So much fiber, so little time

Gravity tail

Jeeves has a rather short but incredibly thick tail. So when he sleeps on any kind of ledge, it falls straight down.

The new shawl is growing rapidly, but since there's no urgency on this project, I'm taking breaks to read, etc. It feels odd to work at what is for me large gauge (5 st/inch), but the knitting certainly zips along.

And I've got a lead on a local fabricating place that will cut me lengths of finer gauge wire for blocking. I'll take a sample of the short wires I already have and see what matches. The Home Despot wire was fine for a project with large lace holes along the edge, but it won't work as well with other patterns.

More kitten goodness

Here are the gray kitten and Mr. Runt. (I think it's Mr. Runt - the other tabby didn't come out while I was there.) The lure of canned cat food has overtaken Mr. Gray, and you can actually pet him now, at least while he's eating.

Gratuitous cuteness

This is one of three new barn kittens. He's the biggest and most shy, whereas the runt is very bold and likes to be petted. Prior to this litter, the barn cats have been black (cf. Huey and Jeeves) or gray tabby (Mr. Runt and Kitten #2), but we've never seen the dilute gene before. Of course, we shouldn't see any more, because as soon as the kittens weigh more than 2 pounds, they and mom are getting scooped up and "tutored".

Meanwhile, poor Cookie spent a few hours at the vet's yesterday, because she probably pulled a muscle in her neck or shoulder and was in a fair amount of pain. We came home with drugs, and she's much better today. With luck, she won't need to go back for x-rays.

And I am finally knitting the new shawl! Since the yarn is more fingering weight than lace weight, it will knit up quickly - maybe in less time than it took to work out the stitch pattern.

Sick o'swatches

It's been knit, rip, repeat for a couple of days, and I've yet to come up with a satisfactory stitch pattern or swatch for the new shawl. Well, that's not strictly true: I have decided on the needle size and the edging, at least. With any luck, today's pattern will suit me, and I can calculate the yarn usage and graph out the increases.

Sign, sealed, delivered

The shawl did manage to dry overnight, and I delivered it to Cheryl this morning. Both of us think it should be on the cover of the magazine, but, of course, we're biased. I also have a skein of Andrea in Frida Kahlo for weaving (yippee) and a commission for another shawl in a different yarn. There's a stitch design inspired by the colorway bubbling around in my head, and I hope to chart it and swatch tomorrow.

Conquering humidity

Yesterday was supposed to be warm, sunny and dry. Beeeep, wrong answer: it was cool and rainy, and it still is. So it took well over 24 hours for the shawl to dry enough to pull it off the wires. It's still a little damp, but it's draped over Dolly the mannequin for the night. Tres gorgeous, though, if I do say so myself.

Speaking of wires, a post on the lace mailing list had mentioned finding 6 foot long wires at Home Despot. Off I went on Monday to look for such and found them. They worked very well on this shawl, since the faggotted edging was large enough for such a thick wire, but I wouldn't use them on a less hole-y border. (Take those holy faggots, Fred Phelps and James Dobson!) They were more than worth it, though, at ten wires for about two bucks. Try the drop ceiling section: that's where they were, stuck in the corner, probably as hanger pieces. All I did was wipe off any oil and dirt before blocking with pop-up Windex thingies.

A prairie dog moment

Just popping my head up for shawl news: I'm currently knitting the edging and will try to finish the whole shebang tonight, because tomorrow should be a dry day, perfect for blocking. Now back to the needles ...