Finished Socks; Chaos Continues

First up, a finished pair of socks!

These are just plain stockinette, with my first short-row heel. I made the top a little on the short side because I wasn't sure I'd have enough for a more-standard height, but it turns out I'd have had plenty. I knew I should've done these toe-up, but I wasn't brave enough at that point.

They aren't made for me, so they're small on me:

I have large, wide, peasant feet so the top is even shorter on me than it will be on the intended recipient.

Please ignore the blindingly-white leg. I don't tan, I burn, so I gave up on tanned legs a loooong time ago.

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Up next is the yarn I'm going to use for the SixSoxKal, the I Love Gansey socks. I just have to finish the socks I have on the needles right now, but they're going amazingly quickly. Photos in the next post--this one has enough pix already.


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When DD's kindergarten year was wrapping up, the teacher sent home some parsley to encourage caterpillar/butterfly growth, and I decided to plant some more where we could watch for caterpillar activity:

If you click on the picture and look right in the center, you'll see a tiny caterpillar. We've had some good-sized ones, like 1" to 1.5" ones, but I'm not sure where they are now. I found some bigger ones this morning but by the time I got out there to take pictures, I couldn't find them. NOt sure if a bird or other creature got them or what, but I looked around and didn't find them. We've got about a dozen tiny ones though. They'll be Black Swallowtail Butterflies apparently, from the pictures I've seen on the internet. Of course these tiny caterpillars don't look like the bigger ones, but I'm reasonably sure that's what they'll be.

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The kitties continue to be fun. Ryan was thrilled to have Lenny on his lap for a few minutes:

Despite the laid-back ears, neither cat seems to mind being placed on a lap and won't jump down as long as they're being petted gently.

Squiggy even puts up with being held like this for long periods of time:

VERY patient kitties.

Although this is what I found when I let them out of their room this morning:

They've discovered the toilet paper.

We're keeping them in the bathroom (complete with food and water by the tub, and litter box and cat carrier in the other side) until they get more used to us, and it gives them a place to go to get away from Gillian. Ryan pretty much leaves them alone, but if Gillian is home she follows them around and generally gives them a lot of attention, so the bathroom is their space to escape.

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Hopefully tomorrow I'll get my act together and take pictures of my current socks. They're in a heavier yarn than I'm used to and they're going really fast. Now I'm starting to understand how Wendy can get so many socks finished!!

The Chaos Continues

Things around here are settling down today, but tomorrow we'll be all out of sorts again--Gillian starts first grade tomorrow! I can't believe how big she's getting. Sigh.

The kittens are settling in. Last night they started trying to sharpen their claws on the carpet (it's really crappy berber) so I see a scratching post in their very-near future.

They sure are cute.

And patient. That's Squiggy in the basket. Neither cat seems to object to being put in the basket and carried around.

Here they are in Gillian's room.

So far neither kid seems to be the least bit allergic, but the ironic thing is that I am. We've always known that Greg is slightly allergic to some cats and extremely allergic to cats that have any siamese in them. I've never been bothered by any cats, but Monday night I touched my eye without washing my hands first and it got really red and irritated. Yesterday and today I've been somewhat maniacal about washing my hands and so far it hasn't been bad.

I'm usually somewhat anal about washing my hands a lot, but obviously I'm going to have to be even more careful, and I'm going to have to retrain myself to not touch my eyes.

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I'm SO close to getting my Ravelry invite! Here's my place on the wait list as of today:

• You signed up on June 13, 2007
• You are #8801 on the list.
• 650 people are ahead of you in line.
• 14845 people are behind you in line.
• 34% of the list has been invited so far

So close! When I checked two weeks ago I looked back and estimated that I'll probably get my invite Friday or so, and it looks like it might be close. Woo hoo!!

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I'm hoping to finish my current socks today--I started the toe decreases last night, and so if I just buckle down and work on them today I should have them finished. Wish me luck!

I'm debating about what socks to make next. The I Love Gansey socks from SixSox are calling to me, but I really really want to use that Elann yarn I won a while back. Since there's only one ball of each I'm planning to do them toe up, starting with the pink for the toes, then after the toe increases are finished changing to the black-grey-pink-white yarn for the foot, the pink for the heel, and the rest of the variegated for the leg. Maybe end with some ribbing in the pink. We'll see! I've got big plans, as usual.

