Whiny-ness

So it's too dark after work to take pictures of knitting progress. Those will have to wait till tomorrow.

Instead, a whine.

Last week I spent 2 days sweating over the carpets with a rented steam-cleaner. Less than 3 hours after I was done, the cat had a fur-ball on my still damp carpet. 2 days later, the hubby made an injudicious move and spilled my glass of champagne on the carpet. At least it was white wine, I guess.

2 days after that Raven managed to knock over a full, 16 ounce glass of lemonade onto my rug.

Is it any wonder the rugs needed shampooing? And that totally icky amounts of gross water were extracted from said carpets?

Sometimes I wonder why I even bother.

Ciao

I Give Up

So, I decided that I would make Wisp. After all, it is basically a scarf, right? So gauge won't matter, right? So I can skip the whole swatch etc step, right?

One problem. I'm not loving the yarn anymore. Yup, after all that, no more love.

So I thought to myself, I have some lovely Hand Maiden Rumple. I could make a nice scarf of it!

I pulled it out, put it on my swift and found this:

That's right. A big tangle. 300 metres worth of tangle to be exact. I spent some time and finally tamed it into this:
I think I'm going to make the Falling Water Lace scarf. Unless someone else has an idea about what to do with 300 metres of luscious silk?

I'm off to pet my yarn for a bit.

Ciao

Aaargh!

I decided to swatch for the Lacy Wrap Top from Fitted Knits.

But the gauge is off! Waaaah! I got 12 st/4 inch instead of 10! That is with size 11 needles. I don't really want to use larger ones. Back to the drawing board. What to use this yarn for? Hmmmm.....

Ciao

Hard at Work

Supposedly this week I am on vacation. Riiiight. I had to take Raven for an minor injury to the vet. It appears idjit sprained his hip doing something dumb. Which I totally believe. He jumps up on things without making sure there is a landing spot. He runs into the kitchen at such a speed that he loses traction and can't make the corner. Thus skidding on his side across the floor.

I just spent the last 2 days steam cleaning my carpet. There was a deal where you get 2 days for the price of one, if you rent on a monday. So that's what I did. This way I moved all the furniture over to one side of the room, cleaned it, waited for it to dry and then shoved all the furniture to the other side and cleaned that. Now I am exhausted.

I did not feel up to a lace pattern or anything dimly complicated. So, I swatched for my tilted duster. Unfortunately, the yarn I was thinking of using is too thin. It made a very lightweight, fuzzy swatch.

That is a picture of the swatch on my newly cleaned rug. I don't know how to photograph for substantialness (or lack thereof) so you will have to take me at my word. Not the right yarn for the job. Maybe for this. (Lacy Wraparound from Fitted Knits). Yes, I probably should have known that the yarn wasn't right. My only defense is that I was exhausted from wrestling the steamer around.

I finished cleaning the rug around 3:30 today. By 6pm, Pagan had already horked up a furball on my rug. Sigh. Sometimes I wonder why I bother.

Ciao

As the Heel Turns

I turned the heel on my sock! Now it's a straight shot up the leg.

However, today is not scheduled for more knitting.

(although some unscheduled knitting may well occur). Today it's "steam clean the rug day" Yay! Hmmm. Maybe not so much yay as,"what a lot of work, but the rugs sure do need it". At any rate, that's the official plan today.

Raven has other plans.

Now With Pictures!

It has been brought to my attention that some of you lacked the mental wherewithal or energy to do the "imaginary bag picture" I suggested yesterday. Therefore, I have taken a couple of crappy pictures. It is still daylight out, but the clouds are so thick, that the term daylight is being used very loosely. At any rate, here is the latest Everlasting Bagstopper from Knitty:

With flash. AND velcro kitty, otherwise known as Raven.

Without flash, but also with velcro kitty:
It almost looks like 2 balls of different variegated yarn. It's not, one is variegated and the other is solid yellow. The pooling that is happening is rather neat, I think. Didn't do it on purpose, but if a non-knitter asks me, then, yes, it is on purpose. You'll keep my secret, right?

