Camo Blanket - Night Sky

Another baby blanket has dripped from the needles. I'm loving entrelac, the way it allows you to combine two colours is just wonderful. And it seems to work well for a yarn with a really short colour sequence. I know that if I tried to do a long row with the Twilight colourway it would just look like a mess but in short rows it works nicely.

Pattern: Improvised
Yarn: Craft Smart Value Ombres in Twilight and Craft Smart Value Solids in Navy
Needle: 5.5mm
Gauge: not critical

Pets
I put this together in memory of Squish:

He died close to a year ago now but only recently did I feel ready to do this for him.

Current Weather
20C and partly cloudy. After three days of cold rain it got nice again just in time for the weekend.

2017 Year in Review

Pets

I hate leading off with bad news but I must sadly say that I lost Squish this year. He had been ill for a couple of years with thyroid and, more recently, kidney failure but when he suffered a stroke (I think it was a stroke, he showed all the classic symptoms that EMTs tell you to watch for in a human) and was left partly blind and unable to walk I had to let him go. Rest easy my Squishy-cat; I miss you still.

Mouse has adjusted to being the only cat quite well and has embraced her Siamese genes by mewing constantly, mostly when she wants food; which seems to be every 20 minutes. Unfortunately, she has suffered from IBS for most of her life and has now added pancreatitis to her list of ailments. Watching her suffer through a flare-up is horrifying; the poor little cat is clearly in agony when it happens. And there isn't anything the vet can do for her, no medication or anything; all we can do is watch and hope she doesn't get worse.

Eclipse has not had any change in her health status but she does have cancer so I don't know how long she will be with us. Could be years could be months, with cancer you just never know.

Soccer's kidneys have started to fail so he's on medication for that. And he developed a fat lump on his side very quickly just before Christmas, monitoring for now and it has not become hard so far. He also seems to have a depressed appetite, food doesn't seem to interest him much and I had to move him onto a prescription vet diet; at least he'll eat it, he was refusing to eat anything for a couple weeks last spring and he's not a dog that should skip many meals given that he's always been a bit scrawny. For now he's still eating and doesn't seem to be in pain so we're monitoring.

Ahab seems to be that last healthy pet in the house and still loves playing Scent Hurdle. I'm keeping him running only one heat per race otherwise he seems to be really tired before the end of the tournament.

Knitting and other Fiber Arts

And now, let us take a look at the fiber accomplishments of 2017. I spent most of this year unemployed so my production level was high.


First completed project of this year was a pair of socks for my Niece. My Nephew's socks were completed in 2016 for his 2017 birthday so they show up on last year's review.










Followed immediately by a pair of socks for myself.

Then my Calgary Sister texted me a picture and asked if I could make her a hat like the one I had made for my Niece for Christmas 2015 in black or grey. How can one refuse? I called it Space Wurm not because of the colour (a true black) but because I was watching space documentaries while knitting it. Colour would have been a good reason to call it Space Wurm too.




Next, having learned that my Wee Niece's mauve Wonderful Wallaby just barely fit, I made a larger one for her. I have actually seen her wearing this in several video calls with her! Now, that's the way to get yourself hand knits. Or for your mother to get you hand knits. Either way.





Then came a pair of John Deere socks. I had originally intended these as a gift for a friend but one ended up longer than the other by about 1cm so I'm reluctant to gift them. They're waiting for me to make a decision.




Next I completed the first three of a series of Hats. I had some old Wool-Ease in my stash that I could never think what to do with. I can't even remember what I originally bought it for; so I made it up into a bunch of hats. This also lead to an important question - What do you call a group of hats? My personal favourite was a friend's suggestion of a "snuggle of toques".

Then came my UK Vacation. There were many adventures, but of relevance to knitting - while on the train from London to Edinburgh it broke down so I had lots of time to work on a pair of socks. I knit most of a sock while stuck on the train then completed the pair in the lounge of the hotel in Edinburgh. They're in my Scent Hurdle team's colours and I've been wearing them to tournaments, well, in winter that is.







