Let's try this again

The pictures. Will blogger cooperate and let me prove that I'd been knitting my tuchus off?

Why yes, it did. Right now on the screen where I'm typing this post, it looks like I'll be able to comment beside each picture. We all know that once it gets published, who knows how it will turn out.

The blue dress and wrap are what I made for the Atlanta Knitting
Guild's annual bear presentation to the Georgia Center for Child Advocacy. The dress is made from Caron's Simply Soft with some Fun Fur added in to the hemline. The wrap is Fun Fur. I had them both in my stash, and it gave me a way to use them.

Next, we have some items I made for a swap amongst knitters who knit items for cats in shelters. I'll confess that I haven't knitted any cat blankets for donation yet. As I've mentioned
before, there are so many worthy charities out there, and I just
don't have time to knit for every single one of them. I do make an effort to knit for the local ones.

That said, the swap was to include a handknitted gift for the knitter and her cats. As you can see, the ones I knitted did pass Grey's seal of approval. Once again I was able to use stash yarn. The gal for whom I was knitting mentioned that purple was one of her favorite colors, and I had several skeins, whole and partial, of Plymouth Galway in my stash.

Thank you, Ravelry. I perused my target's favorites and found a hat that I would enjoy knitting. It is the Lotus hat, and the details can be found on my Ravelry projects page.

The mouse pattern was a free one that I found. I bought a mega sized container of fresh catnip to stuff the mousie after I felted it.

I had to take several pictures of the mouse since I thought it was

so cute. The one for my swap partner does have eyes that I embroidered.

Next you'll see a hat I knitted from more of the Simply Soft that was in my stash. This was for admission to a knit party I was attending. All the hats were donated to local charities, either Chemoflage or to the Atlanta Knitting Guild for distribution.

The Atlanta Knitting Guild also supports the Atlanta Women's Day

Shelter, so any hats that may not be soft enough for chemo patients will find good use.




Next, you will see 5 blind mice. My sister in law has started fostering kittens. I'm afraid that I encouraged her onto the slippery slope of cat rescue, and now they have 3 cats and

currently 2 fosters. I thought the least I could do was take her some cat toys. (Honestly, if she were more of a drinker, I'd take her bottle of her favorite beverage, because rescuing animals can be as challenging as it can be rewarding.)

Here is a hat that I have since finished. I can't remember if I've taken pictures yet as the battery died on the camera, and I need to recharge it. More stash yarn.

This final picture is a sock sample I knitted from my very own Chris Sock Yarn in the colorway Butterfly Bush. This is one of the yarns painted to pool if knitted in the proper way.

Have a great Sunday! We're having our high temperature right now. High winds and falling temperatures are on our agenda today. Possibly some snow flurries too. Thank goodness we have food, so let's just hope the power doesn't go out.

The further misadventures of Lily

(or why I was cleaning pooped on linens late last night)

I know I've mentioned before that it's rare for both of us to be gone from the house during the day at the same time. It's even more rare for us to be gone for long periods of time at the same time. I'm usually at home or popping in and out when I run errands. Keith gets to do a lot of telecommuting, so our pets have gotten really used to someone being around.

Yesterday was one of those rare days when events conspire against our kitties. My schedule was rearranged (I had an appointment thrust upon me because Keith couldn't go), and my dye day turned into a run here and there with maybe a quick trip home to check the mail.

It's a little after noontime, and Keith is ironing his clothes for work. The linen closet door is standing open a cat's width, but no one had seemed too interested in it. It's stuffed pretty full, and quite honestly, there's not much space for a cat in it. Keith put the iron and ironing board up, shut the closet door and left. It was about 1:20 p.m.

I had to leave also, and I left about 1:30. I did run back home and was there for about 45 minutes before I left again to get some catfood and meet up with some friends for knitting. I didn't see Lily or Monster at the time, but I wasn't worried about either one of them. After all, cats like to find their hiding places and snooze, and I knew they were inside, which was my concern.

So, Keith left around 1:20, and I left about 3:30. Everything seemed calm and normal.