I'm off to mop the kitchen floor, then I'm going to reward myself by sitting down and working on those socks. (And hopefully finish them!)

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New Four-Legged Friends

First, thanks to everyone who left such nice comments about losing Fred. He's truly left a hole in our hearts and everyone's comments have been very comforting.

While he'll definitely be missed, we'd been thinking about getting a new cat for a while and DH ran across these guys at the Humane Society:

That's Squiggy on the left and Lenny on the right. They're 4-month-old boys, already fixed and everything.

Here they are starting to explore:

And so far they've been very patient with the kids. We'll see how long that lasts, but I'm hoping that one of them scratches the kids (not badly, of course) to get them to back off when they kids are too rough or too insistent that they play. I keep warning the kids that they need to not corner the kitties, but of course they're going to push it until one of the kitties has had enough.

So far so good though!

So I didn't get much done today other than getting set up for the kitties to come home and picking up some litter and other necessities at the grocery on the way to pick them up.

Things are going to be a little wild around here, and I suspect I'm not going to get much knitting done for a while. Gillian starts school on Thursday, so that adds to the chaos around here. Obviously I must thrive in chaos since I seem to not be able to do without it. :-)

Happy knitting!

R.I.P Fred

This morning was had to have our cat, Fred, put down. He had a saddle thrombosis, which is a blood clot in the legs; he had no feeling in his back legs, couldn't walk, and his temp (at the back end, of course) was 97 degrees. A cat's normal temp is 101. He was also breathing very hard/quickly and wasn't his normal self by a long shot. Our vet, a very compassionate man who is excellent with animals, said that we could have surgery done on him, but the chances of him coming out of it weren't great as it's a very risky surgery.

So we all said goodbye to our very good friend. The kids seem to be taking it fairly well but Greg and I are rather devastated.

He was a very patient cat and would put up with a lot from the kids.

He was a good cat, a part of our family, and we'll miss him terribly.

Hemp Yarn Angst

About a year ago I joined a Yahoo group, Yarn CoOp, that banded together for buying purposes so that things could be purchased in bulk to get a good price. The one swap I joined was for some hemp yarn. I was very interested in the hemp/cotton yarn, so I got a whole bunch of it, 14 balls at 250 yards each. Yeah, more than enough, but I'd rather have more left over than run out with a few inches to go.

I swatched with it, threw it in the washer and dryer a half-dozen times, and I really like it. That's the oatmeal-colored swatch I've shown a few times lately.

So today I finally broke down and cast on for a compound raglan sweater for me.

And ran into problems.

The first ball had 4 knots and 5 breaks. Here it is, divided up into its pieces:

You can tell by the size of the balls that the breaks were scattered throughout the ball. The knots are mostly in the two bigger balls. I'm going to set this ball aside for the oh-no-I'm-running-out-of-yarn last minute panic, and hope I don't have to use it. It might become washcloths or something.

The second ball I wound has 7 knots. SEVEN.

Each ball is 250 yards of a 55% hemp, 45% cotton blend.

I ordered 14 balls of this stuff to do a sweater for me.

I am NOT a happy camper.


I still have 12 more balls to wind, but after hand-winding these two balls (because I want to touch every inch of this stuff and know what I'm in for) I'm not terribly optomistic that the other 12 are going to be any better.

It's not the most pleasant stuff to work with but I really like it once it's washed a few times.

I'm really hoping that the other balls aren't as bad.

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In sock knitting news, here's a picture of my current progress with yarn from Aunt Louise:

It's my first short-row heel and so far I like it! It seems to go more quickly than the heel flap and gusset method I've been using.

As soon as I get these finished I'll be casting on for the SixSoxKAL sock, I Love Ganseys Socks. I bought some Panda Yarn which should be interesting. Pictures of the yarn tomorrow, I hope.

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Clue Five of the Mystery Stole comes out tomorrow morning, and I'm looking forward to working on that project again. This two-week span between clues has kind of sucked, as I've been in danger of losing my momentum with that project, as evidenced by the two other projects I started during these two weeks (the socks above and the compound raglan I started today).

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Hopefully my knitting karma will be a bit better tomorrow.

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Thanks everyone for the wonderful comments on my Shetland Tea Shawl! It'll be even more spectacular once it's blocked.