oh Stormy

I thought he'd keep truckin' along forever, but I suppose that not realistic.  He gave it a heck of a fight.  I learned that having a cat put to sleep is actually a very peaceful way to help your friend, and that I'm going to forever miss every wonderful thing about this guy.

new dresses for my neglected girls

It's been a while since the girls have gotten any new clothes and tonight I was kind of in the mood (or maybe just in the mood to avoid doing less fun stuff like cleaning the bathroom or mopping the kitchen floor!)

Remember that little kitty that I embroidered on my machine just to try it out the first day I got it?  I held on to it because I thought it might make a cute dress or skirt.  And I think it did.  This one called out for Emma - she's girlie.

 I wanted to try a different pattern, so I grabbed this one from Jam Fancy.  Unfortunately I either cut the arm holes a bit small, or I unintentionally made them smaller when I added the lace - whatever the case, it very tight on her shoulders, but since she's plastic and feels no pain, it's ok because she looks adorable in it!  (if you click on the pictures, you can see them larger!)

I feel kind of bad that I didn't make a dress for Celeste too, but after 2 in a row, I just couldn't handle any more fiddly little pieces!

Let the stripes continue!

I warped my loom a couple weekends ago, intending to make a snow princess scarf using some white mohair laceweight strung with little white sequins.  I worked up a few inches and remembered why I hate mohair - why does it have to be so damn scratchy?  in the ball it feels lovely, and it looks like a fluffy bunny, but any way I use it it ends up feeling like burlap on my skin!  So, I carefully cut it off the warp threads and started over with some mystery navy stuff that I bought on a cone for like $2 at the Woolgathering or UVFF several years ago.  I decided that it was pretty boooring and decided (I know this is going to shock you!) to stripe in some scraps!  whee!  i used some red and pink wool, and some heathered green lion brand something or another, and a bit of left over SWS.  I love it!  it's insanely long - like the piece in front on this picture actually goes down to around my knee and I have it wrapped twice around my neck then tossed over my shoulder.  As if it weren't long enough,  I added navy fringe.  why not?  

In keeping with the stripe theme, I bought myself Merlin for my birthday and decided to cast on last weekend.  I'm using the Little Knits Divine Lace in plum jelly that I reclaimed from my citron that I just never liked, and some baby blue Baruffa Cashwool that I got in a trade.  I love the color combo and I love the picture of this finished scarf/wrap BUT i kind of hate knitting it.  it's not bringing me much pleasure.  There's something about knitting laceweight yarn on size 8 needles that I find difficult, and there's this 5 stitch decrease that is no fun but I'll be forced to do it throughout the whole damn project.  I'm pressing on because I'm hoping it starts feeling better at some point. 

I'm also pressing on because you may notice something odd/stupid about the skein of the blue cashwool - it's stuck on the post of my yarn winder.  Like stuck tight.  When I say tight, I mean really f'ing tight!  When I first started winding I had my swift really pushed out far because I thought the skein was going to fall off and there was just no play on the shaft - I don't know how to describe it, but it wasn't spinning easily and I really had to crank the ball winder to move the swift - I was concerned that I was kind of distorting the yarn, but never thought that I might be winding so tight that I'd never get it off the winder.  About half way though I adjusted the swift and thought "whew - that's better!" but it was too late.  not that I realized it was too late until, well, it was too late and I'd wound all 1650 yards of the stuff!  it's a good thing the shaft comes off, I'd say!  So here are my options - just knit from it and hope that as I use up yarn it'll decrease pressure, or just cut it and wind it all (remember we're talking about 1650 yards!) from the shaft into a ball.  The pro for option #1 is that I'll kind of be forced to keep working on this damn thing if I ever want to wind another ball of yarn again!  The con is that I'm probably kidding myself that using 500 yard will decrease the pressure enough to get the other 2/3 of the yarn off.  The pro of option #2 is that I'll have my ball winder back in business, but the con is that it may be an excuse to not work on it as much because there's no real driver left.  Plus it's going to take like 5 years to wind that off!  it's a real pickle I've gotten myself into here.