Valerie of Wandering Cat Studio and her Mom of KnitObsession, started to dye yarns a few months ago and opened an Etsy shop – Wandering Cat Yarns. I read both their blogs and was excited for them about the shop – and then when I went to check it out – sigh…so nice. I love their yarn and have bought a couple of skeins (and I’ve sent Larry a list of a couple of other skeins that would be nice for Christmas!).
The other day I got an email from Valerie – she sent me her pattern for Berry Hill socks as a gift. How nice is that? I was really touched – and happy since I knew I was starting a pair of socks this week. So I found the yarn, started them up and….
These socks are flying! This is a great pattern, and its one of those patterns that just seems to go fast. I started these Friday morning, and I’m halfway down the foot – not bad for me since the last socks took me weeks and weeks to make. I think I’ll have the pair down by next weekend. The pattern is a cuff down – I haven’t done that in a while so it was sort of an adjustment (pick up the stitches? what?) but I suppose its good to have balance – some toe up, some cuff down. I actually think I could do these toe up, but wanted to knit them as written the first time. The pattern is available on Ravelry - I know its going to be one of those that I make over and over.
I love the pointy cuff – so pretty! The yarn is Claudia Hand Paint Fingering weight – I bought it a few years ago to make a chevron scarf, but frogged it when I just couldn’t stand the project anymore. I think this is a better use of the yarn – very pretty socks!
I have been using a small project bag for my commute knitting. I love the bag – its so tiny and fits well into my briefcase. The only problem is that its so tiny. If I have a large ball of yarn, or am almost finished a sock, there isn’t a lot of room. And I have to really angle and fight to get the needles in – which always results in stitches off the needles. So I decided to look for something a little bigger. I found it on Wednesday, and ordered it – and it was here by Friday – amazing!
This is from Piddleloop - isn’t it nice? Its a little larger than I expected, but I think it will still be fine for my briefcase. Its 9″ long, 7″wide and is very roomy. I used it yesterday, and had plenty of spare room after I put my sock in. I think this could hold a large ball of yarn, a sock, or a scarf or cowl. Its really nice, and I’m glad I decided to get a new one. I have my eye on a couple of their other bags – very nice shop!
Life with Penny is starting to get a little less crazy – we are starting to train her and define some boundaries. We really need to figure out a way to have her stop hassling the cats, but she’s learning that biting us is “no” and that going to the bathroom outside is “very good!”. She is so much fun, and such a cutie. And her ears are standing up now!
Don’t let that sweet face fool you! What happened right after this was Larry put her down and she raced around like a maniac for 5 minutes, harrasing Ruby and the cats. She’s learned to not harass Duncan – he is the alpha dog, and he has no problem telling her that. He’s also the grumpy old dog that is still recovering from knee surgery so we don’t let her harass him often.
We went to Westfield (NJ) yesterday – I wanted to go to one of my favorite places yesterday – Trader Joe’s. Have you ever been to one? Such a great store – and we bought an amazing bottle of wine for $6! After we filled our bags with some really good food and wine, we went over to Crumbs and got some cupcakes (so bad for me, but soooo good!). I even popped into Knit-a-bit to see what it was like (I was there less than 5 minutes – its small, but they were really friendly). I love Westfield. Larry and I are starting to think about what we want to do once all the kids move out – this is a big house for two of us with a lot of upkeep. We have been talking about moving closer to NY so my commute isn’t as long – and I think we are going to put Westfield on the list of places we are going to look a little closer at. Its such a cute town, with a great downtown, beautiful houses, and it would cut my commute from 2.5 hours to 45 minutes. We have a little while to wait on this – but always good to start thinking about things!
Its going to be a nice day here – warm and sunny. We are planning on taking the dogs for a nice long walk so we can get some Penny energy out. Then its just relaxing and knitting. I’m halfway through a Christmas present, but it will be hard to put down the socks and work on that. I love projects that I can’t put down, don’t you?
Have a great Sunday!




















