Damn, Knit & Blast It

After my last post about knitting the Mewsley Paw Print cushion and how well Mewsley had recovered her sight, it is dreadful to have to tell you that she took a turn for the worse and was finally put to sleep on Monday.

Mewsley’s kidneys have been declining for several years and she was on daily medication. Eventually, her kidneys worsened an lead to ulceration in her throat that made her not want to eat. We had been coaxing food into her, carrying her when she was weak and wobbly and trying everything in the vet’s book of magic tricks.  When she stopped eating altogether and was rapidly loosing weight, we took our vets advice and let her go before she suffered too much. She was 19 years and 10 months old and I don’t feel like I had nearly enough time or cuddles with her.

Mewsley was always the timid, pretty, ladylike cat, often bullied in her early years by her brother Thug. She made up for that in later life once Thug went blind and was not adverse to giving Thug a well timed swipe when he deserved it (and he often  did).

Ben and I are bereft without her. After 20 years of two beautiful cats around my ankles and always available for a cuddle, the house seems cold and empty and strangely still and silent.

I will blog some knitting blog posts in the next few days but please forgive me for being preoccupied with my poor kitten’s well being for the last few weeks.

Ben was especially close to Mewsley and came up with the best daft names for her. So I leave you with some of our favorite pictures to remember her by Mewsley, Mewie and Matron-Mewsley (because she’d always sit on us when we were ill or unhappy).

Here are some of our favorite memories of Mewsley – we loved her dearly and miss her deeply.

From Mewsley

From Mewsley

From Mewsley

From Mewsley

From Mewsley

From Mewsley

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From Mewsley

From Mewsley

Mewsley needed a treat. A big knitted treat…

What I haven’t shared with you yet is that Mewsley has been poorly. The day before we got back from honeymoon, she went blind.. We came down from the joy of the honeymoon pretty fast, I can tell you. Thug coped really well with being blind, Mewsley was another story – she’s much older than Thug was when he went blind. She was distraught and depressed – heartbreaking. But don’t fret – there is a happy outcome.

Vets appointments, diagnosis of retinal detachment due to  high blood pressure, drugs, cuddles, prayers and a mighty large bill and I’m happy to say her retinas have BOTH reattached and she can see again She’s still too skinny and a little fragile but very well in herself. We’re mightily relived.

So what do you knit a recovering, vintage cat??

Well, she loves to curl up on the sofa on a cushion with us in the evenings and frankly, my old knitted cushions were well past their best.

I decided on a Debbie Bliss pattern from her Winter 2011 Magazine…

This one..

No, not the tiger’s head! That would scare her! (And I think it would look a bit naff in my house…and I don’t want THAT much intarsia!!)

I’ve made her the one on the left – the giant paw print. It’s supposed to be a tiger paw print but all I saw was Mewsley’s little pink paddy paws – awww.

I chose Mewsley-fur grey for the main colour and pink for the paw.

You want to see it don’t you??

The cushion is in aran weight so it’s nice and quick. The back is two slightly overlapping flaps with buttons to hold it shut and the whole thing is knit in one peice with a reverse stocking stitch row where you fold. Very neat and easy.

This is the edge…

And I found the perfect buttons for a cat cushion in my button box (I think I got them at hobbycraft)…

The intarsia of the paw print was fun. (Yes, I used “intarsia” and “fun” in the same sentance!) They are nice big blobbs of colour but at one point you do have 9 bobbins on the go when you’re working all 4 toe pads…

The nice part about this intarsia is that you don’t have to be 100% accurate – paws vary! That was actually quite fortunate as the chart in the magazine was pretty poorly printed – you couldn’t count the squares. Fortunately, I found a PDF of the chart on the Debbie Bliss Facebook page – Here if you need a copy –> Paw Chart

So did Mewsley like it? She is a cat and it’s cat-law to ignore anything special made or bought for you…..

But my lovely Mewsley ignored that She was on it the second I finished….you can see that from the pin tin and the trimmings in the photo!!

Ten minutes later I had inserted the cushion pad and a certain grey cat was very happily curled up….. Awwww

Oh WOW!!!

I’ve finished the Modern Quilt Wrap and I am beside myself with the results. It definitely one of my favorite things I’ve made in a long time. (Yep the knitting mojo is back!)

It has been finished quickly, mainly because it has that “I’ll just finish this stripe before making dinner, I’ll just finish this block before bed” kinda  hook that made me a total progress junkie.

