Yesterday I got to the last seam in the Vignette Cardigan and the ghost was telling me to frog it. I went to sleep thinking about it, woke up thinking about it, tried it on again:

: and ultimately decided to not decide for a while.

The pattern I was cheating on Vignette with is this:

The Vignette is a cute sweater. The pattern’s well written  and there’s nothing obviously wrong with the fit or size of what I made. But I forgot how much fitted wool sweater sleeves make my armpits sweat. For real! That’s why I had to give Neulottu Naisen Jakku to momser who is always cold. And sadly, it’s why I made need to unravel sweet little Vignette and turn it into something else.

For now I’ll set it aside and work on one of those poncho patterns.

According to ravelry, 101 Kami Hats have been knit! When I put up my first knitting pattern this fall I didn’t know if anyone would see it, much less knit it, so watching the number of projects slowly climb has been a thrill.

Here are some of my favorites…

(left-right, top-bottom) dipgirlflesh, MsAnnaLisa,  jieuenne, kijibaji, brakenfern,  cerebralneedles

The pattern is easy to follow and has clever details. I don’t have much torso curve, so I removed some of the hip and waist shaping, and I don’t think I’m going to flare the sleeves. It’s too bad the di.Ve Zenith yarn was discontinued – it’s soft and squishy and has great stitch definition.

In an effort to keep them entertained, Read started researching cat toys and cat towers. One day I came home and this picture was up on my computer screen:

HAHA! That thing is huge! And expensive. I pointed out to Read that these people have what appears to be a nice basement for their behemoth feline castle. We can’t really spare the floorspace for such a thing. But our cats do like sitting up on bookshelves and windowsills…they’d love some kind of high perch.

I went to one of my favorite sites – Ikeahackers – for some ideas on how to build cheap modern-looking cat furniture. I found a cat ladder, a cat tree, and links to this super-sweet perched bed:

IKEA is a long drive, so we just went down the street to Home Depot to see what we could find. Twenty minutes of wandering and we came home with:

There was much deliberating on the whole “one bracket or two” matter. Ultimately we decided (with the help of Brad at Home Depot) that one bracket per perch was enough because; our cats are petite, the perches are only 8″ long, and the brackets are really heavy duty.

The whole thing came together quickly. We cut the carpeting with kitchen shears and glued it to the boards, then screwed the brackets to the boards with a cordless drill, and screwed the perches to the wall. Here are a bunch of photos of what we made, all for under $30!

Read is not able to sit at the table and type without a lap mate. Usually one hops up, but last night they squished in and made room for two.

Yipes. There’s like five kinds of horrible happening at once there.

I want to make something simpler, in a nice deep olive green. Or maybe brown. Look at that nice cowl neck on the top one! And the middle one has this nice subtle herringbone stitch thing going on.

Spine looks wild with all those rainbow triangles, but if you did the poncho in dark brown and all the triangle stuff in a solid color one shade lighter, it would be less kooky.

Before I get too excited I need to finish up the three or four things I already have on needles.

Some have obvious shortcomings: lime acrylic, stiff fit, gimmicky patterns. Others must have clashed with their owner’s taste: allergic to wool, hates pink, looks plump in cardigans. Were they ever worn?

The plan to keep my sweaters from living out their golden years at Goodwill is two-fold:
1. Try and knit classic shapes in practical colors.
2. Knit sweaters for no one but myself, with one exception: hypothetical future children who are too young to have a say in their wardrobe. I think of it as efficient use of my precious knitting hours. Better to make mittens, socks, or a shawl for others…something that if they don’t like, they can hide in some tall boots or take off when they get in the door.  A sweater has to be the right color and style and fit to wear around all day, which is much too much responsibility when trying to make a gift.

I suppose the second exception to rule #2 is my mom. She and I are both notorious for handing over a gift and saying, “If you don’t like it just tell me and I’ll wear it.” Which means, “I bought/made this with both of our tastes in mind.” It’s really a very handy system. This Christmas I gave her a shawl made from handspun, which she kept. She sent me this picture last month of her all styled up. I wouldn’t have thought to put the cowl with the shawl – nice, mom!

Who wears your handknits? Do you gift many of them? And only certain articles or everything from accessories to sweaters?

I have to take a break from spinning today for errands and Spanish homework. Hahaha…how weird does it feel to have homework? I enrolled in Spanish 101, which meets four times a week during my lunch hour. Read and I will probably live in a Spanish-speaking country while he researches for his dissertation, and knowing some of the language would help me make friends. I got through high school and college requirements with Latin – never a drop of Spanish – so I’m truly starting at the beginning.

It’s a room full of underclassmen, and I have to get over my fear of looking foolish in front of students who may come to see me in a professional setting. But the upside is that, maybe for the first time in my  life, I enrolled in a graded, credited college course with no related degree or certificate or requirement. Just a desire to learn the subject. It’s a good feeling!

]]> http://foxflat.wordpress.com/2012/01/22/sunday/feed/ 10 foxflat http://foxflat.wordpress.com/2012/01/21/saturday/ http://foxflat.wordpress.com/2012/01/21/saturday/#comments Sat, 21 Jan 2012 16:12:18 +0000 foxflat http://foxflat.wordpress.com/?p=1898 ]]> The snow is falling, the coffee is made, the 3rd season of Sons of Anarchy is up on Netflix, and UPS delivered the alpaca/merino blend from the mill. My Saturday is all set.