Still Refereeing

Yup, around here, running interference between the kitties is a full time job. Hubby does it during the day, I do early morning and evening and hubby does deep night and well-before-crack-of-dawn.

That does mean knitting is curtailed. I have managed to get my second Campanula sock up to the point where I need to turn the heel. However, heel turning requires a block of uninterrupted time, otherwise I screw it up. So it shall be ignored until the weekend. I have been working on another Everlasting Bagstopper. But it is too dark to take decent photos, so you will have to imagine with me....a ball of yellow cotton and a ball of blue/green/white cotton. Knit 2 rows in each colour. Remember to twist the yarns at the beginning of each round to catch the float. Now superimpose that on the other pictures of the Bagstopper I have put up and you can see my creation.

Wasn't that fun?

Not nearly as much fun as trying to keep Raven from drinking my lemonade or my Tang or eating my danish! And this is the cat that turned his nose up at canned cat food and potato chips.

Weird....

Ciao

Aswatch!

Ha! Jenla is having a contest.

And the new addition to our household decided we should have an entry.

It seems Raven thought mine needed a kitty massage!

Now, With More Cat!

Finally got a couple of halfway decent pictures of Raven.

He seems to be settling in nicely. Pagan (the domninant kitty) still hates him, but Micha doesn't seem to care too much anymore. So long as he leaves her alone.

However, Raven is now comfortable enough to want to play. Which the other kitties are not interested in. This morning he tried to abscond and "kill" my bra! Argh.

And it appears that on the knitting front, Raven has expensive tastes. The cotton yarn is not nearly as interesting as my Apple Laine! Double argh.

In the working world, today was piss off little old ladies day. I had another one mad at me because of the government plan! I get why they are pissed off, but don't take it out on me. I didn't vote for the bastards! In fact, I voted against them in the last 5 elections. Possibly more than that, but I can't remember that far back. All politicians tend to meld together in my memory. I have no idea why....

I'm off to play "catch the pencil" with Raven. Get your mind out of the gutter. Yes, you. You know who you are!

Ciao

What Else is Going On?

Here at Chez Knot, it hasn't been all kitty, all the time. Even if my posts make it seem that way! I have snuck in a row of knitting here and a row there. That can add up.

To not quite 3 repeats out of a 3.5 repeat foot on a Campanula sock! Soon, I will be at the heel turn point. That always feels like the halfway point. Even if it's not.

As for the kitties, things seem to have calmed down considerably. We decided to call the new addition Raven. He doesn't know that name either. The training commences. Riiiiiiiiiight.....

Ciao

Kitty Newsfeed

Dude is sttling in. The other 2 girls are getting used to him. They don't like him, but they are willing to ignore him, so long as he doesn't intrude on their space.

He definitely was someones's spoiled pet. The first indication was that he wouldn't eat the canned food I put down for him. He didn't come running at the sound of a can opener. which I though was weird. Turned his nose up at it. That was chicken flavoured stuff. I had a tin of salmon flavoured food that wasn't pate but was sort of slivered meat, and he did eat about half a can of that. One piece at a time.

This morning he turned his nose up at the rest of the salmon stuff. So when I went out I got him som normal dry kibble. I picked up a cheap brand figuring that his previous owners couldn't afford to fix him, so they wouldn't have been buying expensive food. Appears to have been a reasonable surmise. Dude ate the cheap stuff....

Last night there was some more proof that he was a pet....he hopped up on the couch beside me, flopped over and did this:

A few minutes later he was asleep:

Yup, still on his back. Definitely not a feral beastie!

Those pics don't really do him justice as they were done with a flash last night. So his colour comes out weird. Here's another in the chair that he seems to have claimed as his. And since the other kitties didn't really use that chair, that is a good thing!

