WIP Wednesday 64: Canine Caper

You already know that I don't really do cooking - so why the Whimsical Tarot card illustrating the Knave of Hearts ? This:

This used to be about 1 lb. of lambs' livers; the bowl is my seasoned flour ready to coat it before pan-frying, and then casseroling in yummy gravy gently with smoked bacon and sliced onions. I had walked through to the front room to see how Mini Diva was doing with her homework, and returned to find a thief had been and gone. A tidy thief who had left not even a blood trail.

 sleeping off the aftereffects of the heinous crime ?

Hmm. Let's line up the usual suspects for a food robbery. Three cats and a dog, you say ? Jewel and Inky never get on the counter under any circumstances, as they are rescue cats and thus are careful of their manners. Moonheart, Mini Diva's mercurial cat, both wanders the counters, sleeps on top of the microwave and kitchen cupboards, and has been known to steal before (whisker-prints in the butter); however, her alibi is granite solid, seeing as how she was outside prowling the neighborhood at the time.

Which leaves this laughing larcenist:

So anyway, I can't show you pics of my BIL's scarf until Friday, but I can show you this kind of odd picture of Mini Diva's Xmas shawl:

Go me ! But makes for a kind of empty WIP Wednesday, as I'm back to this: only the sleeve, sewing up and neckline to do ...this last bit just seems to drag on forever....

Don't forget to hit up Tami's Amis to see Art and Craft rather than crime scenes .....

WIP Wednesday 40: Dilemma

I have two I want to talk about today: firstly, I'm devising a new scarf pattern, as I couldn't find one that I liked for DH's middle brother's birthday present. I spoke about the yarn (Sublime Baby Cashmere Merino Silk DK) already .... I love this stuff: it is soft, smooth, stretchy, and this 'Button' colorway is one my mother would have labelled as classy, and I would have labelled boring. I am older now and can begin to explore the concept that maybe bright is not always best, although I hasten to add that I am still a long way from being able to appreciate shrubs: I do not care about 8 million different shades of green, I want real color.

Inky thinks that this should be a Seekret Projeckt; but I am 90% sure that this BIL does not surf the interwebz. Certainly not this blog.

















So watch this space for a new free pattern release when I've all finished and done ....

The other WIP has really been hibernating, and now I need some help deciding what to do. It is the Willow Leaf Stole (Rav link) by Linda Choo. I'm using 1150 yards of 4ply silk 8/60NM from Colourmart - and I still don't really get what that means - on 3.25mm needles. I like the pattern, although the repeats are large enough to be unwieldy; I like the yarn. I'm just not liking them in combination. But. I have got quite some way, even though, with the best will in the world and some anticipated severe blocking, mine will be a scarf, not a stole ....



So, here's the dilemma of the title: do I

a) frog it and find something else (that will be a proper stole size) to knit with this yarn ? If so, what ?

b) continue on because I will love the feeling of pious righteousness when I've completed it ?

c) some other really logical option, so obvious that I haven't thought of it yet ?

Don't forget to hop on over to Tami's Amis for other mainly fibre-related blog posts as part of Work-in-Progress Wednesday ...

Le Chat Persillade

Or, cat with a garnish of parsley ....

Trudging

As in the picture, our foundations are somewhat wonky - we are in the final week of term, and it is one week too long; most schools have already broken up. This winter has seemed interminable, and owing partly to that, ours is not the only family that has staggered from one illness right into the next. I begin to understand why the Scandinavians drink so much in spite of their heinous alcohol tax.

Still, we are expecting some familial visits over Easter - both MIL and DH's brother and wife plus new baby should be here at some point over the weekend. I just hope nobody drowns in the torrential rain on the journey up. And my nose was rubbed further in our bad weather by my father's most recent email, telling me his plans for Semana Santa pretty much were the beach every day.

Mini-Diva's parents' evening is this afternoon, and after our little anxiety hiccup earlier this term, I am expecting for everything to be back on track. She is Key Stage 1 and currently in advance of the targets. Her teacher has also announced her pregnancy, so all the parents no longer have to keep the secret, and Mini-Diva can gift her the baby things I've been making, the last of which is a plain baby cardigan in a multi-colored yarn I've used before:





We had a patch of sunlight last week, so I put Rosie, Mini-Diva's guinea pig, out for a run on the patio for a while. Jewel the rescue cat didn't know quite what to make of her - she looks and smells like prey, but has Attitude, so doesn't behave like prey ...



As you can see, the daffodils are still not out, so I am re-reading Beverley Nichols to re-inspire my enthusiasm for growing things; he is very witty, with a clever use of words, if a little .... purple ... at times. And of course a view of the pre-war world and its ways is fascinating.

I have cast on for a sweater, for the first time for myself ! It is an old pattern that used to be my Mother's, for Wendy Monaco (no longer produced); I have some Patons Flower Garden in the shade 'Freesia', which looks like roughly the same weight, to use instead. And I am ignoring (the pull is far too weak to call it resisting) the very vague nudge towards the kitchen that my friend Alison provides with her new blog, Hestia's Larder. I read it because I like her writing and am eternally curious about how my friends live, but I am not going there. Being a domestic goddess is highly over-rated, in my opinion.