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Recipient: Stitches from the Heart
Completed: September, 2004
All Seasons Yarn / 100% acrylic
Color No. E1-002 - Ice Sherbert
Needles: US 7

I’d purchased this yarn earlier in the year with the sole intent of making something to donate. Weighing in at 12 oz, the ball was HUGE! Enough to make a few sweaters, some hats, maybe a blanket or three… As an added bonus, the yarn was durable and washable (and cheap!).

Since the yarn was purchased from Stitches from the Heart, and SFTH is one of the charities affiliated with our guild, I decided to try making something for them first. I browsed their Web site and found this pattern seemed easy enough for even a duffer like me to finish.

It’s a neat little pattern - all knit up in a single piece, with minimal seaming under the arms and at the sides. A couple little buttons from my sewing stash, and voila! a cozy sweater for a newborn.

While Ted and I have offered to go flying with various friends, we haven’t actually taken many trips with additional passengers (which is kinda sad). When a couple of my friends recently brought up the topic of going flying I decided that this time we’d actually try to make it work.

So I asked TT where she wanted to go for her first flight, and she said “The Cat’s House.”

The Cat’s House is a private residence in San Diego, which is home to a couple of artists, a dog, and 11 cats. What makes their home unique is the manner in which they’ve decorated/altered it, for the comfort and enjoyment of their cats and the delight of cat-lovers everywhere:

Since 1987, our time has been spent altering the 1950’s Southern California tract house to satisfy the needs of the cats. We’re always a “work in progress.” Over one hundred feet of elevated walkway has been constructed to allow our felines to pass through walls and frolic overhead. Home is where our cats roam.

It’s really quite bewildering. There are feline-themed tchotchkes everywhere. Literally. They cram shelves and curio cabinets, are nailed to walls, dangle from ceilings, and cover floors and surfaces in every room. I mean, I like cats and all, and I really enjoyed our visit, but living in a house like this seems as though it would be challenging.

Still, TT and I got to thinking about how cool it would be to have catwalks in ourhomes, with little “mouse hole” tunnels through the walls and kitties pattering overhead…

OK, now it’s gotten big: the Feds are getting involved…

(Part I is here)

Save your knitting, use a safety line!
When knitting a complicated pattern, use a safety line right before starting a section. Simply thread a sewing needle with ravel cord and run it through the stitches on your needle. Once you’re sure the section is knit correctly, simply pull the ravel cord out. If its not knit correctly,pick up the stitches from the row with the ravel cord and unravel back.

The last month or so, we’ve been letting the cats roam in the back yard off-leash. They LOVE to go outside. I mean, really, REALLY love going outside. I get a kick out of watching Jackson get all frisky and frolicsome, chasing after bugs, rolling around in the dirt, napping under the lemon tree… I swear he’s part dog.

Bem is a handful (natch) and one must remain ever vigilant for escapes to the neighbors’ yards when she’s on the prowl. She is not only curious, she is a Cat Without Fear. And she is quickly learning that squirrels can be fun.

Since he’s no longer tethered, Jackson has become more agressive in his assaults on furry backyard invaders…*

*For you squirrelophiles out there, rest assured that the cats have bells on their collars and the squirrels can both see and hear the cats coming and have ample time to flee (trust me: this cat sat and waited for a good 5-7 minutes before making his move).

So, after over a year of ignoring the signs, our garage door finally began to deteriorate to the point where we couldn’t ignore it any longer. The board along the top center of the door finally cracked all the way through, and is being held together by an rusted bolt and sheer force of will on the door’s part; it sags uncomfortably under its own weight when opened.

Having to replace a garage door sucks. It’s big, expensive, and not the kind of thing I feel comfortable or qualified to build/fix/replace myself. It’s also a huge architectural element, and while almost any new door would be an improvement at this point, if we’re gonna dump this big a chunk of change into it I want it to look good. Ted and I settle on some basic issues (he doesn’t want wood, I don’t want one of those cheesy plastic-looking ones) and I settle in and do what any right-thinking American would: I turn to the Font of All Human Knowledge™.

One of the problems with doing this kind of research is that many businesses either don’t keep their Web sites up-to-date, or choose not to list any kinds of prices–especially for big products like this. I, who had never purchased a garage door before, had absolutely no clue how much it would cost. $500? $5,000? And what about installation? A quick trip to the Home Depot down the street confirms their lines range from $1,000 to $6,500, AND they now carry Clopay Coachman doors (the kind I’d been looking at). We let things percolate for a while and decided to just go ahead with HD.

I get a picture in my head of how I’d like the door to look and draw out some diagrams, but Ted is dubious about the decorative diagonal trim, so I Photoshopped him this picture:

Proposed garage door (”artist’s” rendition)

Now we’re both cool with the design, and anxiously await installation…

An interesting posting from a recent Stitch’n'Bitch list:

Hi. I’m a knitter in South LA. I handknit with the ladies at the Jefferson Park Library on Thursdays, a very raucous bunch! and I also belong to a machine knitting group which meets in various homes, mostly in the valley. I know this is a knitting group and not a PAC, so I apologize in advance if I’m offending anyone with the following political information.

I want to let folks know about my new blog–KnittersforKerry.com. The blog tells of my trials and tribulations with the knitting machine, and shows some of what I’ve been making so far. I just started this site and this project. My goals are to get knitters involved in the election by knitting things with the names of their favorite candidate on them. (I will be posting patterns soon…), to make politically themed garments so supporters can strut around town in something more serious than a t-shirt, and to sell these items to raise money in support of the Democratic party and other independent political groups. If anyone is interested in getting involved with knittersforkerry.com, I would love to hear from you! So far the site is just a blog, but I would like for it to be more than that. I would like many more knitters. I would love to have a Knit for Kerry event or fundraiser. I am also looking for people who might want to get involved on the business end of things- PR and such.

Thanks in advance for your support! And again, I apologize if I’ve offended anyone out there. As far as I can tell, Knittersforbush.com is still available….

Knit on!
Lisa

For those of you pining for one of those old Barbie KNIT MAGIC kiddie knitting machines but unable to find one on Ebay, here’s a NEW product from NSI (the same people who brought you Glitter Sand Art and the Sticker Factory…)