O Hai, Blog

It's been a while. I keep meaning to dig into this thing and fix the slightly screwed up template, but since that's not going to happen just yet, I'm going to start posting anyway.

While I have not been blogging, I have been knitting. And sewing. And traveling. And all sorts of other things. Like, um, writing my thesis. But that will be done very soon! And I will go back to showing you the things I make.

Duncan is looking in my computer for pictures for you.

Someone is fascinated by his own tail

It's Duncan MacLeod!

Something to show you

Oh, I do have something to show you after all, and this post is long overdue. A couple of months ago, my Aunt Betty, who taught me to crochet when I was about 7, made me a giant crochet blanket. Here it is on my queen-size bed.


She describes it as a "history blanket," using yarns from many other afghans she has made over the years. And there were many.
When I was a kid, my family would all travel to Michigan together in the fall. My parents, my grandparents, and my aunt and uncle would all go to the same hotel and explore southwestern Michigan. We would do all those fall-like things, picking apples, getting pumpkins, shopping hobby stores (okay, maybe that's just my family), and generally spending a weekend together in a mini family reunion. Sometimes we would even get adjoining rooms, and we could go into their rooms without even going out in the to the hall! When you're 6, this is amazing.
In the evening, after making great use of the hotel's indoor pool, we would all gather in one room and drink sparkling cider, eat apple donuts, and watch old movies on TV. I would crawl up on the bed next to Aunt Betty, who would always be crocheting some interesting new afghan, and pepper her with questions about it. Eventually she taught me (maybe to shut me up?), and I made a few little purses. I'm afraid I let it go for many years after that, but I picked it back up in college and haven't been able to stop since. Even though I knit more, I always have at least one of two crochet projects going.
And I can even make blankets just like Aunt Betty. The stitch is the afghan stitch, which is very fun to do, but I admit I haven't practiced much, and it's bordered by shells.


It's an incredibly warm blanket, and I love it, of course. The cats, on the other hand, simply adore it, and I can barely pry it away from them. If I leave it on the couch, there's always a cat on it. When I try to hang it up on the quilt rack (which I got for $5 at a garage sale) in the living room, Worfy will actually pull it down so he can sleep on it.


You can also see my crocheting in this picture as well. I'll show you that soon.

Bellies!

Duncan likes to show his belly. And why not? It's an extremely cute belly. I absolutely cannot resist the little speckles on it.


I love the little leopard speckles.
Fun fact: leopards are the only big cats that purr. I've heard it, and not only does it sound like a motor, it sounds like the motor of a tractor that happens to be located inside your ear. It's freaking adorable. And possibly deadly.

Really, tiny cats leave me scarred enough .

Okay, this doesn't show his belly quite as well, but I like the happy, sleepy look on his face.

Also, the effect of the giant, razor sharp claws coming at you. On the large size on flickr it's a little scary. He's a mini tiger.
Fun fact: tigers are the only big cats that don't have retractable claws.
Worfy does not show his belly quite as often, but here is a rare sighting that he does seem particularly pleased about.

It's still fun to snorgle.
He's also a little bit cross eyed, which is incredibly cute when you dangle a toy in front of his face. But it also means the light from the flash catches his eyes very differently. I've been noticing that in a few pictures I've taken of him. It's not cataracts or anything, just a cute, slightly confused look.

Look, Cats!

I'm writing up a post or two, but here are some cats to keep you company.
Here's Duncan looking pretty suspicious.

I would so cast him as a cat villain in a Disney cartoon.

Here's Worfy looking super pretty with his green eyes.

That's a gianormous crochet blanket I'm working on. It pretty much fits my queen bed and I'm still going on it. I'm using hobby store cotton, and I don't want to think about how much I've spent on it.

Here's Duncan sitting with his tail in a weird position.

Seriously, he just sat there like that for a couple of minutes. Didn't that hurt? Here's a closeup.

It's a cute stripey tail.

Here's Worfy regally surveying his kingdom.

And regally surveying his subjects (hint: that's me).

Yeah, I was home sick for a few days. When you're high on DayQuil, taking pictures of your cats is awesome.

Tie Dye Socks

I continue to be predictable and like the colors a 5 year old would. These come straight out of the crayon box. The yarn was a birthday gift from Valerie, and I absolutely love it. It is Alpaca peds, which manages to be a superwash alpaca blend sock yarn. I don't know how they do it, but they promise to be warm.

Worfy approves.

Basic top down sock pattern in 2x2 ribbing, except I liked the way it was striping so much that I did an afterthought heel, so as not to disturb the pattern.

In summary:
Yarn: Alpaca Peds in Tie Die
Pattern: Top down, 2x2 rib, afterthought heel, basic toe
Needles: Size US 1 dpns
Time: A few weeks in my purse. That seems to be all I'm making lately.
Cost: Nothing. Thanks Val!