I didn't get back home until about 7:50. I came in and fed the critters. After all, my dinner can wait, but theirs can't. No sign of Lily, but that can be normal. She eats elevated from the others, and her plate had food when I left. I figured she just wasn't hungry.

About 8:15 when I'm walking down the hallway, I hear thumping from inside the linen closet. I open the door, and Lily is out like a shot! Then I notice the smell. Ugh! There's poop somewhere in there.

First things first. Lily needs dinner, and she needs it now. I'm still eating my dinner, so I just leave the closet door open. While I'm chasing Lily off the kitchen table time and time again, I notice she's got cling-ons. One thing about Lily. She is single-minded and determined. She will wear you down. I must have chased her off the kitchen table and countertops more times than I want to think about before she and I reached a compromise. OK, I caved and let her finally sit on a table that she wanted to be on.

Finally I'm ready to tackle the linen closet. I figured that poop wasn't going anywhere, and I could take the time to eat my dinner and digest it. I find that she had a kitty cave on a shelf, and she must have panic-pooped when she realized she couldn't get out of the closet. We've accidentally shut her in the closet before, but we've been home and could rescue her more quickly. I'll admit to always checking the closet, and Keith usually does too, but this time...

I washed one load last night, and I've got a few things that don't look like they have poop on them, but they were in the vicinity.

Did Lily learn her lesson after all this? Hell no! I was in my yarn closet looking for something, and I turn around when I hear rustling. There is Lily trying to get on top of all my yarn bins and behind the winter coats for a new hiding place! Needless to say, I pulled her out with a hearty "Lily Dammit!", put her into the hallway and shut the door to the room. After all, sheets can be washed with hot water and bleach, but wool yarns can't.

Alas, no photos!

I've been busy this past week, but not doing much that was photo-worthy.

I've been dyeing yarn. I filled in for a friend at the knit store where I used to work. I didn't do a bit of canning, although I think I'll be doing some more this next week.

I did do a lot of admin stuff for Fiber Charmer - looking for wholesalers of undyed yarn, ordering business checks, printing and labeling yarn.

Hopefully sometime next week I'll have lovely pictures of homemade plum jam to share. I love plum jam, but it's hard to find at the grocery store nowadays. However, there are mountains of plums at the Dekalb Farmers Market, and I plan to purchase a hill or two.

I did find an induction burner on sale at Tuesday Morning this past week. Woo hoo! Now I'll only have to contend with 2 of the eyes going on the stovetop. Hey, with this extreme heat, I'll be thrilled to have one less gas eye burning!

I finally ordered the fancy-schmancy and really expensive Oster clippers to use on the longhaired kitties off ebay a few days ago. Thankfully I was able to get them for about 1/2 of what they sell for at Sally's Beauty Supplies. I discussed it with Keith, and since they are less than the last time we had the kitties shaved by the mobile groomer, I went ahead and got them. I'm a little nervous about shaving them ourselves, but I have someone who come train us, so that's all good.

Oh, that reminds me! I had to bathe Monster the other day. She has long hair, and she's too fat to groom her rear end. She had poopy dingleberries, so I decided to put her into the bath tub and wash her.

Let me tell you that it is a great idea to wear a mask when bathing an angry, poopy cat. I'll preface this by saying don't piss the cat off by trying to clean out her ears, then decide that it would be a good idea to bathe her. She lashed that poop water covered tail like a whip, all the while yowling like she was being killed. Needless to say, I took a shower once I let her out of the tub!

I guess I did have some misadventures this week. I hope I've provided you with a funny visual and a laugh! Have a great week. You can think of me sweating in a hot kitchen while I'm canning plum jam.

Canning and dyeing

Here you see most of the jars of tomatoes I put up this past week. One jar didn't seal, so it's not pictured here. It's in the fridge, about to become some more tomatoe soup. I also had packed a jar full, then noticed that it had a big chip in the top. I wasn't sure where the chip was, so I threw it all out.

