more mail

The postperson rang again. And this time, there was yarn! I completely forgot that Ronnie (my absolute favourite person in the whole wide world!) was sending me some yarn samples from Colourmart. These are some leftovers that she had. All of it is cashmere except the pale pink one on the far right - that one's silk/cashmere. Oooooo!

And she included some of Jean Greenhowe's patterns. The Little Gift Dolls has a very cute witch that I want to make.

I am nearing the end of my gift knitting. I have 4 more rows left but each row is now 594 sts! My poor 32" circ is max'd out - shuffling the sts is quite the chore. I still need to knit 50-something inches of i-cord for the tie.

There hasn't been much knitting in the last few days. My Mom's birthday was Thurs and we went out for lunch and a little shopping. She really liked my new cardigan and she wants me to make her one but with long sleeves. I took her measurements and I'll be yarn shopping. I may use Lion's Cotton-Ease again or I may try something else. Wool is a no-no because Mom's got sensitive skin. I think Mission Falls 1824 cotton would be a good choice.

That same cardigan is giving me some grief. I've worn it quite a few times and because it's knit from the top-down, the neck has stretched out a lot. The sweater is starting to fall off my shoulders now. I have consulted with TECHknitter and I have a plan to fix my cardigan as well as modifications to the pattern for Mom's.

The other reason for no knitting is my migraine. Ugh! It started yesterday morning and it's a whopper. I can take one more pill today and then I have to wait until tomorrow to take more. I don't know if I'll make it... We were invited over to Gladys' for supper tonite but we declined because I can't take noise/light/excitement right now.

Ricky is doing much better. Thanks for all your kind thoughts. He coughed up a gi-normous hairball Thurs morning and he started eating normally that evening. In fact, he's back to his usual self - 3am fights with Phoebe, ripping up the carpet on the stairs at 5am (I got up this morning and threw a slipper at him), howling at the top of his lungs at random moments, and letting us know that he's hungry about an hour before feeding time (this involves meowing loudly and sometimes biting our toes). I'll call the vet on Monday to see what we should do with the remainder of his medication.

On Friday afternoon, Ricky did one of his 'normal' things:

... finding the nearest quilt covered lap and crawling underneath. Isn't he special?

sock yarn shopping

I've been reading about the TNNA show on a bunch of blogs today. There are a lot of gorgeous yarns out there. I just read about two new-to-me sock yarns - wool/nylon Cherry Tree Hill and hand-dyed Rio de la Plata. Quick - where's my oxygen? I must resist since I will be getting a whack of sock yarn for my birthday.

Not much progress on Monkey - maybe one more repeat. I had a leetle bit of a problem reading the chart.



Sometimes, Phoebe can be a real pest. But she doesn't lie in my lap often (my legs are too short for her to stretch out) so I humour her whenever she's in the mood. It's either that or she parks herself on the sofa cushion right behind my head and breathes cat breath at me.

Some news about Ricky... He is not doing well. I picked up more antibiotics last week after the first batch ran out. And during the last week, his appetite has gone downhill. He doesn't come into the kitchen when it's feeding time. I have to hunt him down and bring him to his bowl. Then he takes one sniff and walks away. I called the vet yesterday and he said to discontinue the medication and to feed Ricky straight tuna. That perked up his appetite for one meal. I went out and bought some really smelly cat food today. I gave him the sardine steaks and salmon for supper but it took several attempts to get him to eat and he only ate half of what I put in front of him. He's still not eating enough but he's eating more than before. I keep telling myself to be patient.

While there hasn't been much progress on Monkey, I got a lot accomplished on my gift knitting. There are 288 sts per row and I knit almost 15 rows in the last 2 days. I've got the pattern memorized which helps speed things along. I can't wait to get this finished and move onto other not-for-myself projects. I have been asked by Trish (I just knit her a bunch of samples) to knit her 10-12 pairs of socks and she'll pay me with her yarn. Hmmm... what colours should I get?

As we were finishing supper tonite, there was a wildlife sighting.



We often see blue herons in our neighbour's yard because he's got a pond in the far corner. But we've never seen one land on his patio cover. It was there for several minutes. I thought about going outside to take better pictures but my movements would've spooked it.

cashmere jackpot

I've been email chatting with my Wee Tiny Sock swap recipient, Ronnie. She was blogging about her newly finished Hidcote shawl. It's gorgeous and made out of cashmere yarn which is something that costs and arm and a leg over here. But she says it's similar in price to merino in the UK. So I checked out her source - Colourmart in the UK. And I may need to order something from there. Currently on my list is some dk cashmerino in the ocean moon colour. Only $25USD for 150g/570yds and that includes international shipping. Be still my heart...

riiiiiiiiiip

That's what I did yesterday at knit nite. The Bonita shirt is no more. After some deliberation with the other gals, I decided that it had to be reknit. I cast on this afternoon and I thought I was being careful but after knitting 7 - 242 st rounds, I realized that I had a moebius. @$%#!!!!!!!! I cast on again but didn't join in the round until hubby got home and held the needles while I ran my fingers around the cast on to make sure I wouldn't get a twist. I am going to knit the next size down and it should fit this time. I'm not going to reknit the sleeves since the armholes will be the same depth.

My lys has gotten a new shipment of hemp yarn called "hemp for knitting" . The stuff feels like straw but after it's been washed, it's so soft. In fact, I'd be tempted to prewash the skein before knitting with it. And the drape is unbelievable. There's 2 weights - fingering (only $6 for one 50g/150m skein) and dk (twice the price/weight as the fingering but same yardage per skein). I thought about buying some of the fingering to make this lace nightie. But decided that the yarn wouldn't look good in the gauge required. The dk would be a better weight but it's so thick. I don't know that I want a nightie with that much substance. Lana Knits is distributing the yarn and has great pattern support. I really really love this top. It's knit side to side and looks so elegant. I would be tempted to knit it in black so that I could wear it with anything. And maybe one in 'deep sea' to wear with jeans. Hmmm...

OMG yarn sale

Knit Happens is having an amazing yarn sale. Examples: Cascade 220 for $3.15/ball. Lorna's Laces sock yarn for $4.79 -- but it looks like there's only one colourway that's not sold out.

Yikes!

Viking Knits

That was a fun get-together last night. I've got to get out to a Knit night with you sometime for some full-on knitting action.


And just to put some more temptation into your path, here are links for the Elsebeth Lavold books: Viking Patterns for Knitting, and the photos from the First Viking Knits Collection and the Second Viking Knits Collection.

Heh heh.

That's just my little bit of revenge for telling me about those amazing prices at Yarn by the Bag. I'm still processing the fact that you got the yarn the day after you ordered it. And the Canadian $$ at par -- what a deal.