Lap Pets

Hubbie is a tall man (6'5) and has a decent sized lap which is a good thing because his lap is considered prime territory by the pets.  He'll often have two or more pets in his lap at a time.

Today I walked into the living room and saw this:

But what really made it an amusing sight was Winnie:

Poor sweetie was sitting on the sofa patiently waiting his turn.  He's such a polite doggie... sometimes.

Feeling a mix of grateful and sad that her lap's considered uncomfortably small,
Joyce

Shawls, shawls, and more shawls

I've been on a serious shawl knitting kick lately. Ok, I may say kick, but what I really mean is obsession. I've knit three shawls in less than two weeks.

The first is made of Lion Brand Homespun (Fiesta colorway). The pattern is free on their website. It's the Easy Triangular Shawl. It was, indeed, very easy to make. With the large yarn size and huge needles, the knitting time went super fast.

The second shawl was made from Bernat's new acrylic/alpaca blend (Sky). Now, I'll tell you, it's a beautiful yarn. But... it sheds like crazy! I had hair everywhere, on my shirt, my pants, my chair. I even managed to shed on the poor kitties! I had to shake it for half an hour to remove most of the excess hair. (And it still sheds some!) I considered giving it to someone I really didn't like, but couldn't think of anyone I disliked that much. Instead I offered it to one of the people I like most, my sister Gigi. And she said that she would be perfectly happy to give the hairy, itchy thing a home. How sweet!

You'll notice that it's also made with the Easy Triangular Shawl pattern. I'm pleased to say that the world didn't explode when I used Bernat yarn for a Lion Brand pattern (Ok, so, I was a bit concerned when it rained frogs, but I'm sure that didn't have anything to do with me.)

The third shawl, for those of you who aren't asleep yet, was made of Bernat's new Bamboo yarn (Rosehip, Dill, and Water). I love this yarn. The shawl is warm, but not too warm. It's shiny, pretty, and oh so soft! I have decided that I love bamboo yarn more than silk yarn. I never thought that anything would surpass my love of silk, but there it is. Or here it is, I should say.

The pattern was a variation of the LB pattern above. Did I mention it was a VERY easy triangular shawl. I'm definitely keeping this one.

That, however, wasn't the end of my obsession. Not by far. In between knitting (and school, dang knitting interruption that it is) I've surfed the web looking for shawl patterns. Let me tell you that there are some seriously gorgeous ones out there. As I surfed I came across the glorious Sun Ray shawl at elann. It was so fabulous, I had to make one of my own.

I'm three and a half pattern repeats (of six) into it and only on my second ball of Lion Brand wool (Ocean Blues) . There are three balls left, so it's going to be a while until it's done. The pattern is fairly easy though, and I'm having a great deal of fun knitting it. Besides it's already beautiful.

Tea really wants to help me with this one. He has such good taste.

Dish cloths

My friend, Elle, recently moved into her first "truly on her own" apartment. After years of room mates, she finally has a place to herself. In order to celebrate this very cool life step, I decided to knit her some dish cloths.
All right, I'll admit it, she moved into the place over three months ago. I mean, how difficult can it be to make dish cloths? Not too hard unless during the time you're knitting them, you also knit a large pair of socks (huge, really), a belt, the sampler from Jaqueline Fee's Sweater Workshop, and 2/3 of a sweater. On a positive note, at least the belt was for Elle.

I finished the dish cloths yesterday.

I was originally only going to make the two in the background. They're both beige and will go very well in her (now not quite so) new kitchen. But then I thought, "What the heck, I'm not knitting much else, I'll make a third one that doesn't match at all!" I think she likes green...

The two in the background are in Lily's Sugar and Cream 'Taupe Twists', and the green one is in EPI's Peaches and Creme 'Shades of Green'. The Peaches and Creme was much softer, but more difficult to block.

Tea, anyone? Tea the kitty, of course.