Well, will you look at that!

I pulled out most of the Nasturtium vines nearly a month ago, after the frosts had turned them to mush. A few little green leaves remained snugged right up against the house.

Yesterday as I was coming back from the Post Office, something caught my eye.



Well bless its heart. A Nasturtium in November.

Two Purrs

Bob, seen here in his Cheshire Cat manifestation, has a loud and assertive purr.




He revs up the engines before he hits your lap and you can hear him coming. It gets louder as he attempts to climb up to your shoulder and purr directly into your ear. There are times when it gets, quite frankly, just a little annoying. More than once I've pushed him off with a "That's enough, Bob!"

Merlin, on the other hand, is more reserved.

He is social in his own way, will follow you from one room to another, then settle down a few feet away. If he is relaxed and in the mood, he will accept a scratch under the chin or around the ear, and his purr will start silently. You can feel it before you hear it, and it never gets very loud. I find myself seeking him out, trying to coax one out of him.

There's something to be said for playing hard to get.

Aw

Someone knit their kitty a witch hat.


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As I Suspected

I did a quick "on the needle" wash of the swatch scarf. As anticipated, the pattern stitch did open up, indeed rather more than I had anticipated.



It makes a rather cool lattice look, and I think I'll go ahead and finish the scarf (despite the somewhat ragged looking edges). But for a blanket I would definitely drop the needle size.

Moral of the story: always wash and block your swatch. Which I did. Because this is the swatch.

Since You Asked

Hi kmkat! This what the back of the scarf looks like. Different than the front, but not bad.



I'm working on Size 10 needles (a tighter knitter would probably get the same gauge on 13s). The fabric has a reasonable drape and nice elasticity in both directions. The garter borders are rather loose at this tension, but I think will be presentable when washed and dried. I could see going down a needle size and still getting a fabric that isn't too stiff.

Like magnusmog, I think it would make a cozy blanket.

Sometimes a Swatch is a Scarf

This is pretty much the same pattern stitch that I used on the little crochet looking hat, except I went up several needle sizes and worked only one plain round (instead of two) between pattern rows - and of course, worked it in a single color.

Here's the pattern stitch (multiple of 3 plus 1):

Row 1: k1,* yo, slip 1, k2, pass the slipped stitch over the two knit stitches; rep from *
Rows 2 & 4: purl
Row 3: *slip 1, k2, pass the slipped stitch over the two knit stitches; rep
from *, end k1.

Slip stitches purlwise with yarn in back. Watch that the yarn overs don't get ahead of the slipped stitches. Otherwise easy as pie. I find this one simple enough to be relaxing, but requiring enough attention not to be totally boring.

I added a 3 st garter border at each side. It's still attempting to curl a little, so maybe I should have gone to 4 or 5 sts. We'll see if blocking helps. I'll be curious to see it it stretches out much after washing - I'm using Cascade 220, so it might.

I think this pattern could make a nice baby blanket, or work well in cotton for a market bag (I'm not planning on making either one in the near future, but you never know.)