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Friday, April 03, 2015

Loom Knit Stitch: Cat Tail - Rabo de Gato

I found this stitch on Pinterest and after doing some research I can not really find anything written in English with any information.  I typed ‘rabo de gato’ into Google translate to come up with the name ‘cat tail’.  This may be wrong.

This is a double knitting stitch for a knitting loom.  Both sides look the same.

Multiples of 2 pegs per board, greater than 6.

rabodegato cat tail


rabodegato cat tail 2

This is the original wrapping diagram picture that I worked from, found on Pinterest.  I wrapped starting on the left side, following the red line.  I do not flip or turn my board, so when I got to the end I followed the blue line from right to left to wrap the remaining pegs.
rabo de gato cat tail

I worked my swatch using:  Caron Simply Soft White on the Tadpole Knitting Board 6 inch made by Authentic Knitting Board.

Wednesday, April 01, 2015

Spring Cleaning: Getting Started

Over the next few weeks I will be posting about spring cleaning tasks.  We all hate it, yet we all know that it must be done.  I like to think that I'm a clean person all year long... but pull out my stove or refrigerator and I'm absolutely horrified at the mess that accumulates under and behind them!

This year to make my spring cleaning a little more fun for me I'm documenting some of it and writing up tips and tricks I've learned over the years.  I hope this will help out some of you that dislike this daunting task as much as I do.

First thing I always do is gather my supplies.  I usually don't have all my cleaning stuff in one location throughout the year.  I keep certain things in certain cabinets or rooms.  When I start my spring cleaning though, I gather everything together in an easy to carry container, so that I can move from room to room without running all over the house to grab this or that.


Speaking of running from room to room, some tasks are better split up for me, while some I do all of throughout the house at one time.  Each week when I dust the ceiling fans, I do all of them first before I get started with the weekly cleaning, rather than doing the fan in each room while cleaning each room.  I take the same approach to certain tasks during spring cleaning.

Baseboards, on the other hand, I do while doing the room they are in.  One year I thought it would be a great idea to do all the baseboards in the whole house in one day.  Ummmm, yeah, I couldn't stand up after a couple hours of that and didn't even manage to get them all done that day.  So, for me baseboards get done for each room on a different day!

I like to make a realistic list of what tasks I want to accomplish and make myself a schedule.  Then I try really hard to stick to that spring cleaning schedule and not get distracted or side tracked with daily or weekly tasks.  As much as I dislike making to-do lists (mainly because I forget where I put it when I need it) I do make a list on my phone of everything I want to get done and mark it off as I do it.  I usually allow about a month to get everything done, but that is mainly because I only work on my tasks in small chunks of time, rather than killing myself trying to get it all done in one weekend.

The last little thing I do before I get started is to find a few audio books and make a few playlists.  I have found that when I'm doing tasks that are mundane and boring (like scrubbing baseboards) listening to an audio book is a lot better for me than music.  However, on the flip side of that, I must have up beat dance type music on when I am shampooing the carpets.

So, gather your supplies, make a schedule, put together your listening pleasures and let's get our houses organized and cleaned together!

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