The greatest thing about this recipe is that it allows you to can by the jar, so if all I have is enough tomatoes for 2 jars, that's all I need to do. I love having a recipe that doesn't start with

"8 pounds of tomatoes."

I had/have a lot of cucumbers, so I put up more jalapeno-cucumber relish.

I was running low on some of my dye supplies, so I was unpacking the box and stepped away for just a moment. As you can see, Inspector Lily took it upon herself to check the contents for me.

My friend Shari recently suggested that I start compiling all the pictures of Lily for a book, entitled "Lily, Dammit!" I've posted a lot of pictures of her getting into things, and it does seem like a good idea. However, I've got too much on my plate right now, including a bunch of merino sliver and whole 'nother fleece that is at least cleaned, but needs carding or combing.

I'm thinking that Keith needs to learn how to card, comb or spin.

This past week I've been doing some immersion/kettle dyeing, and I've gotten some colors I really like. I'm not sure yet where I'll be selling them.

I'd been working on some ideas for my first knitwear designs, and I'm finding that it's more challenging that I anticipated. Of course, things won't work out as you expected when you change them in the middle. I've just kept knitting. I'll see how this hat turns out. I already see two changes so far I'd like to make, and even though I'm not wild about this one is knitting up, I'll have something I can donate this fall.

Have a great day! It's drizzly, humid and muggy here, but it's cloudy and under 90F, so I'm happy, really happy.

I didn't know it'd been so long since I posted!

I think I've mentioned before that when real life gets busy, blogging falls by the wayside. I'm sorry about that.

After taking that canning class, I find I've done things like buy extra peaches at the Farmer's Market to make some peach preserves.

Our cucumber plants produced enough for me to make these 14 jars of cucumber relish. Yes, I chopped by hand (with some help from Keith) 8 cups of cucumbers. I usually don't mind chopping veggies by hand when I'm cooking, but this was a little too much as there were also multiple cups of peppers, onions and celery to chop.

I'm definitely pulling out the food processor next time!

What I've found is regardless of how hot it is outside (and we've had days the thermometer has hit 97.5 F), it's never too hot to nap beside steaming hot jars set out to cool.

You can see our 14 jars of relish. I can't wait to open one up, but they have to sit for a bit and let the flavors blend.

And we made the discovery that apparently Lily patrols the kitchen counters when we're not around to chase her off them.

I couldn't find her before going to bed the night we made blueberry-lime jam. The important part was that she wasn't in the bedroom because she rarely sleeps all night.

It never occurred to me to look in the giant pot that I had washed and left to dry on the stove top.

I was more than a little surprised by this! (And darn! Now I need to wrestle with washing the pot again!)

Yarn and gardening

I updated FiberCharmer with so-so pictures of new yarns today. In case you want to go peruse them.
For those of you who don't knit, I've got some kitty pictures today. The weather here has gotten downright hot, complete with humidity, and that has an exhausting effect on kitties, as well as giving some of them bad fur days.

Hmm, I'm not sure why the photo of Hopalong checking out the yarn has turned sideways. It doesn't look like that on my computer. Oh well, take some anti-vertigo meds and don't look at it too long.


Grey found that liriope makes a wonderful, cushy, cool bed for the long haired kitty who is in dire need of a lion cut. Until then, she searches out cool spots, both inside and outside. Inf fact, we can hardly use our bathroom sink as that's been her bed of choice the past few weeks. I have to move her every time I want to brush my teeth. I've given up about the handwashing and just do that in the kitchen.




Lily finds that knocking everything off the top of Keith's dresser and snoozing there, fairly close to the ceiling fan, is the way to go. Well, that is until everything has been knocked off. As soon as Keith finds other homes for all the bits of paper, etc, she decides it's time to find someplace new to try.

Don't let the sweet, angelic face fool you. She's a cunning, plotting cat who would excel at world domination, given half a chance. It's just plotting her next move can be tiring.