And I finished another entire pair of socks while visiting with my Sister in Aberdeen. These went to my Mom for Mother's Day, which is celebrated in March in the UK so she got them early since we were in the UK and they were finished and it was UK Mother's Day. She did not get a second pair for Canadian Mother's Day but only because I didn't have time, I would have if I'd had time.


Upon returning home the hats continued to drip from my needles, it helps that Wool-Ease is a really chunky yarn, giving me a total of nine in various sizes. I originally intended to give these to charity, except for the medium green which I kept for myself, but they kept getting claimed by those who saw them on the table at the front door. In the end I kept the medium green, the solid red went to my Mom, the large charcoal to my brother-in-law, the blue with red stripe and grey crown to my Niece, the large green to my Nephew, the charcoal with red ribbing to my Sister, the small blue to my Wee Niece, and only three went into the charity box. Still, they all found a good home.

Then I did some experimenting with loom knitting, I would like to do more of this but I'm having problems finding the right tools. I have a feeling this could mean I'm pushing the envelope here. Cool beans. I did a small blanket that I ended up not liking because I chose the wrong cast off and messed up the pattern, this may get frogged yet. Plus, I have since found that double knitting works really well when you are working with two colours, so I really I feel I should be pushing this technique more and using three or more colours.


Next a sweater for me. I wore this lot through the cold snap over Christmas and New Years.











Then socks for my Dad for Father's Day.




Another sweater for my Wee Niece. The colour in the picture is completely wrong, it's actually a light blue. Since its in Scotland taking a replacement picture is tricky.






I enlarged the fish from the "A Recipe for Fish" blanket pattern and made a dish cloth.






Followed by a couple of Aww-Poo Bags. Still working on perfecting the pattern for these as I'm not 100% satisfied with it.

A flaming red 10 Stitch Blanket. My awe for the genius of Frankie Brown continues unabated. No particular plan for this at this time. I'm not worried; there's always someone having a baby.






A blue blanket. I had no recipient in mind when I made this but it worked out well when it went to a friend of my Scottish Sister who had a baby boy this year. The friend lives in Canada so there were no shipping costs incurred.




Some cotton socks for myself as I always seem to run out of summer socks. Not that I wear socks much in summer but it is good to have some.






Next some boring and practical dish cloths. As you can no doubt tell from the Franken-Cloth I was using up old stash to make these.

Another Aww-Poo Bag, this one came out a bit small, so still working on perfecting the design.











Another baby blanket, tentatively thinking of trying to sell these. And if that doesn't work out then I have plenty of baby gifts. There is a diamond pattern in this blanket, you can't see it at all in the picture but I assure you, its there.




Reached into my stash and worked up a baby car-seat blanket. The picture may not show it well but there are holes you can buckle a baby car-seat through. That way the baby can't kick the blanket off. This was this year's only crochet project.





I had purchased some alpaca sock-weight yarn to go into my Mitered Square Sock Blanket but I ended up with too much orange so I used the alpaca (why wouldn't you choose the alpaca?) to make mittens instead. There is a finger hole in the right mitten so you can text or use your GPS without removing your mittens.





Then I finished the first Christmas present, my Nephew's Star Wars Scarf. This was my first try at double-knitting and I have fallen completely in love with the technique; it is awesome. Also, I love this pattern and am still debating doing one for myself. I fear that if I do though I'd better also do one for my brother-in-law.




There was enough alpaca left after the mittens for a headband. It is currently far too cold to wear this.






And Christmas present number two, more double-knitting to make a Horse Scarf for my Niece. The colours in the picture are really off, the background should be light beige, same as in the Star Wars Scarf picture, and the scarf itself is dark purple and mauve.



And then another little blanket, blue with a leaf pattern. This picture is pre-blocking, I suspect the pattern will calm down and it will look much better once I take some steam to it.





And finally one last blanket with a single snowflake pattern but mostly stockinette stitch. Finished this on Dec. 30, although like the blanket above it still needs blocking, so it just squeaked across the wire.






