Category: Cats

I think that’s an apt name for this:

It’s based on the Free Ravelry Downloadable Pattern Vortex Shawl by Kristina McCurley and made with the yummy wool I blogged about last post.

The name comes from the current computer game Engel is playing ‘No Man’s Sky’ where you got from planet to planet, discovering, cataloguing and mining for resources as far as I can tell…to a relaxing soundtrack…great for switching off in the evening, and what I’ve been watching as I worked in my shawl…

Not the most attractive photo if it, but the best colour match to real life, and it gives you an idea of the shape too. The merino/yak was lovely to knit with, and loved by certain four legged critters…

Salem wasn’t caught in the act of stealing it, three seconds after I put it on the floor to photograph…of course not…

I also wore it yesterday at a wedding banquet, where I shamefully had to call it quits after the fifth of eight courses…seeing as it started with an entire roast suckling pig between eight of us, I don’t think I did too bad. Oh, and for those curious, the heads in the fridge, I couldn’t let such a yummy treat go to waste!

Not much else to say really, life’s been ticking along, I had some family visit, been spending a fair bit if time with Felix, working on her crafty skills – pom pom caterpillars today! And pom pom monsters. She wanted to make a pom pom Cthuhlu, but decided the tentacles would be too difficult to make from pom poms alone…

So cute!

Wool count:

Starting total – 697

Wool used – 92
Wool bought – 10
Wool given – 4

Total – 619

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Cthuhlu phtang!

This time last year I posted about how awesome my friends are. How they all donned on cat ears and played Cathuhlu all just for my birthday.

They out did themselves this year, and I have to say, my friends are more than awesome, they’re amazing!

I mean seriously, look at this cake!

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It’s the Necronomicon, as a cake!

It’s not the first amazing cake that particular friend of mine has made for my birthday, two years ago, it was this tentacular beauty!

Tentacle Cake 2~2

In case you haven’t all guessed, I’m obsessed with Cthuhlu. I’ve read all of H. P. Lovecrafts mythos stories, own numerous RPGs (Call of Cathuhlu, Delta Green, The Laundry, as well as numerous source books) I even created my own knitted Cthuhlu pattern!

It also happens to be my literally just now finished project:

Cthuhlu mittens!

This is based on the free Ravelry download Cthulhu Mittens by Lyle Stafford. I changed mine so that I can, let’s say, rather than pet Crumble with mittens:

I could…

Scritch her with my fingers instead!

I sense more mittens in my future as I had a lot of fun with these, but there are other projects to be done first…so many projects, so little time…

In other news, I went to the pop up knitting show in Port Sunlight (as it was pouring with rain, good ol’ British weather!) And accidentally bought myself a very nice little ball of wool that was positively singing to be a shawl. So that is what it shall be.

And that is what will be in my needles next!

Starting total – 697

Wool used – 91
Wool bought – 10
Wool given – 4

Total – 620

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Apologies for the lack of post last week, my grandfather passed away and I was, understandably not that inclined to be online.

It also didn’t help that last week was spent in Ireland, visiting the other half of my family tree. Distance does not make for an easy time arranging funeral details.

But it’s done, and was, in my opinion, a pleasant cremation.

I have been knitting, as I always do, especially when stressed!

The pattern is ‘Bag of Troodons’ by Tina Barrett and is from the book ‘Knitted dinosaurs’.

Close up of the bag. It was a birthday present for my nephew who is dinosaur mad. But…

Dashie has a soft spot for them too…

I also made a bolero for my neice, to go with a Monster High dress my sis (her other aunt) made her. Now, seeing as she lives far away, and taking a picture of a bolero flat is a tad pointless, my giant panda Tofu is modelling it for me.

It’s a free online pattern – Ribbed Lace Bolero by Kelly Maher. I also made a black one trimmed in pink rib, but didn’t get a chance to photograph it. So you can look at a photo of Tofu in this one again, but showing her better side.

Lastly, I’m once again knitting flat rat bookmarks – I blogged these guys November 20th 2013 – scary how time flies!

I’ll probably knit these for a while till my heads back in gear, or I get distracted!

Wool count:

Starting total – 697

Wool used – 79 (6 since last post)
Wool bought – 9
Wool given – 4

Total – 631

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Twenty four balls of wool used, twenty four balls of wool knit, we take a ball, we knit it all, twenty four balls of wool used up!

Only six hundred and sixty ball of wool to go!

Insanity aside, it’s been busy since my last post. I’m now in the process of changing jobs, my love for Rockband being awakened, knitting, work itself, a massive spring clean and lastly I spent a week’s break in Wales with Engel and Felix.