Hey! You haven't been updating!

I know, I know. I will be posting soon.

Who's the Boss?

It's Tony Danza, La Petite Tricoteuse's ferret! He came to visit while she was out of town for the weekend. Ferrets are a lot cuter and smarter than I thought. (They still smell, but it's not that bad, especially if you keep the cage clean.)

My cats weren't too sure what to think of him. Worfy thought it was like a new TV, brining the wildlife channel indoors. He was content to sit and watch, and I think he found him amusing.

Duncan, who is not quite as smart, was a little afraid of him. I let them all loose in the bathroom to play, and Worfy hopped up on the sink right away, since the ferret can't climb. Duncan didn't figure that out, and Tony chased him back and forth. I think it was good for Duncan, as he can be a bit of a terror sometimes.

Overall, we had fun this weekend, even if Tony did try to eat his cage a lot. I think he looks like a little ermine.

Stringy Theory Fashion Tips

Always match your yarn to your cat for extra cuteness:





Btw, the yarn is the color Journal from Knitivity. It's super soft and there's 435 yards of it!

Also, you may notice it's not my usual colors. It's for a swap. I remain as personally obnoxious as ever.

Adventures in Cat Wrangling

One my favorite timewasting websites is Cute Overload, which, in addition to compiling the cutest pictures ever and making me fall in love with Fennec foxes, also lists the Rules of Cuteness.
Rule 35 of Cuteness is that if you're caught doing something bad, it's cute.
Yep.

This little one knows how to cause a lot of trouble.


Worfy had this cat tower for months before Duncan came along, and sat on it very prettily. Duncan likes to attack it. He would chase his tail around the base of the pole until the whole thing was shaking. Eventually, the bit at the top no longer connected well to the ceiling. I wedged a wooden block in there to keep it stable. That lasted about a week. Duncan soon figured out that if he hit the pole at just the right speed and angle, he could make the block go flying across the room. He found that incredibly amusing. Recently, he discovered that he could in fact knock the entire tower down. It pretty much hasn't been upright for 5 mins since. I've basically given up. I tried to put it up the other day with some cloth wedged between the pole and the ceiling, but Duncan attacked it immediately. Then he likes to surf down the pole as it falls, as seen here. I don't know about this cat, I really don't.
Luckily for him I cannot resist this speckled belly

or this little face.

He is so lucky he's that cute. So lucky.

In the Meantime....

enjoy a little Worfy.



Lots of knitting content coming soon though.

LOLDuncan

Duncan continues to have good taste in yarn. As I was working on my own crochet blanket, the little one decided that the cute basket I was holding all the yarn in looked very comfortable.



It's all very silly.


Which of course, suggested the lollified version of it:


You can see the little one on icanhascheezburger.

Family Tradition

My family is strange, for many reasons, but one of our strangest habits is that we like to take pictures of ourselves by holding the camera out at arm's length. Yes, we are aware that self-timers exist, but that's just no fun at all. At my cousin's wedding, they put a single-use camera at every table. They should have known better. My mom and uncle went around and took pictures of themselves at all 50 or so tables. My cousin's dad complained about how much money he had spent just on developing pictures of "their ugly faces."

We have moved on to yet another generation of silliness. Apparently my cousin, who is about 10 years older than me, has just sent around pictures of his young son in this manner. So my mom, not be outdone, wants similar photos of me and her grandcats.



Worfy was not thrilled with the idea.

So I think this about as close as we're going to get.

Stealth Crochet

Part of what hasn't been appearing on this blog was my mom's Mother's Day gift, a crochet cotton bedspread for summer. I wrapped it all up in a cute wicker basket. Everyone go, "awwww" with me now.

Several forces conspired to get me to start this blanket. First, Lorna started doing a knitted log cabin blanket at the shop. Then Susan (blogless) from the Monday night group started crocheting something very similar. I thought it would be a great way to use up some scraps I had, and started doing a random version for myself. As I was working on it, I realized that my mom would like it a lot, except that my version had way too much green for her. So I took a little trip to the store and picked up some wonderful cheap cotton yarn in her colors.

It's not exactly a log cabin style blanket, because I think the log cabin style is less symmetric than this. I have a thing about symmetry. I also apparently have a thing about math, because this subconsciously worked out to be a golden rectangle. That was not the original plan, but I'm going to go with it.

However, since I am not very smart when it comes to planning, there was a bit of a frenzy on this one. My mom is going to be in Florida on actual Mother's Day. So instead of buying myself a few extra days to work on the blanket, I actually planned to give it to her nearly a week before. But I finished, she likes it, and Fred approves.

It's very important that Fred approves.

A note on the yarn - this is my favorite craft store yarn. Yes, you can get it for about $3.99 at Michael's, Hobby Lobby, even Walmart. It's still 100% cotton, incredibly soft, and machine washable. Bernat Cottontots all the way.

