Helping Paws

Since it is the kind of gray, drizzly day that most people associate with Seattle, I decided that I would be productive and actually wind some of the huge stash of recycled yarn I’ve unraveled into handy dandy little cakes. Which, once again, led to great confusion on the part of Miss Gracie, who really can’t understand why I would only buy the good toys for myself. This is the process of winding the multi-strand cotton:

“Now…this is cool…..way cooler than those toy mice. Who does she think she’s fooling with those, anyway?”

“Hey, she makes that noise and the thing in the back of her throat bounces when I actually knock stuff onto the floor. Wonder what this is…?”

Her favorite thing by far is sitting under the chair in case the ball of yarn bounces her way as it’s going through the meter because then she can snag it and cause the whole works to slam to a violent stop—including my heart when I remember how much this set-up cost. I believe it was an episode such as this that inspired me to change her middle name to “damnit!” So diligent were her efforts today, that she quite wore herself out:


As you can see, I had tons of sympathy and only interrupted her nap for pictures in the name of art—not at all to get even.

After that fiasco, I decided to utilize my last hour before school by knitting on Samus. Since it’s cold, Ed had opted to come in for awhile and was snoozing happily by the fire. But Ed is a cat with his own rules and definite ideas about everything….so it shouldn’t have surprised me in the least when he suddenly woke and, in one fluid movement, dashed across the room to leap up on my lap and begin shoving his head urgently into my hands to be petted. My hands that were holding my knitting. Yep. A whole slew of stitches popped right off the needles as I tried in vain to get them out of his way. I finally gave up and tossed the whole thing aside at which point Ed begin to burrow his head under my arm and then flopped over on his side to purr and snooze. And, me being me, I am always willing to succumb to a case of COL (Cat On Lap), most especially when it’s the big guy, just because he’s such a way cool cat. I should probably be embarrassed to admit this, but I sat there for about an hour rather than disturb his kitty goodness. What can I say? I’m a pushover. And really, I only got a little drooled on.

When I came home from school, I tried again to wind some yarn, and these are the results:

I can’t figure out why I love this yarn so much, but I do. It’s just a multi-strand cotton, with each strand being a different shade of teal, blue, or gray. To me it looks like a storm at sea, and you may recall that this is Ms. Knitingale’s very favorite colorway. I don’t normally go to the trouble of recycling cotton yarn….it’s usually too beat up and faded, but this started its garment life as a nearly new men’s sweater. And I love it. I have in mind a very simple cotton cardi for spring. So simple, in fact, that I would die of embarrassment if I were to show it to you, being the crowd of talented fiberfolk that you are. It appealed to me, though, and this yarn will be perfect. The other one I wound:

This is a blend of silk, alpaca, and lambswool that also started life as a men’s sweater. This isn't the best photo, but it is black (not the gray it appears) with little multi-color flecks. It was a bitch to unravel, breaking at the slightest tug and sometimes even when breathed on heavily. I probably should have given up, but I couldn’t bear to. If you felt it, you’d understand. It’s wicked soft. Any ideas what I should make with it? It’s quite fine, probably needs to be worked on a 3 or so, and I have about 1600 yards of it.

Oh, and since I clearly have nothing whatsoever with which to knit, have you been to Little Knits lately? They have a 50% off sale on a hand-dyed, 100% alpaca that is making me drool nearly as much as Ed. I’m aching for the green (which is actually much prettier on other websites). I shouldn’t, I really shouldn’t. Absolutely not. I have plenty to knit with, I really do. No way. Uh-uh.

…..but….if I did…..I mean, just hypothetically, you know….what would I hypothetically make with it?