The picture is a bit dark, but that's the colour of the kitty! Dark. Maybe if the sun ever comes out again I will get a better shot. At least you can see the white locket on his chest.

Dude doesn't seem to think knitting needles are toys. (yet) However, the yarn is definitely fair game in his opinion. I put it down for a minute and he started trying to eat it. Sigh....

Ciao

C

New Member

My knitting time will be further curtailed, it appears. We acquired a new furry member of the family today! He is a humane society rescue named Rocket. Although, since he doesn't seem to respond to that name, we are going to rename the fellow. Front runner appears to be "Dude"!

He is a bit hard to photograph, given his colouring, but here he is!

Better pictures to come, I promise. At the moment we are supervising the integration of Dude with the other 2 kitties we have. There is a fair bit of growling and hissing going on, but no outright fights. Dude does not appear to be interested in any kind of fighting, so hopefully this will continue and they will all adjust and get along.

I have no idea how Dude will react to knitting. He does not appear to be feral as he jumps up on laps and demands head rubbings. But he isn't fixed (don't worry, he will be!) Who would have a male kitty in their house, unfixed for any length of time? Seems strange to me. At any rate, clearly he is accustomed to humans. I just don't know if "knitting humans" is in his continuum of familiar things. I suspect not.

More on that later, once I have had a chance to test it out

Ciao

I Planned on Irritating Old Men Today

I keep having to go to work. That means the knitting gets seriously curtailed. Which bites severely.

Today, I had 2 different cranky old men claim I was trying to rip them off.

Both were on the provincial drug plan.

The first one didn't understand that the first time you get a medication, the govt only pays for a 30 day supply. That way if you have a reaction or something, the other 70 days doesn't get thrown out. He kept asking for proof that this was a government policy and not a store policy. Naturally the government website does not come in a user friendly format, so finding the info was a major pain.
If I could have just thrown the pills at him and told him to get out of my face, I would have.

The second one didn't (want to) understand that he had to pay the $100 annual deductible. He kept saying he already paid it at another store. Which he hadn't, since the info is kept in the central government database that then shoots a message back at us when we bill online. That was just what he was trying to use as an excuse.

That's right folks. Today, when my alarm went off, I thought to myself,"What can I do to piss off my customers today? I know, I'll lie about the government drugplan to all the senior citizens."

Right.

What a day. Where's my daquiri?

Ciao

I HAD to Share!

If you hate lolcats, do not go to this site! On pain of laughing yourself silly, do NOT click on this link!

Knitting Makes Me Sore

I just spent most of my afternoon making this:

What I didn't realize is that hours have passed! I realized this because my back started to ache a bit. Which is hardly surprising, as I hadn't changed position for the whole time I was working on this!

I'm finding that knitting up the second sock is not quite as hard as I had envisioned it to be. Not sure why I figured it would be troublesome, but there it is. The reason why I kept putting it off. Which I now realize was silly. Although I did have to refresh my memory as to what a sk2p was....Which I wouldn't have had to do if I had just cast on the second sock right after I finished the first one!

And now, to pick up another wip that hasn't gotten much attention...more tomorrow..

ciao

My Sister Luuuuvs Me!

My sister came up to celebrate Thanksgiving. She brought me orange Fanta! This is something I can't find in North America. Whenever I go to Italy, that is one of my preferred drinks. That and Lemon Soda. Which you also can't find here.

My sister found me some in the big city! The flavour is still a bit sweeter than the Italian one. But that's hardly surprising.

Since it is Polish Fanta! Who'd a thunk?

Heee! I'm off to drink my world-travelling Fanta

Ciao

5 For 5

Today is October 5th. today is my 5th post for October. woo hoo! I'm on a roll. Speaking of rolls....

This is the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend. Where we all eat too much turkey and drink too many recreational beverages. The turkey makes us feel like this:

Sleepy. Soooooo sleepy....

And the wine? Makes us do this: Dance, baby! Dance!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Yup, Another Post!

