It is International Cat Day! Hannah is besides herself and has been celebrating all day with the new toys that arrived from Chewy yesterday.
Hannah is wondering if her feet are getting kind of big… yeah, a little bit… I am laying in more kitten food! Anyway, it was a pretty good week for Hannah and I as we knitted, read books, cooked meals for the next week, and basically took it easy. Well, I took it easy; Hannah is getting more athletic and demanding and expects me to play with her and… wait for it… feed her KITTY COOKIES!!! That’s right. She has decided that she likes those kitty cookies after all. Why do I do this to myself. Under no circumstances will I let her drink out of the faucet!
Knitting
I spent a lot of the week knitting and knitting on my Far Away Dreams shawl. I want to be honest here; I started this because I wanted no stress endless garter stitch as I was stressed out and fighting a flare. Now I’m less stressed out, the flare has receded somewhat to the usual background level of symptoms, and the garter stitch is still going on, and on, and on… There are 231 ridges of garter stitch and I am now close to 200 ridges, which is 400 rows. The end is in sight. Lace is right around the corner. I’m going to get this shawl down in the next week or two…
Then I opened up Ravelry.
Caitlin Hunter published another pattern!!! I love this sweater! I need to start on it right away!!
Hannah and I headed right up to shop the yarn stash for the yarn. This is what I found:
I was so excited to start. I planned to wind the yarn almost immediately. I made a fatal error. I succumbed to curiosity (curiosity killed the cat, you know… it can also be damaging to knitting progress…) and clicked on the icon for The Sharon Show by Casapinka. If you don’t know about this already, The Sharon Show is a MKAL (Mystery Knit Along) that is being run by Casapinka’s entitled, snarky, highly opinionated, snax demanding year-old cat. I don’t do MKAL’s at all, as I prefer to know exactly what I’m knitting before I invest all of that yarn. But this is pandemic time and I am sooo isolated right now. I just looked at all of my yarn and I know what I have up there. How can I walk away from interacting with a cat like this?
I got going on playing with the color order and when the first clue dropped yesterday I cast right on and got started. The pattern is so cat snarky and fun!! I am so glad that I am doing this. My first picture of the knitting can be found on my Ravelry project page; I don’t feel that I should post it here because…MYSTERY Knit Along.
I have a lot of knitting going on now. I am going to finish my clue each week as fast as I can and then really concentrate on the shawl so that I can open up the needles I need for that sweater. It’s a plan. I’ll let you know next week how I did.
Garden
I hurried that beetle on his way and gave the plant a good spray with soapy plant insecticide. Things are picking up in the garden. I’m looking forward to some butterflies coming by for a visit and snack. Hannah will like that!!
Books
I was a prolific reader as a kid, and very early on I was sucked into science fiction books. Heinlein was a popular author with me and I read Starship Troopers many times over the years. The last two weeks I have been reading a series of military science fiction books that are reminiscent of the books that I grew up with by the author Marko Kloos.
This actually is the 6th book in the series which I suspect is coming to an end with this volume. I have to be honest; I started the first book because it was included in my Kindle Unlimited package and it included a free audiobook, but once I got into it I was a happy knitter/quilter/flare-fighting invalid and kept getting the next volume in the series as soon as I finished a book.
Have a great week, everyone!!
Read a little, knit a little, and garden like your heart can’t live without it.
Yarn, Books & Roses 
Happy Cat Day Hannah!❤️
Hannah: Thank you!!
You’re welcome Hannah!
You have a real stash then, Marilyn: mine is only a pretend one. I used to buy yarn because I liked it; but never had the right amount/s for any pattern that appealed. I donated most of it to the old ladies who live in the aged care section of this place.
That mystery KAL sound like fun alright ! – may you enjoy it to completion, m’dear.
As for Hannah, or perhaps Her .. she’s an absolute beauty. But you’re right to be somewhat thoughtful about those paws. 😀
Oh, I have a yarn stash that is larger than some yarn stores. 🙂 You’d think that I was saving for a serious chronic disease followed by a pandemic, or something. Anyway, I do have lots of yarn and I also have saved every stinking left over ball of yarn so I have just crazy resources on hand. What did me in is all of the indie dyed yarns and the concept of fades. Now I’m wondering if I should throw out the scraps and who I should donate to, Such is life.
Then a pattern for Itty Bitty Kitties was published and I found everything that I needed to make then in my scraps!!
I’m really looking at the paws now. She is putting on weight pretty quickly and suddenly she is too big and heavy for me to pick up with one hand. She won’t be 5 months old until the 15th…
Oops. [grin] You may soon be at the stage where you have to simply allow her to sit on you. Something tells me she won’t need any encouragement, as she does it already. I don’t get to pick Boodie up much at all, even though he’s a very small moggy. But I get plenty of being sat on – I’m sure I’m pretty damned comfy ! 😀
Hannah’s paws look mahoosive from that camera angle. She is such a cute cat. Sounds like you’ll have a very busy knitty week. The group I invited you to last week is having a virtual knit group today at 1pm Eastern Daylight Time , details are in the group. There’s also an introduce your blog page. Hope you can make today’s or one of the calls so we could ‘speak’. If not today then have a great week.
Well, I do have Skype on my computer, but so far I haven[t figured out how to use it. The mysteries of Microsoft. Anyway, I’m not sure I’ll be ready in time for the group because sleep is calling me. Drat. I’ll try again in the morning. I have mastered Zoom, but this Skype business is being bad!
Thank you so much for thinking of me, inviting me to the group and now nudging me to join the virtual knit group! I do appreciate it so much.
Marilyn
Happy Cat Day! I’m thinking it should be one of those week long festivals with music:)
I’m looking forward to watching your mystery project. I saw the announcement and was very tempted… I haven’t done a mystery KAL since the one that I made it half way through and the project took a hideous (to me) turn. The yarn is lovely by the way.
Do knit the sweater too! I was eyeing that pattern but I have too many knitting obligations on my horizon.
There should be an entire week of cat videos, at the very least!! I understand completely about not doing MKALs. I tend to check into the spoiler posts of some popular ones and often I’m taken aback by how awful the completed products are. The colors didn’t work, or the whole concept board the mark, you know… when I bought this pattern the project schematic (coloring sheet) really helped and I changed my original color choices to the ones I’m using. I’m really hopeful, and it’s so much fun to be doing a pattern by a snarky cat (think MacKenzie on steroids!) that I’m okay with any finished project.
Awe!!! 🐾❤️
The butterfly bush is so pretty. Hannah really loves the camera, doesn’t she. So photogenic:)
She is photogenic; it’s the big eyes. Im lucky to have had 2 photogenic and people oriented cats in a row. 🙂
Looks like a great week! Your knitting plans sound awesome. Sound like Hannah had an awesome Cat Day!
It was a good week and now I’m all energized with new project ideas. Hannah iis still playing with all her toys so it is a great time to be productive!
Hannah is so adorable! 😻 I decided to join The Sharon Show MKAL. My first mystery knit a long. It is the perfect pandemic knit – simple but not boring. I love your color choices. I went for a cream base with bright, summery colors. I am almost finished with the first clue. Work keeps getting in the way. 🤣
I’m glad you are in the MKAL too. This is also my first MKAL; I’m having so much fun I actually dug around and found colors for another shawl in blues with fold and rust. It is perfect with the short sections, lots of interest, and some new stitches too. Then there is the Sharon snark, too!!