Pequot, July 13, 1992 – June 14, 2006

Today we say farewell to a truly matchless feline. This is Pequot: indomitable, puckish, imperious, tough as nails, with the vocabulary of a sailor, an outsize character, a gentle tongue, and a heart of gold. Pequot raised four Labradors, teaching them manners so they’d hold still while she washed their faces. She fearlessly protected the yard against strange dogs, but hobnobbed with raccoons who came to eat the compost. My brother always suspected she was Godmother of the Woodland Mafia. But she was peerless as an under-the-sheets snuggler.

Pequot came to us as a kitten. The owners of the mama cat had promised us her sister, Haida. But when we saw the saucy misfit of the litter, a stout little cannonball among her lissome siblings, determined to climb the tallest furniture despite her useless left forepaw (see her funny two-toed penguin foot?), we were smitten. We had to take them both home. Sweet sleekit Haida disappeared after a year or so, but gutsy little Pequot endured and grew more and more remarkable. She bossed everybody, especially the older cats, and took delight in leaping out from behind the furniture to surprise them.

Never did a cat exhibit such personality. Pequot could chirp, growl and squeak arpeggios over several octaves just to say hello when you let her in. Then she’d stomp or hop into the kitchen, ever hopeful of finding food in her dish, or maybe canteloupe rinds in the sink. In her younger decade, she was frequently possessed by imps that made her dash about the house and run upside down on the bottom of the sofa and bite anyone who got in her way. But ten minutes later she’d be her affectionate self again. She was patient with everybody. This last of my childhood cats serenely submitted to the role of Baby Jesus in an impromptu and rather irreverent nativity tableau one Christmas. She tolerated many, many silly nicknames – Squeakpot, Piglet, Pipsqueak, Pignut, Saucepot, and plenty more – with dignity. She even let me hoist her down from the loft in a dreadfully precarious elevator my friend Misa and I built from a cardboard box, some twine, and bucket of pebbles until she learned to descend the ladder.

Pequot charmed everyone who ever met her, and she will be sorely missed. If there’s reincarnation, I just hope we’re lucky enough to know her next time around. Until then, peaceful rest and good hunting, little kitty-girl.

I’m one happy girl: Mr. Garter is home at last. Not only has marital bliss descended once again Chez Garter – my sweetie quickly rearranged the computer cables I’d crossed and restored the internet, wrote a new access page so that Bloglines should be working again, and pointed out to me that he had not, in fact, taken the good camera with him to Texas. It was in the closet the whole time. So I needn’t have resorted to the markedly inferior old camera for these pictures. Oh well, the PowerShot S110 still deserves the occasional chance to shake its tail feather.

Without further ado, here’s what I’ve been working on this week:

Miss May is quite the little Victorian wonder. I’d checked Weldon’s Practical Needlework, Volume 4 out of the library and I was struck by the sweet vests for little children. What to do but break out the calculator and adapt one of them for modern materials and a wee baby size? I had two skeins of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino in the stash courtesy of Minnie, and this little garment knit up in a couple of evenings’ work on US #2 needles. The crochet edging was a different story, as I related below. Here’s how the neckline began:

Look at all those nifty little eyelets for the ribbon! I considered leaving the arm openings unadorned, as they appear here, but by the end I was rocking the treble crochet and couldn’t bring myself to stop. Besides, it adds that extra Victorian frilly flair. I’ve just finished reading Edith Wharton’s Age of Innocence, and since this pattern dates from the same era, I decided to call this top after May Welland, and sort of after Sassy Baby MJ, for whom she’s intended. Now she’s blocking, and unless she takes an awfully long time to dry, she’ll fly off to her tiny recipient on Monday. But I couldn’t let her go unchaperoned – she needed a little sweater for company, and I had some pretty raspberry Rowan All Seasons Cotton in the stash, too. At first I thought I’d make a Mason-Dixon Knitting baby kimono. I was rounding the bend for home when I noticed this:

