Knits With Cats
I'm a senior technical project manager at work, a knit project starter at home and a list-maker everywhere! I'm married and have too many cats, lots of books, almost enough rose bushes, and way too much yarn!
Green Theme
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Green-Tea Cupcake
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This continues the green theme that's developed completely by accident this week, and because I've got nothing else except a whine because it's too hot to think here. It's almost 9 pm and it's still 86* outside - normally by this time it would be in the 60s - and 80* in the house (which actually feels cool; that's rather frightening!) It was 100 on the patio at 5 pm today. The weather guessers say tomorrow should be in the 80s and it should be seasonal Saturday. Hallelujah!
There are more finished objects to show. Maybe tomorrow...
Random Greenery
Jade Queen Sunflower (more chartreuse than jade; perhaps that will change as it opens)
Limelight Artemesia
Limelight Nicotiana (and a frog prince)
Lime Licorice Plant
Green section of the Roy G. Biv garden, a work in progress.
Knitted FO Alert!
For the gift box:
Hat and scarf set knitted from stash and leftover yarn. The breen (between brown and olive green) is a mohair blend bought in 1993 or so from I-don't-remember-where. There were 2 skeins, and I used every last inch of it.
The lilac and blue are Wendy Peter Pan Velvet Touch; lilac is left over from a chemo hat I knit in 2000 for a co-worker, the blue was going to be a chemo cap for another co-worker who luckily didn't need it. This makes the softest chemo caps (I'm told); I know I want a sweater of it, but it's so light and soft I might never take it off!
The pattern for the hat is Janet Szabo's Chemo Toque, free from Patternworks with the purchase of Berocco Chinchilla in 2000. I've made a couple of modifications for gauge. Scarf is a basic girl-scout scarf pattern found by browsing.
Here's close-up (fuzzy, my apologies) of the yarn, lest you wonder why I added blue and lilac!
Must Have Cardi Revisited
This is the beginning of the new, improved Must Have Cardigan. I love the flecks of color, especially in natural light. There are bits of red, purple, blue, lilac, orange and perhaps other colors. It's a bit scratchy, but should soften when washed, and if it doesn't, I'm not planning to wear it next to my skin.
And did I mention that I've had a skirt for a couple of years that is exactly the darker shade of green? I couldn't have done that if I'd tried!
Now I must chart the pattern or find charts already done. I am so not going to knit from the written directions. (Don't laugh at me. It's not that long since I complained on KnitU that some of us just can't follow charts, and it's not fair that we had to convert charts to words.)
Arbor (Satur) Day (photo alert! new camera works!)
All summer - since April, in fact, I've been working on an arbor for the entrance to the patio. When we moved here, I planted a Climbing Joseph's Coat rose and didn't realize how much it really likes to climb.
(Now that I think about it, I believe there may have been a rickety lattice trellis and gate thing there before. If so, it was low enough that even I felt close to the roof, and at 5'3" that doesn't happen often!)
Anyway, as weather permitted, I've painted the pieces (primed and 2 coats of paint), built and measured. The weather and life have conspired to make it take this long. First if was too cold to paint until afternoon, but the gardeners and their "mow and blow" stuff would come in the afternoon - it only took one time of getting stuff blown into fresh paint to learn that lesson. I ran out of paint at inopportune times. The wind blew when the temperature was right - all reasons that painting took a long time.
A couple of weeks I was ready to put the thing together and realized that I needed some additional muscle. Saturday evening Ken and I worked together, built the last sections, and put it up. He even found a hole in the brick that probably held the old, trellis to the house, so we were able to secure the arbor rather permanently to the house.
The rose and hibiscus look terrible at the moment. I had to severely prune the rose; it was climbing through the little trellis and covering the hibiscus (which has never looked like much, but does have pretty blooms - apparently it was damaged by frost before we moved in, and was thought to be dead) weighing it down. I've fertilized and watered, and will put down new mulch next weekend. By then the rose will have new leaves, I'm sure.
There's a bonus too! Because this is an old house there have been many additions and changes over the years. There are two cable conduits to the shop from the house which carry electrical, telephone and computer lines. They are overhead at the entrance to the patio - the new arbor (and the rose, once it gets growing) will hide them!
RIP Must Have Cardigan
Remember this?
