Nibble
I have a process. I have a very specific process. First I get yarn, then I swatch, then I write up a shockingly structured page of notes, then I type up the pattern. The swatch and the page of notes and the label are all stapled together (with my nifty staple-free stapler…no actual staples needed, it makes a hole to tie the swatch through, so clever it hurts). The result looks something like this.
That is the process. There is no changing the process. There is no questioning the process. It works beautifully. I have everything I could need in one lovely pile. It’s easy to keep track of and easy to refer to. It’s a good system.
Unless, that is, you have a kitten. A kitten with very bad habits when it comes to yarn (later events made it quite clear that the yarn fiend in question is Barry, but the details of those events will be left to the reader’s imagination). If you have such a kitten, you may face a nibbling issue.
In which case the tail you intentionally left nice and long to tie to your page of notes may get chomped right off. Now this is clearly not an insurmountable obstacle, and I can think of several solutions. But it is an excellent reason to glower at Barry and question his decision making skills. And possibly a reminder to put my notes away on a higher shelf.
I confess to asking the kitty to nibble so we could see photos of the swatches. They look GREAT! especially that cream cable business. You had me at hello! Yum. No wonder he chewed them. : )
um, but I’m sorry for you for the disruption of your system.
Ok, but next time you convince him to eat something that doesn’t agree with him, you’re on clean up duty! There are easier ways to show off swatches!
In that case, I’m also sorry for the disruption of his system. Glad he’s feeling better.
Do you knit each pattern to completion yourself?
Nope, almost everything in the books is knit by marvelous sample knitters. If I had to knit them, they’d take an age (I’m not a fast knitter).
Yarn is also really bad for kitties insides; I have to be careful as I have a yarn and fibre kitty. We’ve been lucky so far, she’s passed everything she’s ingested, but I suspect it’s only a matter of time cos she doesn’t learn. Hopefully your kitten grows out of it; mine is 3 so I think she’s a yarn kitty for life.
Oh yes, we know! The yarn is generally out of their reach. Barry normally likes to sniff the swatches, but he’s not shown any interest in eating yarn tails before. The piece he ate was about 5 inches long (and he returned it to us an hour or so later), so just a long tail, not a large amount.
I honestly think it has more to do with the yarn than anything else. The sheepier the yarn, the more interested he is, and this one is fairly lightly processed. He’s a kitten of discriminating tastes. He’s also five, so I rather doubt he’ll grow out of it. But we’ll do our best to keep him safe!
I have such a kitten. His name is Harry Tucker, and he is partial to tassels.