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

I really enjoyed the mindless long rows of knit and the regular gratification of finishing a stripe.

I cast off with a 4.5mm needle (was knit on 4mm) and made sure it wasn’t too tight (I used a cable cast on BTW – in case you were wondering!) and it didn’t even seem to need blocking once I was done.

I promised to let you know about yarn usage – I used less than one ball of each colour! I have no idea why the pattern implys, with it’s ambiguous wording, 3x 50g  balls of each colour?? So now you know what to knit to use up some of those odd balls from your stash

I did try and persuade Ben that I should use the excess to make him matching gloves, hat and possibly underpants but that was a step too far. He wasn’t interested , strangely, so I’ll have to be pleased if he wears the scarf. The excess yarn has now been returned to the shop and I feel virtuous for doing a little “unshopping”.

So here’s close up of the scarf and all it’s stripy glory…

From Ben Scarf

Ben did his best “Grumpy Ben doesn’t want a pooie old scarf!” routine for the photo shoot at first..

From Ben Scarf

Then I caught him admiring himself and arranging his new scarf 2 mins later (He wasn’t really grumpy)

From Ben Scarf

So here’s a happy Ben who is actually quite pleased with his scarf!

From Ben Scarf

…And a shot of it under his big winter coat…

From Ben Scarf

And lastly a shot of it flung over the banister, waiting for the weather to be cold enough for him to wear it!

From Ben Scarf

This is the picture from the pattern book…

From Lilianna

I had finished knitting her and just had the neckband and sewing up to do last February when I was overwhelmed by my beautiful furry ginger boy, Thug dying.  I couldn’t face the fiddly sewing up and Liliana was flug to one side and forgotten. Poor Liliana…

I’m now in a,

” I want to start new things and get all the old WIPS out of the way!“

kind of mood so Liliana has had the finishing treatment and actually – I wish I’d finished her sooner – she’s rather a warm and snuzzley success!

So without further ado – I present the finished Liliana…

From Lilianna

A shot of the back (you can see where it’s quite fitted and a little snug – probably because of Christmas excesses!)…

From Lilianna

And a close up of the neck band – which is a thin strip of rib, sewn on sideways and tied in a bow….not sure I’d do that again – gapes a bit but I think it looks ok??

From Lilianna

She is a very warm jumper although the Aura is a little irritating on my skin if I’m honest – and I’m not usually that sensitive to itchy yarns.

There were lots of previous blog posts talking about Liliana so I’ll just give you the completed knit report containg the list of previous posts and leave you to click away if wish
Happy reading!

Suncream and silk? … disastrous. Kidsilk Haze and hot sweaty hands? … tangled, sticky and unpleasant. Shetland wool and sea water?….. you get the picture huh?

So what did I take to Africa?

I thought that the perfect yarn would be Rowan Denim. Why? because it’s cotton, so doesn’t get hot or hairy or sticky and, most importantly…when it’s done you bung it in the washing machine to shrink it to size and wash out any suncream, sea water, perspiration and drunkenly split cocktails!

I chose Joy from Kim Hargreaves’ book Nectar.

This book and this pattern…

From Joy

I confess I didn’t knit at all on safari – too much to see! I did knit on the beach in Zanzibar though – here’s the evidence…

From Joy

And in all the airport (there were several!) This is Zanzibar airport….

From Joy

One of the nicest things to happen was that one of the chaps working handing out towels on the beach in Zanzibar very shyly asked me what I was doing? He and his friends were facinated and had never seen knitting before – I ended up giving a short master class and letting them all have a go! It was totally surreal

So what about the garment? Want to see the finished object? Course you do….

From Joy

Like the buttons? I was going to use cream coloured shell ones but I’d just bought a red top and I fell in love with these heart buttons and the necklace…

From Joy

There is a cute picot edging (knit 3, cast off 3) and bands of alternating stocking stitch, and reverse stocking stitch and some “yarn overish lace” to break it up.