It's the beginnings of the Must Have Cardigan. I love the pattern, and love the color of the yarn. Together? Not so much. It's been frogged, and I'm swatching with some lovely green tweed Irish wool, bought on eBay years ago. It's a heavier weight yarn, and needs much larger needles. That's a good thing, because I have less of it and no way to get any more.
The replacement camera just arrived, so there should be photos tomorrow!
TGIF
It's been one of those weeks: long, frustrating for no apparent reason, and just meh.
On the plus side, I did find a new doctor whose philosophies agree with mine. The weather has been lovely all week. Fifty-two of the 62 roses in the front yard have been heavily trimmed and fertilized, so beautiful blooms should burst forth in the next couple of weeks.
On the minus side, the replacement camera has not arrived, so no photos today. (The old camera is playing with me again.) The weather is predicted to start warming over the weekend, and to continue that trend until Thursday or Friday - getting near 100* again.
Tomorrow is Saturday. SuperSlow weight training at 9, then a visit to OSH for new perennials. That sounds like a good start to the weekend!
February Already! ( or: FO's? What FO's?)
Wow! Hard to believe it's already February!
Mr. Ken has been anxious to get the New Year's decor put away, and the February and Valentine's Day decor put up, so that's kept me occupied the last few evenings. This is really odd, I think, because we don't celebrate Valentine's Day, and never have. No cards, no candy, no flowers, no dinner out - nada. The first January we dated - our first "date" was in early December although we'd known each other through work for almost 8 years - he called me and begged me to tell him what I wanted for Valentine's Day; red roses - dozens, yellow roses, tulips, candy, jewelry, dinner. He said he really liked me and didn't want to mess up our relationship by doing something stupid like not meeting expectations for Valentine's Day.
I was somewhat taken aback by this, probably in part because my ex believed that a big bouquet of roses or a nice dinner out would make up for any trangressions or hurtful words, and of course, it doesn't. He always sent dozens of red and yellow roses on Valentine's Day, because he thought he should.
Mr. Ken and I talked it over, and that year we decided to have dinner at a favorite restaurant. Dinner was lovely, but not as lovely as usual because the restaurant was so busy. We've decided since that a nice dinner at home and spending time together is the best celebration for us. As he says, if we're not good to each other all the time, one special day isn't going to make our relationship wonderful.
Anyway, he likes for the house to properly reflect the season, and in a fit of Martha-ness several years ago I designed and made wreaths and such. Here's February decor at knitswithcats:
Our banner, with not too much pink (it's hard to decorate for Valentine's Day without using red and pink). The Tropicana coral front door, with a wreath of white tulips and narcissus. The side doors with wreaths of coral tulips and white narcissus.
The mantel, decorated for the month like Erica did hers, using lots of red candles, my favorite footed bowl which holds some of the peach foil-wrapped chocolate roses from our wedding, and a heart-shaped box a friend sent; the candle on the kitchen table, complete with chocolate candy candles; and the candle in the dining room, surrounded by conversation hearts.
FO's? What FO's?
January was not a great month for FO's. The reorganization and inventory of yarn took time that would normally be allocated to knitting, but it needed to be done.
In fact, there was only one FO in January, and I don't even have a photo of it!
During our very-cold-for-Northern-California spell, where temperatures got as low as the 20's at night (don't laugh - if you don't have winter clothes, that's cold!) one of the vendors at our Farmer's Market complained that her hands were cold and stiff but that she couldn't wear gloves because she needed to make change. Now, I'm not really nice because I didn't give her the warm red fingerless mitts that I was wearing, but at Mr. Ken's urging, I did knit a pair of fingerless mitts which we gave to her the following Saturday. Imagine, if you can: fingerless mitts from Wendy's pattern, knit in Brown Sheep NatureSpun, color Northern Lights.
Good progress was made on two projects. The multicolore sweater now has a back and 2 sleeves, even after ripping the back and starting it over last week. The front should be done by this time next week. And the second Waving Lace sock, done in Opal Royal Apricot is almost to the heel. I expect to complete that by mid-month as well.
No new yarn was bought in January, despite my browsing at Elann. And Webs. And Discontinued Yarns. And Patternworks. And KnitPicks. And eBay. And the new yarn store down the street. And Michael's. And JoAnn's. And Hancock Fabrics. And Tuesday Morning. Stitches West is coming in 3 weeks, and I do have permission from myself to attend and shop and buy.