Slow and sure....

slow being the first word.  I've finally made a little headway on Hallett's Ledge, the body is blocking and I'm on  to the sleeves.

I'd probably be a little farther along but that darn Cat yarn keeps calling me.
Ever since I saw Romi Hill's pattern for Taygete I had a vision of what colours I wanted.

I really love our Stray Cat sport so Boss Cat and I got down to the studio and dyed some up in Squid and Misty Highland, but I promised myself I wouldn't start it until Hallett's is done.

Then I saw Jared Flood's new pattern for Rock Island and thought I had died and gone to heaven.

  I wish these guys would stop making these beautiful shawls, I just dropped a skein of Twinkle Cat Lace in the dye pot.  I need more hours in the day.

Enough...

of the snow pictures already. It's pretty much gone and tomorrow is April 1st.  So, to start spring off we're having and update on Saturday April 2nd @ 11am over at Chez Wandering Cat.
We have some new Alley Cat BFL. I've had several customers ask for it so we're going to try it out. And of course before I could get it all dyed up "Boss Cat" snitched one for herself.
So here's a little sneak preview

 And we'll be launching our new Aristocat Singles.  This is a single ply yarn of  40% Baby Alpaca/40% Wool/20% Silk and all I can says SooooooooooooSoft.

Hello Spring?

I love living in Southern Ontario.  Look what we got today.....

 

Someone would love to have the snow all year round if she could!!!

 Mr D had to haul the snowblower back out of storage too.

Coming soon.......

to an etsy shop near you.
Some new Slinky Cat

some new Twinkle Cat Gold

and several new Self-Striping

These are a few......

of my favorite things.

A snowy day and a silly dog....

A hot cup o' tea........

my Addi Turbos......

and a batch of fresh dyed yarn.

Willow...

I can't believe I forgot to post my pictures of Willow.  It's been delivered and absolutely loved. I'm still not sure how I feel about knitting with the Wollmeise, but I am in awe of her saturated colours. I think if yarn was art (maybe it is) I would keep a few I have in my stash forever.

Update time....

After a very long week at work, I decided today would be a non-day.  I spent most of the morning finishing off the Willow Cowl I knit for a friend, it's drying now and I'll have photos tomorrow.
Then I took a couple of hours to re-skein last weekend's dye day of Twinkle Cat Silver and Gold. We have several shades going in the shop on Friday March 4th around 4pm. I wasn't sure how the gold Twinkle would look dyed up, but I must say I'm very impressed. I'm going to see if Boss Cat will dye me some in my favorite colourway "Misty Highland".  Here's a sneak peak.....

 Tonight is going to be spent in front of the TV knitting on Hallett's Ledge. All I need is Mr. "D" to share the remote.

So, whats new...

It's been a crazy 2 weeks around here. Work has been absolute madness. I now know I don't like working till 5pm. I've missed my afternoons all last week. Knitting has suffered, and I don't want to play anymore.
We've been stressed out about Mr "D" finding a new truck after his accident, and finally had it in our hot little hands last night but there something wrong with it so back it went and they can't look at it till Tuesday.
Apparently everything is closed Monday for Family Day except for the Post Office, which means I have to work.
I have managed to knit a few things though, I should say start a few things.
A new project for Julie...Halett's Ledge in Rowan Felted Tweed Aran, I'm loving the pattern and the yarn.

A new sock, Daydreamer with Wandering Cat Stray Cat  Sport, one of my favorite bases. This colour is self-striping in Poodle Skirt. I'll be dyeing this one up again as soon as I get time.

I managed to dye up some Twinkle Cat today so we'll be having an update very soon.  I did a couple of this one....Boogie Nights.

Can you say SNOW DAY...

I got to work this morning although the roads were treacherous, (I love my FWD) and there was no mail to sort, so we did what was left from the night before and waited a couple of hours to see if they could manage to bring us more, but nada. 

So we all ventured back home, with one stop at Timmie's for a large cup of steaming coffee.
So I think I will hunker down with my knitting and one silly dog who would love to go out and play in this crap.  My Juneberry Triangle in Stray Cat.

Tomorrow is another day.