I may have mentioned before that I’m not a massive blocking fan – I can reliably ruin knitted fabric, particularly when armed with an iron! It this case I took a huge leap forward in my knitterly experience….

I bought blocking wires…..

From Modern Quilt Wrap

These are the “Block-It kit” I got mine from HuluCrafts. I’ve never had blocking wires before because I’m not really a shawl knitter (except the lovely Birch which I marmalised with an iron because, back then, I didn’t know any better about blocking shawls!!) Oh, I just noticed the rulers in that picture – the kit comes with a ruler in inches only – the cm one is mine from years ago – wouldn’t want to mislead you.

I carefully threaded the wires through my shawl and pinned it out on the sofa bed in my knitroom/guestroom on some towels….I was impressed how easy that process was and how much better it looked even befor the steaming, even though this is the back of the wrap….

From Modern Quilt Wrap

I hovered the steam iron over it without squashing it until it was good and damp then left it alone for several hours. Mewsley was under strict instructions not to sleep on the wrap. Something she had taken to doing in the guise of “helping”..

From Modern Quilt Wrap

So how does it look???

Well, I made this wrap to cheer up a big, thick unflattering grey wool winter coat so I guess I had better model it with that…

From Modern Quilt Wrap

From Modern Quilt Wrap

And a shot with the whole thing? Of course!

From Modern Quilt Wrap

Even my office chair looks good wearing it

From Modern Quilt Wrap

As you can tell I love this wrap. If you possibly can, in Kidsilk Haze or any other lovely yarn, try making this wrap. It’s easy, addictive and massively rewarding

I think I’ve finally broken that Kim Hargreaves curse of mine! Still is finished and I’m very pleased.

How did I manage to finish so quickly?? That would be because I’ve been off from work since Tuesday after a small operation on my foot.

OK,OK so the foot isn’t exactly broken – but I did have a huge boney lump chiseled from the top of it. The lump was pressing a nerve and giving me serious pain with shoes. I was only in hospital for the day but came out with a Popeye type bandage…

From Still

…which has now thankfully been removed leaving stitches and a huge plaster (you really don’t want to see that!)

I seem to be healing fast, but must keep my foot “elevated” for at least another week until the stitches come out. Hmmmm…what to do when I can’t go anywhere, can’t stand, can’t walk and cant drive and must pretty much sit on the sofa with my foot up…. KNIT!!

So after a couple of days of knitting like fury, I am delighted (as you can see!) to present the finished Still…

From Still

I like that piccy but here’s a better couple of shots where you can see more of the garment…

From Still

From Still

And the back view…

From Still

Still has been a quick and easy knit, the pattern was well written and there were some very cute details incorporated.

The horizontal rib was worked sideways for the cuff, then stitches picked up down one side to start the main sleeve. Very neat and pretty – so much better than normal ribbing…

From Still

And the neck line – that is terrific

From Still

The shaping is achieved by keeping the horizontal rib pattern going over 6 stitches for the neck band while increasing in the stocking stitch part every few rows. You then cast off the shoulders and continue the neck band for a few centimeters to slip stitch onto the back of the neck. it all makes an easy, neat construction without all that annoying picking up of stitches (have I told you a dislike picking up stitches? I did? Oh good…. )

From Still

All very effective

You may be wondering what Mewsley has been doing to help? “Matron Mewsley” has been making sure I stay on the sofa by sitting on my lap to pin me down a great deal. Then she did a stirling job of keeping an eye on the trimmed off yarn ends when I was sewing up…

From Still

But she is elderly….once she was sure I was on the mend she let herself have a little 6 hour nap in the knitting equipment!

From Still

The green cashmere delight is done.

Against the background of the most dull DIY project possible …painting the hall stairs, landing, coat cupboard and airing cupboard plain white instead of a horrid dirty, dark cream which was probably painted on 20 years ago…

…With hands so rough from 2 days  sanding down paintwork that I couldn’t run yarn through my hands any more because it had pilled before I had knit it(!)

…fighting exhaustion bought on from running up and down ladders…

…are you feeling sorry for me yet??? Fed up with my verbose description of the DIY hell?

OK – The short version – We’ve been busy with DIY but I managed to finish the green cashmere. S’pose you like to see it??

From Green Cashmere

‘fraid I’ve had to edit out my face and horrid “post painting mong-pant-jogger-bottoms” as I didn’t want to scare you with the haggard tired wreck I look like tonight after my all day paint-a-thon!

