Exciting Gifts from Secret Pal

I just got a great package from my secret pal!

For those of you who don't know this is a sort of club run by people who read the fab online knitting magazine www.knitty.com. You are set up with a secret pal who you learn about through the website they make (a blog) and you send them periodic gifts and treats for a few months. Simultaneously someone is doing the same for you and thus you are getting special suprises from an unknown friend. It is alot of fun and you meet really interesting folks who share your knitting passion.

It totally brightened up a very grey day for me and my sidekick Ranger (the cat). It has been raining and blowing very hard, the end of a big windstorm. This means Ranger cannot go outside, because as we all know, rain is a sort of anti-cat kryptonite, and will melt cat flesh upon contact. This doesn't stop Ranger from running to the door and tripping me at every chance. Nor does it stop him from hissing at the rain when I open the door and show him that yes, it still is raining. Nor does it stop him from glaring at me and using his kitty mind-meld powers to try to make me change the weather. At any rate, on one these many door jaunts I found a lovely package waiting.

I opened it with great excitement and set up the contents to take a picture - check out the loot!

Included, some more of the fabulous knitpicks yarn in a merino wool, in a lace-weight. More and more incentive to get myself into lace (post xmas gift making projects! must not dabble yet! I telll myself repeatedly). And speaking of Xmas there are some lovely flaoty pointsetta candles, particularily appropriate as that is my bday flower (being a near xmas baby). Also a book mark and book plates and if you know me you know that book accessories are always appropriate for the reading fiend - as are books - and one was included "Knitting Lessons" a series of essays about knitting which looks great - I had seen it at the library and was tempted but now it is my very own!. Then some lovely spa-ish products, including a face cleanser (great as I'd been noting with some horror the flakies on my forehead - I know too much info!), a hand cream, and a mango body butter. All have been appreciatevely sniffed. Finally a lovely little needle case which when opened revealed LANTERN MOON NEEDLES! I believe this is my favourite of all as I love the various types of knitting implements and am a great student of "history of everyday life" type things - including historic needlecraft and other artifacts of women's work. I have, therefore always been curious about "horn" knitting needles and now I have a pair of my very own.


Ranger was highly unimpressed with the gifts however... He did not see why they were displayed on his chair, and why they were worthy of attention that should rightly be bestowed on hm. Therefore he promptly used a time-honoured cat zen technique of attention-re-directing. "Sit On Object Of Human's Attention" worked well, as you can see....

After the offending objects were moved from the chair, Ranger sniffed them and was disgusted to discover that the scents were all quite repulsive, including no catnip, female cat scent, or fishy cat food odours.


I however, was thrilled with all of it and just had to rush off to try the needles and the hand cream and fondle the yarn right away!

THANK YOU SECRET PAL! YOU ARE MY HAPPY DAY MAKER!

New Blog

Since Moddblog doesn't seem to be recovering and I really liked keep a blog a I've switched to this site. I don't really know what I'm doing here, hence the screwy layout and ugly placement of pictures.

This is a picture of the toy I've made for a friend's little girl. It is a fluffy bunny that was alot of fun to make, and not very hard. The only problem was that this yarn was a bit thin for guage and hence the bunny was a bit "holey" which I remided by darning the holiest bits. Looking at these pictures it seems I might still do a bit of darning on the feet so the stuffing doesn't show through. I also made a dress for her. It looks awfully homemade, but it was my first toy (other than catnip mousies!)I hope the little girl will like her. The book she was made from was quite fun, and I plan to try a few more toys from it. "Knitted Toys" by Fiona McTague

I have also been working on dog sweaters – Particularily one for Rita – a teeny tiny miniature Jack Russell terrier. Here we are at the Helliewell's this summer.

I got this fabulous book from the library. They have lovely things, including matching pet person outfits (not as bad as it sounds - think Aran fisher knit dog sweater and matching fingerless gloves for person) a squeaky cat chew toy for "hours of vindictive fun". It is called “Knitting for Dogs” by Kristi Porter at the library. Rita is a great test subject because she is so small that the sweaters knit up fast – this one in about 2 hours watching tv! I had to use a stuffed dog toy to model this because it is just too small for Ranger the cat!

I have started another sweater from this book for a slightly bigger dog – this one is a cute turtle neck in a variegated yarn, which is much less ‘froofy” – it is for a boy dog. It involves steeking for the sleeves which I’ve not done and am somewhat afraid of but am game to try – hope it works out! Ths is a great book that I'd highly recomend!