Wendy Knits

Thora mentioned the Kliban cat poem “Love to Eat Them Mousies” in yesterday’s comments and I had to laugh. Because that’s been running through my head since the beginning of the Mouse-a-thon.

You can visit the Official Kliban Cat Website and hear a lovely rendition of the poem there.

Speaking of the Mouse-a-thon, yesterday I received mice from Shelly in Wyoming, OH, Debbie in Forest Hill, WV, and Beth in Terre Haute, IN. It was very exciting opening mouse packages and seeing the adorable little critters you created. Thanks!

I will be keeping a running total of number of mousies received over in the sidebar, under the Mouse-a-thon button. Check out the updated total of mousies received! Woo hoo!

Maximilian

Didn’t take you guys long to figure out that I’m knitting Maximilian, a design by Jade Starmore from her book A Collector’s Item. It’s knitted in pieces, btw.

I was asked about the side pattern. It consists of little stockinette squares outlined in reverse stockinette stitch, with a knot in the center of each square. Knot achieved by working k1, p1, k1, p1 all in one stitch, then decreasing back down to one stitch by passing the first three stitches created over the last one. It makes for an interesting bit of texture, but not quite as offensive as a bobble.

The photo of Maximilian from the book can be seen here, on the Virtualyarns website.

Hope asked how I’m enjoying knitting it.

Well . . . I’m enjoying it more than I expected. It’s nice to be knitting texture again. It’s a pretty easy pattern, not much of a challenge for me, but it’s a fun knit nevertheless.

Of course if you ask me again in a week I’ll probably tell you bored silly with it.

But I’m liking the way it looks — no matter how bored I’ll get with it.

August Contest

I’ve gotten some great entries so far — thanks. One request. Please send all your links in one email. Uncle! Uncle! Unlike the Mouse-a-thon, this is one entry per person. (I probably should have made that clear.) I’m being inundated with multiple emails from a number of you and it’s getting hard to keep track of what is what, not to mention flooding my inbox. Submitting multiple links is great — just please do ‘em all at once. Thanks!

Though at the office we sometimes call it “WTF Friday.”

Okay. I hate mail order catalogs. In fact, when they appear in my mailbox, I throw them away on the spot. I live in a high rise condo so my mailbox is one of a bank of mailboxes in the lobby. Building management has large trash cans thoughtfully placed by the mailboxes so we can dispose of our junk mail then and there. No fuss, no muss

The other day I got the Gorsuch catalog in the mail. I didn’t pitch it because they always have a bunch of drop-dead gorgeous Dale of Norway sweaters in their catalog.

This time was no exception.

There is a Dale sweater on page 33 of the catalog (which as of this writing is not online at the Gorsuch website) called the Peace Sweater that I think is da bomb.

And most of the time the Dale ready-knits are not available as knitting patterns. I know the amazing Flor has charted patterns from photos of sweaters. Worth a try, eh?

I was showing the photo of the Peace Sweater to my coworker Monica and bemoaning the fact that it wasn’t good enough to chart from. Monica says, “Buy it, chart it, and then return it. What’s their return policy — 30 days?”

This woman is brilliant. You can understand why we hired her.

I looked at the return policy (now this is all in fun, you understand — I wouldn’t actually buy it, chart it, and return it) and it’s only 14 days.

Monica says “Well you’d have to take a couple of days vacation then.”

And we had a good laugh about it. Me calling in to my boss “Hello, Kay? I need to take a couple of days off — the sweater arrived!”

Mouse-a-thon News

Our Mouse-a-thon is featured on the Capital Animal Care website. Check it out!

And I put together a mouse package to show you all. Lucy is very proud of herself.

Map Hijinks

Ooh! Ooh! Wanna see where I work?

The upper arrow points to my building — the funky t-shaped thing. The lower arrow points to the U.S. Capitol.

So if you’re in the neighborhood, wave, okay?

Sock Yarn-o-Rama

The box of Regia I showed you yesterday? Purchased from Wool Needlework in Canada. Check ‘em out — their Regia is dirt cheap.

In yesterday’s photo, the color numbers are, from left to right: 5296, 5294, 5173, and 5343.

Contest A-Go-Go

August contest will be announced on Monday! Very cool prize . . .

And the Most Fun of All

I finished Frogner! I finished Frogner! Yahoo!!!!!!!

Zee front:

And zee back:

Official photo shoot this weekend.

Work on the Mystery Aran commenced immediately. Can you figure out what it is?

Maybe not. But there’ll be (hopefully) lots more progress to show Monday.

Have a wild, wacky, and wooly weekend, all!

I got this sad story from Andrea via email yesterday:

This is your yarn:

This is your yarn on cats:

Any questions???

I purchased 2 skeins of “Digit” yarn from Nancy’s Knitknacks (.com) which is a washed wool (they take a Jagger-spun yarn, wash it to slightly full it, then re-skein it). I foolishly left them out on the kitchen counter last night, and my husband brought up the second skein this morning. Apparently my 3 ruffians were wilding last night, and I never even knew it. Fortunately, the skein was still tied, so it straightened out just fine with a few good tugs. Let this be a lesson to us all!

Thanks, Andrea!

Speaking of sad stories, I’ve heard from some of you that your cat friends are not very charitable! It seems that they have been helping themselves to mice that are supposed to go to help poor little orphan kitties.

I hope these shenanigans don’t give Lucy ideas . . .

It’s Not the Heat, It’s the Humidity

It may be trite, but it’s true! The temperatures in the DC area are only in the 80s this week but Jeez! The humidity!

When I go down into the subway to go home in the afternoons it’s almost unbearable. The other day I had to wait 8 minutes for a train and I was gasping for breath by the time it arrived.

I thought hot air rises so it ought to be cool underground. Not.

Lucy knows that the key to being cool is to to remain properly hydrated at all times.

Uh huh. She lolls around in the comfort of her air-conditioned home all day. That’s how she stays cool.

Mystery Aran

I’ll be starting the mystery aran soon! Here’s what I’m using to knit it.

Y’all remember this yarn? Sheepswool from Brunswick. I used to love this stuff. A good basic worsted weight wool with high yardage, reasonably priced, and a nice range of colors. Which of course got discontinued. I found this on eBay a couple of years ago.

Yes, I’m actually using some of my stash yarn! Get me!

Frogner

Here’s the second sleeve in all its glory:

Mouse-a-thon Update

I received the first mouse package in the mail yesterday! This was from Caroline in Baltimore. Thanks Caroline!

And we have a second Volunteer Mouse Stuffer — thanks Rose!

Yesterday Jessica revised my mouse pattern to make a slightly easier version — there’s a copy posted here. It’s also linked to from the main Mouse-a-thon page.

Thanks Jessica!