Cat Blanket City!!

basket rib (2 color)
garter stitch
seed stitch w/stockinette stitch inset
diagonal garter stitch
bramble stitch


I have come to the realization that when I have a large gap in posts it is because I am procrastinating on posting pictures. As you can see, I have been working on cat blankets in different stitches. Amazingly, I am coming to the end of my spare Red Heart. I may have to start using full skeins as I have thoroughly enjoyed spending time for those cute little kitties to have something to lie on. (BTW, the Canyon County animal shelter is looking for foster parents for kittens. If you are interested, their number is 455-5920.) Fairly soon I am going to be moving on to one of the following projects: back to the cocoon shrug, a cardigan for myself (I love how the Brits call them cardies!) or the massive Christmas run. Last year most of my relatives received hats or scarves. This year I am thinking of moving to socks, however an article I read on Knitty mentioned that thousands of stitches go into socks and I have been somewhat daunted since. Well, we shall see. I'm sure I'll take a stab at it eventually. Hopefully I will be good and post pictures of my last few cat blankets right away before I move on to the next project. Until then.

Yarn Organized!

I have had it in mind for quite some time to organize my stash. The good news is that I accomplished this today (with the help of my somewhat unwilling husband. He hates to organize.) The good and bad news is that I had quite a bit more yarn than I thought I did. That is good b/c it means I will be able to work on more projects than I thought. It is bad for two reasons. Much of the yarn that I didn't know I had is everyone's favorite, Red Heart acrylic. (If you don't know why this is bad, I will save you the embarrassment of asking someone from a yarn store. Red Heart Acrylic is only sold in grocery stores/drug stores/etc. You will never find it in a bonafide yarn shop. The reason being is that it is incredibly inexpensive (hence the appeal) but it also pills and wears poorly. If it is old, it also unravels easily. Wool is considered the best yarn to use, however since I am severly allergic to most wools, I don't use it often.) In my early knitting days, I didn't even know that there was anything else other than Red Heart so I obtained quite the stash of it. I have used it here and there as best I can, but I am running out of ideas! The grocery sack holder pictured earlier on this blog was partially made with it and I have a dog blanket (to cover the leather seats in the car) that I have not pictured here. Other than that, there is not much in my house that is acrylic. I also have several little tiny balls (and I mean tiny, as in 1" or less) that I can't bear to through away so I am thinking that I will be venturing into cat blankets again and mucking my way through stripes. Egads! How I hate stripes. I also have quite the collection of baby yarn, but I am getting to the point where the people I know are not having babies anymore so this represents a bit of a problem. I may end up having to knit up some items to sell on commission. The second reason my large stash is bad is that a couple of the drawers are at the point where you have to stuff the yarn in and close the drawer rapidly or it will all come sproinging back out at you. What that means is that I have to use up that yarn before I can buy fun new yarn to replace it with. Hmph. But back to the good news of being organized. My favorite part, other than having less of a mess, is opening up the drawers and looking at the sea of colors. The blue drawer is my favorite: teal chenille, aqua fun fur, navy acrylic. It looks like an ocean and makes me feel so peaceful. Now if only I could have a yarn drawer at work!

Working Away

Many of you know that I have been working feverishly on my counted cross-stitch. I didn't finish by month end, but I am darn close! I am hoping to have it finished by this weekend. Still have been taking a break from knitting the cocoon shrug, but should be getting back to it shortly. Not much else to report, hence the short notes, but I should be back up with some running dialogue before month end.