A brief summary is thus:

Three railways – one diesel (Welsh highland heritage), two steam (Ffestiniog and Talyllyn) – all narrowguage, three beaches, two harbours, one failed attempt at crabbing (Felix dropped her crab line into the sea), several successful rock pooling attempts (caught four fish, a dozen crabs and a live clam), a swimming pool, rabbit farm and sea zoo, plus a brief look at where they make seasalt.

It’s been busy.

But good.

I doubt anyone is really interested (except Rabbie) on a blow by blow account of my trip, so my summary I hope will suffice.

Onto the knitting!

Another little knitted extra for person at my work who is pregnant with a little girl.

Something Felix, my little one, adored when she was tiny was a little Scamp snuggly (I think alike people call them lovelys?) A little fabric square with an animal head.

Hopefully this one will be loved too!

Worked top down from the head and then onto the blanket from the centre out, finishing with a picot bind off. Seeing as my cat Crumble refused to move as I was finishing it, I took a photo of it on her.

And a firm favourite – pattern is Cat-ears Hat by Donna Druchunas, from ‘Kitty Knits: Projects for cats and their people’ – a very used and loved Christmas present from Rabbie, many, many moons ago!

“But that hasn’t used up twenty four balls of wool” I hear you say, why no, it hasn’t. The two projects above used up four. The other twenty is from cat ears and tails as I blitz my way through my fluffy/fuzzy wool collection.

Engel has been helping me on this crusade by knitting the cat tails with as small knitting machine we got Felix.

She’s made a few too.

It really is that easy to use.

I’ll take a photo of them all when I finish, there’s still fluffy/fuzzy wool left (I suspect it’s breeding, and related to Tribbles)

Well, that’s all for today, still sorting out the post holiday stuff that needs doing…

Starting total – 697 balls
Wool used – 46 (24 balls used up this week!)
Wool bought – 9

Total – 660

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For those clueless as to who I am, I’m one of Roxy’s owners (Crumble and Salem also share this privaledge) and I am currently using her account to contact my adoring public.

Mine, you ask? Yes, mine. Clearly it was my stunning presence on my pets knitted spider blanket that had the patterns creator request it to be featured on the main ravelry pattern page.

So thank you my adoring audience, and thank you AnnM for appreciating my feline beauty!

Sabrina

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Hours in the day.

Days in the week.

Weeks in a year…

I’ve been busy. Really busy. Visiting the family up north for a whole month, going further up north for a holiday for two weeks, trying to get going back to work organised, childcare for Felix, little pile of projects, unpacking my house some more, building furniture and ripping out bits of the house (Engel with a crowbar and brute force) destroying the things I’m allergic to in the garden (Engel with a shovel, hedge trimmer and brute force) and much much more that I wont go into detail about.

Instead, completed projects!

Wa na na na na na na na Bat Shawl! Free pattern by Emilee Mooney

Not a great photo but the best I could do sadly to highlight the pattern. Free pattern can be found here.

I wanted to make something for me as I couldn’t remember the last time I had done so, and I wanted a nice little black shawl for the few occasions I wear dresses. But it had to be a little fun, a little quirky. Solution? Make one!

Spiderman-blanket, free pattern by AnneM

As you can see, I did a spiderweb as opposed to a spiderman colour theme, and lovingly modelled with Sabrina. Free pattern can be found here. Cutting a long story short, Engel was driving me mad getting his lego all over the floor ad under the sofa, so I decided enough was enough and made him a solution.

Its essentially a large circular bit of knitted fabric with a drawstring all the way round the edge (finished with cute spiders I add) so when he’s done playing with lego, I can just pull the drawstrings and voila! A sack of lego! The fabric also helps stop the pieces skittering across the laminate flooring.

Engel denies this though and claims that it was actually Felix and her toys that made me do it. But we all know the truth, don’t we?

And last but not least!

Itsy Bitsy Spider, pattern by Lara Breese

Too cute, are’t they? Pattern is free but only available as a ravelry download here. The one in the middle is one of two knitted fr the spiderweb blankets drawstrings. The other two are knitted from scrap wool I had kicking about after I noticed how much Felix really loved playing with them. And I wanted to knit more of them.

Still do. There may be an army of these guys…

Anyhow! Hopefully the next post wont be as long a wait as this one was!

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…coming to you from under a blanket…

First things first, photos of all the holiday knitting I’ve been keeping secret.

Haughty Hen Trio from Knit & Purl Pets by Claire Garland

This is for my niece, a miniature version of her very own pet chicken!

Holy Hand Grenade, free pattern by Wylde Strandes

And this is for a good Monty Python loving friend of the family! Pattern is a ravelry download that can be found here.

For those not in the know, its featured in the movie ‘The Holy Grail’.

And lastly, advent stockings!

