hats and cats

Finishing my sweater gave me a great boost of creative juice, I must say. But not for anything big. I found some inspirational yarn at my favorite LYS. It's ultra soft, wonderful colors, it's called Mirasol Sulka and I love it. I've been making a bunch of different hats, and actually have finished two more since I took these photos.










I also knit up two of the hat projects from the LYS Shop Hop, and I'm working on two other of the one-skein projects.




I've also been making several Cherry Garcia neckwarmers, a free pattern from Hello Yarn. I'm using Plymouth Baby Alpaca Grande which is so perfectly soft for next-to-neck wear, and yet shows nice definition of the cables. Is it just me, or does everyone's neck get chilly? These are perfect no-thinking knitting, sitting with cat on lap watching movies. I should amend that. Buoyed by that no-thinking illusion, I discovered I had crossed one of the cables wrong. Doh! So I got to practice Yarn Harlot's tutorial on dropping the cable stitches all the way down, and repairing the cross and knitting back up. Way cool, useful and almost thrilling to do.

Plus, no frogging of an almost finished item. Also OTN the never-ending man socks in Austermann Step yarn, but suddenly I find I am ready for the heel turn. Hooray! I've been knitting the long cuff on both socks at the same time, in order to prevent second sock syndrome. I always feel that once the heel is turned, the rest goes faster. I know it's an illusion, let me cling to it, okay?
The cats have been enjoying the cooler weather; here's Zoe in her Kitty Pi bed






and Brutus, being absolutely adorable. Yes, I know it's a black lump. Trust me. He's adorable. When he's asleep. Aren't we all?