Crazy Cat Leftovers

Strictly speaking, I don’t consider yarn left over from a project to be stash. At least, it’s not capital-S Stash. Leftover yarn loses its urgency for me – it doesn’t NEED to be knit, I don’t really feel guilty about having it… it’s just there. But seriously, my leftover sock yarn is quite a lot of yarn and it’s starting to occupy real space. I do have plans to start a sock yarn blanket one day, but in the meantime, I thought I’d dash off a pair of socks. Boy 1 is still consuming socks quickly and he loves these. So they are his! They are plain vanilla, top-down socks with an eye-of-partridge heel and graduated toe. They weigh 76 grams.

Keeping with the “use it up” theme, I have made another cat hat using the “Are you kitten me?” pattern. Like the first one, I used Cascade 220 Superwash from my knit group’s share bag (left over from blanket projects). The only difference is that this kitty is kind of greige instead of light grey. This color is called “doeskin heather” and is really a lovely neutral between tan and grey. The finished hat weighs 51 grams. I’ll set this aside and take it to Knitters’ Day Out 2015 this September. We always knit donation hats as part of our registration fee. This was the perfect project to work on during spring music concerts. The light yarn is easy enough to knit in low light situations, and there is a lot of knitting round and round on a circular needle. I did everything but the ribbing and duplicate stitch in school auditoriums.

In other news, we are less than one week away from the 2015 Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival! The website has been completely redone and is easy to navigate, so take a peek if you haven’t in a while. I’m planning to go on Saturday with my entire family plus special out-of-state guest Steven, who hasn’t been to MDSW since 2005. That’s him above, with Boy 2. I love this photo. Do you see a famous knitter in the background? Yup, that’s Stephanie Pearl McPhee, and I Kinneared her before she coined the term. I was too shy to go up and talk to her, so I told Steven to stand there with the baby so I could take her picture.

Who knows what will happen this year?!