Oops. It’s a little hard to tell from this angle, but see how the front edge of the sleeve is waaaaaay longer than the back edge? Um, yeah. It’s possible that I got a little too swept away by the pretty young things in The Forsyte Saga (I was really on a period drama kick while Mr. Garter was away… and by the way, why isn’t Lee Williams in more movies? So tasty! And Emma Griffiths Malin? So much more dazzling and talented than Keira Knightley. I would have let her play Lizzy Bennet. But I digress.) Anyway, I wasn’t happy with the way the neckline was turning out and I couldn’t tear myself away from the thwarted love unfolding on-screen long enough to figure out where I’d gone wrong with the sleeves and fronts, so I frogged. Actually, I didn’t even really frog – I just cast right on for the Last-Minute Knitted Gifts ribbed cardigan and unraveled the kimono as I knit. [Correction: this cardi is not from LMKG – it was merely with my stock of the patterns I photocopy for portability, and the layout was similar enough that I assumed it was from LMKG. It’s from a Debbie Bliss baby pattern book, and I can’t tell you which one because I gifted it to a friend. If anyone can identify the book, let me know – the pattern’s called “ribbed jacket” and the model on the adorable baby in the photo is fastened with a velvety rose pin. I could ask my friend, but she’s pretty busy with finals at the moment. Sorry to have puzzled those of you thumbing your copies of LMKG and scratching your heads!]

That’s better. So here you go, bitty MJ! I hope you haven’t grown too much in the past month to fit into these…

It’s December already? I’m in denial. And yet I’m forced to assess the gift knitting situation. I have 23 days to complete the following:

1. The Dadly Gansey. I finished the back last night. It needs ten more inches on the front. It needs sleeves. Thank goodness there will at least be very little finishing, thanks to the Old Way construction. More on the gansey this weekend, when it will be getting some lavish attention.

2. Cozy. Two-fifths complete.

3. Carillon mittens. Must knit one mitten plus one thumb. I was also supposed to knit up some Lovikka mittens – we’ll see if that happens or not.

4. Man socks. I inherited these from Lisa, who has thoughtfully completed all but the foot of the first one.

5. Mom socks. Finished!

Unfortunately, I’m also on deadline for a couple of patterns, which means I need to finish the butterfly socks and design a tank top with a lace edge in the next ten days or so. I need Hermione’s time-turner so I can show up at work and also spend the whole day knitting! Send a glass of pinot noir or Tuscan sangiovese – it makes me knit faster.

Jess fired the latest knit-meme across my bow, so here goes:

What is your all time favorite yarn to knit with?

Oh, this is a difficult one. I am shameless in my many loves. So I’m going to cheat and say that my favorite yarn is merino, and that’s going to cover my Koigu fetish, my dalliances with Morehouse 2-ply and Malabrigo, and my enduring love for all things Lorna’s.

Your favorite needles?

Love them Addis.

The worst thing you’ve ever knit?

Well, there are these mittens I tried to make for my brother to match a hat he bought at a street fair. The thing is, my brother has absolutely enormous hands, and I may have overcompensated just a little…anyway, they were never finished and are still swimming in the frog pond.

Your most favorite knit pattern? (maybe you don’t like wearing it…but it was the most fun to knit)

I’m going to list the first thing I made without a pattern (not counting several seed stitch scarves): a pair of mittens I made last winter from some partial skeins of Green Mountain Spinnery Mountain Mohair I bought at their store in Putney, VT. I used the instructions in Katharina Buss’s Big Book of Knitting as a guide, added a tuck pattern on the cuff, and produced these:

Most valuable knitting technique?

Confidence.

Best knit book or magazine?

Montse Stanley’s Knitter’s Handbook – Readers Digest affiliation notwithstanding, this book beats ’em all for cataloging a vast array of techniques in a clear and concise manner.

Your favorite knit-a-long?

Socktoberfest, baby!

Your favorite knitblogs?

The Order of the Blue Garter is a start…there are plenty more! I especially love those with great photography. They make me want a better camera and the skillz to use it.

Your favorite knitwear designer?

I’ll go with Kim Hargreaves, Veronik Avery, Norah Gaughan, and Teva Durham.

The knit item you wear the most? (how about a picture of it!)

Apricot Jacket!

Tag time…

I’m tagging Lisa and Veronique.