In the garden we have more carrots sprouting (finally). The tomatoes are all blooming like mad, so we should see tiny fruit pretty soon. The beans are climbing the trellis now. I've got to get another planter going in order to grow lettuce. I ordered some lettuce that can tolerate warmer weather from Cook's Garden, and I'm eager to see if they really can grow well down here in the Deep South.

It must be time for pictures

I dyed several skeins at a time here.









The two brown and pink ones are very interesting to me. I used the same color dyes, but I used different fibers, different dye methods and different percentages of the dyes.






Here you see Mama and Hopalong snoozing together on the bench. Mama is the feral kitty who got me started on the whole TNR mission. After all these years she rarely lets me get close to her. I think about bringing Hopalong inside since he's turned out to be such a lovebug, but I think Mama likes him too much for me to do that to her.





The hat is a shop sample. It's the Bobbles and Cables Hat from 60 Quick Knits. That book has some great and fun projects in it. I plan to knit one of these up for me soon.

Forgive my lack of posting

I've been busy this week.

I've started working with my acid dyes.

I discovered I'm going to need a bigger sink.

And I've been knitting on the Citron Shawl. I've finished all the repeats the pattern called for, and now I'm working on some extra repeats to make a larger shawl.

One of my knitting buddies figured out the extra repeats, but when I examined them, I saw she spaced them evenly across the row. If you know me well at all, you know I've got a touch of OCD. Yes, I've got to sit down and figure out the spacing so that it is like the pattern. I'm not looking forward to it, although I don't think it will be very difficult. It will just take a little fiddling with the numbers to make it work out.

Hopalong hasn't been to the vet yet, and that's not due to lack of trying. He seems to be healing up nicely, and he demands lots of petting every time we go outside. He has even been rubbing on Sassy, which has confused her some. You can see it in her face, "why is this cat doing this to me?"

Cowkitty has shown up a few times to get a meal, but he's not here regularly. Hopefully things will settle back down in feral world, but I've seen another new to me cat twice last week. I'll keep the trap ready for another spay/neuter/rabies vax adventure.

Have a great Saturday. We still have sun, which is the longest we've gone without clouds and rain since September. This is day 3 now.

Ah, Hopalong, the elusive

unless there's petting to be had.

It's official. Neither of us thinks he'll get into the trap, but that poor kitty is so desparate for petting that we think we can get him into a top loading carrier. Keep your fingers crossed for us. We want to get him to the vet before the next round of snow.

Yes, more snow. I watched the weather this morning. Our normal high for this time of year is 60F. I think it stayed 10 degrees cooler than that all of today. Yet, we're in line for more snow on Tuesday. I really don't know how all those northeners stand it. Oh yeah, they don't, which is why Atlanta's population keeps growing, as does the urban sprawl.

I've been knitting away on my Citron Shawl. I'm about midway through section number 4, and now it's starting to give me hints of what the next sections will be like (as in many, many stitches to knit.)

I also dyed some yarn today using some leftovers from starting my dye book on Friday. I see I have much experimentation to do, and I'm going to have to order more yarn. I'm afraid this is going to be very addicting. Already I have more ideas swirling in my head, and I don't have the yarn to try them all out!

Pictures later this week, maybe tomorrow, maybe tonight if I can get myself outside before total darkness.

Also, I've got a virtual friend who is starting to do some TNR at her workplace. Here's a link to her blog if you want to read about how she's doing. Massachusetts is not at all like Georgia, and I never thought the south would be more progressive than a northern state, but in TNR, we are! Woohoo! However, what is easy for me is not so easy for her as she doesn't have all the facilities and support systems that I have access to. So, check out her blog and see what she's facing there.

Still trying

I've taken the trap up as I don't think Hopalong is going to fall for getting into it again.

I've tried regular catfood. I tried Boar's Head low sodium deli turkey. Food keeps disappearing, and I think the birds are flying or hopping into the trap to eat it.

Time to try something new. I've got one of those cardboard carriers from the vet's office. As you may know, cats find boxes irresistable. I've put the carrier outside near where Hopalong likes to lurk. I put a small towel in the bottom of it, then sprinkled dried catnip all around. I'm thinking that he might get a little stoned from the 'nip, then look for someplace to sleep it off. If I'm lucky, I may be able to catch him napping in the box.