Completed this year:
38 projects
36 knitting projects
9 chunky hats
7 little blankets
7 pairs of socks
3 sweaters
3 dish cleaning apparatus
3 Aww-Poo Bags (experimental)
2 double-knit scarves
1 wurm hat
1 pair of mittens
1 headband
1 loom knit project
1 crochet project

Current Weather
A balmy -20C and sunny. After over a week of -30C temperatures -20C feels positively warm.

Family

It's been super busy around here this summer with some extended family visiting - my Scottish Sister's in-laws came to visit.  They went on a few road trips on their own but there were a couple of weeks where we had 9 people staying here. The three of us who live here, my Scottish Sister, her husband, and my Wee Niece, plus my Brother-in-Law's parents and sister. Whew, what a crowd. Mom was brilliant at arranging home-cooked meals for 9.

My Scottish Sister and her husband held a vow renewal this summer so her Canadian friends could attend. It was a very informal ceremony held at our parents' recreational property (they own a part-share of a private campground). A friend of my Mom's conducted the ceremony and she kept it really light-hearted, even referencing my Dad's goof in writing Vowel Renewal on the calendar. We all had to review our vowels.

My two Nieces totally stole the show. My Canadian Niece was made a last minute junior bridesmaid, my Sister was not going to worry about it but decided to let our Niece have some fun participating in the ceremony. She was also in charge of keeping her young cousin (the bride and groom's daughter, my Wee Niece) entertained so they were both front and center through the ceremony. It was wonderfully cute and off-the-cuff and fun.

The reception was just 'burgers and 'dogs with some salads on the side. Much fun was had by all. Although I had to leave early to care for Squish.

Which was of course the saddest part of the past month; saying good-bye to one of the cats who have been with me for my entire adult life. I'm still shocked at how big a hole a 5kg cat can leave behind. Fortunately Mouse seems to be adjusting to being the only cat quite well, one might almost say she is embracing it. She has been meowing more and more, I don't know why she's suddenly decided to 'talk' to us lowly humans so much more but it is terribly fun filling in my half of the conversation. Example:

"Mew."

"Yes Mouse, I know it's hot, we don't have a/c."

"Meow."

"I'm afraid there's not much I can do. You could try going downstairs where its cooler."

Which advise she promptly ignores; you get the idea.

My Uncle and Aunt also came to visit while on their cross country motorcycle trip and we invited another cousin and her husband who live nearby; we don't get together with them nearly often enough. We tried to surprise Dad with his brother's visit but we were undone by a chicken. Basically, we wanted to prepare far too much food for the number of people he knew were going to be attending dinner that evening so he guessed there would be extra guests coming. We tried. It was still really nice to see them.

Kitting

Knitting was done while the guests were here and even some finishing.

Another dog poo-bag holder, I think I'll call them Aww-Poo Bags. This one came out a bit too small I think.

Pattern: not finished
Yarn: Schachenmayr Regia Pairfect Cotton in Ocean
Needle: 3.0mm
Gauge: 42 stitches and 49 rows in 10cm

I have also been working on some baby blankets and a sock weight cover for my bed. That one's a long term project.

Speaking of baby blankets, the Blue Pennants blanket was gifted to a friend who recently had a baby boy. It should keep him nice and warm once fall arrives.

Oh, and a number of dish cloths. Just used up some random cotton I had lying around to make these. I just cast on a few stitches, increased to the size I wanted then decreased again.

Pattern: Improvised
Yarn: cotton from the stash
Needle: 4.5mm
Gauge: not critical

The frankencloth already has a story to tell; it had barely made it into the cupboard to go into circulation when I accidentally slammed by elbow down on a dirty wine glass breaking it and cutting my elbow quite badly, my Scottish Sister was there (it was early in the morning so I'm glad she woke up early that day) and she thinks I hit an artery; it would make sense considering how much such a small cut bled. In any event, the frankencloth was called into service to stop the bleeding; which it did quite well. Of course, since I'd broken a wine glass and dripped plenty of blood on the floor my sister had to clean up the kitchen before first aid could be applied. She cleaned the cut out for me and put a band-aid on. It seems to be healing nicely but there also seemed to be a lot of bruising inside my elbow; I had difficulty using it for a couple of days. Two days later I sliced my finger open on a piece of glass that somehow got caught in the sink drain, fortunately that was considerably less dramatic. This is good because this time I was the only one home and had to do first aid for myself. Everything's pretty much healed now.

