He's Lucky He's Cute.

The other day, after putting on my makeup, I walked into the other room to see this:





Thankfully, the yarn isn't any sort of super-special yarn. It's some sort of acrylic/fake-mohair/blend that I purchased on eBay years ago when I was buying tons of yarn on eBay. I should make something with it, someday, but I'm not 100% certain how many yards I have. I'd say, not enough for a full scarf, but too much for just a hat. Maybe I'll make a neckwarmer and see what's left.

The night before Luciano did this, he got at my wheel and pulled off the unspun fiber hanging off it, running around with blue wool sticking out of his mouth. He did that again this morning. So, the wheel has to be kept in a room with the door shut (which it is anyway, from the days when Ellie used to chew on the band).

Otherwise, he's still a good kitten. Sure, he does try to climb up on us to get certain foods (peanut butter is a favorite of his -- who would have thought that?). The abundance of cat toys in the house really helps us out there, plus Ellie is the ultimate kitten toy.

It's all worth it for shots like this:



Although I think I prefer his "gangstah" pose:



On to knitting -- I do still knit, you know. I finished one of my floral lace anklets:





The Regia Silk is awesome. Have I mentioned that before? It's so soft and luxurious feeling. I want to wear them all the time, yet I'm afraid of wearing them out quickly. That's the rub with socks, I guess. I wore out many pairs this past winter, and can't knit fast enough to make more.

I haven't worked on the Lacy Waves Top since I posted my frustration on the lace insert. I should go ahead and finish it, then see what it looks like post-blocking, but I'm afraid it may fall victim to being the wrong yarn for this project. Le sigh.

I also haven't worked on the Swallowtail Shawl for a while, mostly because of the attention span involved and because of working on lace with a kitten around may be too distracting. I can't work lace at a knitting group -- I just can't talk or listen while doing it without screwing up.

Much of it may be put on the wayside for the South End Knitters' latest group project -- the Annual Knit-a-Thon to benefit the Pine Street Inn! You can learn about the Pine Street Inn's mission here. My page is still a work-in-progress, and I have yet to cast on for my first square, but I set up a page here. I've never done any charity knitting (mostly because I'm not the Fastest Knitter in the West, or the East, or the Northeast even), so I'm a bit nervous about getting anything done. At least I have until November to do it, and it would make a great commuting knitting project. I've been collecting as many afghan square patterns as I can, and one of my friends has a pretty one on her blog. She makes gorgeous patterns as well; I see a different sweater or tanktop on her every time I see her.

I'll leave you now with Ellie's centerfold shot:

WWKIP!

Yesterday, was WWKIP (World Wide Knit in Public Day), and, for the first time, I took part in some group activities.

ZMrK and I got up really early to arrive in the South End by 9 a.m. See, I recently started meeting on Thursday nights with a group called the South End Knitters. They have been responsible for a few pieces of knitted graffiti around the South End. They were underway with a special tag to hang outside of the Animal Rescue League of Boston. I didn't contribute to the tag, but I was happy to help (and offer Mike's -- hey, let's get rid of this ZMrK stuff, he blogs as Mike and that's his name! -- height to the cause).



(That's Tara, not me! Although my hair has been that color before, you weren't fooled, were you?)



There I am! Concentrating!



Looking a little worried here -- I was working along for a while, sewing away, and then it was pointed out that the sides weren't properly lined up and it was going on crooked. I noticed that it was more of less happening since I took over the sewing. Oops! How embarrassing! It was a really fixable error, though, so it wasn't the end of the world.



I love these black cats (of course!!!). It's a free chart on Ravelry, and I'm hoping to use it for just about everything.



Beth and Amy help me get things straightened out.



Group shot with the finished product!

We also gave them a group donation of over $250. The ARL has an anonymous donor who will match any donation over $250, so that's great news since they are a privately funded organization.

Afterwards, a bunch of us went to Copley Square to participate in WWKIP Day. I saw a few familar faces there, and sat and knit for a while:



Around noon, I was getting hungry and antsy, so Mike and I went to get lunch and ice cream, and got home around 3 p.m. It was a good day.

Now, for an abrupt change of topic, here are some kitty pictures.













Yup, they're getting along.

