Cute kitties and knitting

Seems we have a full house around here.
When they aren't hanging out in the Kitty Cottage, Bert is busy trying to look cute.

He's good at it - isn't he!

There's been some UFO knitting around here. I finished some booties but I won't be posting them until they are gifted. But I've also pulled out the Mystery Shawl 3 from long ago and decided to get this puppy finished.

Knitting and computer with pattern on it.

While I knit Chief hangs out on the arm of my chair and keeps me company

Mom, why is the knitting on the computer and not in your hands? And why is there a big beige blob where you were sitting? - Chief

I must confess the big beige blob is because I was sitting at a sloppy angle with sloppy clothes on and I just didn't feel like sharing a big turquoise blob with everyone! Edited for your protect!

Knit on.

The Mystery Continues

Well one of the Sock of the Month socks is done and the other started. Our next knitting night is July 23rd so I need to finish the 2nd sock next week. I figure if I don't finish them each month I'll end up with billions and billions of orphan socks. I'm like that. Do it now or it never gets done.

The Mystery Shawl 3 is still going well. Clue 3 is done. Clue 4 will be a larger clue and we'll get it Friday. I'm not doing the beads because I'm not a beads on clothing kind of person but I'm enjoying the shawl so far.

Chief says it's time for Bert's bath -

Enough is enough! I'm clean already! - Bert

The Floor is SO out of here!

It's been a hot weekend. We stayed indoors most of the weekend and the boys decided to do very cat-like things. Bert practised his circus act. He doesn't quite have the double flip worked out but he's getting there.

Chief found napping a good activity. He also found a wonderful box to cuddle into to. One problem - the box is my "finished knit but not blocked items" box. Under him is 3 pair of socks, 2 shawls, 5 blocks to send to the Greensburg project and a few other items I can't remember. Hope the Greensburg people like cat hair!

Mystery Shawl 3

I did get the next clue of the MS3 shawl Saturday morning because Friday was busy. Saturday afternoon before I headed out to meet friends and a little time this morning were spent knitting the next part. Now - I wait till next Friday to continue this project. By the way - did you hear - we "broke" Yahoo Friday morning with everyone trying to download the next clue. http://news.yahoo.com/s/pcworld/20070706/tc_pcworld/134237;_ylt=Ap0el

Friday my new floor arrived. It has to live in the house for a couple days to get used to the climate but - Monday I will no longer need to look at the old floor. It's been around for many years. I remember the floor from high school (i.e. - early 70s) The seams were not done right and within a year the one seam started popping up. Then a little later the other seam. Dad would re-glue it every of often but it was never great. Well, I decided one of the first things I would do when I bought the house was REPLACE THE FLOOR! You'll just have to wait until Monday night to see what the new one looks like. (It's SOOOOO pretty I can hardly wait!)

Also Friday some of us got together at a friends house to watch "The Last King of Scotland". None of us had gotten around to that one and I just got it from Netflix so - instant movie party. That lead into the Saturday night supper and movie party because the other movie I got this weekend was "The Good Shepherd". We all agree Last King was excellent and Good Shepherd was good but long and at time confusing. Everyone also said the raspberry muffins I made for Friday night were good. Hey- I had raspberries sitting in the garden and 1 hour before I had to get over to their house - what else do you do but run out, pick berries and make muffins.

The Pursuit of Happiness

For Independence Day Bert wants to talk the pursuit of happiness (yarn and knitting) today and promises to show up in a few of the pictures (if you look close enough!)

Last time I said how I started the Mystery Shawl 3 using KnitPicks Shimmer. (Bert's trying to to sneak in again)

Well, after 50 rows I decided the colorway didn't show the lace as well as I wanted to so, I switched to KnitPicks Bare. I also decided to use sock/fingering weight instead of the lace weight and make it a little bit bigger than the original. So far it looks like I made the right choice.

In other knitting news I have several items I'm working on that I haven't posted pics of yet. So here we go...

The sock of the month sock if coming along. I'll be starting the toe in less than an inch.

I started a vest I found in the latest Knitters magazine. It was made out of a demin cotton. I had some Bernat cotton Twister (Natural) sitting around so decided to give it a try. The pattern has a mistake in it but the correction is on the website. I've got the back and one of the sides done.

And the left front is started. The should is on the right of the picture with the neckline on the top.The yarn I'm using is a little bigger than the pattern yarn and I'm using one size up needle from the pattern. I also made it 2 inches longer than the original. I'm big and tall and don't need a tight short vest!

When the KnitPicks Shimmer arrived the box contained a few other goodies. I got some Sura Dream to make scarves for Christmas presents. I also got some Gossamer lace weight I'll be finding something pretty to make from it one of these days. (Bert tried to sneak in the picture but I was too fast)

Ah! Sweet Mysteries of Shawl at last I Knit You

A couple weeks ago I joined the mystery shawl 3 KAL along with what is now over 4000 other knitters. Friday the first clue was posted. My yarn hadn't arrived yet so I didn't try to download the clue until late last night. My yarn showed up today so I put down my sock and my cotton vest I've been working on to give the shawl some of my time. The yarn I'm using is KnitPicks Shimmer - alpaca/silk lace weight. I haven't knit with it before and I've only done 30 rows so far but I really like this yarn.

The ranting I was doing a couple days ago at work is still a potential problem but the mass quantities of chocolate and TV watching seems to have done it's work (not to mention the high volume of knitting I've done the past few days).

In the middle of all this insanity at work I got a call from my Dad's place. He had icky eyes (my term not theirs) and needed to see the doctor. This call came at 3pm Friday so I had to hustle to get an appointment and get to him and to the doctor before the weekend appeared and everyone disappeared for several days. Good news is Dad's weight is up a little bit and all his blood tests looked good. He let himself get way down to 132 lb. at 5'8". This low weight doesn't help cope with other life problems well. But now he has been eating well since last Sept and being taken care of well where he lives so he is healthier and able to deal with eye ick better. We got some goo to put in his eyes and went back to his place in time for supper.

Back to the work traumas I won't talk about (you are too nice to be bothered with such mundane things). What I will talk about is - I ended up changing my vacation from middle of July (way too much to do to take a week off) to mid August. I'll end up having the week after Stitches Midwest off. Which means - I'm seriously thinking of driving down to Chicago Friday night and hanging out at Stitches Sat & Sun and drive home Sunday night. I haven't done something like this for a few years and with the craziness in my life I think I need to do a fun crazy think

I had someone email and ask about the window that Bert looks out of in his pictures. It's from a Cat Cottage I got at Dr. Foster & Smith. It's a 4 story (4' tall) cardboard box. Each set of windows has a floor with a hole to move around in on the inside. The boys love it. The other thing in the kitty corner is their Jungle Gym. It's from Target and so far has held up well to both of them leaping on and off. The last part of the kitty corner tends to be junk on the floor. We usually have a big shoelace, a plastic bag (for Chief to chew on), assorted bits of wadded up paper, you know, the usual necessary kitty items. This unfortunately is not just contained in the kitty corner - it's all over the house. After all, I am only allowed to live with them and their toys.