Cat update

Well, the baby cat (she's 8, but still she's the youngest cat) is much better now. Actually fully recovered. She's been placed on the "Catkins" diet. That means wet food that is all meat with no gravy or veggies. The first couple of days were really rough for her because she is the one who would ONLY eat dry food. No interest in tuna, any other type of fish, or any meat. The picture at the top isn't her at her top weight of 28-1/2 lbs,, but still. She's down to about 21 lbs and still is a total lap full.

The other cat will do about anything for a piece of roast beef, and heaven help you if you got Cheetos. She'll just about jump down in the bag to defend her share. She, of course, tops out at a scrawny 7 pounds.

I've mostly been working on the Queen Anne's Lace circular shawl. This morning I wanted to see what it looked like other than a ginormous hat bunched up on the needles. I threaded waste yarn and spread it out. It still has a way to go, but Oh My Goodness. It's freakin' awesome. This is one of the few times ever that I've looked at my own knitting and been impressed.

It's actually an easy pattern and not an extremely intricate design, but is just perfect for it's intended use. The link takes you to Men Who Knit which will take you to the pattern.

The camera went to work with the husband, so no pics today, but soon.

A Kitty Post

Chubbalicious (Friday the cat at the top of the page) has really slimmed down. She's practically a wraith at a mere 23 pounts.

Ummm... the picture at the top IS a current picture and not at her top weight. Poor kitty has been sick and had to make a trip to the emergency vet the other night. We'll know by tonight how she's going to be. Keep your fingers crossed 'cause we just adore this chubby cat.

Knitting - AAAaarggghhh. I started a Queen Anne's Lace shawl to go with all the other WIPs. Maybe soon there will be some actual finished things to put on here.

How can I be so busy?

I don't get it. I really don't.


I thought when you quit working, you'd sort of lounge around, eat bonbons and do lunch. OK, OK when you pick yourself up off the floor from laughing at me, just let me know.

• First thing every morning as soon as I get up, there's the obligatory pot of coffee and some knitting.


• Then comes down the scrawny cat who must chew my toes - morning pedicure whether I like it or not.


• I have to get a dish of HOT water (the hottest the tap will produce) for scrawny cat or get my leg shredded while listening to pitiful yowling. It seems to be her morning fix like the coffee is mine.


• Then comes the black dog who needs loves and pets.


• Then comes the husband (He's a loan officer for a mortgage company.) who deserves and gets some coffee, conversation and all around attention. His picture is on the right, yeah, the cute guy over there.


• Then comes the beagle who must be greeted - yes, greeted. He sits and looks at you and whimpers until you say "Good Morning" in this weird cheerful tone of voice.


• Then there's ironing whatever the husband wants to wear today. I know, it would be easier to do it all at once, but this works for me so there.


• Maybe find something to send to work with him for his lunch, or at least a couple of pop tarts.


• OK by now it's getting to be daylight, so I wrap a blanket around my big ole butt and stand on the back porch (in full view, mind you) make these strange chirpy noise until the chickens come running and throw cat chow all over the yard for them. (Yeah, they're cannibals - who knew?)

This all happens pretty much before "normal" people get out of bed. Not a lot of stuff, nothing hard, but it's time consuming.

This week, I've also set up and filled a database with some possible client information for someone, prepared three mailings for someone, done a good size order of stitch markers for a customer and got sucked down into the great black hole of Ravelry which I'm loving. There are so many ideas, patterns and lots of people to ask if there's a project you may want some help with. If you aren't on there yet, I'd sign up.

Anywho, gotta go do some housewifey stuff and Christmas stuff and walk the dogs and water the chickens and plan dinner and make a grocery list and work on that database stuff and...

Startitis in full bloom

Every year I knit for Christmas. Every year I KNOW there will be Christmas knitting. Right now I'm in the throes of startitis and UFOs.

So far there are:
1 triangular shawl
1 rectangular shawl
2 (count em-2) afghans
1 pair of socks
1 toy turtle (Sheldon from Knitty)
on my needles.

Then there' s my best friend who's reminded me a couple of times how much she loves her socks...

AND I need to proof and re-knit the teddy bear pattern I half-way wrote up when I made the bear that was in an earlier post. At some point I'll have to get a couple/few test knitters before I share it, but that's probably at least a couple of months in the future.

Whattya think - work on the big stuff first so that the closer to the holiday, the less stress per UFO??

No more new projects. (I can't even type that with a straight face)

see ya soon

Finally a sweater

Not that the sweater took that long, it's just that it is the ONLY thing I've finished in a while exept for the Clapotis. There will be no pictures of the Clapotis on here. It's a very easy knit and everyone has shown pictures of it to death. I made the mistake of using a thin fingering weight (if there is such a thing) and size 2 US needles. It made it necessary to do LOTS of increases and LOTS of repeats and to be honest, it really is pretty, but I'm sick of looking at it right now.

It started out as a pattern I'd found, but I modified it to death since I didn't like the sleeves and the bottom. I can say, however, it is a raglan sweater.



This was made out of CARON SIMPLY SOFT SHADOWS in the 'Autumn' colorway. Hopefully it will be big enough to fit mystery baby when the weather cools down next fall. PLUS next week, the kids will find out if it's a boy or girl (if he/she isn't too modest) and everything should be color/pattern suitable after that.

The reason I picked this color was 1) I liked the long changes in it and 2) SOMEBODY ought to be having a redhead at some point in time.

• I'm a redhead (sort of old penny, but still)
• My mom was a redhead (true auburn)
• TWO my son's great grandmas were redheads

That li'l gene is gonna pop out somewhere, so just in case ....

I've also been moving a lot of my knitting stuff into one room. It has taken over the whole house and HAS to be gotten back under control.

Not much, but a start and this room as the added benefit of having access to a full attic if the stash starts to explode again.

Ta Da

Ok Here's the sweater for grandchild on the way. When we find out the gender, then it'll get buttons. Right now I'm leaning toward the square ones, but we'll see.

When I was looking for a teddy bear pattern, the ones I was finding had NO TUMMY to speak of. Well, what good is a paunchless bear? That's not cuddly. Plus there was a lot of sewing/seaming. So out came the needles and here's what happened. The only seam is about 2 inches across the top of the head between the ears. I was very very good and wrote down everything I did as I went along, but don't think I can read it now because my abbreviations at the time make absolutely no sense to me now. What can you expect when you're keeping track on a big sketch pad with a hot pink highlighter.

I'll probably run it through another cycle in the washer/dryer to get that last bit of felting in, maybe embroider some features and then make some clothes. Probably should ask if the kid will need a boy or girl bear.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Blogger won't let me put in pics, so I'll try again later....