So, less of the whining about the painting – more about the knitting

This has been a lovely project – I recommend the pattern to anyone who can wrangle a cable or two. BTW, if you’re searching for the English version of this French pattern, google for “Bergere de France 106.26”

The sleeves fitted in a treat when making up and I love that arm cable…

From Green Cashmere

And I think I did better with the joining of those two strips of cable at the back of the neck…

…if you remember (why would you?) when I made this before, way back in 2006,Blogged here in “Back Catalog Delving”, the only thing I was unhappy about was the way I joined at the back of the neck.

Here’s the previous version…

From French Cable Jumper

And this version…

From Green Cashmere

I just took more care, centralised the cables…and Kitchener stitched it rather than the quick bodge of a three needle bind of I did  on my cream one before!

Hmmm – I liked this piccy of the back better but not such a good shot of the join…

From Green Cashmere

And what has Mewsley been doing while I slave away, alternating between knitting and painting? Being a good cat and curling up on the most comfortable blankets and chairs and staying out of the way and waiting for the disruption to be over

Awww!

From Green Cashmere

From Green Cashmere

“I need you for Socks!”, I said as I burst into the room. Ben looked simultaneously excited, confused and a little bit scared.

“No, I said SOCKS – put these on and make pretty for the camera”, I said as I waved my latest piece of commuting knitting at him….

“Oh”, said Ben, “Socks…” He obeyed my command.

These are the beasts being ably modelled by Ben…

From Ben’s Monging Socks

(Sorry about the hairy legs ladies – I assure you that’s Ben modelling…)

Ben had wanted some “comfy, warm monging socks”. “Monging” is an “us” word that has slipped into regular usage in the place of words like veging, slobbing, lounging or relaxing. It’s a verb – “I’m going to mong on the computer for a while” and an adjective – “That Mewsley cat is always sleeping – she’s a mong beast”…you can see how it goes.

I showed him the selection of sock yarn in my stash and he jumped on the lovely DK wool called Weaver’s Wool Quarters from Mountain Colours. The shade is Mountain Twilight – I can really see a “Mountain Twilight” in the subtle shifting purple, black, blue and brown – sumptuous shades

I didn’t have a DK pattern handy and I also needed something that would scale up to Ben’s huge 11 inch long flippers I mean feet. (It must be love to knit socks that large!)

I downloaded (via Ravelry) So Simple Silk Garden by Glenna C. It’s a nicely written pattern designed for Noro Silk Garden but worked well with the Weaver’s wool.

The pattern has a wide ribs and a subtle cable down the outside of the foot but the yarn doesn’t really do it justice. here’s the best shot I could get…

From Ben’s Monging Socks

And a solid reinforced heel…

From Ben’s Monging Socks

They are not the world’s most thrilling socks but Ben likes them….

From Ben’s Monging Socks

Mewsley however has not made up her mind. She’s still deciding if she might need to bite them!

From Ben’s Monging Socks

And my commuting knitting at the moment?? The lovely green cashmere is on the train with me this week

I am heartbroken to have to tell you, we made the painful decision to have Thug put to sleep Thursday evening.

He has been showing his age and loosing weight gradually for the last year although the vet could find nothing wrong.  Over the last couple of weeks he suddenly got very sick and weak and stopped eating.

He was very ill, weak &  in pain. He probably had stomach cancer, liver failure and multiple other organs were struggling.  The vet  felt he wouldn’t be able to survive treatment, even if it was possible – which was unlikely.

The decision was easy in the sense that it was the only compassionate thing to do for my lovely furry ginger friend of 19 years but, as I’m sure you understand, Ben and I are in bits.

He was a fabulous, clever, affectionate and very photogenic cat who even non cat lovers warmed to (even my Mum!!) I have loved Thug a ridiculous amount since he was 5 weeks old and I miss him so much. I keep thinking I see him from the corner of my eye or hear him in the house. I am crying a great deal and can’t concentrate on much – sorry if this post isn’t great
Mewsley seems OK and is enjoying a lot of extra cuddles – even if they all end with her having damp, teary fur.
Rather than make this any more of an upsetting and sad blog post than this already is – I thought I’d share my favourite photos of my handsome furry beast – you’ve seen most of them on here before of course..

I’m trying to think of him on a fluffy white cloud, well and able to see again, chasing mousies and keeping and eye on me and my knitting. I love you Thug and I miss you so very very much. There will never be another cat quite like you.

