Adventures with kittens

Things I’ve learnt recently

Posted on August 18, 2015 by bekswhoknits

Dont start to dye yarn when there’s a strong chance you’ll nod off and leave it on the stove.

But do dye some more once you’ve finished your nap.

Cats like photobombing yarn pictures.

Cats snuggling while playing Mass Effect is the best way to spend a Saturday morning.

(Jane Shepherd is amazing and I love her and want to be her!)

Although it’s difficult when they’re climbing all over you and being adorable.

Bright pink hair makes me happy. As do polkadot shirts and dark lippy.

Happy days.

What’s the point of having a blog if you can’t post ALL THE CAT PICTURES!!!

Posted on May 4, 2015May 4, 2015 by bekswhoknits

Do I need to warn you that this contains lots of pictures of cats??? Adorable adorable cats.

Oh and I finished a book! With two cats at my feet.

Finished object 8&9 – nurmilintu

Posted on April 27, 2015 by bekswhoknits

Remember that shawl that I posted without taking a good picture of first?

Well I have my photo!

Isn’t it just lovely??? Megs of course but also my shawl!!!

The pattern is nurmilintu and I just finished another, this time for myself and also in my own hand dyed yarn.

Blocking it made such a difference. But blocking with cats? When they’ve taken one of your blocking mats to be their new scratching post? Not fun.

At one point Tina ran off with a pin in her mouth and I had to chase her through the house so she didn’t hurt herself. In the end I locked them in their room (formerly the spare room) pinned it all out and then put it outside and once it got dark then put it into our bedroom and closed the door.

That’s the problem with open plan houses. No place to block your shawl with two nosy kittens.

I’m still not entirely convinced that the lace panels are correct. Either due to me not being able to count or the chart being wrong, but I don’t really care.

It’s colourful and warm and soft and it won’t leave my neck for at least until I finish the picot scarf that’s nearly off my needles.

Finished object 6 – the specialest of shawls

Posted on April 9, 2015 by bekswhoknits

I was gifted the most special of yarns.

Keri (of whendidibecomeaknitter) sent me a skein of her hand spun.

It was sent with a knitted dalek and a Canada Mug (which I use most mornings and I now know most of the words to Oh Canada) and a very precious skein of her own hand spun yarn! From the date on the original photo it has been in my stash since 2013 just waiting for the right pattern to come along.

Well in the end I devised the right pattern.

After casting on 5 stitches I repeated the following two rows.

Row 1: Knit 1, Knit front & back, knit til last 3, knit 2 together, knit 1

Row 2: Knit til last 2 stitches. Knit front & back, knit 1.

Then every now and again I would do a row of yarn over knit 2 together (while following the increase at one end, decrease at the other pattern).

It still needs blocking to even out the 4 rows of yarn over-knit 2 together to end the shawl. But the kittens have stolen my craft room and so now I don’t know where to block anything.

It’s also awkward given my blocking matts have become their scratching pads.

I really don’t want to put such a pretty shawl onto a cat scratching pad!!!

Firstly it was awesome to be gifted some hand spun yarn! It must have taken so long to spin and ply and wind. Seriously just the effort alone is awesome and a wonderful gift.

Secondly as a novice spinner it was really interesting to see the imperfections, the quirks, and idiosyncrasies of yarn that has been hand spun. This isn’t to say that it wasn’t fantastic quality, because it was and is! But seeing hand spun up close is going to help my own spinning (once a part is fixed on my wheel).

So not only did I get a lovely gift which resulted in a fantastic finished object, but I got a lesson in working with hand spun yarn.

Reason #7482929 knitters are brilliant people.

THANK YOU KERI!!! You’re the best!!!!

Embroidery hoop art

Posted on March 27, 2015 by bekswhoknits

There are some things you just can’t do when you’re a cat owner.

One of these things is having a tea cup on your bed side table as a jewelry holder.

Cats will jump on it causing the clinking of China to wake you up at 4am on a Saturday. It may be pretty but sleep does come first.

So I needed to hang my jewelry out of cats reach.

I am pretty obsessed with embroidery hoops so I picked out a couple in my crafty stash which I had painted and put away for future use.

I took some fabric also from stash, secured it in the hoop, cut around the back, and poked some earrings into it!

Then I screwed a couple of hooks into the wall and hung them.

Then I screwed a couple more hooks behind the embroider hoop to hang some of my necklaces on. (If you’re renting or don’t have walls that you can put holes into, 3M command hooks work as well.)

This has got to be one of easiest DIY I’ve ever done.

I now know that I’m missing some earrings which I’ll have to track down. And I found some that I need to return to their original owner!

It also has the added bonus of being almost entirely from stash, keeps my necklaces untangled, and looks pretty cute to boot. That makes it a winner in my book. And the cats aren’t really all the interested!

finished object 5 with 100% more ratbags

Posted on March 11, 2015March 21, 2015 by bekswhoknits

Well it’s actually finished object 6 but as finished object 5 is currently winging its way overseas and I stupidly don’t have any proper photos of it, I’m calling this finished object 5.

It will need a good blocking but my blocking mats are currently play toys for the two (yes two) kitten shaped ratbags that have decided they now own our house.

Say hello to Snow.

He and Tina are sort of playing nicely with each other. Currently they’re both resting at my feet while I’m writing this in between trying to defeat a boss in Dragon Age 2. (Which hell yes I just beat!! Last quest and I’ve been battling this Blood Mage, a Pride Demon and a fuckton of Shades for what seems like hours but yeh I finally beat them!!!)