And there were socks. Keeping these for myself.

Pattern: improvised
Yarn: Schachenmayr Regia Pairfect Cotton in Ocean
Needle: 3.0mm
Gauge: 42 stitches and 49 rows in 10cm

Ocean Socks

Current Weather
21C and Sunny. We should get up to about 28C this afternoon.

In Loving Memory

Squish crossed the Rainbow Bridge this morning after suffering what appeared to be a stroke on Monday, by Wednesday it was clear he wasn't going to recover. He had also been suffering from thyroid failure for a couple of years and his kidneys had started to fail about 6 months ago. He was one week shy of his 16th birthday.

Four months before passing

Three months before passing, still looking healthy

Squish is the only cat I know of who ever got caught with both front feet in a lasagna pan while he drank the sauce. When I yelled at him he went racing across the kitchen floor leaving a trail of orange paw prints behind him. He had orange paws for a week. Tragically, I don't have any pictures of this incident as it occurred before cameras on cell phones where a thing. In fact, cell phones where still really expensive at the time and all they did was text and make phone calls. And my camera was still packed from moving.

Chowing down, Squish always got the top spot

He loved to sit on my Dad in the evenings. As a kitten he could purr so loudly he'd almost drown out the TV, although in later years he quieted his purr quite a bit.

Chilling with Dad

Writing this was especially hard because Squish is no longer here to sit in my lap and help me type. Miss you my feline.

Because it's cute

Squish went to the vet today to have his blood pressure taken. The joys of getting old.

This is how he decided to wait.......

Finishing

Finishing anything is proving elusive lately. The cotton hoodie just isn't going to work, I give up. At last, I stuck with this far, far too long.

Mom's birthday socks just won't finish themselves. Probably because I haven't been knitting them lately. I'm sure there's no correlation.

My blue sweater got frogged and restarted. Again. Urgh, I really hope this time it works.

I have managed a couple Christmas things. So far that's the only bright spot.

Other Stuff

I purchased a sheep skin for the critters. So far Soccer likes it best. In fact he growled at Squish for walking too close to it. No pictures of that unfortunately.

Here's Squish enjoying it before Soccer took over:

Mouse wasn't quite sure she trusted it yet:

Current Weather
Mostly cloudy, 3C.

Update on Squish

Squish is not well. He's eating a special kidney cat food. Fortunately, he seems to like it; so far at least. Unfortunately, Mouse also seems to like it. I was worried he would refuse to eat it.

All of this means I'm very afraid that Squish is not much longer for this world. Kidney failure is not a good thing; it is a fatal condition. Must make sure I get plenty of Squish love while I still can. Loosing him is going to be devastating. He was my first pet that was my pet not the family pet. I'm also not sure how well Mouse will do once he's gone.

Knitting

Did some math on the new cotton sweater and I came up short. So, I went on a yarn hunt and miracle, of miracles; I found some! Same dye lot and everything. Sweet!

Current Weather
Mostly cloudy, 24C.

Hot, hot, hot. Actually it cooled off a bit today. We passed 30C several times in the past week. In June no less.

Squish

Poor Squish isn't doing too well right now. His thyroid packed it in spring of 2015 and now he's having problems making it to the litterbox. Off to the vet we went and the urine test shows he's not concentrating his urine. This could mean renal failure; his kidneys are not working right.

Took him in again today to have blood taken to confirm if this is the case. The vet techs told me he was really good, right up until he'd had enough of being poked and prodded. Can't say I blame him for getting tired of being poked.

Here's hoping this is treatable.

One cute Squishy.

