Schwartzkatzen Sweater

It's finally finished!  My Black Cat Sweater for Lily.  I saw Annette Danielson's pattern on Ravelry and fell in love with the cute little kitties.  But the pattern was only available as a kit and isn't available at all anymore apparently.  I graphed out the kitties and put it away in my idea book for inspiration at a later date.  This last November I pulled it out again and decided to make a raglan cardigan for my niece.  She has a black cat named Riku and is absolutely crazy about anything handmade. I had hoped to have it done by Christmas.  Oh, well.  Better late than never.

It took me more than a week to graph out the raglan in such a way that the cats fit.  Many times the graph of the kitties had to be adjusted.  I have never been so frustrated with a design but finally it worked.  I started on it right away and worked diligently until the week before Christmas.  Then it became pretty clear that I was not going to finish in time.  I put it aside to work on some other items I had intended to give as gifts.  I picked it up again around the second week of January and have worked like mad to finish it today!  The clasp is the perfect finishing touch.  Tell me what you think!

DORK Virus spreading.

I need to get something off my chest.  My husband is a dork.  Not just a "Oh he wears glasses and his hair is always messy" dork but a full-blown, unapologetic, "May the force be with you," "Are we really watching 'In Search of Bigfoot' again" DORK.

Yes, that is a Goonies shirt

Sometimes this is endearing.  At other times, I get a little concerned that his dorkness is contagious and may be infecting me along with the other animals in our house.  For example, Abby, our black lab, is now a full-blown, "Daddy, everything you do is wonderful," "please pet my butt while I put my head on your shoe" dork.

"You're going to need the Force to get out of this one."

I am starting to see evidence that this dork virus is spreading into me as well.  For Christmas last year, I scoured the internet for the best deal on a Lego R2-D2.




This year I found a pattern for a Princess Leia baby hat and it instantly jumped to the top of my to-do list.  Here is my cat, Gypsy, modeling it.  Also poor kitty, you didn't really think you would escape the dork virus running rampant in this house did you?