May Practice Father

May is over. I completed one of the three non sock, sock yarn projects I was working on at the start of the month. It seems so long ago now.

As you would expect I’ve been knitting. I did take a break long enough yesterday to play some Beer Pong. I guess the technical East Coast term for it is Beirut. Either way, it was a fun evening with friends and surprisingly I was much better at it with my hair clipped back and my glasses on. Imagine!

Today Mum and I were working on updating the Curlfect website. No I didn’t link it since the updates have been published yet. We’re actually doing a massive overhaul to the site, about 60 hours of work spread out over a couple weeks with us working on it as much as we can, as fast as we can. I’m proud of how it looks and will be sure to let you know when it’s finished.

Tomorrow is the start of the Socks from the Toe Up KAL over on Ravelry. The KAL stands for Knit A-Long. There are about 800 of us and we are using Wendy Johnson’s new book Socks from the Toe Up and all knitting the same sock each month. This month is the Lacey Rib Sock. I’m anxious to cast on for that using the Panda Silk yarn I’ve attempted to use for 2 other socks but always found the fabric too drapey. Now that I’m ok with knitting with size 0 needles (no longer shaking my fists up and down proclaiming that “I will never use anything smaller than a 2!!!!”) I should be able to create a semi-dense fabric with this yarn. At least it will be a wearable sock.

Aside from that, the month of June seems pretty vacant in terms of challenges. We’re busy every weekend so I’ll need to make portable projects. Perhaps I should work on some Christmas presents, or go for another mile. Those are goals that have worked the best for me. Although June is father’s day. Perhaps I should knit something for my father. I could be a Christmas gift, not necessarily something for Father’s day itself. I think I like this. How about father inspired knitting? How about things that relate to Camping, Dr. Who, Biking/Cycling, Buddhism, Cheeses, X-men, Wide-Mouthed-Frogs, Reading, or Science Fiction, to name a few topics that make me think of him. Of course, female relatives reading this will have to keep it quiet in case I do in fact knit gifts for him.

Yes, it’s decided… June will be the Father Inspired Knitting Month.

Breath

It’s been so long since we’ve talked. I’ve been so busy I haven’t even had a chance to breath. But today is a day of breathing. And blog writing.

First, Wednesday morning Mac & I were checking out the tulip situation in the big flowerbed and saw something small and brown twitch. Sure enough it’s Earnheart. I was afraid he didn’t make it through the winter since his hole was unattended and no one had seen him until now. I know what you’re saying, “how do you know it’s Earnheart?” I know because he’s a big chubby chipmunk. I’ve never seen one this tall or this wide before. So Yay, we have our chipmunk!!

I’ve spent the last few days being a quasi-vet tech. At least that’s how I felt as Mum & I administered shots and did feedings. The short version is that 3 litters within a month is a lot for one person to handle. Especially when the kittens are small and there are more of them than there are nipples. We’ve been on red alter-since Saturday when the second litter was born. Weighing or feeding every four hours to make sure the babies survive. I love my Devons something fierce, and I wouldn’t walk away from breeding but sometimes there is a moment of pause as you realize that were it not for your midwifery and days spent monitoring the babies growth, few would survive to adulthood. The joy from raising them and sending them to their new homes comes at a very high cost as you brave a life or death situation every hour of that first week. Breeding is not for the faint of heart.

But on a lighter note, here are two of the older boys. As of yet, they do not have names. We’re leaning toward Robin Hood and Friar Tuck. Although Mum thinks that since they are Nessa Rose’s babies all the kittens should have the word Rose in their names. I’m pushing for ness in their names, so Lock-Ness, Hayness, Aness, Oness…names like that. You can see where this is going.

It’s somewhere near the start of a month, which means I need to enlighten you on this months challenge and last months results.

I’m not finished. April did not go so well. Work has been insain and this little dog sweater isn’t turning out the way I imagined. I knit 11 of the 14 inches and decided to stop and try again. The second attempt was much much better, but the back wasn’t right and I was 5” in when I realized this. Rip. Third attempt had crazy ribbing that tapered down too much at 10” this insight came to me. Rip. The fourth attempt is ok. It’s currently 8” long and I’ve begun to accept that this will not be the pinnacle of my designs. If I had 2 months to design it, then maybe but for now it is what it is. The deadline for the book submission is May 11th, so I need to wrap this puppy up pretty soon. (did you get the pun?). Yes I’m working on 3 patterns for a book on knitting with sock yarn, but to be difficult I’m not knitting socks in the tradition sense of the word. So this month’s challenge is to complete the non-sock sock knitting.