Knitting
Started a new cotton sweater, I need more indoor/summer sweaters. The fabric was coming out too stiff though so I had to frog the sleeves. Oh, well; starting with the sleeves means I can use them as a gauge swatch. This one is worsted weight so it'll go much faster than Hazelnut.

Hazelnut continues. Knitting fingering weight sweaters does take some time. I plan to do several over the next months/weeks/years so I have lots to choose from.

Current Weather
Partly cloudy, 15C.

Rained a bit early in the afternoon but then cleared up again. I was expecting more rain this evening but so far no signs.

Took the boys for a nice walk this afternoon. They enjoyed it for sure.

Sleeve

Today the plan was to finish knitting the sleeve for my Wee Niece's Seamless Purple sweater.

Which I did.

Figured it would be best to pick up the stitches for the second sleeve at the same time so I wouldn't do something silly like use the needle for another project when this one's not yet finished.

Then I just started knitting the second sleeve and before I knew it I was finished the sweater. I was reading a book at the same time, e-books are great for this, maybe that explains it. Made this one solid with no second colour. Other than that it's exactly as the pattern is written; ummm, perhaps a bit longer. Hope it fits.

Pattern: Seamless Blue by Felicia Semple
Yarn: Easy Knit Tricot Facile (Marotex) Bébé Luv Baby Georga in Grape
Needle: 3.0mm & 2.5mm
Gauge: 26 stitches X 35 rows = 10cm

This is one of the nicest acrylics I've ever worked with, nice and soft.

Squish
Squish has been sick. He's not using the litterbox which is very upsetting. Took him to the vet yesterday and he clearly has some pain in his abdomen. He's got some painkillers and Mom will take him back to the vet on Tuesday so they can collect a urine sample to see if he has an infection.

After doing some reading on-line I also decided to replace the litterboxes. Not just the litter but the actual litterboxes. They're almost 15 years old (both the litterboxes and the cats) and accumulated odors could be a problem. Just bought the cheapest pans I could find since that's what my old kitties seem to want, no covers or anything. The litterboxes are in a storage room with a cat door for them to come and go through (this is so Ahab won't snack on cat poo which is totally gross), it's lit by a night-light and unsurprisingly they're using the one closest to the light the most. Go figure. I actually replaced the light recently too in case the poor old things are having a hard time seeing in the dark. Age y'know.

Ahab
Ahab earned his second Scent Hurdle title on May 7. Total surprise, I though he was still 20 or more points away from earning it.

Current Weather
5C and raining.
It has been raining all day, except for a few hours this morning when it snowed. We desperately needed the moisture so it's not a bad rain. But did it have to happen on the long weekend?

Throwback Thursday

Kittens

Update on Ahab's Scent Hurdle points; he did earn his first title on Saturday. So proud of him. I suppose I can now introduce him as "Captain Ahab, SHD". Wait, that means he's got more letters after his name than I do. Figures. ;-)

Current Weather
Mostly cloudy, 7C.

Honestly, I thought this segment would be more interesting but the weather's been strangely predictable lately. I'm sure it'll pick up once the summer storm season hits. Or, maybe we'll get some wild spring snow soon.

Row, row, row....

All of my row counters are in use. Pretty sure this means I should finish something.

I suppose I could go buy a couple more but then I'd have to keep track of them.

And now a picture of Squish being cute.

Awwww

Wordless Wednesday

I Made a Mouse

Again.

I was powerless in the face of all the cuteness. Knit the entire mouse during one episode of Doctor Who. OK, OK, it was a classic episode and so about 90 minutes long. Still not bad, eh?

Went up a needle size for this one as the stitches were a bit hard to work last time. Also noticed that you should not stuff your mouse too much otherwise it can be hard to get the butt stitches to close properly.

Pattern: Nose-up Catnip Mouse by Wendy D. Johnson
Yarn: 100% wool from Custom Woolen Mills
Stuffing: 100% polyester stuffing & catnip
Needle: 2.25mm
Gauge: not critical for a toy