Lowering the drinking age

by Kathleen

So what do you do when a baby shower is approaching and you want to make a cute gift in limited time, while also giving it that personal touch?


Well, when the father is a master brewer...

You make baby beer socks!

That's a lager on the left and a stout on the right. 

The lager sock is a basic toe-up with short row heel, but after deciding that I just don't like toe-up even when it's short and tiny, I did the stout top-down with a heel flap. I got fancy on the lager foam with short rows and bobbles, but it was taking too long and I was late (as usual), so the stout has a smoother, creamier garter cuff. 

To the above right you can see the third yarn that I didn't get to... it was going to be an Irish red, but honestly I didn't like the color... so when I ran out of time I didn't worry about it.

The sock yarns are Plymouth Encore, DK weight, mostly acrylic. The foam is whatever off white I had laying around (the lager has silver sparkles!).

They were a big hit! And as the mother started getting weepy that I'd hand knit for her baby, I made her laugh by pointing out the beer connection. Couldn't ask for more than that!

Blue Bobbles

 

by Kathleen

 

I was going through my photos (although it seems easier to delete bad, duplicate, and unremarkable photos in digital albums, it seems harder to get around to doing so), and I realized that I never shared this shawl I made some time ago. 

 

Juneberry by Jared Flood of Brooklyn Tweed.

 

We were spending the day in DC, and I saw that Fibrespace (a yarn store in Old Town Alexandria) was open. I'd been by there before, but it had never been open, so I struck a deal... Jeff went to visit a small bookstore down the block and I went into the yarn store (and a good time was had by all).

 

 

One technique I'd never done was bobbles, so when I saw that this gorgeous lace pattern, with it's wonderful border, made using sport rather than lace weight, contained bobbles... 

And then, I found a beautiful locally hand dyed silk and wool blend yarn by Neighborhood Fiber Company (the one purchase I allow with no justification needed is local small artist dyed yarn and rovings)...

 

It was a match made in heaven (well, technically in DC).

 

It's been several years now since I made this, and I wear it a lot... like, pretty much every day during the winter. It's the perfect size to wrap around my neck and tuck into my coat when it's really cold out. Or drape over my shoulders when the room is just a tiny bit chilly. It's so pretty, yet it's perfectly functional as well. A most successful knit.

And I can do bobbles now!

cats iz the craaaaaaziest peoples...

by Kathleen

Jeff and I have been talking about getting another kitten for a little while. Last time we got a kitten (5 years ago) our older female was too set in her ways, and (being of a stubborn nature anyway) never accepted the kitten. At all.

We didn't want our now adult ex-kitten to get old and crotchety the same way. So a new kitten before she was too old made sense.

So I visited the local no kill shelter to acquaint myself with the types and personalities and... whoops...

two is always better than one... right?

Please meet...

MULLIGAN

 and

MILES

(from Miles Davis and Jerry Mulligan, jazz greats)

 They were 4 months old at the time of these photos (taken in July). Though we did have to get them their shots, they were already fixed. And they're extremely socialized... so friendly and unafraid they came and hung out with the crowd at our annual August party.
The older cats were wary at first... and as we were fearing the 5 year old female was the most unwelcoming. Simon wasn't what I'd call happy, but he'd been through this a couple times before. he wasn't getting in an uproar as Zeeba was.

And the kittens have worked on him, sloooooowly.....

"Mooom, he's touching me!"

No photos exist of the kitten's getting that close to Zeeba... yet.
Four cats. But I don't qualify as a crazy cat lady yet since that's only two cats if you split the count between Jeff and I. That works yes?

Five months later...
I've been sitting on this post trying to get a good photo of the kittens now that they're almost adults, but no luck. Plenty of good Mulligans, but Miles just isn't very photogenic (as an almost all black cat he just disappears). I'll have to post again, if I ever achieve that elusive goal.