Ocelot #3 finished today.  3 weeks of knitting exactly. I thought it would be done a few days ago but I needed a day off somewhere in there.  By finished I mean the knitting is done!  Not the weaving in of a hundred loose ends, or the crochet that goes around all the edge, or the knitting of the ears, or the fixing up of the eye holes of which I tried out a new idea which should look suitably craggy.  This cat is long, a little longer than the chart, but not worried about that.  Can't wait to see it finished and pressed.  (I didn't need any more of that background color in the end!  Drats!)

I've made an appointment to go back to AMNH on Monday and get cracking on Ocelot #4, which I have chosen already and have the yarn for.  Here's hoping I can knock out the chart for this one quick smart!

Tomorrow I can play!  It is art fair weekend in NYC, so lets look at some ART!

I am one inch away from getting past the long, slow rows of the forelegs.  What does this mean exactly?  142 stitches of 5 colors broken up into 9 strands of yarn. 

Funny, seems like more than 142, feels like around 200. Moving through the head will be faster, only 84 stitches.

Met with Joan Tapper today, the writer for the book "Craftitude" that will have a chapter on me.  She was wonderful.  Pepsi was very well behaved, especially when I used her as an model for demonstrating the different kind of marks I have to be aware of when translating a pelt into a textile.  Joan was amazed that Pep Pep doesn't mess with my knitting when I leave it lying around.  I wasn't so impressed to find that when I returned from walking Joan to the train my monkey cat had been playing on the carpet with my ball of glossy black ocelot yarn.  I think the interview went to her head.

Knitting my way through the Winter Olympics.  Gold, silver, bronze accomplishments are witnessed by my addi turbo needles - nordic, aerials, slalom, super G, moguls, snowboarding, not to mention ice dancing events and speed skating!  Sometimes I re-watch the NBC primetime events in the middle of the night!

Having knitted the body of the ocelot, I'm one inch away from beginning the extreme cast-ons for the front right leg.  Took a better look at what I've done so far in daylight, comparing it to the two other ocelots.  I'm liking it a lot better, it looks golden.  Didn't want to risk running out of my background color so ordered more today along with the yarn for the next ocelot.  Thank goodness I was looking ahead to the next project when I was at the Museum ages ago.

I could be on track to finish this cat in the middle of next week, but the Winter Oympics finish this weekend, what am I going to do?!!!

The day before I got my three inches of knitting done.  That's my yardstick for daily accomplishment.  I'm knitting through the back haunches.  I's long enough and not curling any more for me to see how close in value the background color is to the inside of the rosette color.  Good lighting should solve that problem, but I do wish the rosette color was slightly darker, then it would be perfect. 

It was precisely for this reason that I decided to create a series of ocelots.  The variation of color and pattern in these cats coats was immediately apparent after rifling through the museum drawers.  Combining and experimenting with different shades of colored yarns along with the sizes, shapes and flow of rosettes through a series of skins should work together as a cohesive series of works. 

Right now I definitely don't think this piece will work that well hung by itself, but we'll see.  The smaller dots and spots on the haunches aren't really stand out material.  But in the next few days I will be closing in on the more distinct aspects of this pattern - the extremely long and narrow rosettes that run along the sides of the cat.

Now to hit the shower and get three inches done today!

Well I just listened to Lionbrands podcast of my interview and I think Liz and Zontee did a great job editing together my ramblings into something coherent.  I think it turned out well considering the editing I was doing in my head rethinking everything I said and wishing I had said it better, but I definitely feel good about sending this out for people to listen to.  I'd be very curious to see if people who haven't heard anything about my work understand and get the major points I'm trying to get across.  I think so!

Here's the tiny url link!  My interview section begins at 00:13:05.

http://tiny.cc/UxtQk