I don't know what it is about the ribbon on the end of our backscratcher, but it has made almost every cat we have had go insane:







After all that hard playing (all of the above pictures were taken within the same 60 minutes), both cats had a nap attack:





Funny how that works!

Sick Day

Well, I'm home sick today, but am getting better. We went hiking over the weekend, and something in the woods had a strong, herby smell that made me start sneezing quite a bit after a little while. I was sneezing on Monday, and snuffling, but thought it was just allergies. On Tuesday, I left work around noon because I was also feeling weak and achy. I came home and relaxed, watched a couple of movies (Lust for a Vampire and Witchfinder General, if you must know) and fell asleep. ZMrK was able to capture the moment:



Yes, that is both cats sleeping with me! They're getting along well. They don't cuddle, but they do rassle a whole lot.





They both slept in with me this morning as well, until Luciano decided it was playtime. Everything is a toy to him, you know.





Then he passes out.





Ellie joins in the playing as well:



I'd love to say she has lost weight, but she hasn't, yet. It's difficult to feed her the restricted diet food she is supposed to have, and feed him the high-fat, high-protein kitten food he is supposed to have, and not have them eat each other's food. I try to remember to pick the food up when I leave for work in the morning, so she doesn't graze all day, but that doesn't always happen. She is running around and moving a bit more lately, which is good. I wish we had some stairs. That would probably help her a bit.

I have been knitting, though not as much lately. Or maybe it's just that I'm knitting more slowly.



I'm still working on the Lacy Waves Top. I finished the front and back. I had a little breakdown a couple of weeks ago when I screwed up the front, which resulted in it being thrown across the room and then frogged part of the way, but I recovered from it. I'm working on the insert panel, and started it for the third time yesterday.



Um, hello? Either it's a good argument for using the recommended yarn, it will all work out through the magic of blocking, or I am one crappy knitter, because I think it looks like a mess of tangles. I really hope I can work this one out.

I'm doing much better with the Floral Lace Anklets from the same book:



Granted, those were started and frogged, due to the fact that I was following the wrong chart for a while, but now it's coming along nicely. I am using the recommended yarn (Regia Silk) and I really love working with it. I may use the Regia Silk I have in red to make the Long Long Lacy Gloves from the same book (hm, Lace Style is getting some mileage from me).

I've been trying to get some spinning done lately:



This is from 4 oz of Colonial from CJ Kopec Creations. I received it in a secret pal swap package on the Knittyboard from my fabulous partner Maiziemama, a couple of summers ago. I have a few blends from CJ Kopec, and they're all gorgeous.



I love the colors on this. I'm tempted to not ply it, but don't trust my spinning enough for my singles to work out. I have no clue what the yardage would be, but with plying, it should be around a fingering weight. There wouldn't be enough for socks, so it would need to be a nice little pretty like a neckerchief or a pair of pretty mitts.

This is what it looked like, pre-spinning:



Here's another spinning project I've been working on:



It's roughly 145 yards, pure merino (allegedly) with about 3/4 of a bobbin left to spin. I'll probably Andean ply the rest. The end result is nice and soft, and I think it will be nice knitted up (I'm thinking about the neckwarmer in the latest issue of SpinOff). I haven't been thrilled to spin in though. Merino is still a little too soft and slippery for my inexperienced spinning mitts, and the preparation on this fiber sucked.



From the outside of the bag, it looked blended, but inside the bag there were clumps of each color just sitting in there. I used the handcarders I bought at the last Rhinebeck to blend some of it, and did one bobbin blended by me, and one bobbin of the pre-blended. For this final bobbin I said "fuck it" and just spun what was left.

I definitely prefer to spin coarser fibers. That Colonial I showed above was a dream to spin. Falklands, BFL, Corriedale -- that is all great stuff to spin. Merino is very soft and slippery, and give me superwash or something with tencel and you may as well put the razor to my wrist. My only success with alpaca has been on a spindle, spun super fine, so I won't curse it yet. I'm sure I'll get better, with experience. Sometimes I see people who have only been spinning a short time and are producing lovely yarns, and I want to wave my fist in the air at them. Of course, they spin more often than I do, and everyone has a different learning curve.

I have a few new purchases too.



