It was only a short vacation, I swear!

Boy do I feel sheepish...ugh. Well, that didn't sound so horribly punny in my head, but anyway. I know it's been an obscenely long time since I've posted here and really I know I've been a very bad, bad girl but honestly for the past what, month or something, I haven't really been knitting all that much. I got incredibly frustrated with my branching out and just had to frog the whole damned thing so I could start over and well, I guess it left a bad taste in my mouth for a bit. I mean,I did knit some stuff but it was uninspired, boring and well, just generally crap, so for theI decided I needed to pick up a book and read and forget the traitorous scarf for the next couple of weeks. And the book that I picked up...well, let's just say that I've found a new author that I'm truly in love with and on top of all that, managed to find a fantastic new television series that I *have* to watch! You know how it is. I mean, when I was out of work for a week I did sit down and watch the entire first two seasons of Grey's on DVD (which was neat because there was a scene in the second season I think where Meredith and Izzy start knitting a sweater). Ellen Pompeo looked like she'd just learned to knit but was trying really hard to pretend to at least enjoy it a little, but Katherine Heigl moved along pretty fast, not that I believe that she could have actually knit a large men's sweater like the one she tossed to her boyfriend at the end of that episode in a day, but well, it is TV after all and well, I should just be glad that they even stuck knitting in there at all! :) Oh, yeah, and the reason I was out of work was my little trip to that amusement park that I mentioned in my last post. Just watch out for those dastardly waterslides, okay kids? Seriously. I did still have a lot of fun though. And at least I can blame the fact that my knitting sucked during that stint on the Vicadin and Flexarill that my doctor loaded me up on.

Anyway, so after I was done watching both seasons of Grey's, I needed something to do and I guess I needed a small break from the needle, so I snagged my wife's copy of Jeff Lindsay's "Darkly Dreaming Dexter", which I quickly devoured. So quickly that I *had* to go out and get the second book and read that one as well. Really, my "Dexter" addiction can only be blamed on two people, my friend Tiff and naturally, my crazy wife, of course!

See, she really IS crazy. And yes, that is a whole lotta Kale that she's wearing and uhm, playing with. She's strange. But I love her anyway. :) Oh! Speaking of addictions...I'm now on Ravelry so if anybody that reads this is on it, look me up! Anyhow, please excuse the blurriness of the Cap'n Kale picture, but I was laughing and well needless to say the camera shook and yeah, the blurriness occured. I suppose I have her to thank because as soon as I finished reading those books I picked up the needle again. No, I have not re-started my Branching Out (though I do plan on starting it up again sometime this week!), but I did start up a pair of Dashing so that I could properly thank my wife for providing yet more books that I still need to buy(as soon as they come out of course, we have the third one...but I'm putting it off so I can concentrate on my knitting). I used two skeins of Plymouth Yarns' Royal Llama Silk, and the result was a pair of the warmest and softest fingerless mitts I've ever tried on. I love them so much (especially because of the length of the arm itself) that I might have to snag more of it to make myself a pair sometime soon! I will warn you though, while the yarn does have some stretch to it, it's not a lot (or at least not in my opinion), so if you're using it for things that might have to stretch I'd be careful of the size of the garment being made. I have a few pictures of the gloves taken while the second one was still in the making. I've since finished them, but I've yet to take a picture of the finished product but when I do, I'll post it!




And...here's a close-up of the cable just because I think it's pretty!



I wicked love Cables right now...a lot actually. But the problem with them is that if there's too many of them on a sweater I tend to find them kind of fussy. Oh well, at least I can knit cable-loaded stuff for other people! :)

So, since I've finished with that, naturally I had to find another project and well, what I wound up starting was a Top Down for my friend's son Jeffrey. He's just the cutest kid ever and well, he deserves a cute lil' sweater so I went to my LYS and bought up some Classic Worsted
Long Print and started it up. I've only been working on it for a couple of days but I have almost the whole yoke done! It's going really fast and well, it's lots of fun to mindlessly knit it (a great project while watching "Dexter"!), not to mention the yarn's super soft and stripes up so beautifully!






I chose the bright greenish yellow and blue striped pattern because well, he's the kind of kid who deserves bright colors. I can't wait till it's done! I think I'll knit him a hit to go with it too...hrm.

Anyway, on other news fronts, a few weeks ago my wife found a little surprise in our basement. It's strange really, I didn't realise that thirteen year old cats could still get pregnant never mind give birth, but well, I guess I have to believe it because it happened. Why was the kitten in the basement you may ask? Well, Sophee (a gorgeous angora/calico mix) is the kind of cat that chews wires, scratches furniture and generally finds every which way to make herself a nuisance so...she lives in the basement and helps rid the househould of any mousies that may try to come in for the winter. She's really good at it. There's an orange tomcat that keeps coming around the yard, and we even found him in the basement with Sophee on one occasion, so I'm guessing that's probably when the cat got knocked up. Either way, by the time we found the kitten it had to have been at least four weeks old, and well, it's the cutest little orange and white fluffball ever seen! I mean, like calendar cute! See?


Super cute! We think he's a boy so we've named him Milo...which I think suits him perfectly. Right now he's a little people-shy but we're getting him out of that phase quickly so we can move him upstairs as soon as possible. There's nothing I like better than knitting with a cat curled up behind me. Somehow though, I don't think this kitty is the curling up kind. More like the play with the ball of yarn until it's spread all around your living room like a parade went through it kind of kitteh. Here's a few more pics of him!





That last picture makes me laugh simply because it looks like he's confused or something. Like he's saying "I'se nawt a shoulder kitteh...how'd I git here?" Too cute. And he's so soft and fluffy like his momma!

Okay, back to yarn. So, I was online, desperately searching for just the right yarn for the Buttony Sweater I plan on making soon, and wound up scoring a really good deal for some Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Chunky! A sealed bag of ten 50 g balls for only thirty-seven dollars! Talk about bargain. I mean, it's usually 8-10 dollars a SKEIN, so this was a complete and total blessing. Thank God for Ebay I tell ya. Now all I have to do is wait...which is my least favorite part of any order-by-mail transaction. It almost never arrives fast enough for a yarnoholic like myself. Still, I have other projects to keep me busy...yes, even that damned Branching Out. I don't know what it is about that lace pattern that eludes me. I'll have a good section going, and then whoops! I've stopped paying attention and I've lost my place in the pattern! This time, all I can say is LIFELINE! I'm gonna put one of those suckers in for every section I complete so that even if I do get lost I can try to save it rather than frog it! Anyway, once I get my yarn I'll start looking at buttons. I'm thinking something all Celtic Knotwork-y. Once I start it up I'll be posting pictures, but until then...I think I need to get off my knitty ass and get crackin' on something besides Jeffrey's sweater. I'm thinking socks so that I can put off the Branching Out a little longer. Heheh. :)