Knit One, Purr Too

What do you do when someone has absolutely nothing on their wishlist, and when every single family member you ask for ideas cannot come up with a single thing (assuming, of course, that they respond to your messages in the first place)?

You knit them an afghan for Christmas.

Got the yarn and cast on December 4th; finished the last loop last night (the 22nd). The pattern is the Celtic Knot Afghan. I used just under 9 skeins of Red Heart Soft, so this sucker is a bit on the heavy side. The recipient will need something extremely durable, that can be tossed in the washing machine and in the dryer, so I decided acrylic was the best option, and I’m quite happy with how it turned out.

I did three panels, with 7 repeats of the 40-row cable pattern per panel, and by the time I was starting the second panel, I had that thing memorized, and may likely continue to knit the dang cable in my sleep for a few weeks longer. I admit I was really hesitant about the edging, but once I started, it looked far better than I expected, so I kept on going. Attaching the edging was a royal pain, plus the pattern gives you absolutely no info on how to *end* it (although it wasn’t all that hard to figure out once I realized what was missing), and for both ends I pretty much did about 20 loops worth and then crocheted it to the afghan and then kept on knitting the edging until it looked like I had enough. This is how I ended up with three more loops on one end than on the other but I suspect no one but me will ever bother counting them, so I’m not going to worry about it.

Still here. Still knitting. Just been busy elsewhere (Nanowrimo, Nablopomo, Vox Musica. You know, the usual.

Hello to anyone who’s coming over from the 2009 Blogger Christmahanukwanzaakah concert. I’d recommend you mosey on over to my regular blog if you’re looking for actual content, since that one gets updated a WHOLE lot more than this one.

It’s been kind of a roller coaster sort of summer. The up parts included placing at the State Fair, rediscovering my love of making socks, finally learning how to do ssk correctly (after four years of knitting, because it’s magic what happens when you actually *read the directions* – sigh). The down parts included having to have two of our beloved cats put to sleep. Sebastian was diagnosed with kidney failure and left us just shy of his 19th birthday, and then three weeks later, Tangerine developed endocarditis (infection of the heart valve) and no matter what the doctors tried we couldn’t save her.

Getting a pair of adorable little kittens has helped fill the void just a bit (but admittedly it does tend to put a damper on knitting), but old friends can never truly be replaced, so we’re slowly getting used to the new ‘normal’ around here. And in the meantime, I have a new purse, large enough to tote around a sock-in-progress, and I’ve got another lace piece slowly progressing on my needles, and life, as always goes on.

I started a new lace project a few weeks ago (another one out of the Victorian Lace Today book) but so far have done only one pattern repeat, since my lace-making mojo appears to be faltering. This is not exactly a good thing, since I’ve got several major lace pieces that need to be completed by the end of the year, but I know myself well enough that forcing the issue just won’t work.

So instead I’ve been playing with cotton. The driving force behind this has mainly been a desire to try to make a dent in the overflowing drawer of kitchen cotton in the yarn closet, but it’s resulting in some practical applications. For example, using the pattern from Maxon Dixon Knitting’s latest book, I whipped up a reusable cover for our Swiffer Wetjet, and am quite pleased with how it’s working out so far (It did a good job on the kitchen floor, at least). The hope is to get at least one or two more completed before I completely run out of cotton knitting steam, but we’ll see. In addition, I’m using up all the leftover yarn from the little bath mat I made months ago, to make a set of matching towels. I completed the first one this weekend (it’s nothing exciting; just a windowpane pattern in white cotton with little blobs of pastel colors running throughout) and cast on for a second one yesterday afternoon. And because the first little bathmat turned out so well, I’m working on a second one. Because this one is for the master bathroom shower, it’s going to be significantly larger. Again, nothing exciting – I just cast on 75 stitches using the cotton doubled, on size 10 1/2 US needles, and am slowly working my way through a million miles of mind-numbing garter stitch. It makes for good TV knitting, since I don’t have to pay it any attention at all, but I can only work on it for so long before the weight of it starts to make my hands sore.

I’ll get back to the lace eventually, I know. But for now, it’s nice to have smaller, simpler projects to focus on, until my lace knitting drive returns.

Every year we go to the California State Fair, and make sure to wander around the Creative Arts exhibits. And every year I think that one of these years I ought to enter something, just for kicks, but when I finally think about it, I have usually missed the entry deadline.

Remember this? This is the year I finally got around to bookmarking the info and marking the deadline on my calendar so I would be sure to finish the piece in time. I dropped it off a few weeks ago, entered into the Fiber Arts, Lace division. I really didn’t expect much, since California’s a pretty big state and I’m sure that they get a lot of entries, and there are tons of amazing lace knitters and crocheters out there.

I came home yesterday afternoon from work to find a letter from the State Fair, with some exciting news. My lace stole took 2nd place! Wow! I figured I’d be happy if it was simply selected to be displayed (they do not display every entry; only those that place, or receive an honorable mention), so I admit I did a teeny little happy dance when I read the letter.

Judge’s comments: “Your shawl is beautiful and will be a joy to wear. You were in an exceptionally competitive class of lacy creations. Congratulations on a lovely technique.”

It’ll be on display in the Creative Arts buildings August 21 – September 7, at the Cal Expo Fairgrounds in Sacramento.