Under the Paw!

It's all got a bit cat-flavoured here at The Hookery of late.  More so than usual, anyway. I sat down the other day to make a few bits of stock for the shop and rather than making more existing lines, I ended up with some new ones instead.

This little guy is one of many (a litter?) of cat keyrings that flew off my hook over the weekend. He and his buddies are sitting patiently in the shop, waiting for a new home.

In other cat/crochet news, the Skelly Fish were featured on coolforcatsuk, which has prompted a number of them to swim off to new homes too.  Hector has looked on with some disappointment as I parcel them up. I think he thought they were all for him. He's extra-protective of his own fish now!

Mine!

Meanwhile, in a corner of the living room, Felix has been quietly napping, oblivious to Hector's worrying and my frantic parcelling...

Ahhh... Everybody loves a granny blanket.

Especially me.

Hard to evict a sleeping cat though, isn't it?

I'll wait until she wakes up. Won't be long, right...?

Settling in

People have been asking how the cats are getting on in the new house.  They're fine. In fact, they settled in faster than we did.  Cat #1 can usually be found warming her old bones on the rocking chair in the conservatory.

Meanwhile, Cat #2 likes to keep an eye on things in the garden.

Occasionally they busy themselves chinning boxes and furniture (and us) to make sure they know what's what.  Oh, and they're moulting.  This sudden blast of summer has meant that they're shedding handfuls.  It's like they're trying to make up for not shedding much during last year's washout summer.  Honestly, I could stuff a mattress...

Chequerboard love

Sometimes, it's the simplest designs that make me smile.  A while ago I ordered some lovely bamboo yarn from Rico which comes in only a few colours, but all of them quite strong.  None of the yarn has made it into the shop yet, because I can't stop playing with it. I'm currently a bit in love with simple chequerboard-style blankets.

Bright, strong, punchy colours that make me think of summer. Perfect for picnics, caravans and snuggling round campfires of an evening.

I'm making them in two sizes: small, like the cot-sized one above, and large, like the one below which is so nearly finished:

As well as the bold blue and summery coral, there's a rich grass-green in my yarn pile which will be heading for Blanketland too.

Problem is, every time I try do a bit more work on one of them, someone steals my seat...

Streeeeeeeeeeetch!

There's been a spot of in-the-garden crochet, but it's a bit too easy to snooze in the sun and that, although enjoyable, isn't really productive.  Much better to tempt cat #1 out to sunbathe...

Does anyone else's cat refuse to sit outside if the door is closed behind them?  Thankfully I live on a quiet lane in a quiet place, so leaving the door open is pretty safe but as much as she likes the front door step, as soon as I close the door she starts wailing until I open it.

Have you been out enjoying the sun?  Got any summer projects planned?  Or maybe you've got a contrary cat too?

Small things

Bit late, but happy New Year! I know it's a few days old now, but 2013 still feels all shiny and new.  The year is a clean slate and as is traditional, I've been pondering a few resolutions. They always seem to follow a theme: spend less, eat less, save more, run more, weigh less. I'm a bit bored of them to be honest. I'm in the mood for something different.

I recently read A Street Cat Named Bob by James Bowen. If you haven't heard of it, it's about a London busker who finds - or is found - by a stray tom cat and how they turn their lives around. It's an interesting story and a theme which seems to run through the book is how James makes a series of small changes to his life which gradually set him more firmly on the path he wants to tread.

Hm, cat is ginger. Ooman is ginger. Ooman...?

And that's where I'm going to start. I'm going to pick a couple of little things to change each month.  For January, it's to knit a bit more and to eat fewer biscuits. Small things, but with (I hope) bigger consequences further down the line.

How about you? What are your plans for 2013?

A new toy for Felix

The other night, as I was working on something else, Cat #1 filched a half-finished piece from the work basket and had a jolly old time with it.  Cat #1 isn't really one for toys. She like fingers, and toes, but not really toys. She has one little stuffed tiger which she's had since she was a kitten and that's it. She's just not interested in anything else.

So having clearly taken a shine to the piece that she'd whipped out of the basket, I thought I'd be nice and make it into a toy for Felix. It's not like it was fit for anything else, having been slobbered over, chased around the rug and clawed at...

Ta-daaa!

I even added a couple of tassles and good spoonful of catnip.

As you can see, Cat #1 is um... not remotely interested any more.

But to prove she was quite taken by it originally, here's a clip of her in action. Apologies for the low light, it was shot in the evening, on my phone...

Dithering

I thought I'd share a bit more of the blanket I'm making with the mutant cotton.  I'm now on to my tenth ball of yarn and it has really grown.

I said in an earlier post that this was't a yarn for dithering with.  I should have known that saying something like that would bring on a crisis of crochet confidence. 

I love the gentle scallop-y holey look.  I really do.  But will it look ok as a whole blanket?  I just don't know.  Late last night I decided that what it needed was a bit of plain to break up the scallop-y bits and a ridge between each different bit of pattern.  I've made a start, can you see?