A note on the pattern - the stitch is a half - double crochet throughout. I made a center square, then added a row on top and bottom, then on either side. The colors alternate so that white and blue are always in the same round, and yellow and multi are in the same round. I had to be sure blue was on the outside, since that is my mom's favorite color. I'm also in love with crochet's ability to hide the ends as you go. Even with all those color changes, I only had two ends to weave in when I was done.

In summary:
Yarn: Bernat Cottontots (100% cotton), about 5 skeins each of blue, white, yellow, and multi
Pattern: Log cabin-esque crochet with half-double stitch, see above
Needles: Size I (5.5 mm) hook
Time: A few weeks of frenzied crocheting

Attention World

My mom has a blog.

Go see her artwork, pictures of the animals and funny stories about Marigold.

And who knows, she might update more often than I do.

Vindication

Do you remember these? Chances are, if you've met me since I left South Bend, you don't. These were my first horrible, catastrophic disaster with socks. They were so bad, they put me off socks for at least a year.
Here's the thing nobody told me - socks need to be dense, and gauge swatches lie. So I happily knit the first giant, holey sock on size 3's, and I didn't know any better. It was bad. I didn't know what happened.


As you know, I have definitely overcome my fear of socks. In fact, I have basically gone from phobia to addiction. But I never quite got back to the disastrous first one. Well, now I have, and I am vindicated. I dragged up a terrible UFO from two years ago, and finally finished them off.

It's actually a really great yarn. I can't tell if Duncan is approving, or scared. But he sure is cute, and look at how big he's getting!
So, take that cruel fates of knitting. I have overcome.

In Summary:
Yarn: Probably Opal, definitely something I bought in Germany
Pattern: Basic k2, p2 ribbed cuff and instep, basic sl 1, k1 heel flap, and usual gusset and toe
Needles: Size US 1 (2.25 mm), magic loop style (won't be doing that again unless I'm desperate)
Time: Two years in the making
Cost: I think it was around 12 Euros, at a better exchange rate than the current

LOLWorfy

While I am not generally a fan of lolcatz, I could not resist this opportunity.

(Yes, I am playing World of Warcraft. )

For Non-Pratchett Fans

Okay, Pratchett fans can look too.

"I meant," said Iplsore bitterly, "what is there in this world that makes living worthwhile?" Death thought about it. "CATS," he said eventually, "CATS ARE NICE."
-- Death (Terry Pratchett, Sourcery)

Lyra's hat

If you have not seen the Golden Compass, do. You may not like the story line, (although there are fighting, talking, armored polar bears, and how could you not like that?) but you will love the knitting.
The main character, a plucky young girl named Lyra, wears this hat on a trip to the North.

There are a lot of things I wanted to make from the movie, but this was the cutest, and (look at the size of the yarn) the easiest. It's very much a bonnet style, and wraps around the entire head. I have lived in the Midwest my entire life, and I know cold, and yet I have never worn a hat this warm. Earflaps have nothing on this. The bonnet seriously needs to make a comeback, and I, for one, am doing my part.

While I admit, I might get a few looks when I wear this, I'm fully prepared for an artic expedition now. This is what it looks like flat (and with a polar bear).

It's this kit from a shop in Grand Rapids, which I ordered over the phone. It's $22 (plus shipping), and I think it was worth it. While the pattern isn't anything special (it's a rectangle with a three-needle bind off up the back, short row shaping optional, and Lion Brand has a free version anyway) it's the yarn that really does it for me. I wanted to make the exact hat from the movie, and I knew I wouldn't be able to mix up those yarns myself, at least not for under $22. It's two skeins of a bulky wool in cream, one strand of bulky wool in the mottled light-brown-going-into-purple, and one thin cream mohair for the halo, all wound up together for you and ready to knit.

And on size 19 needles, let me tell you, this thing goes in under an hour. I mean, three strands of bulky together. Talk about instant gratification. You may feel like you're knitting with tree trunks, but it's not for long.
But most importantly, Duncan approves.

Aww, we match.

In Summary:

Pattern: Lyra's Hat from this kit, or make a big rectangle with a three needle bind-off

Yarn: From same kit, super-super-bulky wool and mohair blend

Needles: Size 19 (15.0 mm)

Time: Less than an hour

Cost: $22 + $5 shipping (worth it for the yarn, imo)

Non - Knitting Content

So, because I have the most spoiled cats in the world, I decided they had to have this jungle gym when I saw it. It's all mesh, vinyl and pvc piping. They were fascinating watching me build it.

And as soon as I was done, promptly played with the box.

To their credit, they do play with the jungle gym now (Duncan likes to dive through the two story vinyl part), but I haven't been able to throw out the box either.

Knitting content to come. In the meantime, enjoy the cats.