I had a $100 gift certificate to Newbury Yarns, thanks to the attorneys I support, so I used it to purchase some Manos Silk Blend and still have some $$ left over! No, I'm not taking it out of the ziploc bag until I'm ready to use or pat it. It was tough to get the 6 skiens of a brick color and 1 skien of black in there. There was an adorable fitted t-shirt in the spring Interweave Knits made from this yarn, and I want to make it with some slight mods to the flowers on the top (I don't want flowers, I want cat heads). This should do the trick.



This blurry photo is of 200 yards of sportweight cashmere I purchased at the NH Sheep and Wool for about $13. I figured I'd give it a try at that price.



I figured I would finally purchase some sock yarn from Dorchester Farms! The guy is at every sheep and wool fest I've ever been to, and his stuff comes highly recommended. It's also inexpensive and he had Mardi Gras colored sock yarn. I couldn't go wrong!

I realized that I never did a blog post for the New Hampshire Sheep and Wool Fest. Oh, hai, blogger fail. Well, it was a gorgeous day, there was sheep, there was wool, there was a cute widdle 10 day old goat, and I stuck my photos in the "Sheep and Wool Fests 2009" set on Flickr. I don't think there's much more to say.

There is a saying.

That saying is, "You find true love when you are not looking for it."

That saying is quite true. That is what happened with ZMrK and I.

It happened to both of us last weekend. We were not looking for another cat, and we absolutely were not looking for a kitten. Then we met this little booger who was for adoption at our vet's office.







(Gratuitous "cats n rack" shot there.)

Luciano is about 3 months old, and is as devilish as he is cute.







We realize that he looks like a mini Ken, and I realize he looks like a mini George (another former cat of mine) as well. Most black domestic shorthairs have this look.

He hasn't quite grown into his legs, which are like that of a Great Dane puppy.

He sure knows how to stretch though:



Ellie is slowly warming to his charms, but for now looks perpetually annoyed.



They have at least both been sleeping on the bed with us the past two nights. Luciano seems to be a pillow cat -- he likes to sleep next to our heads. That works for now, while he weighs about 3-5 pounds, but within a few months he is probably going to more than double his weight. It will be very interesting to see how that happens, huh?

He had a buddy at the vet's office in Atari, the office cat. Atari is a big love, and he and Luciano had some wrestling matches:



There are also some kittens a month younger than Luciano for adoption, but he was a little too much for them to play with.



The good news is that Ellie does like to play rough; she and Ken did it constantly, with her usually being the instigator. I think she'll be happy (and maybe lose a little bit of excess weight) once she realizes that Luciano is game for it. I can't wait to see the forced grooming!

So, welcome Luciano to our family!!!

Sheep! Wool! Yarn! Sun!

A couple of weeks ago, we went to the CT Sheep and Wool, and boy, was it a glorious day! It was that rare April weekend where it's in the EIGHTIES and sunny. It was just lovely.

There were, of course, freaked out sheep:



Annoyed llamas:



Bunnies that were oblivious to their own cuteness:



and, something that doesn't seem to be at every sheep and wool festival, ox cart rides:



ZMrK highly approves of these oxen.

I bought 8 oz. of spinning fiber for about $20:



I think it was from Hampden Hill Alpacas, but I'm too lazy to go check the label.

I also got some sock yarn:



I know the colorway is "Hunt for Red October", but have forgotten the vendor's name. I could walk ten steps to the yarn hutch and check it out, but the hutch is a little. . . less. . . orderly than it was two months ago when I organized it, if you know what I mean and I think you do.

I also bought four bars of soap from Sleepy Moon Soaps, who don't seem to have a working website at the moment, which is a shame. I got four bars of her soap last year and fell in LOVE with them. The bars are $6/each or four for $20, and they are HUMONGOUS. The scents are to die for as well. Last year's soaps lasted me 8-9 months, seriously! Apparently they are sold at some Whole Foods stores in New England, which is nice, as I may try to pick some more up for gifts.

We were with my friend Jean and her sister Susan, and we dropped Susan off at her house and met her dogs. ZMrK hit it off with Maggie:



Bailey is a little more shy, but just as beautiful.



