Stocking up on WIP’s

I think I may need to set a new rule for myself. When I have so many projects started that I start running out of cables in my Denise Interchangable needle kit, maybe it’s time to finish up a few of them before I start anything else!

In case it wasn’t obvious from that new rule, I haven’t touched either the cardigan or Seabreeze since the last time I wrote. Instead, I went out and bought the sweetest pile of blue and white swirled baby yarn, and immediately started working on this.

The pattern is a basic feather and fan pattern I found online, using an 18 stitch set of increases and decreases. I’m using smaller needles so it’s kind of a fiddly project, especially since there’s 240-something stitches that all have to be either increased or decreased every 4 rows. But I love how it’s turning out, and I think it’s good I started so early. The recipient is not due until the very end of December, but considering how fiddly this pattern is, it might just take me until then to finish it.

And then, this afternoon on the way home I swung by the yarn store in Davis and picked up a set of double-pointed needles and two skeins of Lamb’s Pride Bulky in russet. It turns out I got the wrong size DPN’s, but luckily I was able to cobble together a replacement through the judicious use of my size 13’s from my Denise kit, a few uneven lengths of cable, and a large circular needle in size 13 I had iin the stash. After dinner, I sat down to watch an extremely sappy movie and got started on this.

It’s a knit cat bed! Once it’s done I’ll toss it in the washing machine to felt it, and then mail it off to Petfinders for their Adopt-a-Senior-Pet month in November. This is actually all Wendy’s doing, since she organized a cat bed knit-along to support Petfinders. I’ve been eying Wendy’s felted cat bed pattern for some time now, so this was the perfect opportunity for me to give it a try. I could, I suppose, feel slightly guilty for making beds for other cats and not for my own, but I *did* make two afghans that they’ve claimed, and the little catnip-filled knit wonton toys I made a while ago still occasionally travel around. Plus, Sebastian has been ‘helping’ me knit the cat bed by hopping up beside me on the sofa, grabbing the skein of wool, and wrestling it firmly into submission, all the while purring his furry little head off.

I’m hoping I can finish up the cat bed by Sunday, and maybe get another one or two made by the end of the week so I can felt them and still have plenty of time to get them in the mail. But then, no excuses. I really have to finish those two sweaters, if for no better reason than to make more cables available the next time I decide to cast on for something new.