From Joy

Nothing difficult but you had to pay attention not to knit a row when you should be purling!

I always feel I have to show you the back, even though, after a month of holiday indulgence my bum is trying to fill the view finder of the camera!

From Joy

Any problems? well, if I’m honest – it has come up a bit smaller than I had hoped. I knit the 34″ size and it’s snug and pulling a bit if buttoned. On the plus side – it’s a summer jackety kind of thing so I doubt I’d wear it buttoned anyway

All in all, I’m pretty pleased with my “Honeymoon knit” – now maybe one in blue Denim???

From Joy

It’s this book

From Top Secret 2

It is a HUGE book, ram packed with 120 fantastic patterns from 1930s – 1959. All graded and made with modern yarns. Some are not to my taste but others are definately on my wish list. Even if you didn’t knit, it’s a facinating coffee table book to flick through.

Do you  remember that I knitted “To Wear in the Evenings” (or Top Secret as I called it) for the first volume? I blogged it here –>> Top Secret – Declassified

This was the garment…

From Top Secret

Well, told you in my “Where have you been?” post that I had knit a garment for Volume two and here it is!!

From Top Secret 2

It’s a fabulous lace top from the 1950′s called The Ribbon Threaded Jumper. It’s on page 310 if you have the book.  Here’s the original picture from the 1950′s…

From Top Secret 2

Do you like??

It really was an absolute pleasure to knit. Knitshop Pima Cotton and a pretty straight forward lace pattern. Very “my kinda knit”! The yoke is interesting – the back, front and both sleeves are put on a circular needle and yoke is knitted in one piece. Strangely, it’s knit back and forth with an opening at the back that you sew up later. I would knit it in the round if I wasn’t making a sample strictly to the pattern!

Wanna see some more piccies?
Here are some, just before I sent my “Ribbon Threaded jumper” back to the publishers.

How the sleeve and yoke attach…

From Top Secret 2

The completed jumper before sewing up (I send it back without sewing it)…

From Top Secret 2

Some yoke detail….

From Top Secret 2

And from the book – a cute sleeve picture…

From Top Secret 2

And that neck – all beribboned and finished

From Top Secret 2

So did I get a mention in this fantastic book?

Naturally, at the front in the acknowledgement – a list of all us brave knitters…

From Top Secret 2

So all that’s missing from this post now is a completed knit report and a picture of Mewsley, refusing to get off the knitting!

From Top Secret 2

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

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

This really isn’t helping my lack of knitting mojo!

I think she wearable but not the sleek, elegant fitted look I was expecting…see what you think….

From Elizabeth

It’s ok over the hips but huge under the arms.

Mewsley tried to join in and make me feel better but it was beyond even her fluffy skills (hmmm, except I’m smiling more in that shot!)…

From Elizabeth

The “girls” at the Guilty Knitters suggested that a deep V neck like this is better suited to a big busted woman. One thing I sadly am not!! When I breathed in and puffed up my chest it did fit better but…I don’t think I could sustain that through an entire working day

I do think I got the buttons right – I looked at matching, same coloured ones but thought they would just disappear into the jacket…but you cant go far wrong with neutral shell buttons…. and actually, that’s the kinda buttons in the picture in the book.)

From Elizabeth

Wanna see the back? you can see all the extra fabric…

From Elizabeth

So what to do with it? I may wear it to give it a “road test” but I deeply suspect my sister is in for an early Christmas prezzy ….

Completed Knit Report
Name:	Elizabeth
Pattern:	Kim Hargreaves from Heartfelt
Yarn:	Rowan Summer Tweed
Pattern Problems:	Errata in pattern, badly written front instructions, turned out way too big
Pattern Modifications:	None
Washing and Wearing:	Meh
Knit It Again???:	No.
Difficulty:	4/5 (only because the pattern was badly written
Rating:	2/5
Other Postings Relating To This One:	Where have you been This is too Hard The Kim Hargreaves Curse

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

“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