But then this morning I couldn't decide if this was the right thing to do.  I was going to work a few rows of htr after the ridge, then another ridge, then back to the scallops.  What do you think, dear reader?  Break it up or not?  To add to the pressure, this is my tenth ball of yarn and therefore the last in the pack.  I need to order more (I know, I've decided to wing it as far as dyelots are concerned), but that won't be until I put in another yarn order for the shop.

And typically, while I had it on the bed to photograph it, I had another dither and then this happened:

Honestly, nothing is safe when cat #1 fancies a nap.

Settling in

I said in my last post that the cats had coped very well with the move.  They are however, like me, still settling in.  While I'm still finding the best arrangement of things in my teeny-weeny kitchen and wondering whether I might invest in a small table and chairs for the yard, they are finding the best hidey holes, the best places to sprawl (currently at the top of the stairs), the best viewing points (also on the stairs) and the best sunbathing spots.  Happily, once the sun moves round to the back of the cottage, there are a few nice sun spots to sunbathe in.  They found and tried most of them this weekend.

There's a nice toasty  spot on the stairs.

I left both cat beds stacked by the back door (which is all glass).  Felix was quick to monopolise. Then we moved outside.

sprawl

Felix likes her creature comforts
 

slurp!

Hector is more rustic in his sunbathing preferences.  I think he likes being almost camoflaged against the concrete.

And I got on with a bit of crochet.  I started it one evening.  I didn't intend to make a granny square, it just sort of happened when I saw the colours next to each other in one of the yarn baskets.  I played around for a bit trying to get the ideal circle in a square, then remembered that Sucrette has a pattern on her blog.  Perfect!

Before I knew it, I had 18 squares and a use for one of the two cushion pads I keep moving from place to place. 

I spent a happy hour or so outside joining them all.  I just need to put a border round the each set of nine squares, crochet them together and add buttons.  I'll (hopefully) be back soon with pics of the finished article.

The Cottage

Well, after a hectic couple of weeks moving both home and office to new locations, I hereby declare things to be settled!  I have finally moved out of London and the joyous reality of this still hits me every moring when I wake up to the sounds of birdsong, my neighbour's chickens and a view of a hedge.  No cars, sirens, other human beings (although there a few round about), buses, schoolchildren or the general hustle and bustle and hurley-burley of a London morning.  'Tis bliss.

I now live in a cute little two up, two down cottage in a village with a few houses, a pub and a set of stocks (no, really). Outside the front door is an enormous hedge which is full of birds (I saw a bullfinch for the first time in years the other day) which forms the border to the farmland which surrounds  most of the village. 

The view from the front door

Inside, it's a very snug little cottage: knobbly walls, low ceilings, exposed beams and slightly wonky floors.  I have just about found a home for everything now, although tall things have had to be rehomed to The Beloved's. I have however, treated myself to a nice rocking chair with a toasty sheepskin cover from Ikea.  I found it in their bargain corner, so was very pleased :)

The living room, from the rocking chair

The cats have coped magnificently with the move.  As the cottage is so small, it only needs one Feliway diffuser to make the whole place seem friendly and unthreatening to cats.  The worst bit was the drive up.  One cat is wholly unbothered by car journeys, the other hates them.  He also hates roundabouts and I am, alas, rather close to Milton Keynes...  However, once we'd arrived, they very quickly settled in and Hector very quickly decided he would like to get to know Outside.  I very quickly caved in to his pitiful wailing but it was fine, he didn't get lost, he just wanted to sunbathe atop the shed.

A happy (slightly blurry), sun-warmed cat.

So there you go, The Hookery has relocated.  I'm sure there's plenty more to tell you all, but all in good time.

Bomb!

Felix's new hobby appears to be cat bombing. 

*sigh*

Introductions

*Walks into room. Looks round appreciatively*


Bit bare, isn't it? Hmm... we'll have to do something about that. A splash of colour here, a few pictures there. Still, there's plenty of space to grow into. My mother would approve. According to motherly wisdom, you should never get something that fits right-now-at-this-moment-in-time, oh no! Get something a little bigger than necessary and then it will fit for months (possibly years) to come. But that's for another post.

Well, I suppose I should say hello and introduce myself. I'm Claire. I'm *cough* years old and I crochet, among other things. I have a little shop on Folksy where I sell my crochet called 'Eidelweiss'. It's called Eidelweiss because a) I like flowers and b) I like flowers with a tradition or meaning behind them. Anyway, enough shameless plugging (there'll be more of that later). I also have a pair of cats, Felix and Hector. Contrary to what you might think, Felix is a girl. She is also quite contrary.

Hector is her son. He didn't get the contrary gene.



I know. We think 'daddy' was a little more exotic than black & white... He's a little bigger than this now (three years bigger, in fact).

Anyway, enough from me for now. I'll be back later with more to tell.