Fiber Dreams

I knit on the Melon shawl like a fiend over the weekend, an absolute fiend. I got the first side done, turned the corner, and made it about two-thirds of the way across the top. If I’m diligent, and can stay awake long enough, I may get to that next corner tonight. As soon as I make it around that next corner I can ditch the circular needle until I pick up the live stitches with it at the far end. Treat!

By the way, very glad I bought four balls of Kidsilk Haze for this, in spite of the fact that the pattern called for three balls. The third ball will run dry soon, very soon, way before I’m done with the border. Luckily I’d heard about the yarn estimation shortages before I started. Glad I heeded the warning!

When I stopped knitting last night, I pulled the needles to a safe place and left the project in a bit of a heap on the couch. Didn’t think a thing about it until I went upstairs for breakfast this morning. Ricki was with me. She normally dashes into my path as soon as we get to the top of the stairs, but as she turned the corner and looked into the family room she stopped dead, ears and eyes alert, tail about three times its normal diameter, down in a low crouch. I stopped, too. Didn’t know what she was looking at. It took me a while to figure out what she was looking at. It was the shawl. If you look at it from her perspective, down low, “ears” sticking up. It does sort of look like a black animal, doesn’t it? She approached the shawl with extreme care, one soft foot at a time. Finally she was at the end of the couch. She lifted one paw up to the edge to raise herself. Down again. Then both paws. Got a real good look. Even from behind her, I could tell she was thinking, “What is that?” She reached forward. Gave it a good long sniff. Down again. Cautiously approached the side of the couch, reached up with her sweet face to sniff the shawl again, this time right next to it. She’s still suspicious, but clearly, as it hasn’t moved, and doesn’t smell alive, it must belong here. Her tail went back down to nearly normal size as she turned her back and headed for her food dish. She wasn’t done, though. She had to check it out several more times in the next twenty minutes or so. That’s when I got this picture.

And yes, the whole time she was investigating the shawl I was still. Except to turn my head, I didn’t move, didn’t speak. I didn’t want to break the spell. When she was done I told her how good she was to protect me, how brave. I gave her an extra special scratching on her sides like she likes, and stirred her food for her, gave her fresh water. Good kitty.

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