More Cat Capers

Hey it's finally March...and it's that time again...more cat capers.

So Top O' The Morning To You from Mc' Tic Toc




Mc' Crespo





and Mc' Piper...





and yes Mc' Crespo does look like he indeed
had too much Irish special in his cat bowl
and is sleeping it off in his little party hat.

As for what's on my needles,
still struggling with the sweater,
and it's now time to consult the sweater gods
(my local knitting guild, wiser souls than me)
to check this pattern for me, as there seems to be
some errata, however cannot find any posted anywhere.

Also still working on a rather strange purse project...
scrumbling, loads of fun...but not so portable,
as it uses so many different yarns,
and now has grown rather out of hand...
but a few work in progress photos to post for now...







As always lots of fun little projects up my sleeve, stay tuned...
~And as you can see only Piper would agree to wear the Irish beard.
Beard is crocheted as is shamrock on hat.

Recapping February's Yarny Adventures

My New Year's Resolution continues that I made
back at the beginning of the year...
~At least one new yarn adventure monthly
till the end of the year.
February was a yarn crawl month
to neighboring states to check out new yarn stores...
Last week, I found a lovely discount store in Rhode Island,
and today I was off to New Hampshire to visit Nashua and Ewe'll Love It http://www.ewellloveit.com/



Lots of cute little store signs, both out front
and inside the building directing knitters down
the hallway to the shop







And finally just one quick shot of part of the store:



Not sure what my favorite thing was...
this was a very spatious store, with absolutely no crowding anywhere...
There were lovely couches to sit on,
and a knitting group was actually going on while I was there,
and there was so much room, I could easily walk around pat yarn,
and sit and look at their many books...
There are a few books I just can't find in either
the large book stores in our area or any of the local yarn stores,
and have just decided to order them online,
until I came into this store, and there they were
right on the shelf...amazing.
They have a lovely selection of Rowan,
as well as all the popular mags, but also Cast On and Rebecca (past issues too)...they seem to have a lot of overseas books especially.
The yarn selection was huge, and I really needed more time,
they also have a loft upstairs with marked down yarn some of which
I just can't believe has been discounted.
I can't resist pretty unusual needles or new gadgets,
both of which they had loads...so also picked up
a few trinkets I had never seen before...
Oh and must mention, staff very pleasant and eager to assist..
this is a definite return visit.....!
Now part II got a swift for Christmas...lovely gift and still
in its box, as don't have a clue what to do with it.
saw a lady winding a skein with swift and ball winder today...
however don't own a ball winder...so spent better part of the night
with help from my wonderful (nonknitting) husband with the mechanics
of the project and made my own ball winder and thread feeder thingy.
Not sure if the photos will help... It's mostly K'nex, some Lego's,
and a toy motor, so it's motorized...and works quite well...will need
a little tweeking...but it works! Hooray!

Fairies, socks, and a wolf in grandma's (flower?) bed...

Day late...and too many photos to print...
will just have to pick out the best.
First up...what's on my needles, lest I get
too much away from knitting...I am deep into a
free form project, and now that I am halfway
through, I must say it is so addicting!
Hope to have photos up on that one by Friday.

First up: went to the Rhode Island
Spring Flower and Garden Show
in Providence, Rhode Island this weekend...
this was my first visit
to this particular show...and I would classify
it as a Keeper!
This year's theme was Fairy Tales,
and they all seemed to be well
represented and the whole show was
most enchanting...
My major purchase was a large bunch of
pussy willows for only $4.
and we all got free flower seeds,
mine were "forget me not."







A few more photos of more commonly known fairy tales:
Hansel & Gretel, the 3 Little Pigs, and even the Big Bad Wolf
in Granny's bed, which is depicted here as a "Flower Bed."













And a few final lovely flower scenes...











I went with a girlfriend and we squeezed in time
for just one yarn store
experience in Rhode Island...we chose the Yarn Outlet
in Pawtucket, R.I.
as it was actually on our way.
We were both pleased, and went home
with several new purchases...
they have loads of books, most of which
were on sale...and lots of lovely sale yarn also.
my favorite purchase was a skein of
filatura di crosa party yarn, which looks
exactly like green grass knit up...
Easter is coming folks....need that
green grass...for my knitted eggs and
knitted bunnies..........

