hurting eyeballs

My eyeballs hurt today. I haven't been sleeping all that great. Last night it was partly Misty's fault because that crazy fluffy cat was very active! Unfortunately whenever I heard a sound I wondered if she was up to naughty stuff - just being a cat. She has a tendency to try to get my attention when I am trying to sleep and of course, she gets it! I love her but occasionally we have a night light that. Then as soon as I get mad at her I can see her look up at me in the near-darkness and I know she is using those humongous kitty eyes and fluffy cheeks and I immediately just want to laugh. That's the problem. She's so dang cute.

Both cats have been kind of needy lately, even though I have been home a lot more than when I used to have a job. It is probably because I am often at my computer, looking for a job. That is a full-time job in itself, and unfortunately I haven't been taking a lot of time to just "be" - I end up "doing" so much and until I suddenly realize it's late at night. Periwinkle finds a way to work herself onto my lap between my tummy and my laptop computer, which is quite a dainty feat. She is so careful and doesn't walk on the computer. It's a tight fit but she makes it work, even though she's a full grown cat.

Hey - I have a fun pattern that I adapted to a hot pad for use in the kitchen. I knit half of a square, starting with a single stitch, increasing the last stitch of every row until it's a triangle (half a square). Then, from one side, I knit perpendicular to it, adapting a pattern from the entrelac style of knitting, but I used the garter stitch the whole time so there is no "wrong side" to it. It looks pretty cool now. Here's a little diagram that shows the directions that the stitches are going.

My pattern, using size 7 straight needles and comparable yarn, went as follows
Make slip knot on left needle.

Row 1: Inc1, turn

Row 2: K1, Inc1 turn

Row 3: K2, Inc1 turn

Row 4: K3, Inc1 turn

Continue in this pattern until you have 33 stitches on needle.

Now, to "grow" rows perpendicular to the rows just created, do the following:

Row 1: Inc1, K2tog (for the rest of this, knit the second stitch with next stitch on your left needle). turn

Row 2: K3. turn

Row 3: Inc1, K1, K2tog. turn

Row 4: K4. turn

Row 5: Inc1, K2, K2tog. turn

Row 6: K5. turn

Row 7: Inc1, K3, K2tog. turn

Row 8: K6. turn

Row 9: Inc1, K4, K2tog. turn

Row 10: K7. turn

Row 11: Inc1, K5, K2tog. turn

Row 12: K8. turn

Row 13: Inc1, K6, K2tog. turn

Row 14: K9. turn

Row 15: Inc1, K7, K2tog. turn

Row 16: K10. turn

Row 17: Inc1, K8, K2tog. turn

Row 18: K11. turn.

Row 19: Inc1, K9, K2tog. turn

Row 20: K12, turn.

Row 21: Inc1, K10, K2tog, turn

Row 22: K13, turn

Row 23: Inc1, K11, K2tog, turn

Row 24: K14, turn.

Row 25: Inc1, K12, K2tog, turn

Row 26: K15, turn.

Row 27: Inc1, K13, K2tog, turn

Row 28: K16, turn

Row 29: Inc1, K14, K2tog, turn

Row 30: K17, turn. Now to decrease the diagonal edge of the square. You're in the homestretch.

Row 31: K2tog, K14, K2tog, turn

Row 32: K16, turn

Row 33: K2tog, K13, K2tog, turn

Row 34: K15, turn

Row 35: K2tog, K12, K2tog, turn

Row 36: K14, turn.

Row 37: K2tog, K11, K2tog, turn.

Row 38: K15, turn.

Row 39: K2tog, K10, K2tog, turn.

Row 40: K14, turn.

continue after this pattern decreasing and knitting together until you have completely joined every row of the triangle to a new row. If you have come this far in the pattern, you will see what I mean. It looks kind of cool! You will arrive at one stitch remaining on a corner of the hot pad.

enjoy!