Last night I turned on the DIY channel to catch a repeat of Knitty Gritty, and who was the guest designer? Non other than Shetha Nolke of Oregon Live: Knit One, Blog Two and Simplicitly Stitched showing off her illusion knitting designs. Very cool! You GO Shetha! I might be inspired to start yet another project (oh no!).

On my own knitting front, I have about 10″ done of the back/left front/right front of the Sensational Shirttail sweater. You know how they say that knitting is like meditation? Well, I can knit about two rows on this thing and I start falling asleep. Yep, I fall asleep meditating, too.

Since the sweater is a little bulky to haul around, I started a new pair of socks, too. OK… that’s my excuse anyway. I’m (sort of) using a pattern from Lucy Neatby’s book Cool Socks, Warm Feet. Ms. Neatby includes a pattern called “Mermaid Socks,” and my stash just happens to include some Blue Moon Fibers Soft Rock in a colorway called “Mermaid.” Fate? I thought so! And I promised #1 Son a pair of socks for his girlfriend E.

Except the pattern is for a top-down sock with a spiral-pattern toe. And I knit all of my socks toe-up. That means I’m knitting the pattern backward. I think I’ve done a pretty good job of doing the toe and starting with the pattern from the get-go. I’ll post a pic when I get a little further. I’m going to be asking for opinions about what I should do for the heel. The book suggests a garter-stitch short-row heel, but I’m not sure that will look good with the “Estonian fishtail” pattern. I think it should be a short-row heel. But garter? That I’m not so sure about.

When I rolled my Noro Kochoran into center-pull balls, I started a new ball whenever I ran into a knot. So imagine my surprise last night as I knit along on my sweater and suddenly found a loose end in one of the balls.

Then I noticed that there was a matching end trailing out from my knitting tote. And both the tote end and the sweater end were… wet?

Then I saw a little furry white and brown tabby face peering out from under my chair.

Moo Cow, you see, has a string fetish. She will go to great lengths to gobble up any string left around the house. My “free kitten” has already cost me $500 in emergency vet bills after she snacked on the drawstring to #1 Son’s PJs. Since we don’t want a repeat performance, we are very careful about anything long and thin that’s not meant to be eaten. Presents in my house have no ribbons. Hoodies with drawstrings are hung up in a closed closet. Ditto my yarn stash. My UFOs are up high on a bookshelf where Moo can’t get and are in tote bags.

When knitting socks I’ve kept the yarn next to me in my chair. Moo hasn’t shown much interest in my sock knitting, even when she’s jumped up on my lap to demand hugs when I was in mid-knit. I was lulled into a false sense of safety. She was just biding her time…

Sweaters are bigger than socks, and my sweater project is in a bigger tote that doesn’t fit well next to me on the chair. Last night I had the tote resting down on the floor. And apparently the yarn was just slack enough for Moo to hook it from under the chair. I’ll keep an eye on her for a few days to make sure she’s OK, but from the length of the remaining yarn ends it appears she didn’t do more than slice through the strand. Now I’ll need to try new arrangements to keep my yarn safe. Once she finds some string, Moo is as single minded as a bloodhound on a fresh scent. And since she knows with all certainty that the entire world is present only to do her bidding, keeping what she wants away from her can be a challenge.

Today at lunch I ran over to Button Emporium and found some great buttons for my sweater. I’ll try to get some pics up this weekend, if I have time amidst the graduation madness.

While I was in the neighborhood I stopped in at Knit Purl and augmented my stash of Blue Moon soft rock. I’ve got this sock idea rattling around in my brain…

I haven’t forgotten about knitting. This week has been jammed with pre-graduation stuff, plus I’ve been buried at work.

I have been working on the socks for #1 Son and I’m just about ready to start the gusset increases. I’ll try to get a picture up some time in the next few days.

When the socks are done, the next project is a pair of fingerless gloves (also for #1 Son). Then, I’m not sure. I have quite a bit of sock yarn in my stash that should have something done with it. But I’m kind of itching to try something a little more ambitious, like maybe a shawl or a cardigan.

I’m open to suggestions and patterns!

I’ve never had an ice-maker before. One was available for the 20-year-old, now-defunct fridge, but we didn’t have it installed. I have one now.

Did you know that when ice drops from the ice maker into the bin, it sounds almost exactly like a gun shot?

Can you imagine how three particular cats who are not used to being shot at feel about that, especially when they’ve just settled down for a long, long nap… BANG!

There was lots of hubbub yesterday when the new fridge was delivered. The front door had to be removed from the hinges, so the cats had to be rounded up and stashed in my bedroom. My sideboard (full of antique dishes that belonged to my forebears and some of which are over 100 years old) had to be very quickly unloaded and moved to the side. What little food I had managed to preserve had to be unloaded from the freezer (the only cold place in the old fridge) very quickly.

And then it turned out that one of the delivery guys was allergic to cats.

But now I have coldness available. And my remaining food is at the appropriate temperature. And I have fresh, cold water available via the door of the fridge. And ice. BANG. And unhappy kitties.

Today I go grocery shopping and start looking for a water heater.

I had a busy, fun weekend!

Saturday was the usual lunch with M. Then, since it was a relatively nice day, I decided to take a little trip over the Chehalem Mountains to Carlton to visit Woodland Wool Works, quite possibly one of the coolest places on earth. Spin, felt, dye, knit, crochet, tat — no matter what your fiber art addiction, they have fun stuff. I especially like their “stash room” where the discontinued and used items go to find a home. I usually end up with more than I planned on, but I restricted myself to some Crystal Palace circular bamboo needles, some Opal yarn, and a few incidentals like stitch markers (they have some flexible ones I really like) and straight cable needles. If you live in the area or are ever within striking distance, Woodland Wool Works is well work the visit!

Another cool place in Carlton (can you believe such a small town has two cool places?) is The Chcolate Sheep Gallery. Opened by felt artist Loyce Ericson in 2003, the gallery features the work of Ericson and several other fiber artists, is open for felting classes, and sells small-batch gormet chocolates like Sharffen-Berger. Being a dark-chocoholic, I indulge in Sharffen-Berger wherever I can get it. I’m not sure what hours The Chcolate Sheep keeps. They were closed on Saturday, although they have been open other weekends when I was there. If you are going only to visit the gallery, I suggest calling ahead.

Sunday I attended the parent/school meeting to discuss the New York trip in February that #1 Son is participating in. As well as seeing the sights, they will be visiting several advertising agencies to see what goes on behind the scenes. Wish I were going!