Busy doing other things

This week I have mostly been doing...other things - other in that I have not been knitting up, writing up or dreaming up designs. I have still been engaged in the knitterly arts.Charlotte's sweater is near completion, after 2 attempts at the front ( the first resulting in a backwards "C" (should have seen that coming) I am now knitting the neckband and then all that remains is the seaming, I am so happy that both my nephew and my daughter will get whole garments from me this winter...the husband is still niggling for a cardigan, I wish he would learn to knit!

More books arrived today, this time from Interweave books hurt book sale - although none of them look hurt! even with the postage they cost much less than they would have had I bought them in NZ (if I could find them) so I am also very happy about this haul...we love books in this household, my book stash more than rivals my yarn stash, and we are constantly running out of bookshelf space, Blaise has resorted to stacks in her room, and Flash's office looks more like a library. The book that I think will get the most use is the Compendium of finishing techniques, I am always striving to improve my finishing, and this book is comprehensive and clear - isn't it funny, I always think my finishing is terrible - but I remember my friend Lara commenting that my finishing is always beautiful...I have hung onto those words and try to remind myself when I get picky about something that no one else can see.

I also managed to dye my damaged yarn on monday, Frasier had decided to protect a bag of Dale baby ull from the marauding neigbourhood cats by marking it for me (gee thanks) he is neutered so his musk doesn't have the volume and voracity of an tomcat, there were only one or two drops on 6 of the skeins, but I wasn't taking any risks - into the bucket it went for a two day soak, and then I underdyed it by boiling in dye, and finished with hand painting, now I have 3 baby outfit lots of hand dyed Baby Ull, some special garments are on the horizon...that's when I have finished the kimono jacket, the skirts patterns, the Riverstone pattern testing...and the plans I have for some exquisite yarn which arrived a wee while back and which I still haven't told you about - all in good time, it will be worth the wait, back to Frasier and those neighbourhood marauders...we had a magnetic cat door installed to stop them coming into the house and spraying(they were entering though the normal cat door) - the smell and Frasier's distress were very much evident and the vet advised this as the best solution, Frasier of course figured out how to open the door within moments (well he had supervised the installation) and Layla had it sussed within days, the funniest moments were at 3am the morning after it was installed, I was home alone and awoke to banging and crashing outside the laundry door which is below our bedroom window...looking out I saw the burly seal point siamese from over the road trying to muscle his way in - no luck sunshine!