Oh, hi everyone! Um, its been forever. Anyone still reading?

I have this theory. I think when I’m unhappy and lonely, I write much more. I’ve been really really happy these past few months, and so, no urge to write. I haven’t been writing for Yelp, my LiveJournal, anywhere really.

But, this blog is sad and lonely, so post time!

First off, I did finish the Drunken Bees socks.

I love how they turned out - I used a french heel and toe.

Let’s see… what else is going on?

Woah! Who is that? It’s none other than Kevin’s (New Kevin, not Old Kevin, yes I somehow fell in love with someone with the same name as my ex. WTF?) and mine new kitten!

We decided that Hunter needed a playmate. Some folks down the street from him had kittens, and he was the last one. He has a harelip, and folks would come, look at him, and decide not to take him. Its not a big deal - he can eat and drink just fine. The vet says his palate fused, so while he’ll try to close it up a bit when we neuter him, its really just cosmetic at this point.

He’s totally,totally cute. He’s a huge bundle of energy - he and Hunter have been happily chasing each other around for the past day or so. Katie is like “EEEEEH”, but she’ll get over it.

His markings are totally awesome. He’s a squirly kitteh!

Kevin’s son is completely convinced that its HIS kitten. He played with him non stop for 3 hours. We haven’t named him yet, but they keep calling him Super Dude. I’m resisting it, but he is pretty awesome and bouncy.

I know what you all are thinking.  “I wish Gail would post some pictures of her Drunken Bees socks.  I hope they are fuzzy, and almost show her underwear!”

Well, you are in LUCK!

(In the above picture (which Barb took for me - thanks Barb!), you can see my car, part of the moose sweatshirt I’m wearing, the fact that I badly  need a pedicure, and far more pudgy leg than most folks would like to see.  Oh, and the sock.  Sort of.   My cell phone picture taking capability is low, and god forbid I carry around a camera.)

In any case, you can see that I’m on the foot.  I’ve decided that I lack the brain power to keep up the partial cable chart down the sides of the foot, so I’m doing 1×1 rib, with the main cable panel down the center.

(In this picture, you can see Barb’s shawl, my pudgy toes, and some brickwork.)

If I reknit this this pattern, I think I would use size 1s, as the pattern calls for.  The 0s are making a pretty dense fabric, and are a smidge tight on the legs.  I like how the foot is fitting though.

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 had this really really great plan to show you my almost completed Fake Clapotis. Well, its real name is Diagonal Drop-Stitch Shawl from Vogue Knitting Shawls. I’m knitting it out of Fleece Artist Blue Face DK, which is 100% Bluefaced Leciester. It’s full of lanolin, and is really very soft.

It was turning out beautifully. So why am I showing you this picture?

Because Hunter decided that he really likes bluefaced leciester, and ate two wholes into the shawl. At the very beginning of the shawl. And he managed to eat the holes in such a way that it was impossible to repair. So, I had to rip it and start over.

Don’t worry, the cables and twists really stand out once you drop the stitches, even in the variegated yarn. This pattern is much more fun that Clapotis, which is so boring to knit that I almost died the last time I had to knit it.

So, clearly I need a solution to Hunter’s Yarn Eating Ways. My solution?

A new basket yarn safe! It’s huge, has a liner, and a LID. You’ll notice Hunter is not eating anything, because its safe in the yarn safe! Yay!

In closing, I saw the neatest web site on Frontline/World. it’s Kiva.org, where you can loan businesses in the 3rd world small sums of money. It’s called microlending. Often, a business will only need, say, a 1000 dollars. However, either they can’t get a loan at all, or the loan is very expensive in their country.

However, at Kiva.org, you can loan a business as little as 25 dollars, which as many people do it, add up to the loan amount. Then the business in the 3rd world pays the loan and you can either take your money back out, or reloan it. It’s a really fascinating concept. I have a lender page, although I haven’t done anything interesting to it.