Marley's Project

The other morning, my husband brought me this, asking what it was.

Now you would think since we have a long history together, he could guess it is a piece of fabric from my stash. I bought it on spec, a long time ago. Not sure what I had planned, if anything. It is flannelette and I expect I planned to make receiving blankets for the next baby shower. I haven't been invited to a baby shower lately, so I guess that is why it is in my stash.

My husband had found it in the middle of the family room floor. It seems that sometime during the night, Marley, the foster cat, had been exploring, found it, and decided he needed it. He had dragged 2 metres of flannelette up the stairs, without getting it unfolded.

I decided that for that, he deserved a kennel quilt.

So I dipped into a friend's stash of I Spy fabric and found some 6" and 3" blocks of some of his favourite things.

I plan to make a simple design and back it with the Sherk flannelette.

Meanwhile, I finished the second clue for my Family Tree shawl.

It is looking good so far.

Family Tree - Part 1

I have started another Mystery Knit Along (MKAL), because I seem to be a glutton for punishment.
Unlike the last 2, I managed to get the first clue finished without having to rip the whole thing out and start over. Perhaps it helped that I did a smaller sample of the tricky bits first!

the first clue is finished, 2 days early, and it doesn't look very exciting.

This is my Latvian Braid. I haven't tried this before, so it was a challenge for my brain.

I found a lovely blue for my main colour, that I like a lot better than the black I was auditioning last week.

I think it will make a nice shawl.

Meanwhile, since the sun was shining, for a change (it didn't last, raining again), I thought I should take some pictures to enjoy next winter. The wet weather has done good thing for my flowers.

I will look at these when the pots are covered by snow, six months from now.

Finishes!!!

I have been getting some things finished! Of course, as I finish one thing, six other things come to mind, that I just have to make. However, TADA!

The Slightly Twisted Baby Set:

The socks were made using the pattern for baby socks by Kate Atherley. Of course, I had to add the twisted edging, so they would match the hat.

They are just so cute! A lovely quick and easy pattern, too.

I also finished Metalouse by Stephen West.

It isn't blocked yet, but I loved the way it turned out. Look at all the lovely shades of purple. The yarn is Chroma from Knit Picks and I think I need to make a couple more of these as Christmas gifts. I see Knit Picks has some new colours for Chroma. However, this one is mine, all mine!!!

In celebration of these finishes, I, of course, went to a yarn sale, and a few things came home with me.

More yarn for shawls, as well as some of the striped baby yarn I like so well. I do actually have plans for much of it (though not all).

Marley, the new foster cat, actually stood still long enough to take his picture. (but just barely, hence the blur)

Just in case you wanted to see his face.
The other end was shown here.

Picture Play

My camera has a bunch of features I don't much use, because I forget how. Yesterday, I played with some of them.

I was trying to decide on two yarns from my stash to make my next KAL shawl with. I wanted good contrast, since the last one didn't have enough to suit me. I also kind of wanted to use stash yarn.

So I picked these two yarns.

The contrast looked pretty good, so I tried looking at it in black and white.

In black and white, I feel as though there is too much contrast and a dark blue might be a better choice. Of course, I don't have any dark blue in my stash.

Last night, the moon was suppose to look very large, so I went out to check it out. Sadly, our neighbourhood has so many large trees that the moon has to be a long way up in the sky before we can see it, so we missed the impact.

However, I took  few pictures at about 9:30 and this is what I got.

I played with these in my photo software, and I like how they came out. Is there a quilt in here somewhere?

We have a new foster cat, named Marley. He decided to get into a picture, but got photo shy at the last minute.

Sorry, you don't get to see his pretty face.

Slightly Twisted

I was traveling this past weekend. I married into a family with longevity, so we attended a 100th birthday party! The party was 5 hours away, so I had time to knit (when not looking for Moose).

I started one baby hat, but the pattern wasn't working with the self-striping sock yarn. I ripped it out and tried another pattern. I was having a hard time figuring out the twisted band on this one, so I pulled it out 3 times as well. So, really, I had no knitting to show, when I got home on Sunday.

However, I went on YouTube after I got home and, of course, someone had made a video of the band I was attempting. What did we do before YouTube?

Monday, I recovered from my travels and spent the day knitting.

This is my version of the Slightly Twisted Baby Hat .
I added an I-cord to the top because it just looks so darn cute on a newborn hat.

Since the baby I knit it for is not here yet, I asked for a volunteer to model it. No, I don't have a cat just now, so I had to use this guy.

I think the hat looks quite nice with his sweater. I didn't make the sweater, it came with the bear.

Next up: Matching socks!