Cat's Paw Socks

After surfing the Internet for a pattern for Cat's Paw Socks, I decided to design my own based on lace patterns I saw. I am using the Silky Sock yarn from Adirondack yarns which I purchased last week in New Hartford, NY at Indigo Yarns. I cast on 64 stitches and did K2, P2 ribbing for an inch before starting the pattern. It is going well, however the dye is coming off on my hands! This is the first time I've had that happen with yarn. I will wash them in 'Soak' before wearing them the first time. Hopefully any residual 'loose' dye will wash out. I'm loving the new Addi Turbo Lace needles. I'm using the 2.5mm one.

I ran errands today in preparation for a birthday party we are attending in Keswick tomorrow and also in preparation for my trip to Missouri on Monday. I'm staying at Lorna's tomorrow night so I don't have to get up at an obscenely early time to get to the airport for our 10:30am flight on Monday morning. Once in Kansas City, we're renting a car a driving the 2.5 hours to Columbia, MO.

Chewy #3 seems to be either resting or dead. Scooter thinks he's just getting ready to make its chrysalis. Time will tell...

Chrysalis

We arrived home today and the neighbour who has been taking care of Ollie and the caterpillars (sounds like a rock band name from the 60s) came hobbling across the street (he has a cast on one foot) to tell us two of them pupated while we were gone. Chewy #1 (or its chrysalis) is attached to the top of the jar near the neck and Chewy #2 was attached to what was left of a leaf. Apparently Chewy#3 who is still a caterpillar ate around the leaf of Chewy #2. I attached Chewy #2 to the top of the 'pupation stick' (my term) with a staple so he'd be hanging and not lying on the bottom of the jar amid the poop. I expect Chewy #3 to make its chrysalis any day now. At least when the big guys are in chrysalis form, there won't be any more pooping.

When I was cleaning out the jar, I noticed we have another little caterpillar! It must have hatched from one of the eggs that was on a leaf being fed to the others. So here we go again.

We had a good drive back from Buffalo today although there was some drizzle from St. Catharines to Grimsby. We got home by 2pm. I got 3 loads of our laundry done and got take-out fish and chips for supper. We've eaten so much chicken this past week.

I'm home until Sunday evening then I'm off to Lorna's for our trip to visit Francey. Francey's two kids go to school at the University of Missouri. They realized buying a house for the kids to live in while there would be cheaper than paying residence fees for the two of them for 4 years. So we're flying to Kansas City, MO and renting a car to drive to Columbia, MO to meet Francey. The next day we're driving to St. Louis to meet Francey's husband, Rich, who will be flying in from California where he has been fighting forest fires. We will drop the golf clubs off with Rich and their younger son, Andrew so the boys will cavort in St. Louis and us girls will play in St. Louis for a day or two then go back to Columbia to the kids' house to goof off some more. One thing I'd like to do is go see the movie, "Hairspray".

I'm scouring the Internet for 'cat's paw' patterns for socks. I think I'll be designing them myself because I haven't found exactly what I want. I have found lots of lace patterns for scarves and wraps, etc.

I have decided to do an entrelac scarf with the Karaoke yarn I bought in New Hartford, NY. I found a pattern I like in Pam Allen's "Scarf Style". I almost bought the book yesterday in Buffalo but held off because I saw very similar patterns on the Internet that thought I could use. I checked the catalogue for our library this evening and lo and behold, they have the book! It's due to be returned on Aug. 7 so I'll put a hold on it. Yay!!!

"Let's Go, Buffalo"

Today we attended Buffalo Bills' Training Camp at St. John Fisher College in Pittsford, NY.


We had a heck of a time finding the parking lot where we could take the shuttle into the college. At one point Skip noted a reticulated bus 3 vehicles ahead of us. We knew that was the kind of bus that is used as a shuttle to the camp. I told him, "Follow that bus and don't let him out of your sight". Sure enough, it lead us to the parking lot.
While Scooter and Skip watched the action on the practice field...

I did some knitting in the bleachers.


I knit (KIP*) on the shuttle bus back to our car. I was working on a sock for "Afghans for Afghans". When I stepped off the bus, a woman came up to me and asked what I was knitting. She also asked about my using one circular needle. I told her it was the "Magic Loop" method and she could look it up on the Internet. I also told her that almost everything I have recently learned about knitting, I learned on the Internet.

