A little more than a month ago, we acquired a new feline in the household. He’s a 26 toed gray tabby that we ka-named Ajax. I like to call him Ajaques to be silly.

In the background of this picture you can see his squid, or calamari, that he really likes to play with. He’s a total cuteheart (a combination of being cute and being a sweetheart), but he’s run Zoey into the confines of the basement. I think our cats are like rock paper scissors (does anyone else have extreme difficulty spelling that word?), in that Zoey is rock (because she’s so fat) and Ajax is paper (because he’s light, and Zoey’s afraid of him) and Mrs. Quigley is that-school-supply-thing-that-is-hard-to-spell-that-you-cut-stuff-with (because she frightens Ajax, but is scared of Zoey).

I finished knitting the Orchid Thief Shawl, using some pink Malabrigo sock that I got in Asheville when we went last spring.

I still need to weave in the ends and block it. It’s quite pretty isn’t it?

I believe I have spent enough time avoiding my homework, so I will let you go and get back to work.

Pattern: Peaks Island Hood

Yarn: Lion Brand Cashmere Blend

Needles: size 10

Modifications: The buttons I used were smaller, so I just did yo, k2 tog for the buttonhole. I also used 4 buttons instead of three, and spaced them 10 rows apart.

These pictures aren’t the best in the world, because they’re kinda in shadow, but you can see it well enough.

Last Wednesday I decided to go through the clothes in my closet, and get rid of what didn’t fit or was never worn. While I was doing that, I decided to arrange all my skirts by color, and I decided that I needed to make a red skirt.

At the beginning of May I went to a Colonial Fair with my parents, and one of the tents had fabric, so I looked around in there, even though I knew that it would probably be too expensive for me. But then I saw a remnants basket which had 3/4 yard red wool fabric that was only $6.75 and was just begging to be made into a skirt by me. So I bought it.

At first, I thought about putting a zipper in the skirt, but then I decided against it for a couple of reasons. First off, the only red zipper that I have doesn’t really match. Second, I don’t really know how to sew zippers into garments. Third, I didn’t really want to ruin the fabric if the zipper sewing turned out horrible.

So what I did was measure how big I wanted it to be around the bottom, how big I wanted it to be around the top, and how long I wanted it to be. Then I added in the seam allowances and snipity snip. Then I hemmed it, sewed the two pieces together, sewed together some elastic, and sewed the elastic inside the casing (I think I used that word correctly).

(Yes, I totally lay on plywood, wearing a wool skirt in the middle of summer. And I’m pretty sure I didn’t use lay correctly.)

It’s a little bit scratchy, but if I wear tights and a slip it shouldn’t bother me too much. And If I wear it with wool socks and a sweater, then I won’t freeze this winter.

and the body has been re-knit, and it fits well (you’re just going to have to take my word fo it, I didn’t take a picture of me wearing it).

And now I’m about 10 rows into the second sleeve, and I don’t know what to do for the yoke. I’ll be using some cram colored yarn in addition to the brown, and I’m not quite sure what would look best. I had originally considered doing hearts, but I don’t know how white hearts will look. I also considered doing a snowflake motif, but then it would look goofy if I wanted to wear in the fall or spring. Or the 75% of winter when there isn’t any snow. I also considered doing some type of scalloped stripes, but I don’t know how decreasing would work for that. And now I’m considering doing the owl motif in white and then using the brown for everything above the owls. Ah, choices. So hard to decide.

My scarf is coming along nicely, In a few more rows I’ll be ready to do the hood decreases.

And speaking of Ysolda patterns, I got Little Red in the City today! I’m looking forward to making Melia, and I’m making a swatch using some leftover Alpaca Love from the hat and mittens that I made for Mom last year. I’m thinking that I’ll want to make it in purple, but red would be nice too. I don’t have to decide right now, because I’m probably going to wait until after the fair (where I’ll hopefully win some money on my hand knits) to make a purchase.

And, since I think this post needs more pictures, here’s a view of the trees behind the duplexes next to our house at sunset.

It was prettier in person.

Last Sunday I started knitting a scarf. It’s pretty and soft and don’t believe me? Take a look for yourself…

It’s Peaks Island Hood, and it’s been quick to knit so far.

Wanna know about the yarn? Of course you do! I’m using some Lion Brand Cashmere Blend that I got at Big Lots a while back for $3 a skein.

I dyed it with a little bit of blue dye to darken the color. I think that it looks good against my skin.

First off are my Saxony socks.

Yesterday it was rainy and I wanted to wear my rain boots. Last winter, however, I wore my jaywalkers with my rain boots and they fell down around my heel and it was very uncomfortable. So I thought about all of the socks that I have in order to decide which would be the most comfortable to wear with rain boots. Obviously not the jaywalkers. And my first socks are baggy, so they’re out too. The Glynis socks would have probably stayed on my leg, but they are lacy and short, so they wouldn’t keep my legs very warm. And my modified Kai-Mei socks are stretchy and ribby, so they probably wouldn’t stay p very well. So I decided to wear these because I hadn’t worn them yet and I figured that since they’re so tight (seriously, I probably should have gone up a needle size for the leg instead of just doing some increases, but oh well) that they wouldn’t fall down past my ankles.

These socks are very warm and comfortable. They kinda slouched down my legs, but it was no big deal since they are so tall anyway. As predicted, they didn’t fall past my ankles which was nice.

I’m not going to talk about Ishbel and Vivian today because I’m about to go fix myself some scrambled eggs.

But first, I am going to tell you about a new pair of socks that I started: Garden Gate in black and red.

Okay, so we all know now that Wendy’s is changing their fries. Which kinda makes me mad. I liked their fries. They were so much tastier than fres at McDonalds. So yeah, that’s my personal rant about changing the reipie without asing my permission.

But anyway, now I’m going to go all nerdy on you and talk about nutrition. WE DON’T NEED ANY MORE SALT! Seriously, many people, myself included, already consume too much sodium. So why would a restaurant think, “Hm, you know what our food needs? More salt! Let’s make our food less healthy!”  I know that salt has its uses in cooking, but 500 mg is a lot of salt. The article soesn’t say if that is 500 mg of sodium or of salt, but either way, adding more salt to a food is taking a step backwards, nutrition-wise.

So, yeah, there’s my two cents worth. Take it with a grain of salt. Hehe, get it? Cause I was just talking about salt. But in all seriousness, don’t believe everything that you hear. Read my opinions, but know that they are just opinions, not fact.

This is the before blocking picture. I don’t have an after blocking picture yet, but I will eventually.

Here is a close up of the lace.

I made a skirt last weekend, but I didn’t take any pictures of it, so you’ll just have to take my word for it. It’s made of denim, and all that I did was hem it, and put in elastic for the waist. It was really easy, and I thinking about making another skirt similr to it made of wool, because there’s a sale on Sunday, and I’d like a warm wool winter skirt.

I’m wearing them right now. I was a bit worried that wind would blow through the lace and freeze my feet, but that hasn’t happened yet. But then again, it’s not as cold as it’s going to get this year, so my feet just might freeze during the winter.

I started making an Ishbel shawl a little while back.

This is the only picture that I have of it. I think I had just started the lace section when I took that. Right now I’m about halfway through with the first repeat of chart B. I did the small section of stockinette stitch, but I’m thinking about doing the large size of lace.

Well, that’s all that I have to say for now. I have an essay that I need to write, so I might as well try too get started on it.

I’m working on a new pair of socks, Glynis from sock Innovation.I’ve finished the first one, and I’m on the heel flap of the second.