the Akamai Knitter

All has been chaos at Chez Opal since the arrival of one boy cat on Sunday night. He is actually a neighbor’s cat, but they have not been seen or heard from since Saturday. After hearing him crying piteously at my door 2 nights in a row, I finally gave up the fight and brought him into my home.

Prior to this current incident, I should mention that this darling had been left outside all hours and I do NOT live in a particularly quiet neighborhood. There is at least one feral colony across the street and the traffic on the road is dangerous for 4-footed creatures. In fact, I lost one of my cats to a car racing into the driveway of our townhouse complex a few years ago.

Even though I could not resist this angelic face, my other cats are NOT impressed. So I’ve been dealing with ruffled fur and prickly tempers. Some of the tempers have been exercised beneath my bed at around 2am, which is really not conducive to sleep.
I’m not sure if we’ll be able to keep the little angel permanently, but I really hope so as I’ve fallen completely in love with him. We’ve renamed him Bosco, but I’m not too sure that name is right for him. The neighbors had named him Minou, I think that’s French for cat. I’m not too fond of that name either.

I really don’t think that anyone who leaves their pet without food, water, or shelter for 4 days is deserving of said pet. I also don’t want to be accused of theft. So we shall just have to see what the next few days brings us.

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I probably shouldn’t have mentioned such happiness at the thought of a good basketball game yesterday. I should have known that the basketball gods would frown at the confidence I displayed to the world for my team. So with the predictable nature that such gods show when faced with such a smug mortal, the end result was a loss in the first round of the NCAA tournament for my beloved Duke Blue Devils. Since the Blue Devils have not lost in the first round since the year 1996, it’s been a very bitter pill to swallow.

Despite such a gloomy end to my basketball aspirations, there were a couple of bright spots yesterday. I met a new friend at the Aloha Knitters meeting yesterday. Her name is Ariana and not only is she a fabulous knitter, she is also a skilled spinner! She’s the proud owner of three spinning wheels! (Three!) She’s promised to unravel the mysteries of the 3-ply yarn and Navajo plying for me. I’m so excited!

The second bright spot, surprised me. I was able to work on my Jaywalkers during the meeting and I have to say that I’m beginning to see why the Jaywalkers are so loved. This simple pattern has been just the thing to knit while meeting with friends over coffee, while chatting on the phone, or while in the car.

As you can see, there is no slouching around the ankles! I worked in the decreases by modifying row 2 as follows:

*k-f/b, k1, ssk1, k5, dd, k5, k2, k1, k-f/b; repeat from * a total of 4 times

The decreases are nearly invisible and I’m very happy with the result. The heel looks a little strange in the pictures, but I think that’s just because of the way my foot was sitting, because it feels really nice on my foot so far.

You might recall that I was feeling really ambivalent about this pattern, but I’ve grown to really appreciate it’s simplicity. I’m not singing the Jaywalker blues any longer baby!

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Happiness is…

.. a good basketball game.*

Happiness is…

.. sweet companions by my side.

Happiness is…

… a new lace project that I am in love with.**

*The Duke Blue Devils has yet to play in the NCAA Tournament, so I’m not sure how happy I’ll be later. They might lose, but I have faith.

**More pictures can be found here.

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RSS/Bloglines Dilemma And A Confession

After reading about the Pros and Cons of offering the full feed versus the short feed, I decided that trek had it right. After much hunting, I figured out how to change my own feed to the short version.

One of the main Pros of going to the short feed she mentioned was the decreased comments on the blog. While I haven’t noticed a significant decrease of comments of late, in fact I’ve noticed quite the opposite (thank you!), I would like to see if offering the shorter feed will generate more comments.

Truth be told, I am a comment whore. (Haha! I just called myself a whore!) I really thrive on the feedback of my fellow knitters. Not only does it encourage me to keep this blog going, but it encourages me to keep knitting. I’m not saying that I would stop knitting and blogging if I suddenly got a drop in the popularity vote. What I’m saying is that I would definitely enjoy it a little less. The kind words and constructive criticism I get keeps my confidence up, when I tend to have very little.

I’ve never considered myself to be a very good knitter. This is not meant to be fishing expedition for compliments, it’s just the simple truth. I know that over the last year I have greatly improved, but I still go through bouts of mass insecurity. It’s during those times that the blog and all the wonderful people I have met here has come to my rescue.

So I’m going to experiment with the short feed for now. I’d love to hear what you all think. Hate it? Love it? Don’t care?

The Forest Path Stole

I am plugging away on the FPS and I’m on Tier 3. I would have taken a picture of it, but it is really dark here today. We’ve got the tail end of a storm system moving through the island chain and the sun is just refusing to come out to play. Hopefully I’ll have pictures later this week and then I will have more to report.

Hidcote Garden Shawl In Action

At the last Aloha Knitters meeting, I took my Hidcote Garden Shawl. Blogless Michelle was kind enough to model it for me as she is tall and willowy.

Look how huge the shawl is! You can’t quite see, but it just hits her knees. To give you some sort of comparison of size, here is the shawl on my short figure.

See how it extends way past my wingspan? And I do believe it goes way past my knees. I nearly gave this shawl to Michelle right there and then, but I’m not ready to give it up just yet.

I am so grateful for all the wonderful comments on the shawl. For a change, I am really proud of how this one turned out. I adore the colour and the way it floats around like a cloud.

Socks!

Last, but not least, did you all see that Cookie A. has got her shop site up? She did a fabulous job with it. Go and look! Go and drool! Go and shop! Then please be sure to let her know how much you love it by leaving a comment on her blog. I think she deserves to know just how much of a success she has become.

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With all the excitement of finishing the Hidcote Garden Shawl last week, I failed to mention that I got a very special package. It contained 4 patterns from the ever talented Cookie A. from the oh so generous Agnes of Knitting In The Valley. She had read about how much I coveted one of the patterns and offered to pick it up for me when she went to Stitches. She also included the cutest little sock blocker keychain ever!I tell you, I continue to be amazed by the kind souls in knitting blogland. I was really overwhelmed by Agnes’ offer. Thank you again, Agnes!

Somehow I missed including one of the patterns in the picture, but the ones that I now have are Twisted Flower, Gothic Spire, Thelonius, and Mona. I’m hoping to add to my collection once the others become available online. For now I am simply ecstatic with the ones I do have. Now for the story of the other goodies in the picture.

For some reason I have been on a green spree of late and I really wanted to make the Twisted Flowers in dark green. I bemoaned this fact to my muggle friend Jon, who is really not a complete muggle since his wife is a knitter as well. What do we call these knowing friends to the craft that don’t practice it but understand the nature of our obsession? One friend suggested Mudblood, but that’s not exactly a complimentary term. Maybe a half-blood? Or how about a Squib?

I digress.

I also ranted to Jon about how shipping rates are rather outrageous when it comes to Hawaii. It’s a sad day when it’s cheaper to ship to Canada then to one of the 50 states. I understand the brown trucks can’t swim. I understand I’m in the middle of the ocean. I just don’t like it. This may just be part of the price of living in “paradise” but I get pretty tired of paying for it day in and day out.

Incoherent rant over.

So as a belated Christmas gift Jon offered to purchase some goodies for me! More likely, he offered to get me to hush up on the injustices of shipping rates to Hawaii. Either way I received 2 more size 1US 24″ Classic Circular needles for socks, and 3 skeins of Essential Solid in Pine. That’s right, 3! I only asked for 2, but the sweetheart threw in an extra!

They say that the best things in life are worth waiting for and as far as Christmas presents go, the ubiquitous “they” just might be right.

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