We went on a nice long walk on a nature trail with Jean. I decided that, instead of recapping those on my blog, ZMrK and I would do a joint effort blog so I created one here. That way, I can keep my knitting and personal rants here, and post the pretty nature pictures there. Of course, we haven't done anything with that yet. :)

To cap off my weekend, I started our vegetable and herb garden:



Or should I say, tomato and basil garden, because that's all we have. We went with Roma tomatoes this year, and decided to get Thai basil along with sweet basil. I also have some Hungarian hot peppers sprouting indoors, but they won't be ready to go outside for a while. We made some kickass hot sauce with last year's Hungarian hots! I hope to get more this year.

I always was thrilled to be able to show off my knitting in the sunlight:



This is coming along; I knit a few more inches on it since I took that picture. I also finished the pair of 2x2 ribbed socks that I've been working on since March. I haven't taken a picture, yet, but I'm wearing them right now.

Ellie's been doing really well as an only cat. She gets excited when she sees another cat outside, and she's almost always looking out a window:



I do think her personality has "blossomed" toward us. Ken was her life and love before, now, it's us. She's getting her own routine going, and we're beginning to figure out which meow means what, depending on the situation. Have I ever mentioned that she's very vocal? She has hello meows, she has feed me meows, put me down meows, play with me meows, etc. She also has 5 a.m. meows, which aren't always appreciated. She's been cuddling on my chest when I read in bed at night, which is adorable. Don't get me wrong -- she had a personality before, and was quite lovable. She's just showcasing it more, or we're paying more attention. Either way, we're happy.

Next up should be the NH Sheep and Wool Festival. Let's hope for good weather!

This is weird

I found a new blog this week; one following the recent Ravelry drama. It seems to focus entirely on one group of individuals, however, and not Rav-wide drama. As far as I know, it was NOT started by someone from the Rubberneckers group.

WIP it!

I bet nobody in the history of knit blogging has used the title "WIP it!" while showing pics of their works-in-progress. Nope, nobody. Not even the Yarn Harlot.

Feel free to kick me for that one.

I've been working on a few projects lately. Let's check them out, oldest first:

Boring Socks.



I call them Boring Socks because that's what they are. Knit 2, purl 2 ribbing for the cuff, heel flap, heel shaping, gusset shaping, the k2p2 for the top of the foot and knit the bottom until you do the toe shaping. I started them when I needed a project to work on on the train or at a knitting group.

SweaterLacy Waves Top from Lace Style:



Um, do I remember the name of this? No, I don't. Okay, I just went and checked my Ravelry projects page and its the Lacy Waves Top by Norah Gaughan.

I took the above photo on March 21, and the next day I went to my lovely Sunday knitting group and got a bit more progress done on it:



It's grown!!

It's about as exciting a knit at this point as the Boring Socks are, but I can knit it while watching TV, which is more than I can say for that Swallowtail Shawl.

Speaking of the Swallowtail Shawl. . . I ended up frogging it. Again. I couldn't tink back one stinking row, so I frogged, and ended up having to sacrifice a couple of yards because it tangled so much. I started it again, and have a ridiculously early lifeline in. That'll teach me!

I also practiced some crochet:



I know it's not great but it's a start. I think I want to move on to some granny squares. I'd love to make a blanket with some of the scraps of yarn I have laying around.

Has Ellie lost weight?



I don't think she has, yet, but we are trying to get her to reduce a little bit. Speaking of that, I need to reduce a bit as well. The pants I wore today are a wee bit snug around my bottom. I'm now on my 2nd day of making sure I get some exercise -- yesterday was a 40 min. workout at the gym, following by a 20 min. walk home. Today was a 30 min. walk through the hilly part of town home. I've been trying to get my eating habits back to normal and not eat so many damn sweets. I haven't made a goal yet, because I don't know how much I weigh.

The next question is, should I publish my weight on my blog and continue to publish my progress? Will that give me some accountability, or just set me up for failure? I'll tell you my size, right now, is a 10 or a 12, depending on the store. My size, when I started this blog is 2005, was a 4. My size in late 2003, when I started weight watchers, was too big for a 14 in the "regular" stores and too small for a 14/16 in the "big girl" stores.

Where do I want to be? Not a 4 again. I was so neurotic about my food intake that I must have been lots of fun to be around. I certainly don't want to be bigger. I'd guess around a size 8 or so would suit me.

Now, I'm hungry.