From Thug

From iPhone

From Thug

From Thug

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It’s been a bad knitting week

Do I mean a bad week to find time for knitting or that I’ve knit really badly? Unfortunately…Both!

We have spent the last few weekends decorating our office at home. It really needed doing – we spend a great deal of time in there and it was frankly, depressingly shabby, dull and grim… It was a slog but worth the effort.

Unfortunately, in the little time I had left to knit, I was very tired…can you guess what happens when a very tired knitter tackles fairisle???

Huh? Can ya?

Yup – I screwed up

So. The body of Liliana is done, just the “easy” sleeves to knock out. They are plain red stocking stitch with a 5 row band of fairisle at the wrist – like this…

From Lilianna

Really not hard.

After whipping through the body, what could possible go wrong? I was looking forward to an “easy sleeve”…

I whizzed past the patten and halfway up the sleeve when I realised, those rows of plain black are one row each…for some unfathomable reason I had done two rows of black for each stripe. I consulted with the Guilty Knitters,

“It’s fine, just do the other sleeve to match….” I was persuaded. (Quite easily actually!)

Then I noticed – I had dropped a stitch in the fairisle section – two errors were more than I could accept so I ripped back and lost an entire morning’s knitting (I hate ripping back and wasting good knitting time!)

In the process, I managed disembowel my formerly centre pull ball of Kidsilk Aura and create this delicate mess that threatens to tangle every time I look at it.

From Lilianna

I started again  on the sleeve that evening….while tired…

I got this far…

From Lilianna

…and couldn’t work out why the pattern on the fairisle looked wrong, I had one less stitch than I thought I should have and there were a couple of odd looking stitches in the fairisle I couldn’t “wiggle” into place….

I had dropped a stitch in the same place…AGAIN!

From Lilianna

I’m ashamed to say, I had a serious knitterly tantrum.

I flung the erroneous sleeve across the room and haven’t looked at it for a week   It has been a very long time since I’ve physically flung knitting

I usually restrict myself to some heartfelt swearing…

We’ve finished the office now. It’s a clean, fresh, duckegg blue and very tidy. I’m glad we did it – exhausting as it was.  I’ve even managed to reuse the curtains I blogged about making (with Mewsley’s help) a few years ago – Gasp! In 2007!!!

I have tidy cupboards, made from cannibalising an old cupboard, reconfiguring it and adding some new parts and doors…

From Lilianna

Room for me and the lovely Ben to work at home (in front of the lovely curtains!)…

From Lilianna

And most importantly, Thug’s basket is back in his favourite spot, under the desks, by the radiator

From Lilianna

Now that’s the office is finished- time to rip back that sleeve …again.

I’ve been decorating again – this time our office where we both frequently work from home so huge disruption at our house! Computers and cupboards in every room, getting in the way

Not as much inspiration as decorating the knit room but at least this time we have the furniture and just needed to paint the room a pretty pale blue. Photos when it looks less of a bomb site.

So, with all this hard labour going on – not much time to blog but I have had time to knit….quite a lot of fluffy knitting!

Lilliana has been absorbing …

I pushed through these three colour rows (it’s the pointy red bits that are 3 colour)…

From Lilianna

Thanks to Naomi, for the tip about slipping the stitches for the third colour – made perfect sense, though I should have thought of it -myself. Unfortunately I’d already got past the 3 colour rows!

Then I chickened out of the whole steek idea – as JulesM pointed out, it was 2 colour knitting only after the armholes. To be honest -doing it flat  wasn’t as bad as I remembered 

So I whizzed up the back doing the rather fun black and white section.I’m really pleased with how it came out…

From Lilianna

There are some long floats in this design but I only wove them when they were over more than 5 stitches to try and avoid the colours showing through. The floats won’t be much of a problem as the extremely fluffy Aura is starting to matt together on the back already!
Like this…

From Lilianna

It was neat – honest!

Here’s the back of the three colour pointy bits too…

From Lilianna

The whole garment is very fluffy and will be immensely warm – my one concern though – it may end up being a little small. The measurements only have 1″ of ease designed in. Fingers crossed.

So how far am I?

This is the completed back…

From Lilianna

And I’m nearly at the neck shaping on the front…

From Lilianna

Nearly done – then just the nearly plain sleeves to go.

With all the decorating disruption and  frantic knitting, Thug , who had been helping, advising and supervising, settled down with a nice Kidsilk Aura pillow…

From Lilianna

…and got  fed up with being woken up and photographed and gave me “a look”!

From Lilianna