Martini and her babies

It has been a while. Here are some pics of our last batch of fosters. Martini had five kittens on September 20th, 2008. They are: Pumpkin, Sweet Potato, Butternut, Carrot, and Zucchini.

Foster Kittens

Back in July 2007 we fostered some kittens with a local rescue group. The last of them was adopted in January. We got two sisters and their brother. We named them Proginoskes (smallest female, red collar), Dr. Louise Colubra (middle size, orange collar), and Mr. Jenkins (largest, green collar). The names come from Madeleine L'Engle's book "A Wind in the Door", the second in the "Wrinkle in Time" series.

They have been adopted by some wonderful people and we miss all three kittens.

Howl the mother

Howl and the foster kittens, Mr. Jenkins, Dr. Louise Colubra, and Proginoskes. She has stopped whacking and hissing at them and they are getting along.

Mostly.

Proginoskes

This is Progo in the giant Kitty Pi bed I knit Calcifer, since she (Calcifer) was too giant for the green one. She's 12 pounds, and Howl is 11. Oof.

Vestee from Knitty

So I finally finished Vestee from Knitty. This is the bare KnitPicks yarn I dyed myself with Koolaid. I actually finished knitting this about a week after I dyed it in June. Then it sat there for 2 months until I picked up the stitching around the hood and did the seam under one arm. I finally finished it last weekend on our way to Locke for the monument unveiling. My favorite part is the zigzagging on the hood. Also my invisible seams came out great. Look for them in the last photo.

Felted clutch for Janelle

So I finally sewed up the sides of the felted clutch for Janelle. Her birthday is on Halloween, so I guess it is about time. I finished it a few months ago, before the wedding at the beginning of August, I think. I was going to felt it today, but I am felting Marissa's sweaters to make purses instead. Hopefully I will felt it tomorrow.

The color is really a bright fuchsia. This is washed out from the flash. The cables look nice though.

The last one was taken on a bed with pale green sheets, so you can see that's it's not the true color.

Baby Blanket

So I am knitting a baby blanket for my hope chest. This yarn was bought during Twisted Stitch's store closing, and I think I have six balls of it. I'm on the third right now, so I think it will only take 4 balls. Hopefully I will have enough left over to make a baby sweater or bolero or something. I'm doing a knit three purl three box pattern that I got from my Takhi Stacey Charles baby book. It gives it some texture while stull letting the colors do all the work.

Aftermath

My left hand is a lovely shade of orange, and it seems darker since this picture was taken. My right hand is sligtly blue. I will be a hit at my knitting class tonight.

The practice blots. The lower red is just three of cherry, it pops more with the additional packet of orange. The lightest blue was from 2 Ice Blue Lemonade and 2 of the other blue. I then added a packet of grape, and I should have only added half a packet. It's the darkest color in the center. I then went to the store for more blues, and the top right corner shows the final two colors. The red/roange looks just like the yarn ended, but the blue is very different than the blot color.

Trash full of empty packets!

And the leftovers. It's annoying that most of the Kool Aids are red colors. I may go for some of the nicer food dyes that they sell at craft stores and leave off the Kool Aid. I don't want to have to deal with the toxic stuff, especially with the kittens.

Kool Aid dye for Vestee

The red is perfect, but the blue is not soaking evenly. I used like 11 packets of dye, so it should be enough to saturate it. I think I need to add the yarn to the dye for a saturated color, and not vice versa as I have been doing.

I love this red/orange color! 3 packets of Cherry to 1 packet of Orange. Fantabulous.

The blue is eh. I mean, I really like the color, finally. It's 1.5 of Grape, 4 of Ice Blue Lemonade, and about 6 of the other blue one. I just which it was more even, whatever the shade ended up being. I'm going to make Vestee from Knitty with this, short sleeved with a hood. I dyed two skeins of KnitPicks Bare Superwash worsted. A little less than a quarter of the skein I wound is the red/orange. I wound it around my table to make it longer, and I think I would like a longer one, with the red orange as an accent. I haven't wound the stuff, it's actually still sunbathing, so we'll see how it ends up.

Retro Calcifer

Here is one of the first pics of Melinda with Calcifer. This was before we adopted her.