Tag Archives: stephen west

In Which The Cat Sits, but Not on a Hat

So I’ve been winding yarn like a mad woman all week for The Beekeeper’s Quilt (why no, I’m not obsessed, why do you ask?) and I have a mildly amusing story to relate.

Last night my big boy cat, who is rather a grumpy old man, was kvetching at me because he wanted to be fed or to go to bed or both. Now, I was sitting in front of the TV, which was starting to run a repeat of Stephen Colbert, and I really did need to go to sleep. But I was almost finished winding this skein of yarn for the night and cutting it up into little miniskeins for my hexipuffs so I kept saying, “Just one more minute” to myself.

So I would wind yarn, put most of it immediately a plastic ziploc bag for mini mania purposes, and then put the rest in my white basket (which you have previously seen) for my own personal hexipuffing mania. Mittens, the aforementioned cat, had been happily sleeping on the edge of the plastic bag for a few hours (yeah, all that yarn and all he wants is a plastic bag, I know) before the caterwauling began. I firmly ignored him and continued winding…and then he got quiet. I should have known.

I finished winding the final skeinlet around my knees, sat up in the chair, leaned forward to look for the cat and then glanced down to see…THIS.

The Cat, Guarding His Nest

Sigh. He looks like he’s roosting and getting ready for his yarn eggs to hatch. But I really think he just wanted to get my attention, and decided that  sitting in my yarn would do it. Considering that ALL WEEK he has ignored piles of yarn and this basket in favor of the plastic bag. What a jerk! After I pulled out the camera he grew miffed and trundled off (he hates the camera; he’s very Amish like that). Anyways, luckily it was just my own skeinlets, and those are all going to be part of my hexipuff blanket so I don’t mind if a bit of cat hair finds its way in, but he just cracked me up last night. How absurd.

My Basket. My Yarn. My Hexipuffs. Mine!

In other news, I am now happily ensconced in the KAL for the Beekeeper’s Quilt in both the tiny owl knits group and my own chitterychattery swappery swappers group, plus a hexipuff-themed miniskein swap on Ravelry. I keep listening to Stephanie’s music on Youtube and…well, I want to say knitting, but really, I’ve been working and then winding yarn in my spare time. But I’m getting to the knitting soon! I swear! I already have one hexipuff done! (Whew, the guilt.)

As for the WestKnits KAL? After all of that work locating yarn for it? Um, well, that isn’t going so well. I sense that I will not be finishing it by Aug. 31. Oops!

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Joining the Westknits Mystery KAL-athon

Ok, I’ve got my colors picked out for the Westknits Mystery Shawl KAL and I’m absolutely in love with them. This is the first time Stephen’s ever run a mystery KAL and this is my first time participating in one. I hope that by doing the shawl in little pieces it will make me motivated to actually keep knitting, instead of dropping the thing halfway through when there is no end in sight, as I am wont to do. I think Stephen is pretty excited about this to, given the crazy shawl-only photoshoot he did for himself (there’s not much underneath those handknits)!

Westknits Mystery KAL 2011: Earth and Sky, image courtesy Westknits

There is, however, one little problem on my end. The mystery shawl I am knitting requires three colors. Out of the three glorious colors I have this lovely silvery grey handpun yarn that would make a wonderful subtle backdrop for my more colorful skeins. However, there are only 85 yards of it – definitely not enough to make it the main color. Stephen West recommends that your main color be a semi-solid or solid, so while I have plenty of the Yarn Pirate Superwash BFL in Rain Shadow, that should remain an accent color. The other accent color is Fibre Company Canopy Fingering in Fern, and I also don’t have enough of that to make it the backdrop color (nor do I really want a non-neutral to be the backdrop color).

My question is, does anyone have any suggestions for a silvery-grey fingering yarn that resembles either my Yarn Pirate or Fibre Co. yarn in terms of texture?

My Mystery Shawl yarns