One word

CASHMERE

Cats multiply

My nephew and his girlfriend are leaving at the end of February to work in Ireland for a year and they have asked me to take care of their cats while they are in the Emerald Isle.

I will post more pictures once they come out of hiding - Arwen is an orange marble tabby and is comfortable with everyone except the dog now (much arching of back and fluffing of tail when Arthur arrives on the scene) and Casper is a pretty grey with a few subtle stripes on his tail, lovely eyeliner in cream (very 70s) and a spotted tummy.



Puss's Boots
Casper spent all of yesterday hiding in the furnace room scrunched down behind a bunch of boxes but he arrived on my bed last night and after some shuffling of cats, he spent the night in my room and I woke up to a purr-fest.

Still knitting (obsessively) the mitred square Hoxbro-ish shawl in Silk Garden Lite. Am a little more than half way through and am on the last row of squares before I split it for the front opening. It seems to be eating through the yarn at quite a rate but I should have enough. Starting to feel as if I woudl like to work on something else for a little while - have to work up the February SOTM (in Malabrigo Sock - droolworthy yarn if there ever was one)

Cat and project pictures later

Family pictures

Our lovely Arthur enjoying the snow








Pretty boy and the best dog! He's 13 and a happy go lucky fellow who especially loves to snow plow with his nose.

Pictures taken by my DD Katherine with my Nikon

modular - what again!

Sitting and freezing while watching TV on Tuesday evening wearing a couple of layers of wool made me dive into my stash and pull out some Silk Garden Lite that I had put aside to knit a Benedikta ( modular - Cornelia Tuttle-Hamilton for Noro) to knit what amounts to a blanket.

It is based on Vivian Hoxbro's Zig Zag Shawl (which I knit in her kit yarn of a warm tomato red with green diamond highlights and wear all the time) but in a heavier yarn and I am going to make it longer

Here is the start of it and I am a little further along - one more strip is finished and another one started.


I adore the colours and of course adore knitting modularly since no measuring is needed until the end. I have lots - 20 balls so this will be cosy and will also keep me warm while I am knitting it.

And I pulled out some orange Tofutsies for a pair of socks.

Can you tell I am freezing!

Stay warm everyone

Socks and more socks

Much sock knitting happening here - partly for my sock of the month club and partly to replenish my dwindling stock of personal socks.

I have lost a pair of Regia Jacquard in purple to the washing machine - loved those socks but they have a huge hole in the side - not even in the heel - so to repair them I would first have to dig through my leftovers and find the last of the yarn ( tis the pretty purple version) and then pretty much re-knit the whole foot. Not likely!

Then my beloved and only pair of Koigu socks that I knit long ago in the first summer after I started Red Bird (that would be August of 2000) and they have developed a big heel hole. Must fix that pair as they are a glorious shade of purple too.

I guess the purple ones come out of the sock drawer first and get worn the most!

Here is Curlicue - my January Sock of the Month:



It is knitted in the lovely Lana Grossa Meilenweit Seta Cashmere - charcoal grey and a very light silver grey.

All of my previous mosaic socks have been 1 motif with a few highlights. This one sports 3 (4 if you count the trim) different motifs and the instep is a mirror image of the ankle.

I particularily enjoy mosaic knitting since it is so simple to do and becasue you only use 1 colour at a time it makes for a not too thick sock (stranding be gone!)

Personal socks in Andante - my December SOTM - out of this are on my feet. Warm and cosy and the bright colour is perfect for the dull snowy day outside:

It is also Lana Grossa Meilenweit but this time is Magico - nice thick stripes of colour with short highlight broken stripes.

And another pair of this:


Which is some leftover Regia Kaffe Fassett Landscape. This one I knit in my Feather and Fan and the stripes are just narrow enough that each pattern line starts at a new colour. I likey!

I plan 2 more pairs before my mini sock marathon is done - another Regia Fassett one - ths time the variegated version in reds - again in Feather and Fan and something else that I haven't decided on yet but it will be bright!

Stay warm - its going down to -21 C here tonight - I won't be sticking my nose into that although I do have a quartet booked to play tonight - I am hoping it won't be that cold when we are en route.

And then there is the snow.......

Cheers and go and have a cup of tea