I don’t often post personal stuff on here. This blog is mainly a record for my knitting projects and despite the odd photos of small people and cats, that’s about as far as it goes.

But I haven’t posted for a while, and as it’ll be a week or so before I’m up to speed with my knitting and back to my normal cheery gyspy self, I just wanted to explain why.

On the 8th October, my Skippycat died suddenly. He was 13 years old and the stupidest, most affectionate, silliest, cowardly, cuddliest and generally bestest ever white odd-eyed cat in the world. He is irreplaceable and I miss him.

Exciting news! I’ve started a sweater for Mr B! Not-so-exciting news! I’d hoped to have a more impressive progress photo to show by now…

The pattern is the top-down raglan from Knitting Pure and Simple that I bought the other week. It’s a very easy pattern to follow and they’re nice people, answering a dopey question I emailed them really quickly and not tagging on “you stupid bint” at the end, which was nice.

Anyhow, I started it just over a week ago and recklessly assumed that I’d have the raglan increases done by now and be whizzing down the body. This is where I should have sat down and worked out just how much knitting I had to do. After the preliminary shaping, the sweater is joined in the round, and I have to knit 60 rows, increasing 8 stitches on alternate rows - that’s a total of 240 extra stitches. So I’ve still got another 10 rows to go and it looks like nothing more than a big blue bob of yarn:

I tried to arrange the blob so that you could see some sort of shaping, but I think you’ll have to rely on a good imagination to see anything jumperish. But! Once I’ve divided for the body and sleeves, you should see the makings of a very nice - if very plain - sweater.

The yarn is Patons Shetland Chunky in Medium Blue, which I bought nearly a year ago for an entirely different pattern. Yay for a high acrylic content! It’s nice enough yarn for a garment which I’m sure he’ll end up wearing in the garden when he’s knocking things down. And honestly, if it gets worn I don’t care where he wears it!