Mini-Layer Cakes, Anyone?

It's Super Bowl Sunday and Mike, the cat, is avoiding me and for good reason (at least in his mind).

Mike avoiding me and my camera

But let's start this story at the beginning rather than the end. I am of a certain age and race that means even in a self-humidified climate like Vancouver's I need to slather on body butter to avoid looking like a prune. Lotion is no longer heavy duty enough, I have to have the butter. And body butter comes in these rather cute little covered tubs. The empty tubs have been used around our house to round up all kinds of small things. See how cute they are.

A sample of my tub collection

Perhaps you remember I used one as a platform last summer to help hold up HM the Queen. (You have to scroll all the way down that post to see the platform.) It seems I decided they would become more useful somewhere in the future so I started a small collection and as they accumulated I realized different brands come in slightly different sizes. And if you stack a smaller-sized container on top of a larger one you can make something that looks like a layer cake. (You do have to use your imagination, but it is there! No really, it is there.)

A layer cake in the making

I have knit cakes before so I know I can make my own pattern to fit these containers. And when the knitting is done I can decorate them. Yes, there can be embroidery on the sides and top and if I get really lucky, I might even be able to write something like "Happy Birthday" in yarn . --Breathe -- But I am getting several steps ahead of myself. Here's the cake form and the top layer's covering.

The top tier with a picot castoff edging

Now to finish where I began. Mike, the cat, has a habit of sitting on my lap as I knit. At times this can be very soothing for both of us and at others it may be soothing for only one of us. He can annoyingly paw at the yarn as I knit, making me irritable. But today I was the culprit. As I looked at the knit cake I just finished, it occurred to me it could make a pillbox hat for Mike. So I grabbed the camera, pulled the cake over his head (totally covering his ears), tried to get him to look at me and snapped as many photos as I could before he bolted. What you see here is a cat putting up with this indignity, but one clearly not enjoying the process. Shortly after this shot he moved away (see above) and as I write now he's left the room completely. So to answer my question, mini-layer cakes anyone? I have an answer from Mike, and it is a resounding, "No thank you if I have to wear it."

Isn't he cute?

So even though there will be a long period of inactivity today on my part as I watch the big game or at least parts of the game; Mike, the cat, appears to be happy to avoid me because of the hat incident this morning. Don't feel sorry for me or him though, I know my cat, he'll forgive me in less than 24 hours and all will got back to normal. Mike doesn't hold grudges, he's just wired that way.

Ode to the Cat

It has been six months since Mike, the cat's, passing. I think of him every day and miss him especially when Paul is away. Mike was a being in the house with me and we were close. Grieving his death has been muddled with my Dad's passing and sometimes I feel guilty about that happening. As time passes the ache becomes less hurtful for both and I am starting to get mostly good memories in its place. Recently I helped celebrate Pablo Neruda's birthday with Jami, my poet and overall very creative friend. Guests were asked to select one poem written by Neruda to read to the small group who gathered for the celebration. I picked this one: Ode To The Cat -- Pablo Neruda There was something wrong with the animals: their tails were too long, and they had unfortunate heads. Then they started coming together, little by little fitting together to make a landscape, developing birthmarks, grace, flight. But the cat, only the cat turned out finished, and

Anatomy of a Sock

I've been knitting socks for a relatively short time. One of the disconcerting things for me as I started following patterns for socks is the pattern designer assumes the knitter (in this case that would be me) knows all the parts of a sock. So I thought I'd devote a post to improve my own knowledge about the anatomy of a sock and maybe some of you will learn something about the humble yet necessary sock as well. Here's the names of the parts of the foot as I know them. #49 ankle, #50 heel, #51, instep, #52 ball, #53 big toe, #54 toe, #55 little toe, #56 toenail. There are some parts more important for this discussion; first the heel of a foot is generally used to refer to the entire C-shape from the ankle to the instep. Speaking of the instep, it refers to that curve near the bottom of the foot. And what seems to be missing in the design above is the sole which generally refers to the bottom of the foot in total or plantar aspect in more technical terms. (BTW

Yarn Barf

It's back to quirkiness and time to step away again from the cuteness for a while. But as you see I'm someone who slips from one to the other without much effort so anticipate this back and forth to be my new normal. A dramatization of me in the midst of my startitist frenzy Yarn barf . I'm willing to bet you hadn't thought of putting those two words together, had you? It just so happens yarn barf can be a reoccurring pain for those of us who use yarns that come in a skein instead of a hank. (No pun intended regarding the current Noro virus, well maybe a little pun.) Skeins of yarn wound by the manufacturer These are hanks which need to be wound into balls If you look closely at the picture on the right you'll see the start on the millet yellow skein at the centre right of the photo. Its start can easily be seen coming from the centre of the skein onto the violet skein to the left. Easy to find, right! Sure but what about the remaining 4

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