After the practice, we drove to Buffalo and had lunch at one of Skip's favourite restaurants - Cracker Barrel.

We took turns 'setting a spell' in the rockers on the porch.


And I continued knitting while Scooter showed off the candy he bought - remember "Pop Rocks"?


*Knitting In Public

Crap-chester

Today we played 9 holes of golf at Beaver Creek Golf Course about 8 miles NW of Rome, NY. We then headed out for Rochester (one of Skip's sports radio personalities calls it Crap-chester, ergo the title of today's blog). We had lunch at a service centre on the NY Thruway. We were delayed 1/2 hour on the Thruway for no apparent reason. But both lanes of westbound traffic were just stopped. There was a truck on the right shoulder before the stoppage that had a sign that said "Accident Ahead" but we saw no evidence of that.

Once in Rochester and checked into the Best Western, I headed to "The Yarne Source" a very nice yarn store and purchased a skein of Adirondack Yarns "Silky Sock" in the Seamist colourway. It is 50% merino wool, 20% silk and 10% nylon. I also purchased two Addi Turbo Lace circular needles in 36" lengths.


We had dinner at Romano's Macaroni Grill and headed to Golf Galaxy so Skip could purchase his beloved Bionic golf gloves.

Tomorrow we're off to Pittsford for the opening day of Buffalo Bills' Training Camp and then will push on to Buffalo for the night. We'll be back in the GTA on Friday.

Baseball Hall of Fame

Skip, Scooter and I are on our annual road trip. Today we visited the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. It was our second time (and Skip's third). The town of Cooperstown, NY is very small and quite charming. We parked at a lot about a mile outside of town and took a trolley downtown.

After our visit, we drove back towards our motel and stopped in New Hartford, NY at a yarn shop called Indigo Yarns. I bought 3 skeins of Karaoke 50% soy silk/50% wool yarn (colour 278 - Mermaid Mix) to make an entrelac scarf.


The proprietor offered to give me an entrelac pattern for the scarf but couldn't find it. The model she had made up was from "Scarf Style" edited by Pam Allen. I found a pattern myself here on the Freckles & Pearls website. Now that I've knit and re-knit the 'garterlac' bathmat, I feel confident I can tackle the scarf pattern except this time I have to actually purl some rows for entrelac stockinette. I will CO 16 stitches instead of the 24 that the pattern calls for.

I finished another pair of socks for "Afghans for Afghans" from the leftover yarn I had in my stash. I ran out of grey so had to knit the toes in another yarn. I have cast on for another pair from some red yarn from my stash. This project has really given me a lot of practice knitting short row heels. I don't know why I found them so hard before.

Nursery Photo

Chewy and his colleagues continue to grow at an amazing rate. I finally took some photos:


Here's a closeup with all three of them quite visible: (the littlest one is face on and about an inch to the right of the medium-sized one)


There is quite a difference in their sizes but all three of them were 'taken into care' when they were itty-bitty, say, 0.5 cm long. The largest one is now about 5cm long (2"). Skip tells me they grow about 2000 times their size from when they hatch. I'm not surprised because all they do is eat and poop.

Eat and poop. Eat and poop.

Chewy's Getting Big!

I got a big surprise today when I was cleaning out the mayonnaise jar and giving the caterpillars new milkweed leaves. Chewy has gotten huge! He's almost an inch long now. The other Chewys are thriving as well. I think a little one even hatched from an egg I had put in there attached to a leaf.

We are going away next week so I'm trying to figure out how to get them fresh milkweed daily. Also they leave a lot of droppings (frass) . The neighbour who is feeling Ollie has agreed to look after Chewy and his colleagues so he'll do whatever I ask him to do. We certainly have lots of milkweed to feed them. I may just pick some stems with leaves on it and put them in water so they stay fresh. I had planned to dig up a plant but it might be too big for a container. I'll figure something out.

On the knitting front, I got the Baby Surprise Jacket pattern in the mail yesterday and started it using the yarn left over from Skip's Aran sweater. It might not be the greatest for a baby's sweater but it's mostly so I can get the hang of the pattern. I checked online for some clarification about the pattern and now think I understand how it goes. It's an Elizabeth Zimmerman design originally published in 1968. Pictures to follow...