The Giving Flower

Remember my whisper cardigan with the long sleeves?

I don’t like 3/4 sleeves and much prefer long sleeves on a cardigan, I always have.  Well, after wearing it twice I noticed how the sleeves just grew and grew with each wear.  This drove me nuts so after spending a wonderful afternoon with my knitting girls on the deck in the sun…

and trying on Sooza’s whisper cardigan with 3/4 sleeves, I decided I needed to make some major modifications in order to be really happy with my sweater.  I then ripped and ripped back until the length was right and knit the cuff one more time.  Here she is after the first sleeve was done and then the final product.

Much better!!!!!!

Oh and here are my new slippers knit out of one ball of Lana Grossa Royal tweed.

This pattern made me cry and throw my needles down in frustration, but as soon as I had it, I found it no big deal and actually quite fun.  I had to admit, I knit them late at night when my brain wasn’t at all at its best, but then again finding  a time where my brain fully cooparates with me is very hard thing to do nowadays.

Thanks to everyone for the wonderful comments on my last post, I’d almost forgotten about the wonderful bloggers out there, I really did miss you guys.  It’s good to be back!

I admit it’s been hard getting my much-needed knitting in with work, kids and house but now that I have summer break and a bit of freedom with the kids heading to various kids’ houses to play, I’ve actually found some of that golden time to play. Here are some of the fruits of my labors. The first is my brainless knitting that I started a few months ago with sea silk, oh how I looove this stuff!  My whisper cardigan.

As soon as I finished her I cast on for my ambrosia from Interweave Knits. I fell in love with the pattern when I saw it and funnily enough, I had 4 skeins of the called for yarn in my stash from a sale I couldn’t pass up 2 years ago. Instead of bothering with the hooks and eye closure in the front, I sewed the two sides together and I’m extremely pleased with the result.

It’s been a while but a few days ago I was a bit tired of working in the yard so I went straight to my sewing room in the basement to make some fabric buckets. The left one is for me and the right one is for Alida and her many hair things.  As you can imagine, she picked out the fabric and, once again, I really like the result.

Since sewing the buckets I’ve been in the yard working to get this in order and I’ve made tons of progress.  The deck is done and roses, lavendar, blueberries and a butterfly bush have been planted along the edges so now all I have to do is sit and knit.

I’ve cast on for the Metro from the twist collective using Carpe Diem which is a merino/alpaca mix.  It’s sooo yummy!

The sun is out so I’m off to knit, bis später!

Meet our new baby, Chiquita (that’s what the original owner named her so we kept it-I’ve changed the spelling because it was wrong and driving me crazy) .  We are assuming she’s a regular house cat, although the man we got her from claimed she was a British Short Hair.  We don’t really think she’s any breed but she was such a cutie and had such a wonderful personality that we decided to rescue her from the apartment full of cats and bring her home to be Pip’s new friend.  Pip had been walking around the house looking for Zindy and crying ever since she died which was absolutely breaking my heart, so we’d been on the look out for a new baby to keep him company.

She had flees and a stomach problems so we gave her a bath and kept her in the bathroom with food and a litter box for the first night.  At 8 o’clock the next morning, before I had to go to work, the kids and I took her to the vet and within 24 hours and plenty of medicine, the flees were gone and we’re hoping that her stomach gets better, it seems to be already.  I also bought some kitten food so she gets just what she needs to get her healthy.  Please keep your fingers crossed that it’s nothing serious with her digestive system and she gets better soon.  She’s the snuggliest kitten we’ve ever had and we all adore her.  Even Pip, who was a bit sceptical at first but has been playing with her and showing her how things operate here in this crazy place since she was allowed to roam free in the house.  He’s even sharing his prized pipe cleaners with her, I think this was a match meant to be.

I’m also excited because this is the first cat that even Alida has been able to hold and snuggle, all the other cats have been too overpowering while Chiquita loves to sleep on Alida’s lap and even lets her carry her around.  Did I mention how much we are all in love with her??

The little monster doesn’t have her own bed yet so I decided to raid my yarn supply and found 3 balls of Lopi that would make the perfect cat bed. I immediately set to work on a kitty pi with handles so it looks more like a basket.  It took 3 days to finish knitting and then I felted it in the washing machine.  She loved it before it was felted.

Luckily, she loved it after it was felted too.

The fourth time’s a charm.  At least that’s what I’ve been telling myself.  I’ve now casted on this curtain for the fourth time adding one extra repeat to make it just a bit wider.  I’m absolutely convinced that this one will be the right size and I shouldn’t make any more mistakes, after all I’ve knit this 3 times already.

Yesterday the weather was gorgeous so we filled up the blow-up pool in the back yard and while the kids ran in and out of it splashing all over to cool off, I was able to work on my curtain.  The casing is now done and I’m almost at the point where I stopped my 3rd try.

Oh and because you might like chocolate as much as much as I do and because it may land on your hips as it does on mine, I’m showing you the newest edition to my garden.

This lovely little flower is my new Choca Mocca plant.  My neighbor came home with one of these for her garden and just had to show me.  She’s velvety brownish red  and soo pretty but as you can imagine that’s now why I had to run out and buy one of my own.  No, it’s because when she’s out in the sun she smells just like chocolate.  Roses pale in comparison with this sweet smell, it’s really yummy.  Maybe smelling her off and on during the day and the fact that my running shoes have been back in action will keep those pounds from settling on my hips.