'Twas on a Wednesday morning that

Having survived the blasted cats into the porch to be able to go outside and feeding Neelix his first breakfast routine at 5.30am, established by the DSM and bitterly resented by me when he is away - I eventually managed to fall back in to a deep sleep.

From which I awoke with a bang, squinted at the clock, and saw to my horror that it was now 9.30! So the poor little blighters had been left outside or lurking in the porch for hours longer than usual and I was a bad and wicked mother.

So I rushed downstairs and got their food ready, let them in - well, two of them, the other was showing her displeasure, but she did come back quite quickly.

Breathed. And looked at the kitchen clock to see that it was barely 8.30am. OK, later than they like, but not the over-sleeping outrageousness that I had at first thought. I could have got up gently after all. Although I did have to be up - the gasman was coming. We have an intermittent fault with our boiler. I knew it was going to be a bugger to get sorted. It is likely to be one of two things, the one being much more expensive to fix than the other. The upside is that it can't be diagnosed conclusively until the central heating is being used - and there I was, feeling damn chilly and wonering if the DSM would find out if I put the heating on while he was away. Now I have legitimate cause, yippee.

Having spent yesterday in frippering away the time, I have done rather better today.



The merino and tencel, now washed and dried. It has come out beautifully, much softer than I had thought it would be. It will make a beautiful lacy cowl.



And sorry to be boring, but this is destined to be a cowl as well, assuming there is enough of it. I have left it as singles, to make the most of the quantity, and I am thinking that I will maybe knit flat and then mattress stitch together. Normally I wouldn't, but to get the simple stitch pattern that I want without biasing, I think I will have to. We shall see.

And - I have finished, all bar the shouting, ie darning in the ends, washing and blocking, the Captiva wrap, which has come out beautifully. Merino and silk, and again, quite nice and soft/cushy. I like this pattern, although when I do it again, as I shall, I will make the odd alteration. Despite the appearances from the schematic, the "tail" section is not very long, and would look a great deal better if instead of decreasing every row, it was every other, thereby elongating it a bit. I reckon that a couple more sections in the first part would be nice for me as well. But this first one is more than satisfactory, and I am very pleased with it.

Now I am working on finishing the spinning of the next lot of merino and silk, the silvery grey. Which may well be the next Captiva. If I can persuade Neelix not to help me.

The cats don't like it when one of us is away. There is hunting going on, more than usual, and Ruby sprang a first today - a dragonfly! Poor thing was mortally wounded rather than deceased, so I had to administer euthanasia. I hate it when that happens, but at least this was better than if it had been a rabbit.

So, back to spinning, during which I can finish off a rather good audiobook, and then to decide what to spin next. While the cat's away - well, you know what I mean.