Less angry at knitting

I think I have fixed the run in the shawl. There is still one small mistake but you'd have to be a knitting guru to spot it. So I feel better about that.

Mitten top: still grrrr.

On a happier note, here are some pics of the final push to finish the kitty beds.

My able assistants demonstrate the size of a pre-felted kitty pi:


This is the final group of 5. To hold the shape of the bed and make the inside washable (and comfy!) I added a yard of coordinating fleece in each one. The cats love this!


This is my father-in-law's cat Duncan the day after Christmas. And the day after the day after, etc. etc. I think he might still be in it! My parents' cat Fluffy also inspected her bed and found it suitable. No pics of her though! All in all, a ton of work but the results were worth it:

Angry at knitting right now

Firstly, the Christmas Kitty Pis were a big success. At least two were in solid use before I even left to come home! Pictures to come.

Secondly, my dad requested those flip-tops for his fingerless gloves so he can wear them like mittens. I worked on one for about 6 hours using a top-down mitten pattern. I was going to stop at the thumb gusset and then sew or button them to the original gloves. I guess I misunderestimated (lol) my gauge because the mitten top turned out big and round like a newborn baby hat. So if anyone wants a charcoal gray alpaca wool ski cap for their newborn baby, let me know. (Seriously the yarn is pricey so I am going to frog it and start over.) It is incredibly irritating when something fails like that.

Thirdly, in anger at the mitten top, I began working on a beautiful lacy shawl (pattern called Pearly Elegance from KnitPicks) and I am thoroughly annoyed with that. I did OK for the first two rows, then totally f***ed up the first rounds of lace and had to rip it back about 8 rows. After that the lace came out well and I knew what I was doing.

Started the second lace rows (it's a repeating pattern of ten rows) and P.S. the fun fur is way too f***ing furrypuffy, I probably should have gone with the eyelash it called for. Nine rows into the second round of lace (carefully counting all the while) and something suddenly looked really wonky. Where the hell did that giant ladder come from?? I apparently dropped a stitch...somewhere...and it rolled down all the way to the bottom of the lace rows. *insert crying smiley here* There is no way to retrieve it properly and furthermore it probably screwed up the count everywhere. So I retrieved it in plain old knit and I'm going to look at it today and see how screwed up it is and if there's anything I can do. It is right near the end of the row so I might be able to fix it or ignore it. Wanted to scream at 11 pm last night though.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrr.

It's an, um, it's a...BEADED DOOHICKEY!

Once in a great while I will be overcome by the urge to try something different, to put down the knitting for a minute and head to a different section of the craft store.

This time it was big shiny glass beads and wire that called my name. I wanted to try one of those garden suncatcher glass thingamabobs that museum and garden stores everywhere sell for a meelion dollars.

Instructions, minschmuctions. Needlenose pliers are my friend. I had fun making it, whatever it is. My husband says it looks like beads stuck to a bunch of bent-up paperclips. But it is not made of yarn, and that is a plus.

Dash has a newfound love

Kitty pi the second is done. This one is in a cranberry red Lopi that is heathered with flecks of blue, green, and orange, striped with orange Lamb's Pride bulky that had been mistakenly marked as $3.50 a skein. Shhh! The eyelash is something very shiny and expensive whose name I cannot recall. This yarn held its shape after blocking better than the first pi, which has gone all floppy already.

Only too late did I realize that these are Virginia Tech colors. Go Hokies. Or something.

Here is the Hokie Pi pre-felted, closeup pre-felted, and being factory tested by the Kitten Prince of Kitty Pi Castle.