Further Greek tales.........

Whilst on holiday, Mr Josiekitten and I made friends with some of the local cats. Various cat families live in the area around the harbour, amongst the rocks and dried seaweed, and rely mainly on the tourists (and occasionally the fishermen) for their food. We went prepared with a couple of boxes of biscuits - one specially for kittens - and gave them lunch and supper each day. There was one family in particular that we adopted for the week - mum and three gorgeous kittens.

The black cat on the bottom row always came for a fuss and some food. But it wasn't until almost the end of the week that we realised that she also had kittens. You can just seem them peeping out from the rocks in the next photo. And as for the little chap in the bottom right picture, we heard some plaintive meowing one day, went to investigate, and found this tiny little kitten. He was desperately calling out for his mother, but she was nowhere to be seen. He was very brave and came right up to us, but was too young to eat solids. We didn't see him again during the holiday, and I suspect that he didn't survive. It's really heartbreaking, but we knew that there was nothing we could do for him. I hope his mum turned up.

The flowers were particularly beautiful this year - the island had a lot of rain over the winter, and this seems to have made things very lush.

Back on the knitting front, here are a couple of photos of my Ishbel shawl. It's my first serious lace project, and after a few hiccups at the start, I really enjoyed knitting it.

I don't think I told you about the swap I took part in recently on Phoenix Knitting Forums. I've been wondering what to do with all the ends of sock yarn balls, and decided that I'd like to start a sock yarn blanket, having admired Shelley's. A swap was started to exchange mini-skeins of sock yarn. Each mini-skein weighs about 6g and should be enough to make two mitred squares. These are the skeins that I received from Tatty.....

................and these are the mini-skeins that I sent to Saira ...............

It was fun sorting out a nice mixture of yarns and colours. Now I need to get cracking on the blanket! I think that it is going to be a long-term project. I'll keep you updated!

And finally, my June Sock Challenge socks can now be unveiled! Drum roll please! I've gone for Daydreamer socks by Vikki Harding, and am using some of Vikki's beautiful yarn from Wild Fire Fibres to make them. I have a skein of Fresh Berries merino wool just calling out to be knitted!

Isn't it delicious?! Call back soon to see how they're progressing!