Mindless Knitting!

Knit In Progress #7
Crystal Palace Yarns Taos 100% Wool 
Button Hat, inspired from Flower Hat by Miriam Pike (LYS)
Needle Size to gauge: Size 6 (S) or Size 7 (M)
Start Date: Late October
Target Finish Date: Ongoing, until I get bored with it
Special Note: Hat is loose-fitting with rolled edges. Taos Yarn colorways are just fantastic for this type of project. Yarn is so soft and light.

This purplish hat has been promised to YS (Youngest Sis). 2YN (2nd Youngest Niece) gets one too. Hers still needs to have the buttons sewn. OS (Oldest Sis) and Lola (Grandma/Mom) will get theirs next, soon.

Morse Code to YS: I need KIKIAM! That’s why you’re getting all these knit stuffs. Do you hear me?

Remember this?

Well, here’s what it is:

I’m ready to punk out tonight.

The Mohawk Hat came from this book. 

It has inspired me to make this hat for my son in 2007. But he has no use for it other than Halloween, which he now declares is only for young kids. The hat has been sitting around collecting dust. So I fixed it a bit since the hat was a bit large for my head. I replaced the yellow yarn with pink variegated yarn.

The DomiKNITrix book is so easy to follow. The visual step-by-step instructions are what I like about it. It’s a bit of my ‘knit bible’ book. And Jennifer Stafford is not your standard knit designer and I like that too.

This was taken during a trip to Sahalie Falls area last year.

From  Sahalie Falls, hiking down to Koosah and Tomalitch Falls, one would not notice this freak of nature.

Coming back to Sahalie, though, the discovery is quite exciting, stunning and scary at the same time. So, is this a freak of nature? Or, petrified naturally? Or, is this a warning of the presence of woods monsters?

Could have been…

Should have been…

Sweet Sixteen! Today!

Alas, all we have are memories. Great memories!

Jake misses you ~ because Jake misses the time he steals your share of the food bowl. haha!

I miss you because you were such a part of our family. Adaptable, malleable, and just one awesome ’people’ cat. Everyone who knew you, loved you. Except maybe the one that made you go away. I still think I know who made you go away. I have suspicion but not proof.

Oh Tom, you are totally missed!

And there is yet to be a blog page to honor you, oh sweet ol’ Tom!

In any case, Happy Birthday!

HINT: It has something to do with Halloween! Pix is a bit blurry, but it will come out clearer once I tell you what it is.

Hello! My name is Jake!

I’m the only cat around now. I miss my cat friend, Tom. I’m having difficulty adjusting to this loneliness. To divert attention, I lick myself to oblivion. If not for the loving care of my human caregivers, I would be hairless by now.
Where is he? Where did he go?
His birthday is coming up, and usually there’s lots of food to go around. I miss food.
Where is he? huh?

My Precious had just had a birthday Monday. As always, he wanted a quiet celebration. So unlike his younger days,  when 10 or more little terror guests, mostly boys, were invited. Now, it’s only a family affair.

Last Saturday, part of his gifts was to drive him anywhere he wanted. There was a limit to distance, of course. He wanted to hike Mt. Hood hiking trails. But that’s out of the choices. Explained to him that if it’s raining locally, it would be snowing up Mt. Hood. He opted to go to this place:

Uwajimaya: only 3 stores, 1 in Oregon and 2 in Washington. Visited all the store aisles; bought dessert goodies. We had a very Japanese lunch. The restaurant within the store looked all Japanese except for the background music. It was playing Hawaiian songs. Sushi is always part of the dishes that we order when we go Japanese.

Then off to downtown Portland, about 20 minutes west of Uwajimaya. Walked around and window-shopped. All in 1 hour of getting there. Then, the birthday boy got bored. So we went home. I couldn’t complain. It was his birthday after all.

What he got for his birthday:

• The much-anticipated Lizard Ridge Afghan:  He was quite surprise with this unusual present. And he loved it. My Precious is a blanket person. Never a sweater person, so I cannot make him sweaters. He stopped wearing sweaters once he reached grade school. ‘Tis sad!

• A tire gauge: very practical. Dad only gives him practical gifts.
• A Border’s gift card: bookstore gifts are always handy. There’s always a bookstore gift card in any present we get/give.
• A clock sticker: his car’s clock somehow breaks every now & then. Must be a loose wiring somewhere. Everyone is lazy to have it fixed. So Dad just got him this.
• Lots of chocolate: Euphoria chocolate, a local chocolate maker.
• And lastly, he got 2 days off from work. This child who’s never taken days off just because. He’s learning. haha!

Remember this and this in regards to Lizard Ridge?

Well, it’s done! Seven months in the making! Phew!

Special Notes:

• Try not to use darker yarn, specially ones that need to be sewn together many times over. It’s hard on my poor getting-older eyesight.
• Instead of 28 squares, I added 2 more to make a 5-square, 6-row afghan. Big enough to cover a queen size bed if I had really blocked the whole piece.
• It was the right decision NOT to block the piece. I love the 3-dimensional look and FEEL of the blanket.
• What Laura Aylor, Lizard Ridge’s afghan designer, did not realize (or maybe she does now) that her design had inspired hundreds, if not thousands, of knitters to re-create such awesome looking afghan.
• Lastly, I’m ready to make another Lizard Ridge. This time, it will be the 2nd version I’ll be making. The afghan will be my gift to Mr. Wonderful (for his next year’s birthday).

The crocheted edges were very appropriate to the whole knit design.

Whose nose do you think this belongs to?

Finally!
Buttons sewn on.
Shrugs sent off to Mom and OS (Oldest Sis) yesterday.

Now, I’ll just finish YS’ (Youngest Sis) red shrug this weekend and it already has buttons waiting to be sewn on. Buttons are totally different from the ones on my Mom’s and OS’ shrugs.

Also, I finished My Precious’ afghan over the weekend. Right now, it’s just all spread out being lightly blocked. Heavy blocking isn’t necessary as I like the bobble-waves look making it look and feel 3-dimensional. When it’s ready, I’ll finally put a FOFO (Finished Object/Finally Over) stamp to it. And blog about it. Soon.