These Are a Few of My Favorite Things

Brown Paper Packages

Especially ones that come in the mail from my super-extraordinary PRGE secret pal.


Look at all the goodies:
~ Two skeins of super-soft chenille
~ Lavender, rose, and vanilla incense - Three of my favourite scents
~ Glycerine/silicone hand creme for my hard-working farm-hands - that would be my hands, not to be confused with actual hired farmhands; unfortunately I don't have any of those to rub creme on
~ A pair of circular needles - perhaps because I'm crazy about the Addis she sent me previously?
~ A matching memory game - And the tiles are coffee labels, packed in a coffee bag! Mr. O'Kitten and I played it the moment I got it; we both enjoy concentration games and I loved the matching game as a kid. (Plus, he's excited that he can beat me at this one, I've been beating him shamelessly at Boggle lately.)
~ Something really special - a CD of her son's DJ set from a nightclub! I haven't listened to it yet because I've been running around all day, but I'm so excited.
~ And finally - An obsidian kitten keychain, and just in time to put the keys to our new car on it. (Yep, with the truck officially giving up the ghost, we bought an '05 Chevy Cobalt. I'm baffled by a vehicle that's less than 15 years old with fewer than 120,000 miles on it. And what is this thing called a Car Payment? Air bags? And that little button that pops open the trunk--from the inside! I tell you, the things you kids have nowadays...)


Tied Up With Strings

Not only is this actual knitting content at long last, but what we have here is an actual, real live finished object: the Exercise in Insanity shrug I began talking about so long ago.

I only call it an Exercise in Insanity because it's my first actual garment (well, unless you count the Razor Cami, which I wore today, thankyouverymuch)--this is the first thing with sleeves. Okay, so there's nothing to it really but sleeves, but that was challenging enough conisdering I used this pattern which, as you can see, I adapted virtually beyond recognition, aside from the general shape, which I loved, and several repeats of the lace at the bottom of the sleeves.

It was also an Exercise in Insanity in that the gorgeous, luxurious, 40 % silk/60% superkid mohair yarn (Tsuki Tokyo)--a fantastic present from a friend--was the tiniest thing I'd ever worked with. Picture this: 515 yds weighs 40 g, about the same as a Hershey bar. And I mean the little old-fashioned Hershey bar, not the super-sized one you get when you really have a chocolate craving.

I added some yarn-overs on the back to create two rows of little eyelets so I could lace it up with some thin satin ribbon.

I am so happy with it; the yarn is super silky-soft and light, and once I got started it was a really fun project to do. (And yes, it has already been worn, twice!)

Not quite finished, but getting there. Mostly, I just liked the photo; it was hot but (obviously) breezy today. This is my first sweater--see, having knit the cami, and then the sleeves, I finally felt brave enough to tackle a whole sweater.

The ribbons are temporarily there so I can find the buttonholes later. The loopy mohair tried to conceal them from me, but I'll be darned if I lose them after all that work to make them.

Whiskers on Kittens