Remember the cowl I was working on a while ago? No, of course you would not, because it happened during the time of not blogging. So anyway, I was working on a cabled cowl for a class sample, using the pattern from Paton's Next Steps Six. The wool was Ella Rae Cozy Alpaca, a delightful and squishy alpaca and acrylic blend. I have been having difficulties relating to stress with reading comprehension, and I totally messed up the directions. I made one panel, and then made a second, identical panel and seamed the sides together to make a cowl. What the pattern REALLY said was to make one panel, 24" long, and then seam the cast-on and cast-off ends together. Right in class, I started to unpick the seams I had made so that I could do the cowl correctly. Our students seem to find it reassuring when I goof up and have to redo things. Now that the redo has been completed, it looks like this:
which is actually a lot like it looked in the beginning. Oh well. I know that it has been done correctly.
I have also finished knitting my Water Cycle Socks, which defined the Sock Challenge for February at the store. I just decided to make them because I liked the different lace patterns and the heel feature. I didn't read the story about their design. When one of my ladies mentioned it, I re-read the pattern page and ... how cool.
I really LOVE these socks. Of course, now that I have finished my socks for February, I have to wait until the 20th to find out the theme for March.
The Newsom cardigan has been finished, but not yet blocked. My blocking space has been occupied by an abundance of paperwork waiting to be processed. I used 3.25 skeins of James Brett Innocence in a pale lavender.
The knitting of this little cardigan was actually quite fun. The construction starts at the centre back, with garter stitch panels stretching around to the front and stocking stitch for the back. Sleeves are knitted separately and then joined as you finish the yoke and fronts in garter stitch. I can heartily recommend the pattern, and unless something dreadful happens in the blocking, will also be able to do the same for the yarn.
The last project of which I will speak is my Ebba, being knit in Berroco Aero, colourway no. 8019. This is a very fluffy and light alpaca/nylon/wool blend yarn, and it is working up beautifully. You can see how close I am to done --
and this is with only a week of working on it. Of course, the 10mm needles help move things along quickly.
In other news, our Pixel has had an interesting 10 days. Last Friday he didn't demand outside time, which is strange for him. Doug brushed him Friday night and everything seemed normal. Saturday morning when I got up, he had endured an abscess which had ruptured overnight. A trip to the 24-hour vet, a wound cleaning (under very loud protest) and an antibiotic needle, and he came home to recuperate. He started to feel better almost immediately, and often inquired if we would let him outside. Not with an open wound, thank you very much, and he was pretty darn good about it all. Wrangy from boredom, but not demanding to be let outside. We have been dragging a string for him, throwing a furry ball, playing pounce on the covers, etc., but he is B-O-R-E-D. Today he asked, and I let him out. He came back about 40 minutes later, none the worse for wear. Of course he wanted to be a swinging door kitty, and I have put the kibosh on that idea. So now he is sleeping the day away, waiting for Doug to come home and play.
And that is the story of my last two weeks. Now I am off to my knitting corner to listen to an audio book and knit! On my day off! Yippee!
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