Finish It or Frog It

Yup,that's my new motto these days. My basket of WIPs is out of control, and it's starting to get to me. So, here and now, I am declaring that I will fight the urge to cast on with all my might. I will finish up those languishing WIPs. And I will frog anything that just isn't working.

First up in the finished pile is a little mouse I whipped up for Charlie on Saturday. I picked up cat-nip at the grocery store this morning to add to the stuffing.

Wendy's Catnip Mouse
Cast On: 27 October 2007
Completed: 30 October 2007
Yarn: Knit Picks Merino Style - Fog
(left over from a hat for Pea)
Needles: US5

And looks, he loves it!!!



Okay, honestly, he could care less about it . . . I totally posed him. Oh well, at least I had fun making it.

Tired of the R word???

Fear not, I don't have much to say about Rhinebeck. After all, you've read so much already that there isn't anything new I can tell you. The day was beautiful and the yarn was even more gorgeous. Unfortunately, I only ran into one person I knew. I missed the blogger meet-up . . . or actually, I kind of skipped it because I was feeling overwhelmed. I later realized the feeling probably stemmed from a low blood-sugar . . . which stuck with me most of the day, even though I kept eating to bring it up. In the end, an apple crisp did the trick - and I was pleased to get to eat it guild free!

I had a good chunk of cash to spend, since I had been hording my Christmas and Birthday money all year. I spent more than half within the first 30 minutes. I'll be revealing my purchases over the next few posts. Today's feature is one of the (three) skeins of Socks that Rock that followed me home. (I really don't know how this happened. I wasn't going to buy any sock yarn this year. I think it's a sickness, really.)


It's called Garnet Dreams and the colors are so pretty, I just couldn't resist. In fact, I cast on Sunday morning and I'm already past the heel on the Ampersand Socks.


Sorry for the dim picture, it's very gray here today. Which is a shame, because the pattern is fabulous with the yarn. And the socks are knitting up so fast, it's really exciting. Well, exciting to me. Charlie feels differently.


If it's not edible, it doesn't excite him at all.

Presenting my latest "project" . . .

Charlie!!!!

I never in my life thought I would have a cat. I'm not a cat person. And OCD me couldn't imagine letting an animal roam around my house. But Charlie had other ideas.

He showed up a few weeks ago, purring at us whenever we left the house. He charmed us from the start. I worried about where he was from and where he would go. He was obviously a pet turned stray. I noticed he hung around next door a lot, so we went over and asked the neighbors about him.

It turns out, he belonged to our neighbor's mother, who had lived around the corner from us. She was recently put in a nursing home, and her other son (who lived with her) decided he didn't want the cat anymore. So our neighbors had set up food and a bed in their garage until they decided what to do. (Their cat died a month or so ago, and they had promised their kids a dog.)

I still didn't want a cat. But I found myself putting a water dish on my front porch for him. I found myself going out several times a day to pet him. I found myself checking out the windows regularly to make sure he was there and he was okay. When I came outside, he began walking to the door and staring inside. He seemed to want to come in and live with us.



Turns out, I've gotten very attached to little Charlie. He's about 16 years old, and according the the vet today, he only has two teeth. Getting him into the carrier was not something I'm looking forward to again, but we made out okay. He was a trooper, even through two shots and a stool sample. He's doing well for a cat his age, so knock wood, he will be with us for a while.

Now that he's been to the vet, I've finally adopted him for real and let him come inside! He seems to be settling in fine. I'm resisting the urge to follow him around constantly. I have to learn to give up some control, and let him explore a little.

But for now, it's been a big day for us both. He's found a nice place for a nap.



I think I'll go join him.

I promised myself I wouldn't post again until . . .

Sunrise Circe was off the needles and blocking. Yahoo!!! Here's hoping it finishes drying quickly so I can get it seamed and wear it to Rhinebeck on Saturday.

I've also been distracted by another little "project" that has nothing to do with knitting. It's almost "done", and I'll tell you all about it in my next post. *wink*

WIP Wednesday, or WYB Wednesday . . .

which stands for Where've You Been Wednesday!! The past week has been a blur. My aunt and uncle were down from Maine staying with my parents, and I've been on the go with them every day. It was so much fun and I was sad to see them leave, but I think my body is happy to get some rest and go back to bland icky healthy food instead of the crap fattening-but-yummy poor food choices we've been making while eating out.

As you may have guessed, knitting has been scarce the past week as well. I've done a few rows here and there on Sunrise Circle, and hope to have it off the needles and blocking tomorrow. Meanwhile, I thought we'd check in on the Casino Shawl. Last time there wasn't much to look at, but now you can see the Spades starting to line up.

I'm slowly making progress, and I love it!! I'm starting to doubt that I can get it finished in time for our cruise though. Sigh.

(Hopefully) a false alarm, and October Knit-List . . .

First I want to thank everyone for the good advice and wonderful sympathy after I freaked out on Sunday. I have a bit more of the stash to go through, but so far things are looking good. Poor Pea was home sick yesterday with that cold, so he helped me closely examine much of my yarn. We haven't found anything to send up a red flag about, and I also see no evidence of moths in any other areas of the house. Of course, I've stuffed lavender scented dryer sheets everywhere as a safe-guard for the future. They are giving me quite a head ache, but it's a small price to pay to protect all that beautiful yarn!!

*Big sigh of relief* On to the knitting. First, let's re-cap September.

1. Finish either the Cape Cod socks or the Pillars of Atlantis socks. - DONE!! I finished my Cape Cod Socks.
2. Knit another Amanda's Squatty Sidekick for Holiday Headstart. - DONE!! I'll be posting it next time.
3. Knit the Casino Shawl - Not even close to being done, but I have been working on it. It still take quite a bit of concentration, but it's very fun to work on.
   

Not bad work for the month, I'd say. So, what's next?? In the upcoming months, one thing I want to work on is finishing all old projects that have been put into Hibernation. So, here we go . . .

1. Finish the Casino Shawl.


2. Dig out and finish Sunrise Circle. (I actually dug this out a few days ago and have been working on it every day! I hope to finish knitting it by Friday and seam it next week!!)
   


3. Finish that Market Tote I started in August.


4. And, because October is Socktober, socks, socks, socks!!