Happy Blogoversary/Crazy cat lady rant

I've been trying to find out when I started this silly excuse for a blog. I couldn't determine it for sure. My best guess is 2007. It would've been right after I was able to sign up for Ravelry. ::geezer voice:: Those were the good old days. You'd check the queue every day to see when your estimated date to join might be.

I've been cleaning out closets. This has resulted in the discovery of socks. Many, many, many pairs of socks. I never appreciated how obsessed I was with knitting socks until now. I actually have a lifetime supply of hand knit socks. I'm admittedly not a young person, but it's still a ridiculous number of socks.

I think this is why I've managed to complete one sweater start to finish without distraction. I'd have the darn thing washed and blocked except for the Elderly Cat Problem. Misty is 16 years old. Sometimes she chooses somewhere other than her litterbox to perform litterbox-appropriate activities. Most recently, she ruined my purse and soaked my license plate renewal forms. Gross! I can't think of a place where I can put a blocked sweater flat to dry where she couldn't get at it. I don't know what motivates her to behave like this. The purse ruining took some serious effort. I think the sweater will need to be pinned to the foam squares and leaned against a wall.

Knit-a-Long

Did I say I was swearing off of KALs? I lied. Knit Rowan is sponsoring a Kaffe Fassett mystery afghan. Shopping lists have already been released for four different colorways: red, brown, turquoise, and pastel. Instructions will be in multiple languages, too.

I feel a little bit guilty for getting KnitPicks yarn instead of Rowan, but it is less than half the cost this way. At least I have several of Kaffe Fassett's books. He combines colors and patterns in such wonderful ways.

I wasn't able to match all of the colors, but I think these will work. It's my interpretation of the pastel colorway:

It may be called pastel, but I don't think it'll end up looking like a baby blanket.

Blankie Who?

This was done to use up the leftovers from the Longer on the Inside scarf. It was also done to do a bunch of Doctor Who-themed dishcloth squares into a single thing. I ran out of yarn before completing what I'd planned, so I crocheted a border with the leftover leftovers. It needs to be bigger to be useful, so I may expand it in the future.

I can't do bamboo

This is the very pretty yarn I got from the SpaceCadet Yarn Alliance:

It's 80% bamboo, 20% merino. I haven't met a plant fiber yet that I like. My odd knitting style doesn't lend itself to plant fibers. They cut into my hands as I knit and it's really unpleasant. Hmm, maybe I can play with this with one of my little looms. That would keep my hands pretty much completely out of the mix.

I've been sticking with the Grandpa Cardigan and am within about 5" of the body being done.

I bailed on my mystery mittens. I think I chose a bad combination of yarns and maybe a bad needle size too. The mittens that other people are doing are pretty. Mine are not.

Works in progress, sort of

In ascending order by date and why the lack of progress:

• Hopsalot slippers, started 2/21/12. They have to be felted by hand and it takes an obnoxiously long time to do.
• Name of the Doctor Scarf, started 2/7/14. It's too hot to work on a scarf. Also, it's double knit and I wanted a break from double knit.
• Irma cardigan, started 8/14/14. I got distracted by the TARDIS scarf and this got set to one side. I'll probably finish this before the first two.
• Heart's-Ease Boutonnière, started 8/16/14. Construction's a little tricky. I set it aside to work on the cardigan some more.
• Blankie Who, started 8/28/14. I've been thinking about making a little blanket out of dishcloth pattern squares. I started it with the many leftovers from the TARDIS illusion scarf. It involves knitting 5 squares at once. It was just asking for me to be distracted by something. I think it was the new cardigan.
• Toirot Mystery Mitten, started 9/1/14. The second clue came out today. I'll probably work on it when I get tired of what I'm working on at the moment.

What I'm working on at the moment is the Grandpa Cardigan. I was watching QVC and they were selling these pretty Irish sweaters. You couldn't buy the yarn for them for the prices the sweaters were going for. I had one of those sweaters in a pale pink merino wool. It became too big but I couldn't bear to put it in the charity bag. Next thing you know, the house is full of little bits of pink yarn and I've got enough wool for a sweater. It's DK weight and so is the Grandpa that I found in my Ravlery queue. I'll be working on it until the next shiny object catches my eye.