Still ignoring the socks

But I have a good excuse. I've been working on cleaning up different areas of the house. I moved about half the house around over the past month, but things are settling down again. This is what I did in my living room. I moved out the partial pile o' stash and the sewing machine & video cabinets and put in the Yarn Corner, or whatever it will be called. All my stash is in one room, all my fiber (much less than I thought), needles and so forth. The books are in a different room, but they are finally all on shelves together with all the patterns I seem to NEED to print out from the computer. I didn't take a picture of that room. The Library has the girl's books & videos & computer, my sewing machine, etc. & the knitting & other craft books. I'm going to put some bean bag chairs in there for the girls to use for reading, and that room will be finished. There's a whole 'nuther room full of my books, but let's not talk about that right now. LOL

I've also already found a new home for the fiber I didn't keep. Wow. That sounds so sad, doesn't it?

The Pi Shawl is progressing and I have not yet chewed off my own arm/leg or anything else. I finally, finally was reminded to use a lifeline. Man! I've used them before, I have no idea why I blocked it out on this project (possibly because I needed it so badly?). That made all the difference, or so it seems. Now that I have at least one going in the project, I haven't needed to rip back. Yet. I'm sure it'll happen again. Still, I've made it just past the increase to 288 sts & I'm about to start the repeat of the first 10 rows on Lace Pattern I. I've been considering this project and I don't think I'll knit the full thing. The reason is that my grandmother is a very petite 5'2", and this shawl is theoretically around 72" when completed. I don't need to wrap her up like a burrito, so I think I may pass on the repeats of the lace pattern following the increase to 576 sts. I will probably do one of them and then do a border of some kind.

I've set myself a crazy goal of a minimum of 5 rows per day, with a hopeful goal of 10 rows per day. 10 a day didn't seem too hard when it was at 144 sts, but since the increase, I'm not sure 10 rows is going to work out on a daily thing. I'm hoping I can manage the 5 & maybe a little over each day. I decided to try this "goal setting" thing the other night when I couldn't get to sleep. It seemed like a good idea at the time, because it would make the project move along at a reasonable pace (i.e., I might actually finish the shawl in a month or two) and then I can move on to more substantial yarn weights. sigh

I will do other shawls, I have to, I have the yarn. I just have a much better idea what I'll be setting myself up for, and I'll be sure to have some easy projects on the needles as well.

I cast on the sweater for Himself. A cabled sweater as my "easy project". Yep. Desperation is an interesting companion. The Bernat Natural Alpaca is a nice, soft yarn. My only complaint is that it sheds like mad. I've taken to knitting with a towel in my lap to catch all the shed fibers. Still, I've got about 4 inches of the back knit up, and I like the pattern. And the yarn, even though it sheds.

I also tried knitting up a baby hat from Itty Bitty Hats, but I made really dumb errors and ended up tossing the hat in the recycle bin. (cotton) It was fun and easy, but I mis-measured bits of it, so it was unwearable. I could have re-knit the sections that were off, but I probably could have re-knit the entire hat in less time than it would take to find the woven ends and rip it back, etc. Oh well, it was a nice distraction anyway. I refuse to be bitter.

I've also been kept too busy with a sick kitty. It seems our remaining kitty cat (my other baby passed away right before Christmas), has kidney disease. Going by the bloodwork, he should be doing better than he is (at his levels, etc.). But every critter is different, and he is not doing as well as he could be. We've done subcutaneous fluids, meds for his ulcer and so forth. He won't keep the meds down, so they're no good, and he's developing sever anxieties regarding trips to the vet for the fluids. I don't think he'd tolerate them much better at home. He went on a food strike last week, and I thought we had reached the end, but he rallied in time for the youngest monkey's birthday (6!) and was almost like his old self for a few days.

Sadly, he seems to be going back down now. As long as we can get him to eat he'll be "okay". But if he goes on another hunger strike, I think it will be Time. I'm not sure I'm up for that. Not that I'll have a real choice in the matter. I'm so sad. He's such a loving little guy, and my youngest will be devastated when he's gone. Part of being a responsible pet owner though, right? sigh

Lace is good for getting my mind off of things like this too. Let's hear it for lace!~