Life, Knitting and the Pursuit of Roller Coasters

January just kinda slipped right past me. The knitting has been taking a break for the most part. I’ve not made much progress on the in progress stuff I was working on before the holidays, and the only finished objects I’ve had this month were a Christmas leftover and a birthday present for my mom.

That said, I did finish those two projects.

Dad’s socks were definitely a product knit. They turned out perfect, fit him amazingly well and as soon as I gave them to him this weekend he took off his shoes and socks and put them on to wear the rest of the day. That said, they were also mens socks knit on size 0 needles and I was way past ready to be done working through the second sock.

Mom’s gloves were made with the leftover yarn from her scarf. I used the same pattern basis that I used for my gloves with a few mods based on the things I learned making mine. The biggest mod was that I dropped the pinkie down 4 rows and made sure to make the fingers a little wider and longer. Mom was surprised and thrilled with the gloves when she opened them this weekend.

I’ve also cast on a new sock simply because I needed a simple project to take with me for a hair appointment last week. Everything else on the needles requires some level of concentration and/or a chart, so I just pulled a yarn off the shelf that met the late-night cast-on requirements. Already in a ball, patterning and the right weight for size 1 needles. It’s out of trekking 157. I’m not crazy about the colorway as its knitting up, but the more I work on it the more it’s growing on me. I think I realized as I was washing my socks that they’re all blues, greens or reds with one random purple pair, so the colorway that is mostly oranges and browns with some gray and black doesn’t immediately appeal to me but I have a few things in my wardrobe that they will go with once they are done.

The knitting energy is slowly coming back now that the less-selfish knits are off the needles, so I’m hopeful that I might actually start blogging semi-regularly again.

I have been knitting, but I’ve been slow since the mad dash of holiday knits. I did finish dad’s socks and they’ll get their own post soon. I’ve also started my mom’s birthday present, but I’ll save those for later too. Right now, I’m distracted by kitties. Specifically baby kitties.

Not mine, my best friend Rachel lost her kitty to old age about 3 months ago. She decided on a whim last week to look through the classified ads at work and on Saturday visited someone local who had two 3-month-old kittens available for free. Later that evening I got a phone call that was something like this:

Rachel: I’m gullible

Me: You got both kitties didn’t you?

Rachel: yes

Me: I’ll be right over

They are going to be a bundle, and are still adjusting but very playful and they are adapting to Rachel and her apartment quite quickly. I’ve been sucked in by that new kitten cuteness and have spent at least an hour over there every day getting my kitten fix. However, so far, they are unnamed. Rachel’s somewhat indecisive and has never taken on the task of naming a pet before. We’ve been bouncing ideas back and forth but for now they’re just “the baby kitties”. So, any name ideas for Rachel?  Edited to add: they are both boy kitties, forgot to mention that.