Little Christmas stocking for beginners, free pattern by Fluff and Fuzz

Never. Ever. Again. Ever. That’s five sets of twenty four stockings, that’s a hundred and twenty stockings! I was dreaming of knitting these things! For anyone out there mad enough to attempt their own, the pattern can be found here. From the top, red, white and purple for my niece. Green, white and blue for my nephew. Dark red and sparkly white for my mum. Black and grey for Engel. Red, green and white for me.

Sadly, the hardest part wasn’t the knitting or sewing, but assembling it together. Here is a photo of me trying to do so:

Crumble supervising to ensure all is done properly

Wool everywhere, stockings everywhere, cat trying to ‘help’…the moment I gave her a sacrificial extra stocking, she lost interest and decided to go play with her catnip mouse instead…

Anyhow, a good festive season has been had so far by myself, Engel and Felix. Engel has actually been festive and put christmas music on yesterday, in the 6/7 years I’ve known him, this is a first! He blames Felix on being the christmas spirit…

How about you guys?

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As mentioned in my last post, Engel and myself have a house! We moved in more or less about three weeks ago and currently still up to our ears in boxes, but the unpacking is getting there! And the sorting! And building of furniture! And all the other things that come with a house – like setting up gas, electricity, paying bills…

Enough with the boring stuff.

Jin Chan chilling on his new pad.

I’ve finally found my camera and can get on with photographing my various knits. Above is a little house knit I did – because even amongst the chaos of moving, I thought it could do with a little knitted touch. So Jin Chan got himself his very own knitted pad, water lily pad mind you. (Pattern can be found here.) For those curious, Jin Chan is the three legged frog, or money frog, associated with wealth and good luck. I could do with both! A wiki article can be found just here.

What else has been happening? Well whilst Engel and myself where in house limbo, we were staying with the in-laws. Sabrina (one of the foster kitties) took a rather unhealthy obsession to ‘playing’ with plants. Eight cacti and four orchids later…yeah…it wouldn’t have been so bad if it wasn’t for her pulling the plant out and ripping the roots apart – broken pots and chewed leaves can result in a saved plant, but the roots? Nope.

Cat-proof cactus

So as an apology, I knitted up a cactus that could survive even Sabrina – break the pot? No problem. Roots? There aren’t any. Chewed leaves? Off to the washing machine! (Pattern can be found here for anyone else who could do with one!)

It’s late so I’m going to leave it at that, but expect a few more image heavy, full of knitted item, posts coming your way!

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A few moments ago I received a phone call from my eldest sister, to summarise:

“I just passed by a cattery and thought of you – ever thought of opening one as your own business?”

Now, I do foster kitties, have done for nearly two years, and I admire their independent natures, and there may be evidence of me stopping everything I was doing to go and coo over little kitty toes…

And I digress. I find it amusing that when people see anything cat like they think of me, as if I was some kind of crazy cat lady, who spends her evenings knitting on a rocking chair chatting to her swarm of cats…

OK, I may do that, talk to the cats, but its more a horde than a swarm, and I do knit whilst doing so…and I might own a rocking chair…

Hmm. At some point I turned into a crazy cat lady…I blame Engel. If in doubt, blame the other half.

Anyhow. I found the two minute phone call amusing, and thought I’d share it. Good enough reason for a quick update!

Engel and myself have been moving for about four months now, and still are whilst all the fine details get ironed out, hence there’s been a severe lack in online activity in regards to posting photos of my knitting and cats etc. (That includes here, ravelry and DA – I’m foxymitts for both of those if you’re looking for me on those sites) Just wanted to say that things are happening, in the background, and once I have somewhere to take photos and my camera is out of storage, there will be more posts.

Until then, just little bites of random like this one.

Oh, and for those curious, I have contemplated a cattery as a little job to keep me ticking over if I ever won the lottery. Won’t happen, but I can always dream.

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Firstly, Crumble complained that Salem and Sabrina were receiving too much attention and that she should have her photo posted.

The gorgeous Crumble cat.

Now that I’ve finished bowing to the cats every demand, on to my readers/watchers/followers commands!

Both the Axolotl pattern and the Companion Cube pattern are back online! They’ve had some revising done to them, mostly to make things more self explanatory and to try and iron out a few issues… These and all other free patterns I get round to digging out, dusting off and typing up will and can be found on the Free Patterns page.

Lastly, I’ve put a link on the menu bar (look at the top of the page, there’s one for the Free Patterns too) to my DA gallery. I’m hoping to eventually have a gallery on here of my knitted things, or something similar, but its pretty intensive work and I’m currently far too lazy/busy/tired. If anyone has any suggestions however…you can get in touch via the new Contact page! (Also in the menu bar)

More to come soon! Hopefully…

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