Yum...

I finished Miss "P's" Watermelon socks this morning, and I must say I love this yarn.  I made a ladies small because this little lady is growing so fast I can't keep up, but I didn't even use half the skein.
So that means there's more than enough leftover for the "Robo Baby" too.

Pattern:  Just a plain old Vanilla Sock of 56 sts
Yarn:  Abi Grasso's Watermelon Striping Sock and Regia (black) for cuffs, heels and toes
Needles:  2.5mm

So now I got myself involved in a couple of KAL's on Ravelry, one is just project goals for 2011 which I've already made some progress and the other is a sock knitalong for Non-Vanilla socks. So this gives me a chance to go through the gazillion sock patterns I've always wanted to knit and I can use my stash of Wandering Cat Yarns.
But first I think I'm getting back to my Tea Leaves Cardigan tonight, the body is almost done. 

First Cat of the year..

I finished my first WCY project this year.  My favorite pattern, No Purl Monkeys.  I love how this pattern just seems to zip along and after doing one pattern repeat, there's no looking back at the pattern, it's burned in my memory.  These ones were dyed in our Barn Cat base and they're self striping.
Even though it's more work to make the self-striping yarn, I absolutely love the way it stripes with no effort.

I'm going to go through my unusually large collection of sock patterns to see what to knit next. I'm thinking something with some cables perhaps.  Boss Cat dyed me up some Alley Cat today, but you'll have to wait to see what she did. So if you're up to it, come on over and join in the KAL, for inspiration and yarny prizes.

In the meantime I started a pair of socks for Miss "P", I promised she was next to get some some socks. It's not WCY, but another indy dyer who's work just amazes me. I'll give you all the details when I get a little farther along, or you can just check out my project page, if you can't wait.

Happy New Year....

and hopefully this one will be a good one.  I have set some personal goals, which I don't normally do, but I think it's time to make my list and stick to it.
I always get the urge to join all these KALs, but never seem to stick to them. So, this year, starting NOW, will be the year I will do it.  Since Boss Cat and I have all this pretty yarn, we decided to set up our own KAL over at our Rav Group.  Everyone is welcome to join, and there will be prizes. It's only for 3 months, so you have lots of time, and even if you only get one item done, your entered in the draws. All you need is some needles, a pattern, and a skein of WCY.
And if all goes well, maybe we'll do another.

Tomorrow afternoon we'll have some new yarn up in the shop. We have some Big Cat, Stray Cat, Twinkle Cat and our new Bamboo blend "Jungle Cat".
Here's a little peak, but Valerie took this one home with her.

I know...........

I've been very slack about blogging lately, but really I haven't had much to blog about.  I think it's just the season, work is hectic, and all the hustle and bustle about getting everything done is just a time sucker.

But Mr "D" was home for a couple of days and he really stepped up to the plate.  I'm afraid the granddaughters missed a lot of fun. Grampa was cutting and pasting and using up all their craft paper.
Look what he did,

these are for all the big people in our family and I'm aftraid the little people are getting little packages this year.
He decorated the tree all by himself for the first time.

I must say, we have a very eclectic assortment of ornaments.  Since the children were small we tried to add something new to the tree every year. Whether it was store bought or hand crafted, usually the latter.  I still have the beaded wreaths they made at school or scouts and brownies, the baby in a milk pod manger (from nanny), my crocheted snowflakes,  the mini stockings I knit last year, the plastic canvas dog house for our long departed dog,  my favorite ornament with Miss "P's" little fingers painted on to look like snowmen (darn kid made me cry), and lots of glass balls from many years of Christmases.
But I had the best surprise today when Mr "D" came home from work today.

I hadn't got anything new for the tree this year and he came home with the most awesome ornament.  Anyone who knows us knows exactly how much this little Timmie cup meant to me.  I'm still smiling.

And if I don't get back to blog till after Christmas, I would like to wish everyone a Happy Holiday.
Oh, and we'll have some more yarn in the shop before the new year.

