Feline Friday

Porch time.

Birthday Presents

My friends and family keep me in stitches. :-) From Del and the Kitties I got a cardigan and three pairs of socks, some assembly required, also some fancy knitting needles. The bag on the left is missing three balls of yellow yarn, they sent turquoise instead and now I have to wait for the right one to arrive. But fear not, the wrong color will become a hat, returns are such a hassle. The yarn will become this cardigan. The sock yarn is Felici from Knitpicks, it is not always available, so one has to stock up when one can get it.
The yarn in the penguin bag from my friend Coleen will most likely become this shawl (once I figure out some puzzling things in the pattern) and the mug is from my friend Sabine.

There was no cake this year because I was too hot and too lazy to bake one and the store bought ones are too sweet. Another year older and (hopefully) wiser.

More Shawls

Two more shawls I knitted during my summer break, both will be given to the cancer center as comfort shawls. The pattern for the first one is Multnomah, the other one is Murcia, both are knitted with Caron Simply Soft, my favorite yarn for shawls.

Garden Things

These lucky Black-eyed Susans escaped the jungle removal.

Feline Friday

Mr. Moose guarding my knitting bag and testing a new kitty blanket.

Baking

I baked this lovely Lemon-Blueberry-Bread for our Lammas celebration and it was delicious, definitely a keeper. It uses greek yogurt in the batter and it is moist and not too sweet.

For the recipe just click HERE

A new project

I had some yarn left over from other projects and someone shared this lovely free pattern on FB, Petals and Diamonds. And now I am working on yet another blanket. I am using jewel tones and will join the squares with beige. The yarn is Caron Simply Soft.

Finishes

Over the past weeks I finished several shawls to be given to the cancer center. The pattern for this one is called Old Shale Shawl, the yarn is Simply Soft. I really enjoyed knitting this pattern and I have already started a second one for myself.

We are back!

I know, technically it is still Summer, but there is already that slight shifting of the seasons in the air. Mornings are darker, damp, cool and foggy and the days are noticeably shorter.

We had some brutally hot days when even the AC was struggling to keep up and we had some bad storms.
Our jungle got removed (the city deemed our grass too high, now it is a brown desert) and Del started a new job in mid July in which he is quite happy. The cats are all happy and healthy and Mr. Moose is now officially an adult. To make things easier he will be celebrating his birthday in September with the rest of the gang.
I got quite a lot of projects finished (and new ones started) and I will share them here over the next few weeks.

I did a bit of soul searching as to if and how to continue with my blog. So many blogs I used to follow have gone silent this year and I sometimes struggle a bit too. But I decided I will go on, sharing bits of my life and the results of my crafting adventures and not to forget, the shenanigans of my kitties. And hopefully next year I will have to share garden stories again.

For now I leave you with a photo of a garden resident that I discovered yesterday and I'll see you soon.

Summer Break

We are taking an official summer break and will be back once it is not so hot anymore and we are back to doing more than lying around (mostly the cats, I still have stuff to do). Have a good Summer everybody!

Feline Friday

My knitting buddy.

Sock Yarn Blanket

On June 1 I started to knit a blanket from all my sock yarn leftovers. I try to add at least one square every day and I like the way it turns out.

Another Finish

Another one of my small summer knits, done in thin wool yarn. The pattern is called Stone Croft and can be found on Ravelry. The yarn is Knitpicks Wool of the Andes Sport in Amethyst Heather. It was a very enjoyable knit.

Feline Friday

Mr. Moose (the other cats are quite happy not to be followed around with the camera, they don't mind leaving the FF to him for a while).

Knitting

I tried a different pattern for the hats for the cancer center. I like it, it is easy and knits up quickly. Both hats are done in a soft cotton yarn. The colors are not as pale as they look in the picture.

Feline Friday

Our pretty Miss Precious (who does not like to have her picture taken).

Reyna #2

I liked the pattern so much I made another one. Yarn is Knitpicks Stroll Handpainted again, the colorway is Hayride. In both shawls I knitted stockinette stitch between the mesh parts instead of garter stitch because my garter stitch turned out a little tight and made the shawl look wonky.

Summer Knitting

This is one of four knitting projects I finished recently. They are all done in thin wool yarns and need to be blocked. The pattern for this shawl is Reyna and it can be found on Ravelry. The yarn is Knit Picks Stroll Handpainted, colorway Tree Fort. It is soft and squishy and lovely to work with.

A New Blanket

With the help of Mr. Moose I was able to finally finish my Gretchen Afghan. The colors in the picture are a little off but I am very pleased with how it turned out.

Feline Friday

The adorable Mr. Moose.