StashCat

Like a LOLCat, but lazier.

So, I have a new cat. Actually an old cat that is new again.

Hokay, let me try to explain. My mother and I swap cats. She lives on a farm and decided to rescue stray kittens, so she has a lot of cats. More cats than could really be considered normal and a house that is far too clean to have so many cats. I swear she's like a bionic woman when it comes to keeping a clean house with (*ahem*) fifteen cats.

Yes, fifteen.

Stop rolling your eyes, we used to have twenty. (The joke used to be 'I have two, my mother has the other 18 - cats are cheaper in packs of 20...)

Anyways she has a lot of very happy healthy cats in a disturbingly clean house. And when Sultan was a kitten he used to be called Meriadoc (because his brother was Pippin, 'natch) and he was supposed to be my cat. However my first cat, Robin, didn't like Meriadoc. So Robin stayed with me and Meriadoc stayed with my mom, who changed his name to Sultan. Thanks, Mom.

Anyways, after getting gainful employment and an apartment nearby said gainful employment, I wanted a cat with me in the apartment. But Robin is getting weird in his older age and he has decided that he will. Not. Move. Ever. Again. To the point where he hyperventilates and pulls out all of his fur if you try to move him to a new house. So that was a no. Meanwhile Sultan was banished to the basement for peeing on the baseboards (say that five times fast!) because he had dominant male issues.

So my mother sweet talked me into taking Sultan, again. He knows he new name now so I couldn't change it back. However being an only cat means he has had no peeing issues whatsoever. He does, however, believe he is prettier than any other creature on the farm, and he has also decided that my stash is his stash.



This is Herschnerrs Warehouse swag. Yum. I dig the Nob Hill Jewel Sparkle for kid's hats. Sultan prefers it for it's lovely bed-like qualities.

Look at him. He's smirking. Proud that he can shed on my yarn.

Jerk.

Belated Halloween, The Eviscerated Yarn Stash, and Pirates!

So... first things first. Last post.

I very rarely drink, and yesterday, after fighting for two hours over the phone with a bank three states away that kept telling me "Well, you have to come in to one of our offices" and me saying "What part of I am in Vermont for seven months and you are over 10 hours away don't you understand?" I finally hung up and went to knit.

I finished a brand spankin' new hat design, went home and felt wound up. Didn't want to play beer pong with my housemates. They have this tendency to revel in frat boy style partying, even though we are all rapidly aging out of that category. I thought a nice quiet night with some Italian and some wine would be nice. hen I got to listening to Hibiscuit's girls' Extreme Drunken Winter IK review, and decided to drink along.

Truth be told, if you're of age and want something to do that's safe, relaxing and funny, it's a hoot. And even when sober, I can say that I love Hibiscuits Girl, she is my hero.

Anyways, on to today's affairs. This is my catch up post. I have FO's piling up around me, which many knitters would say 'you lucky punk!' For me it's more like 'Dear God, where do I put everything? Besides on my head?'

So let's start with Halloween.
I must, must, must must, MUST finish my Harry Potter sweater. The one that I have bought all the yarn for and still have not cast on any stitches. I even got the charmed knits book from a friend to poke me into doing it.

I started the costume oh, about 5 years ago now. I add a piece to it every year. Well, every year but this one. This year was supposed to be a real vest or sweater, not one found at Salvation Army, but I was busy and it didn't happen -.-
The real reason I need to make myself one is that the vest/sweater needs a deep V-neck. Most vests do not have them that deep, but you need to have the tie underneath. You can't even see I have a house tie on this costume, which is sorta sad.

Th problem is kicking myself in the bud and getting it done. I wonder if there are any "Harry Potter Costume Knitters" support knitters out there. Otherwise by the time I get this costume done Harry Potter will be gone and forgotten.

Ah, well.  Halloween was great, the costume worked and I had alot of fun.  I love Halloween, and honestly I can't wait until I have either A. kids so I can sew them costumes or B. a house so I can decorate it and scare the bejesus out of kids who come to trick or treat and give them scads of candy.  I think too many people shy away from Halloween nowadays because it's some sort of "bad" holiday.  Come on, it's a crafter's paradise!  (That and any excuse for me to show off my costuming skills is good enough for me)

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Some people, as I have heard, organize their stashes.  They bag things up and place them carefully into storage.

I tried that.  I really did.  My yarn rebelled, committed seppuku and spilled it's yarney guts all over my floor 

(which is geek speak for, I keep my yarn on a shelf but I have a cat and that doesn't mix well.)


You can see the beginnings of the raspberry beret here (I wasn't kidding on that) and the 'it might never get finished' fair isle Virginia Tech scarf.

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"We Call Them Pirates" in progress, and a story!



I love this pattern!

I have to admit, I also love Fair isle.  

Most of the knitters I know in Vermont dislike it, and I adore it.  I haven't been fair isling for all that long (then again I haven't been knitting for all that long) and I'm constantly ready to jump in to a new project.

Now (*Cracks knuckles, sits down.*  Storytime!)  I always thought Fair Isle patterns were attractive.  I bought books on how to make Fair Isle sweaters even before I knew how to knit telling myself 'someday I'm going to make one of those.'

So when I learned to knit I wanted to try to fair isle.  Problem?  I leaned to knit English style.  Fair isle, holding both threads in your right hand... well... it sucks.  I ended up with a tight, lumpy, knotted mess.

I didn't do any Fair isle for over a year.  Two maybe.  I moved from Oregon to Wisconsin to Vermont.  And sitting in a LYS in Vermont, one lady looked over and started extolling the virtues of knitting continental.  She noticed that I hold my knitting oddly for an English knitter - I keep the index finger raised and the middle finger controlling the unknitted stitches, just how a continental knitter would.  She felt that that made me a prime candidate for learning continental.  And so she taught me.  I knit an entire beret in continental, and halfway through I decided I just didn't like knitting continental.  I hated purling continental.  I had a long hard think.


     I came to the conclusion that knitting is about quality of time spent doing it, not the quantity of what gets knit.  I enjoyed knitting my old way.   And so I did not become a continental convert.

     Instead I immediately applied my good knowledge to the pursuit of evil and with a comfortable grasp of continental knitting, I taught myself two-handed Fair Isle.  This was a technique that I could really sink my teeth into because it felt natural.  I picked up the book "Fair Isle Sweaters Simplified, which outlined some really useful techniques for painlessly weaving the yarn in as you go, and I was hooked.

This is probably a good thing.  Fair Isle is a great way to bust your stash