Halloween. It is cold and raining outside and all of the leaves are now off my trees. The plants in my gardens are bedded down under mulch to stay safe in the overnight freezes that are on the way and the bunnies of summer are no where to be seen. The children of the neighborhood have also gone somewhere else this evening as there isn’t a “trick-or-treater” in sight; the cats and I laid in some candy but no one has come.
Knitting
I’m seriously struggling this week as I adapt to a new medication, but that is a whole other post. I did manage to get my new Snark-O-Meter shawl finished and blocked in spite of tremendous cat help. Hannah loves the blocking mats and it was a battle to convince her to let me use them for, you know, blocking purposes. The kitten, faster then seems catly possible, was the master of flashing claws and nipping chompers as I tried to pin the shawl into place; he did leave the field of battle once I began spraying water on the shawl. Yay for the sprayed water blocking method! He is a brave boy, however, and was immediately back once I started to layer towels on top of the wet shawl to protect it from cats. Not to be outdone, Hannah decided that she should burrow into the towels. Luckily I had more blocking combs.
Do you understand how all this could be exhausting?
Anyway, the shawl survived blocking and looks fabulous!!
I just love how this shawl came out! All of this yarn was from the stash, and two of the colors (the gold and the orchid) had been languishing for years as I never found the right project for them. The gold especially was a problem as it is 100% silk yarn and I felt that it needed the right vehicle to show it off. The lace of this shawl with the rich colors and varied textures is absolutely perfect! You can’t see it in these pictures but the gold yarn glows in the lace and background sections.
I absolutely have to mention that Sharon from Security, the designer of this shawl (with some help from Casapinka) was banned from Facebook this week for threatening Finn, the newest (and somewhat shady) employee in the Casapinka world. Too much snark, it seems. There are some negotiations underway because both of these individuals are… cats. Hopefully Sharon will be back next week. If that isn’t the most 2021 thing that has happened this year, I’d like to hear of any others that beat it. 🙂
Books
I finally scored a copy of The Madness of Crowds from the local library. I’m early in the book and struggling a little with it as it is about the danger of ideas, misinformation, catchy messaging, and mob action. Umm… kind of the situation right now in the US. I’ll give it a little more time and then if it doesn’t perk up I’ll be going back to another science fiction novel with a strong female character who can cope with absolutely anything that the universe cares to send her way.
I’ll close with a shot of the kitten’s tail.
The tail is almost as big as the kitten! Do you see how much fur is on it? Maintaining that tail is almost like feeding another cat. No wonder the kitten is always hungry.
That’s it. Have a great week everyone!
Read a little, knit a little, and garden like your heart can’t live without it.
Happy Halloween!!
Yarn, Books & Roses 
I CANNOT get over that glorious object, the SOM, Marilyn. Wasn’t it simply wonderful that you’d saved that truly beautiful yarn and not used it for something else ?! The shawl is simply superb, and should be an heirloom for someone in your family. Have you put it out into the Casapinka world ? – has she seen it ? I do hope so: it must be by far the best version going.
As for your mad little moggies – well .. what a terrific life they have with you. Much as does The Boodster with me ! 🙂 Any cat lucky enough to be taken in by a Marilyn or an M-R should lie back and congratulate him or herself.
Big hug. Take care.
The SOM is kind of thrilling to put on. It is kind of opulent, to be sure. I did put it onto the Sharon Show Facebook page tonight; who knows when Casapinka will see it because of Sharon’s potty mouth.
I’ll let the kitties know what you said if they give me any trouble in the near future. Hopefully by the time I have to block another finished object (I just cast on a sweater) the kitten will be old enough to show some self restraint.
Thanks for the hug. I kind of need one this week.
I shall keep a weather eye out for your really bad times, Marilyn .. 🙂
What an exceptionally beautiful shawl! You have quite an eye for color and texture. I hope you do email a photo of the finished product to Casapinka so she can put it on the page with the shawl pattern when she returns.
Thank you! What a nice compliment, I did post a picture of the shawl to the Facebook group and the pictures are on my Ravelry project page where I think Casapinka can see them, but to be truthful, there are soooo many beautiful shawls in the group I’m not sure mine will even make the cute, It is a wonderful group of talented and supportive knitters.
That shawl has so much interest to it and beautiful yarns. There are stitches there I don’t recognise or understand how they are done, so that Sharon from security is a smart cookie. Those cute cats of yours! Perhaps Mateo can do some dusting or leaf sweeping with that big brush of a tail
It is all the different stitches and textures that draw me to these Casapinka MKALs. Once I saw how the colors played with each other I started the second shawl so that I could see what happened with a variegated yarn. I think I must be a process knitter. 🙂 I’ll see if I can get Mateo to do more dusting for me… now that you mention it, the book shelf looks better than usual. The cats are so cute! One of the things that I liked best about Hannah is that she has a little trill that she uses. Then came Mateo who trills and chirps constantly. They almost never meow unless it is an emergency; it is so endearing!
Your shawl is beautiful!
Thank you so much!
That really is a lovely shawl. A tour de force of texture and colour
Thank you! The design is great and I got lucky with the stash diving on this one.
Beautiful shawl. I love the colors.
Thank you!
The shawl is just gorgeous!!!
Thank you!
Your shawl is really just glorious! Love the colors – and it looks great with your coat as well! Wow – that is a lot of kitten help. Maybe too much? They are such cuties though – you are right, the kittens tail is huge!
The kitten help is really overwhelming when he puts his mind to it, but for the most part he is too busy to mess with the knitting and if it
does catch his interest he is easily distracted. Taking pictures before all the ends are woven in, however, is kind of a nightmare… I learned my lesson with that one!
I just bought more yarn to make two more grey sweaters because of that shawl!! 🙂