At long last, I have a picture of my Japanese Flower Shawl.

It’s done!   Yes, that’s Hunter’s head.   He’s been trying to eat it, since its made from 6 balls of Rowan Felted Tweed.

This was a pretty quick knit - the pattern came from a Japanese Knitting book (Couture Knit 11 Elegance Knit), and it wasn’t at all hard to follow the chart.

Here’s a close up of the flower motif:

I also finally uploaded some new submitted patterns to the Island Of Misfit Patterns - go check out the Socks section in particular!

Guess what?  Hunter Cat is Super Famous Again!   He made it on to icanhascheezburger.com!

I didn’t write that caption - mine was not nearly as funny.  But when you upload an image to the lolcat builder, other folks can use them to make their own.   Laurel actually took that picture, and I know I’ve posted it to this blog before.

Knitting wise, I’ve been working on the “Flower Shawl” from Couture Knit Elegance 11 Knit that Monica lured me into buying.  It’s a Japanese knitting book.  I cropped out this picture based on the preview.

This super nice blogger posted a better picture of the book and pattern.  Japanese patterns are actually standardized by the Japanese government, so once you know the chart symbols, it ought to be fairly straight forward.    However, I was having a heck of a time figuring out the yardage required.   Luckily, the above link translated the critical bit, and I was able to figure out that it uses a little under a 1000 yards of a DK weight yarn.   I had some dark green Rowan Felted Tweed in my stash that is working perfectly for it.  Mine is more rustic, but I love how its looking.

However, apparently I’m too lazy to take a picture, so you all will have to wait.

Speaking of Japanese Knitting books, YesAsia.com has a ton of them, and they do free international shipping if you order over 25 dollars.   Best yet, their site is largely in english.  What I’ve been doing is finding a knitting book, and then clicking my way through the suggestions.  Many of them have pictures of the inside of the book you can preview as well, which helps.

I’m such a bad cat mommy.

I raised a yarn snob.  As we’ve seen on this very blog, Hunter loves Rowan yarn.  He goes after Kidsilk Haze and Tapestry like no one’s business.  He’ll find it even if you bury it in a bag, under a blanket, up on a high shelf - mainly, if you have to put in a drawer and close it.

Well, I decided to conduct an experiment.  I found out that Patons SWS has the exact same yarn content (70% Wool, 30% Soy) as Rowan Tapestry, but is worsted weight, not DK.   I bought three skeins at Joann’s, and left one skein out next to the “yarn safe” - otherwise known as a hat box.   Here’s what the skein looked like in the morning.

That’s right - he didn’t touch it.  He’s a total yarn snob.

Speaking of Rowan Tapestry, I’m almost, almost, almost done with Parker from Rowan 40.  The back is done.  The front is done. The sleeves are done.  See, I have proof:

Why isn’t it done?  Because finishing the sleeves is a false summit.  After you knit the sleeves, you have to knit the scarf pieces.  It’s like you finish a sweater, and then someone taps you on the shoulder saying “By the Way, you need to knit a scarf too”.  I do really like Tapestry, despite its cat attracting properties.  It fuzzes up like a mohair blend, but isn’t scratchy at all.  It can be a little pilly, but that’s mainly because Hunter keeps trying to eat it.  But, its easy enough to pick the pills out.  The colorway I’m using is called Rustic.  I really like it - this picture isn’t really true to life - its less pink, and more muted browns and greens.

As I have pointed out in the past, I have the best friends ever.    Case in point?  Monica and Dee knitted me up an early birthday present.   I introduce…

Shitty Kitty!  Now, I didn’t name him.   Dee says that’s his name.   He’s knit from the Fortune Cat pattern.   But I think my kitty is way better, and I love him to death.  True, he might look a little bit like a deranged pokemon who waited up all night to buy PS3.   And he steals people’s food and drinks.  And he and Hunter had a farting contest this morning that certainly got me out of the house this morning.  But, he also makes me happy and cheers me up.   So go Shitty Kitty!  (It helps if you hear Cartman saying “Shitty Kitty”.)

Oh, here’s Hunter laying on the finished back of my latest sweater project, Parker from Rowan 40.  It’s using Rowan’s new yarn Tapestry, and I love it.   And so does Hunter.  The soy does shed like crazy, but its super soft, and not at all itchy like mohair would be.

As some of you know, I work in the Sears Tower.   With today’s news of a terrorist plot against the Sears Tower and other buildings in Miami, security was a bit higher today.

I was hoping for helicopters swooping and police sirens sirening, and dogs sniffing, but instead, we just got a few extra cops out and about.   However, the guy who x-rayed my knitting bag (which they rarely bother to do), stopped, looked at me, and went:

“Do you have a large knife in your bag?”

And I’m like, Um, no.  Of course not.  Who would carry a large knife into the Sears Tower on the day of High Security OMG we’re gonna DIE alert day?
Except I actually did.  It was just a dinner knife, but I had taken brownies into my training course, and I needed a knife to cut them, and I completely forgot I had stashed it into my knitting bag.  After I pulled it out of my bag, the guy sort of rolled his eyes, I kept my knife, and then I went and bought some bacon for breakfast.  MMMMM, BACON.

In knitting news, my very very very very good friend Monica had knitted up all the pieces of Tidal Wave from Rowan’s Plaid Collection.  I had scored 10 balls of Plaid along with the book super cheap on eBay, but hadn’t done anything with it.   Monica was looking for somethign to knit, so I send her the yarn, the pattern book, and told her she could make me whatever she wanted.  Except for a poncho.  Or that weird hat thing.  Or that weird jacket thing with the tie.

So, I got all the pieces, and I knit the collar and put them together.

I need to steam the seams, but it looks amazing on.  I will need to wear something under it, but its very curvy, and not at all bulky.  The yarn is very lightweight, despite being knit on size 10.5 needles.

Oh, and I finished the first Denver Bronco sock:

Its meant for my grandma, but I’m tempted to keep it.  It fits me perfectly.  It has a round toe, which I really like on my foot.  There isn’t a seam at all - you decrease evenly until you have 8 stitches left, and then just draw them shut.