the middle knitter

Whew. I have so much catching up to do here . . . lots of stuff to post about. This post will be picture heavy. I'd apologize, but I'm on dialup myself right now, so . . . you're not getting any worse than I am. (It still really irks me that there isn't a single form of high speed Internet available here. No DSL, no cable . . . the only possibility would be satellite, which is expensive and not terribly reliable.)

So, I'll start at the beginning. After I finished my paper, I got on a train to come back to Colorado. This is what I did on the train:

I finished it in Ottumwa, Iowa. It's a Ravenclaw scarf, done in Knitpicks Wool of the Andes, in Sapphire Heather and Amber Heather. Traditionally, people knit Harry Potter scarves in the round, but that sounded stab-your-eye-out boring to me, so I took the opportunity to learn how to double-knit. It looks amazing. I have plans to do a matching hat, but first I need to order more of the blue . . . I had exactly two inches of it left when I finished casting off the scarf. It was scary.

Since the scarf was going to be part of my costume for the Harry Potter release, I duplicate stitched Luna Lovegood's initials onto one end. (Not movie-accurate, but nothing else about the scarf was.)

I figured I'd just pull out the duplicate stitch after the release and keep the scarf, but I like the way it looks so much that I may just wear it like this.

I didn't actually end up wearing the scarf at the release . . . it was too hot, and my costume was already pretty cluttered--I didn't want the scarf to hide my cool bottle-cap necklace and Ravenclaw tie!

I knit at the release. It wasn't part of my costume--there's a lot of knitting in Harry Potter, but I'm reasonably sure Luna doesn't knit. But it was a great way to burn off the extra energy. Better than pacing.

And I met knitters!

Real, live knitters that don't just live inside my computer! Who knew what I meant when I said things like "magic loop" and "Knitpicks". It was AMAZING. I wish I knew more knitters in real life.

What was I working on? This:

My very first real pair of socks. (I had knit a couple of practice booties before this, just to use up some yarn scraps.) I'm insanely proud of them. They're made from Knitpicks Felici, colorway Coastal. I didn't want the stripes to match, and I love the way they turned out.

I went outside to get pictures and the cat decided that they were the best new toy ever. He was attacking my feet like nobody's business--I had to take off the socks just to get him away.

But, what's this? "Cat?" you say? Yeah. Apparently my mom managed to pick up a stray cat while I was gone. He is adorable and cross-eyed, and I'm completely in love with him. He's really scrawny, and he was sick for a little while, but Mom says he's gained weight since he showed up. The vet says he's about six months old (just a kitten!). My mom has been calling him "Kitty" or, worse, "Ki-Ki" (which is pronounced more like 'key-key' than "Kiki"). I decided he needed a more dignified name, so he's now officiall Sir Christopher the Cat. Mostly he's still just Kitty, though. I have to say, I'm disappointed that he didn't get a more creative name, but I was on the other side of the country when he was named.

Don't let the picture fool you. That's the only time he was still all evening, and then it was only for about three seconds. He's full of all the kitten antics, which, admittedly, gets a little old when he decides to attack my hands. But he's so adorable that I can't get mad at him--I just call him a brat and look for something to distract him.