I have been knitting lately, just seems pretty boring working on the eternal WIPs. I’ve been heading down to Burnsville on and off the last few weeks to knit with Nancy & Rina and whoever else happens to be there. I went to Drunken Knitting Night at Merlin’s Rest with Kim and Becky from dance (and we encountered Dave, also from dance. He was one of the musicians, not knitting.) oh, and I knit ’round the campfire at my cousin’s fall gathering last weekend, where I was told that the two petals of the flower washcloth looked more like a bra or bikini top. hadn’t realized that, but he was oh-so-right.

Projects I’ve been working on lately have been the Positive Energy Stole (mostly at Burnsville), seaming the HP POA scarf, the flower washcloth, the short-row scarf of doom (aka Sea Lettuce) and the Zucca blanket. I bought a few needles for needle felting and a bit of blue fiber (I haven’t made anything more than a couple blobs yet) - I blame my sister for that. (ever since she got interested, I’ve had it in my head that I need to copy her. I figure I’ll add some designs to a felted bag or something in the future.) In spinning news, I finished the Miss Babs fiber and have started one of the Seawools from Creatively Dyed.

In non-knitting news, I wandered (well, drove) around the Twin Cities today for a quilting shop hop.
This is what I got:

and this is what the finished quilt would look like:

I only got the fabric for the squares right now (I can buy a kit with all the fabric for the borders and such to finish it up), and I only have 6 of the squares. (missing the yellow & green square in the center right and the green one with the red X in the center top). I’m thinking I might make a table runner or something instead of the quilt as shown.

I also fell in love with one of the shops (located next to All About Yarn) Block of the Month quilts:

It’ll be queen sized when finished - which is perfect since that’s what size my bed is (which is also good cuz the kitties try to crowd me - usually one on either side of me). It started in September (with the medallion in the center), so I’m not too far behind.

and, in parting, some kitty pics…

Wolfie napping (or attempting to, before I found him and grabbed the camera) on the treadle of my wheel

dinner time. Wolfie weighs nearly twice as much as Kashka. though most of him is still fluff.

after a rather long hiatus (I think the last time I actually spun on the wheel was early August), I resumed spinning up the Miss Babs wool/silk that I bought at Midwest Folk & Fiber back in July. the black’s been spun up for a while, the green was in time-out (it broke. I get frustrated when it breaks mid-spin and sometimes have an impossible time rejoining things)

This is what I’m spinning:

(I realize I never posted about my overindulgence in fiber at Midwest Folk & Fiber. If you’re on Ravelry, you can see the loot here. um, yeah. I may have gone a bit overboard.)

I think I spun up about half of the green tonight (so around 1 oz). my ‘pinching’ finger is giving me grief now. I need to remember to not overdo it - especially after such a long break.

in good news, Wolfgang doesn’t seem overly interested in the spinning or the fiber. he sat on the arm of the sofa for a while supervising, but didn’t try to play with anything. good to know. he did, however, decide that the alpaca-shaped WPI tool would be a good toy - for all of two seconds until he knocked it off the sofa and into a knitting project bag…

oh, and yes, the kitties are still getting along pretty well. see:

(that’s actually from mid-September. I need to get a better pic of them)

So, having kept Wolfgang and Kashka separated all week, it got to the point where he wanted out of the bedroom, and this morning she meowed her way down the hall at me (which I took to mean that she wanted the door opened). So they’re out together.

They managed to get close enough to allow nose-to-nose sniffing, then she backed off and gave him a hiss. Now they’re keeping their distance, but everytime Kashka goes somewhere, he follows, and she keeps making timid meowing noises so I know they’re on the move. Ooh, she just gave him the stop following me growl (wow, I’ve never heard her growl that long), and hissed when he followed. She has now decided the top of the TV is a good perch (he’s on the floor) - I’ve never seen her sit on the TV before.

should be an interesting weekend…

I brought home a second cat. (What was I thinking?)

Kashka is not happy about this. (She’s the hisser.)

any tips/suggestions greatly appreciated!

as online knitters, I have a feeling a lot of us send packages out. so getting an email saying a package was undeliverable would be cause for concern. DON’T OPEN ANY ATTACHMENTS!

there’s a new one going around with a few variations, basically saying it’s from UPS/FedEx or the one I got - simply “Airmail Tracking #xxxxxx.” if you open the attachment, hello virus or trojan.

here’s the info on snopes and on the airmail variant