If you're happy and you know it Clapotis!

Love can make you happy. And I am in love with this pattern. Not only is it fun, but I have been using it to fill up waiting room time at the zillions of doctors offices I have been in lately, and I no longer care how long I have to sit alone in a cold room waiting - my clapotis keeps me warm. I actually got disappointed this morning when the doc finally came one row before I got to another set of drops! That's pretty pitiful, I know, but finding a high point of any sort has been rare enough since Katrina. Knitting has really helped so much; it has become my therapy through disaster.

I am originally from New Orleans but I moved about 13 years ago and all my family was still there. Most of them lost their homes after the levees went, (don't think Led Zeppelin hasn't played in my head quite a bit since then) and have been displaced 400 miles in the opposite direction from me, so sitting here all isolated has turned me into quite the bundle of nerves. Good news is all the people are fine. Better news is my folks are coming to stay with us for a while. Best news is now I can knit them all clothes to replace their ruined stuff. But nothing with cables yet...... I haven't had enough beer to try that again.

Anyhoo, I am totally into this pattern, thank you Kate Gilbert, you goddess you. And now that you all know more about me than you wanted to, let me introduce yet another of the "Magnificent Eight". This is Merlin, and he's all about the Silk Garden.



206 really sets off his sleek blackness nicely. Not that he's vain or anything. Oh, no, not Mr. "of the shining fur". He's not fat either. Whatever you say, cat.