Sunshiny weekend mornings......

are what I love most on the weekends.  Getting up having bacon and eggs for breakfast (cooked by Mr "D" of course) and then lounging with a hot cup of tea and my knitting.
Well yesterday started off that way, but Mr "D" thought it would be a great idea to get dressed and take the dog for a walk. Bah.........don't tell him, but I actually enjoyed it, the air was crisp but there was no wind so it was perfect walking weather. We worked our way over to Tim Horton's (in the center of town) and then he decided to take the long way back, so we continued down the highway and along the back road home.  All in all it took a good hour or so, only because we had to stop and let the Lady dog play at the park too.
Our day continued on with him dusting, cleaning and vacuuming and that means I retreat to the studio.  When he cleans it's a love/hate relationship for me.  I love the fact that he's cleaning but all the cuss words and angry looks on his face are a total pain in the butt.
So this is what I did all afternoon,

This is a new base Boss Cat and I are trying out, it is 75/20/5 SW merino/nylon/stellina (silver sparkles).
I loved dyeing this up, and Boss Cat missed all the fun.  It has a nice twist like our Barn Cat and House Cat and the sparkles are lovely but really hard to capture on camera.
You can see them a little better here drying.

Even though I was hoping to go for another walk this morning, Mr "D" is doing double time at the Post Office today. Yes, my friends it's that time of year when the Christmas cards and parcels start flowing, and we work longer days to get the job done.
So I think I'll take this opportunity to go back down to the studio and dye up some Bamboo blend  that we're testing out for the shop.    Do you think Boss Cat will get wind of it and show up?

Progress.....

Slow and steady, I am getting some knitting progress.
First up, Miss"P's" poncho is coming along.  Several years ago, I stopped putting myself under pressure to get things knit for Christmas and that has just worked out fine for me, but I really would like to get this one done to put under the tree, only because I have promised this poncho to her for a very long time.

 The purple yarn is Nashua Creative Focus, that "Boss Cat" picked up a Julie's tent sale and the blue and natural are Wandering Cat Big Cat. The pattern called for seed stitch for the edging, but I didn't like it very much so I ripped back and started a slip stitch stripe which I'm liking much better.

And of course I had to start another striped sock, No-Purl Monkeys,  in Barn Cat, but I'm still looking for the right colour name for this one. Any suggestions?

I totally forgot to blog about these pretty pouches by Offhand Designs. I picked them up a Julie's several weeks ago, one for my many Addi circs, and one for my Addi Clics. Gorgeous, aren't they?

 I'll be back to the dye pots this week-end, I have lots of ideas running through my head right now.

Plans gone awry...

I really had the week-end all planned out, I had a million things to do.  Then Mr. "D" said "Road-Trip" and all my plans went out the window. 
Now, my family (especially "Boss Cat") know how much I hate shopping. It's like pulling teeth just to get me to go out and buy myself some clothes.  So when Mr "D" noticed my slippers were in such bad shape he decided to take me for a new pair, and he was not waiting for Christmas.
We left early Saturday morning to go to my favorite shop for slippers. Robinson's General Store in Dorset.
This is a one stop shop. You can get everything here from gifts to hardware to groceries, and only 3 or so hours away from home.  I even got a few things for Christmas gifts.

 Old slippers:

 New slippers:  OMG, they look the same except new.  I'm so set in my ways.

 The scenery was beautiful. Even though were into November and there are no leaves on the trees I still find beauty in the Sumac.

My other favorite thing about road trips is I get to knit non-stop with no interruptions.  I actually got to finish my socks, that have been languishing in my sock bag for a very long time.

This is one of the very first skeins of Top Cat we dyed, Ruby Slippers, and I've been hiding it in my stash forever.  It's a very simple pattern I did and I'll be writing it up soon.
So, today was for catching up with the chores that were put off yesterday and Boss Cat dyed up some goodies for the shop.

Alone again....

Mr. D is off with the boys for another week doing boy things, so I spent the week-end playing with some Wandering Cat yarn.  They just need to be skeined up and you'll see these in the shop very soon.   I'll announce the date after I consult with the Boss Cat.

And my striped socks are almost finished so I'll post the picture in a couple of days.

It's that time of year again...

Knit one for someone.

I've been busy...........

Winding, winding and more winding.