Skip to main content

Cat-tastrophy

One would think I might remember there are two young cats in my house; both rather curious about the new things I brought back from Minneapolis.  I made the mistake last evening of leaving one of my most favorite plastic circular set of needles out with a project on those needles.  One of the cats, and I don't know which, decided that a needle tip would make for a good chew toy and chew s/he did, leaving the surface of the needle rough and the point misshaped.

This photo is really blown up, making it easy to see which tip was damaged.

I worked on the tip with a nail file and then put it is boiling hot water several times to rework the tip. For the most part it has come back to a point that it is usable.  In fact as I continue to knit the tip improves with every stitch.

There are some good news things to note from this cat-tastrophy:
  • Lucky me, s/he chose only one of the tips and not both.
  • Which ever of the two did this had the common courtesy to not drop any stitches.  I am working on a project that starts by casting on 1,221 stitches.  Yes, no typo there: one thousand, two hundred and twenty-one stitches.  I had just counted them before going to bed to be sure the number was correct.  (You will get the lowdown on this project later.  It has only just begun.)
  • No yarn was impacted.  The project is using lace weight yarn and it could have easily been damaged.
  • I was able to fix the problem with relatively little effort.
  • I was taught a good lesson about haphazardly leaving knitting projects out over night.  From now on the needles and yarn will be put in a plastic bag and tip protectors will be used.
So I guess I am thanking M&M for teaching me a lesson, one that will not soon be forgotten.  Tuck all your yarny things away before going to bed.  The cats say they will not be held responsible for the results if I do otherwise.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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
2 comments
Read more

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
1 comment
Read more

Knitting-Related Guinness World Records

I had to share some of the Guinness World Records connected with knitting.  It is amazing to me the type of skill, stamina and unique characteristics these record holders have in common. How about trying to knit with these SPNs?? Ingrid Wagner and her large needles and knitted swatch The largest knitting needles measured 3.5 m (11 ft 5.8 in) long and had a diameter of 8 cm (3.15 in). Ingrid Wagner, a rug and art creation artist, from the UK used the needles to knit a tension square of ten stitches by ten rows at the Metro Radio Arena, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, on March, 10 2008.  (And I complained about getting certain SPNs stuck in my clothes.)  See how this swatch was done with merely 5 people managing the needles.  And what about the yarn?  It is truly ex-bulky.  It looks like they're knitting in a warehouse, but with a wingspan of almost 24 feet or 7 m, you'd need all that space.  Or how about the longest piece of finger knitting that measured 4,321.4 m
Post a Comment
Read more