Finally, I am currently back to knitting socks,
found an ankle sock pattern that I really love,
and knits up really quick too, just grabbed some
crazy Easterish colored yarn from my stash...
and now I have some lovely socks for the spring.
Worsted Ankle Sock Pattern can be found here:
http://www.kraemeryarns.com/patterns/pdfs/ttw_anklesocks.pdf

then I went into my new Kristin Nicholas book,
Kristin Knits and made some of her wild colored
socks with her signature embroidery.

Honey I shrunk the kid's....... slippers

Oops, making fuzzy feet for yet another son.
as usual huge when finished knitting, would
fit a small elephant....so off to washer
for felting....

Sadly, they now would fit a SMALL child...
needed to be about size 10 men's.
Instead now a child's size to fit probably an 8 year old,
or a small stuffed dog, or even your house cat...







Last photo shows cute little slippers next to
my own slippers size 7 women.

No before photos taken, as never really
had a felting issue...this is the perfect
example, of not doing washer quick checks
as you felt...always have, but was online
with Ravelry, and just lost total track of
what I was doing. but they came out so nice
and do have a good home all planned for them.

~As for my son, well guess one of these days
I'll attempt another pair...but for now I have
Socks Fever...............

The Last Knit & final February items

A knitting friend of mine, posted this to her blog last year...
so it's been around for a bit, but if you haven't seen it...
you have to check this one out...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6ZjMWLqJvM
Just copy the above address into your browser window and hit go.
It's called THE LAST KNIT.

Finished up my February Valentine knitting with two last items:
first is my red felted flower vase...
need to get some flowers to put in it still,
it's decorated all around the side with
little nonfelted knitted white hearts.



Final item is a knitted heart with bobbles
(it's two-sided sewn together) with lavendar
inserted for a sachet...but I decided I would like
to hang mine in a window, so I attached a beaded hanger,
and put a crystal at the very bottom to catch the light.







Very excited, got some lovely green wool today.
and yes... the holiday crafting fever continues.
St. Patrick's Day...hmmmmmm

Ya Gotta Have Heart

February 1st is finally here...
time to knit & crochet lovely red things with hearts...




My Valentine's lace scarf is done...
This is the "Heart's Scarf" pattern
by Andrea Mantler, and can be found on her blog.
Used yarn I actually had, a stash buster, who knew...
Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Bulky in Red
less than one skein, for all of lace part,
and Patons Wool Classic Gray for crocheted
scalloped edge...this really was a lot of fun
to knit and a very well written pattern too.

Wouldn't be February without one more appearance
from Cupid...he showed up a little early
on the blog back in January...now what was he thinking...
Cupid and the Cat...Tic Toc really liked this
knitting project for some reason and
it wasn't even stuffed with catnip.

Going Green

Well everyone's doing it...Going Green...
so here I am knitting green stuff.

or perhaps I am just getting ready for March...
since I really still haven't finished
all my holiday knitting...but then
there's another way to view it...
it's now 2008, and I've got eleven
whole months now to get it done...hooray!

Recently found this lovely new book at the library.
Knitter's (put on horse blinders through this part of blog entry)



And since after paying the overdue library charges...
I still wanted to make almost everything in the book,
I went off to Barnes and Noble and bought it
for my growing shelf.
The tiny green bag, I whipped up at the retreat..
Intriguing, as it's made with nylon cord...
and I am always looking for unusual items to knit
or crochet with...
I will say it's a little rough on the hands...
but then it was a tiny project.
I had expected it to come out even smaller,
it was supposed to be a keychain purse..but pleased....
would make a lovely brief case for
an American Girl size doll.
I plan to find a tiny zipper and
line it with a nifty contrast fabric
to use as a cute coin purse.
The quarter in photo is to show scale.





Please note: button close up...we are so lucky
to have such a gorgeous button supply store
in our area: http://www.buttonboxquiltshop.com/index.htm
For anyone in Massachusetts or New England,
they are such a wonderful resource for lovely buttons,
and a great place to match a missing button
from an expensive jacket (been there done
that, at least a few times).

My other green item...I now have forgotten how I came across
this pattern, but so unusual, had to give it a try:
Knitted Celery...of course I could not resist this one:
see below for direct line to the pattern and the artist.
http://community.livejournal.com/crafty_tardis/46613.html






Four more days till February...
think I will be in a red knitting mood.