Author: Joyce Makes Art

Our cats like Plucktober.  All that sitting around and knitting all day long.  Balls of yarn everywhere. What's a cat to do but laze around and enjoy the fun until it's too tiring and, ummmm, must nap with Mom's knitting.

Although I only managed to snap photos of Dingus in full nap mode, all five of our monster-cats either sat on my lap to "help" me knit, or snuggled down on top of my knitting for a nap as soon as I got up to attend to something else for a few minutes.

The cats gave me really good knitting karma.  By the time I stopped to cook dinner this evening, I was two and one-half repeats in on Ollie's Arlo sweater.  Although I doubt I'll finish it in just one month, I'm hoping to finish the back and sleeves, and make a start on the fronts.  Thanks for the good mojo, cats!

One great fringe benefit of Plucktober is seeing everyone else's projects and finding half a dozen new patterns you've absolutely got to drop everything and start knitting at least every other day.  Today was no exception for me, and I stumbled across Lynne's Lake Effect in Lolipop Guild Oxford, Ania's Lindenroot Hat, Christine's Mailin, and, oh my gosh!, Sarah's Baa-ble Hat.  I've simply got to find a way to clone myself so I can knit more!

I really do know, at least on some level, how completely nerdy it is to sit in my car and knit. But, and especially on a rainy day like today, it’s incredibly alluring.

I’ve got car seat warmers. My speakers are incredible, whether it’s my favorite playlist or the Haruki Murakami books I’m addicted to listening to while knitting. Starbucks. And, I recently discovered my steering wheel is the perfect place to hang my iPad.

Did I mention that there are no kids or husbands in here? There are no cats wanting to run off with the skeins of yarn I’m alternating with.

It’s nice in here.

I think I’ll knit a few more rows before I get out of the car. Or maybe, I’ll just stay here for awhile.

I started off the Plucktober KAL month by casting on for Michele Wang's Arlo sweater.

If you have struggled with tubular cast ons, it is worth buying Michele's pattern for the ease and clarity of her directions.  Tubular cast on gives you a cleaner edge for ribbing on sweaters, cuffs, etc, and is well worth the trouble.  I'll get a better picture when I'm a bit further along, but I'm delighted with the start.

My family tolerates my knitting with a lot of patient, if fond glances my direction.  Sometimes, there is outright admiration, as there was during our trip to Iceland when I provided everyone with warm hats and cowls. But mostly, it's just tolerance.  I'm wondering how this month is going to go for them.  When dinner last night consisted of open faced tomato and goat cheese sandwiches and some chicken soup I had made last weekend, there was a little bit of consternation.  I mumbled something about Plucktober and they all looked confused. They don't yet realize it's going to get a lot worse.  A whole lot worse.  

It has to look crazy to the muggles — the non-knitters.  These KAL months: Malabrigo March, Adventurous April, and now, Plucktober.  A month of intense knitting.  I've got plans to go to bed early and get up in the still dark hours to get in some knitting before work.  And I'll need to keep my yoga up to avoid back and neck problems.  I'm nothing if not serious about this!

Glacier is coming out of hibernation.  This knit along permits you to enter a work in progress if the finished project will take more than 1,000 yards of yarn and you are less than 50% done.  With only the back of my Glacier complete, I'm hoping the KAL will motivate me to knit the front and get started on the sleeves.

I'm going to knit Michelle Wang's splendid, cabled, Arlo cardigan for my youngest.  Sadly, that now means knitting a sweater in a size larger than the one I wear.  In addition to writing beautiful, well thought out patterns, Michelle is incredibly kind and has promptly answered a few questions I've asked her.  Even though they were sort of dumb as questions to go, she managed to make me feel great and give me just the information I needed.  I'm using this fabulous dark green "Old Copper" merino on a superwash base called Trusty because I expect this one to get some heavy kid-wear.

Plucktober starts on October 1, so I've prepared a few meals in advance and put the family on notice that I may go straight for my knitting when I get home from work at the end of this week.  I haven't clued them in that it lasts for a month.  I'm pretty sure they'll survive, and I'm looking forward to it!

A small decor update.

I can’t stop knitting on my Drachenfels. It’s a seduction of cashmere and color play. The apples that need to become applesauce and the dust bunnies that need vacuuming are going to have to wait a little longer.

It was cool this morning.  I kid you not — cool in Alabama.  Even though it was about 5:30 am, I sat out on my porch swing, watched my kittens play, and enjoyed it.  And then I thought

This made me really happy.  I love winter.  I'm happy that I took Heritage Trail along to the U.S. Women's National Soccer Team game in Birmingham on Sunday.

I made a lot of progress.  Next cool morning, I'll be sitting outside drinking my coffee while wearing it.

I am really happy about the massive colorwork stash I've put together by buying a few skeins here and there.  Although I love my Peerie Floors hat, I'm not completely in love with the scratchiness of the wool yarn I knit it with.  This yarn is a merino/cashmere blend and I have mad plans for it.  Plans that are above my skill level and will probably make me curse my needles and my sense of adventure, but I am looking forward to it anyhow.  Stay tuned.

I'm also swatching for Thea Coleman's new Rye sweater.  I love Thea's straightforward, well-written patterns.  And I need a new sweater in a nice warm yarn like Plucky's Cozy because, um, Winter IS coming.  At least, I hope so.