately, it’s still a little narrow, so just as soon as he climbs under, he pops out the other side.  He can’t figure out how to stay under the blanket, but being a cat, he’s determined to get it to work.  I think once I get the fourth and fifth rows on, it will work much better for him.

Fridays Make Max Happy!

 

Smiley kitty!

Alys

 

I got back to work on Alys last night and have gotten a couple of inches past the underarm area.  Despite the fine yarn and the small gauge, this really does move along pretty well.  It’s not as fast as a worsted weight cardigan, but I don’t expect it to be.

I've started alternating rows with the second skein.  I’m nearing the end of the first skein so I knew it was time to start working in the next one.  This has slowed me down a tiny bit, but at this point I’ve alternated skeins enough that it doesn’t take too much extra time.  I’m changing skeins at one of the underarms, on every right side row.

In other news, Maximus has found himself a new hobby - knocking over trash cans.  Between this and his lightly striped tail, I’m starting to wonder if he has raccoon DNA in there somewhere.  He is seriously a very strange cat.

Something New

 

I’ve started a new cardigan, and instead of the light, fingering weight cardigan I was going to knit, I’ve started a heavier, worsted weight one instead.  I can knit the fingering weight one later.  This is the Romy cardigan and this will be the first time I’ve knit contiguous sleeves.  I think it’s basically a way to knit from the top down and you start the fronts back and sleeves all in a single piece (kind of like a raglan, top down cardigan), but instead of raglan sleeves, you knit set in sleeves instead.  I think.  I’ll let you know when I get farther along.  I’ve just barely started the sleeves.

I’m working this in some Peace Fleece worsted that I used in a previous sweater that I frogged because it was way too big and unflattering.  I can’t remember the name of the color, but it might have been violet something.  I haven’t picked out buttons yet, but just eyeballing the size of the buttonholes, I think I’ve got several options upstairs in the button stash.

On a non sweater related topic, yesterday I looked at the Christmas tree and saw this:

I’m still getting lights on it, so I haven’t started with ornaments yet, but when I last left it, the tree skirt was laying smooth and flat.  Someone decided to make a nest under it and take a nap.  Of course he got goosed by a cold Golden Retriever nose, but he still hung out under the tree skirt for a good part of yesterday afternoon.  Silly cat!

Progress

It’s been hard to get anything done the last few days because every time I sit down, I get Max in my lap, cuddled up and snuggly.  I know he’s cold, but I am loving the kitty snuggles.  It does make knitting difficult though because he’s not a fan of me knitting while he’s in my lap.  Also, once he’s in my lap, I can’t get up and get my knitting, or iPad, or stitch markers, or all the other little things I need to knit.

I have been able to get some work done on my second mitt though.  I’ve got the thumb gusset stitches on waste yarn and I have a row of waste yarn (just under the needles, you can barely see it in the photo) marking where I’ll pick up stitches for the mitten flap.  I might start the mitten flap a little lower than the waste yarn, but this way I have a line I can use so it will be straight.  I have waste yarn on the first mitt in the same row, so I’ll be able to make them match.

At this point, I’m only a round or two away from starting the fingers.  They are pretty fast to work, but they’re fiddly.  Hopefully, Captain Cuddles will let me get them finished over the weekend.

I hope you all have a great weekend, filled with kitty or doggy cuddles of your own!