Meet Franklin!
A few Saturdays ago, destiny happened. Paul and I came across a local adoption event and met the orange kitty of our dreams. We’d been open to getting a second cat for a couple of years, ever since Augie showed up on our back porch as a baby and taught us that a cat really could be happy in a house full of dogs. When our eyes met Franklin’s, we knew he was the one.
It was meant to be. He rode the hour and a half home from the adoption event on Paul’s lap.
And it turns out that he’s devoted to knitting.
Go figure!
I’m sure he’ll be making frequent appearances here, so I wanted to give him a proper introduction.
In knitting news, I’ve finished Paul’s Tea with Jam and Bread sweater. I’ll post about that soon. The plan is to take pictures one day this week.
And I’ve cast on the Inlet cardigan by Amy Herzog.
Do you know about Amy Herzog? I’ve been interested in her and her sweater designs for years. She’s all about sweaters that fit, and one of her mantras is that your pattern should match your gauge and yarn, not the other way around.
When you purchase one of her custom fit patterns, you provide your measurements and the gauge at which you want to knit, and her pattern generator comes up with the specific pattern instructions for your personal sweater.
I’ve always figured there must be something to her method because, unlike with a lot of sweater projects you look at on Ravelry where you see the sweater folded or laid flat or draped over a chair, when you look at the projects for her designs, people are actually wearing them! And they look great!
I cast on last night with some Peace Fleece worsted in the Mourning Dove colorway from my stash. Two words: twisted rib.
I might not ever knit plain one-by-one rib again!
Love Franklin! Can’t wait to meet him!
It’s hard to believe you haven’t! We must remedy that SOON!!
Franklin is such a cutie!! And love your new sweater — I have some Peace Fleee sitting in a cardigan that I never wear that I want to repurpose … hmmm….
Oooooh, that sounds interesting! I LOVE Peace Fleece yarn. I’ve made two other sweaters out of it, and it wears better than any other yarn I’ve ever used, I think. This design is very plain, so the Peace Fleece will be the star. Can’t wait to see if you end up doing something new with yours!
Hello to Franklin! He’s very handsome and looks like he has a kitten face…so adorable! I love the color of the yarn for your new sweater. It’s very spring like!
Awww, thank you, Paula. We think he’s just about perfect. 🙂
I couldn’t really get the color of the yarn right in the photos. I love it, though. It’s somewhere between the two pics in this post, not quite as pink as the bottom one and not quite as brown as the upper one. I’m wondering if it will show up more accurately when I have a larger section knitted up.
MacKenzie: What a good looking cat! He’s the same color as Yellow Boy; hopefully he’s much braver. Tell him to come on over if he would like to go on a bug hunt with us or maybe chase some garter snakes (our personal favorite… why does the Mother of Cats always freak out when we find one?). Franklin, don’t forget that the best part of knitting is the YARN CHOMPING!!!
MK: A personalized sweater. Wow. What a neat idea. I can’t wait to see the finished sweater.
Oh, my goodness, MacKenzie! He’s TOO brave! He’s fearless. We have a kitty gate at the top of the stairs for when the kitties need to stay upstairs away from crazy dog activities. Augie won’t go past it, but Franklin has decided it’s neat to leap over the top and hope to land on his feet on whatever stair he happens to hit below. He’s also discovered the top of the kitchen cabinets! Please send good vibes that he doesn’t use up too many of his nine lives right away!
I am excited about the sweater, Marilyn! If it fits even close to as well as other people’s appear to, I’ll be very happy. 🙂
So pleased to meet Franklin and to hear that destiny brought him to you. 🙂 He looks right at home! Congrats on the sweater, I look forward to reading more about it! And thank you for sharing the information on Amy Herzog – how neat that the patterns are made to suit your yarn. That’s a very, very knitter-friendly feature. And yes, twisted rib! (such a beautiful thick fabric!). Happy Tuesday, Melinda. 🙂
Hi, Shirley! Thank you so much for commenting. I’ll definitely keep you posted on how the sweater goes. In addition to her website and the custom pattern generator, Amy Herzog also has several books that are geared toward helping you knit things that fit. I’m thinking that if the sweater turns out like I’m hoping, I’ll want to check those out as well. I’ll be sure to report back! 🙂
Welcome, Franklin! It’s kind of how I felt about Jellybean, I just knew she was meant for us 🙂
❤️
That’s so awesome you adopted a cat! Especially an adult kitty – it’s always harder for the adults to find homes. <3
He’s such a wonderful boy. Apparently, he was adopted once, and then the person took him to a random animal shelter and dropped him off! The animal shelter that originally had him had microchipped him, so the new place identified him from the chip and contacted them so they were able to get him back. You actually sign a contract stating that if for any reason things don’t work out, you’ll bring the animal back to them, so I can’t imagine why the woman just dumped him at a random place. It sounds like he’s had some crazy adventures in life so far, but he’s home now. We tell him that all the time so he knows. 🙂
My daughter and I volunteer at a pet rescue center. You’d be surprised (or maybe not?) at some of the crazy things people do with their animals. After Christmas, we had what everyone calls the Christmas babies – basically people would gift puppies and kittens without checking to see if the recipient could actually HAVE a pet, and of course, it often didn’t work out, and so they ended up in our center. It’s kind of nuts, since in LA at least, plenty of landlords don’t allow pets, or they do, with a huge extra security deposit (in the thousands of $$).
How wonderful that you volunteer for a pet rescue! It’s especially great that you and your daughter do it together. 🙂
Paul and I were very involved with animal rescue in Chicago, so like you, I have unfortunately seen some unbelievable things. I just keep telling myself that anything we can do as individuals helps. It certainly won’t fix everything for every animal, but it helps. Please give the animals some extra pets from me the next time you volunteer.
Will do! 🙂 And yes, I agree, we can only answer for our own behavior. It is impossible to save every animal, and unfortunately, sometimes if they come in with parvo, there is nothing that can be done. The people who keep their animals in those kinds of conditions better watch out for karma! 🙁
I love the colourway you’ve chosen for that sweater. It’s really pretty.
And what a handsome cat Franklin is! can’t wait to see more of him in your posts.
Thank you! We love Franklin more every day. I can’t imagine how we got lucky enough to find him. I’ll tell him he got a compliment. 😉
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