Kats, cosies and more

For the record, it is hot and humid in San Diego and I do not like hot and humid. About the only thing I can think to knit with in this weather that wouldn't be uncomfortable is wire but I'm staying out of the wire stash and staying hopeful for cooler days ahead.

Yesterday I took the Kat/Popoki shawl out for walkabout knitting. The walkabout knit it involves draping it over my left forearm. Well, the weather, sweat and its tendency to shed a bit, had my arm looking a bit like I was turning to a werewolf.

I ended my knitting with row 46, a stitch count and a decision point. Not sure whether being in a pub or being a year away from my original "solution" about how to work the two edgings had a bigger influence in my decision to play with numbers but not stitches but it was probably a good choice since I already have a "judicious use of sewing thread" involved in this project and I don't fancy another oops.

Anyhow, this is how the kats/popokis are cavorting around my trapezoids and how the reversing the kat motifs has worked out. In the original, all the kats were oriented as the little guy to the right of the photo.
I considered having all my kats marching away from the centre back but then decided to have them alternate between having faces or tails together. I'm pretty happy with the result although I'm grateful that this garter based and that the yarn is black because I couldn't guarantee that every stitch is oriented as it should be -- another reason to love garter based lace.


Cosies and cats go together and some knitters are cosy crazy. One of my first designs was tea cosy that looked like a cottage. I gave it to some friends of mine who decided it was too nice to use -- pish. I had several people urge me to publish the design and some even offered to test knit it. In at least one case, I sent the instructions and the test knitting never happened -- double pish.







Anyhow, I'm less cosy crazed than I am addicted to kitschy knitting publications which is why I just happen to own Patons Bazaar 178 with all its glorious weird projects. Gods only know what attracted me to this little gem but I've yet to knit a thing from it. Here's a glimpse of the 50 gifts to knit and crochet this puppy has to offer.




I had taken some of the unwound skeins of the two dye lots for the pentagon project with me thinking that I'd wind some new centre pull balls to start round three of the body of that sweater but procrastination, socialising and people watching got in the way. The good news for me is that winding a centre pull ball is a good walkabout activity so that's lkely to jump to the front of the queue.

Turns out that Stephanie who tends bar also happens to be a newish knitter. While it's a bit odd that she and I haven't discussed knitting before, now that we have I hope to connect her up with some other local knitters. Who knows? Maybe we'll even get pick up game of knitting Hillcrest up and vibrant again.