Day Trippin'

Remarkably, little knitting was done this holiday weekend. Instead, Tom, who often has to work on holidays, was off, and we spent the days roaming around our neighborhood, grilling in our backyard, and seeing the dreadful mishmash of a movie that is Superman 3.

Yesterday was especially nice. First up was breakfast at Dish, then a visit with Barbara at our local Coffee Bean. After that we spent a few hours enjoying the blooms and bees at Descanso Gardens, and then came home and kicked back. Very relaxing.

On the knitting front, CPH is in time out. The sleeves are finished and blocked.

The shoulders are sewn.

The hood is a nightmare. I picked up the requisite 86 stitches. I started knitting. I dropped stitches. I miscrossed the first set of cables. I dropped more stitches. I ripped, and I knit, and I ripped some more. Then I threw it, crumpled, into my knitting bag, where it sits, waiting for the hood to be completely frogged back. The easiest knitting in the world, and it's messing with me. Bad CPH. Like Mary, my attention is wandering, my fingers itching for a new project.

On the kitty front, the taming of Fiend continues. He'll come into the house when our other cat Maggie is in the backyard, but he's still very, very skittish. We're pulling out all our kitty tricks - wet food, calm voices, soft petting, cat toys and catnip - and just being patient. None of the neighbors have claimed him, and common household things like the TV freak him out, so we're assuming he's a true stray. His feistiness is fading, and he's purring, and kneading his front paws, and rubbing up against us now. Meredith called it: He's sneaky sweet, and we're like butter on hot toast.

When I wasn't visiting with Fiend or tussling with CPH, I was downloading my first podcasts. Do I win an award for last person in knitting blogland to do so? Annette wrote up a good overview of some of her listens, and I finally downloaded the latest episodes of Cast On, Stash and Burn, and Lime and Violet. Any others you recommend?