I am on a blogging roll this week! Woo hoo!

Due to the lost pattern fiasco, I had to cast on for something else. Perhaps this was nature's way of reminding me that I still only had 1 Campanula sock. So, I bit the bullet and cast on for the second sock.

Yup. Congratulations, it's a toe! Actually a toe and a set up row for the lace. Plus dental floss lifeline. Because I might screw up. It's been known to happen. Hey! You, over in the cheap seats, can it! Your sarcasm is not appreciated. Seriously, if I put the lifeline in, usually, I'm okay. If I don't, then I get into trouble. A variation on Murphy's Law, I guess.

What to Do?

So, I decided that I would knit the Fiber Trends felted clog pattern up with my new Harmony needles. Only 1 problem. I can't figure out what I did with the pattern. Unfortunately, I went on a big cleaning binge last week and now I can't find the pattern. I have a feeling it got thrown out with all the assorted paper detritus that built up on my table. That, or miss-filed. either way, I can't find it! I will have to re-buy it. At which point I will find the first one. You know how that works...

But I still had to do something with my new needles. So, I decided on a Baby Genius burp cloth from Mason dixon Knitting. Got this far:

Before I realized that I had only 1 ball of this colour in the Sugar & Cream....sigh. If I had planned ahead just a little bit, I could have done it as a stripe and alternate with another colour to stretch it out. So I frogged it. But I did get to use the new needles! Which was the point, right? They are lovely to work with. Nice and smooth. I love the colours. Yup, I'm smitten.

Ciao

Quest For Dinner

It seems that I would have made a bad hunter-gatherer-cavewoman. Yesterday I went out to get some ground sirloin to make meatloaf. they didn't have it at the first grocery store, so I figured I could pick it up at the second one. I have to got to 2 different store as a normal thing since I am picky about what brands of certain things I buy. So I figured it would be no big deal. It hasn't been in the past.

I got to the second store. No ground sirloin. Fine, I'll make ricotta & spinach stuffed manicotti for dinner. Nope, no spinach here, folks. Damn.

Go off to store number 3. No luck there either. They did have the good chicken, so then I thought I would make fajitas for dinner. The only fajita shells they had were cheese flavoured ones. Double damn.

At this point I wasn't far from the butcher shop I frequent, so I thought I would go there and see if they have the ground sirloin. Completely forgot it was monday and they are closed mondays....

I gave up, we could have grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner. I had cheese and bread at home.

Get home, dinner time rolls around. We don't really want grilled cheeses sandwiches. Nor pizza. So hubby and I decided to order in chinese. The usual place is closed mondays. Which we forgot till we called. Sigh. Ordered, finally, from the other place. It was good. Thank heavens. I don't know what I would have done if the food was icky after all that running around!

To summarize, I can hunt, but the gathering? Not so much.....

It's Better Now

I have another fo! Yup. I, the finishing machine, have completed another knit objet d'arte. Ta Da!

It's another Everlasting Bagstopper from Knitty. I know, your eagle eyes already discerned that......

In other news, Canada Post appears to have gotten off it's collective ass and delivered my mail!Aren't they purty? Here, take a closer look,

Naturally after I got home, I opened up my email only to discover that Knitpicks shipped my replacement order today. Sigh. I shall have to return it. But YAY! I got my needles! What to knit? What am I going to knit????? I must knit something with these babies. But the official queue says my Campanula socks are next. The Harmony needles are too big for that. Waaahhhhh!

The irritating part is that this was one 4 parcels delivered today. Along with a mountain of other envelopes and such. Yet on Thursday and Friday I only got 1 or 2 pieces of junkmail, that I don't think the mailman delivers. Some guy that does flyers drops those off.....So I am forced to conclude that the posties only work when they feel like it and any mail that might show up at the end of the week, won't. Can you tell it's a union job?

I'm off to try to figure out what to cast on so I can play with my new needles.

Ciao