Otherwise, I'll have to go to the Carlos Museum, find a statue of Bastet, and sacrifice a can of tuna to beg for her help.

As for knitting, I finished section 1 of Citron last night. I'll have to take a picture later. I'd plead laziness, but...well, it's true. I've got other things to do, and I just don't feel like going outside to take that single picture right now. Maybe tomorrow, especially if I've finished section 2.

Hopalong is still free

He's a cunning cat. He's avoided the trap all day long. I even put some of his regular food by the open trap door to see if he could be enticed by the delicious smoked oysters.

I looked out to check just a few minutes ago, and Cowkitty was heading towards the trap. Thus, this day of trapping is over. I had to close the trap and put out some regulare food for Cowkitty as I didn't want to trap him again.

I'll try again tomorrow.

Trapper mode enabled

If you've read my blog for any length of time, you will know that I've got two feral/stray cats in my care. Mamacat, who's most definitely a feral cat, even though she now is quite talkative and seems to like my company from a safe distance, and Hopalong, whom I'm now starting to think is a stray. Hopalong has in the past week or two gotten to the point where he demands head and chin scratches as part of his meal routine.

Sometime in late December another male cat showed up. He's a big, black and white cat, one of those that reminds you of Holstein cows. In the throes of originality, I dubbed him Cowkitty. I see him sporadically, but he has been spraying near our house.

Sunday a week ago, I saw Mama and Hopalong for their meals, and all was well. On Monday afternoon, when I spotted Hopalong across the street, I could see that he was walking a little funny. When he got close, I saw a large wound, most likely a burst abscess, on his right hip. He held his tail at an odd angle too.

Great. He'd been attacked by Cowkitty, and now he needed veterinary care.


I spent Monday afternoon trying to see if he'd get close enough that I could snatch him up and put him into a cat carrier. Ok, probably not the smartest plan, but I knew he was up on his rabies vax, and I thought I could do this pretty quickly. Note to self, don't try that sort of think while Keith is home. He had to tell me just how dumb that idea was and not to try it.

So, out came my trusty kitty trap. I baited it and put it outside. I honestly can't remember if I pulled it out Monday late afternoon, but it sat outside for most of Tuesday. No luck.


I baited it and put it out again Wednesday. Hopalong looked at it warily, and never got near it. However, around 3:00 when I checked it again, there was Cowkitty. (I'd been checking pretty regularly. The neighbors, if they were looking, would be wondering why I looked like a jack-in-the-box, popping out the front door every 15-20 minutes.) Cowkitty wasn't the one I had planned to trap, but on Thursday he got a trip to Lifeline Animal Project's clinic for neutering and his rabies vax.

When I released Cowkitty on Friday afternoon, he was out of that trap so fast, he looked like a furry blur. I looked out the front door about 30 minutes later, and he was back to have a little snack. I'd fed and watered him while he was in the trap, but he seemed to excel in knocking everything upside down.


I still haven't gotten Hopalong trapped and to the vet yet. I didn't try over the weekend, mostly due to working hours at the vet's office. He seems to be healing pretty well, but I'd still like to get him in and have him checked. The trap will be spending some quality time outside today. I think instead of sardines, I'll have to try something else. Maybe smoked clams?


In knitting news, I did finish a hat over the weekend. I'd taken a class to learn how to knit entrelac in the round. I used plain, boring, solid colored yarn that I had in stash. I was so tired of working with that red yarn. I needed another color for the top of the hat, and of the colors I had, green seemed best. Thus, I present the Strawberry Entrelac Hat.

Snuggles with Penelope

Sounds racy, doesn't it?

I love pet supply stores that have store animals. I always loved Cheshire Pet Supply when they were still in business, and partly because they had a wonderful cat at the Toco Hills location. I was sad to see them close.

Where I go now has a great cat named Penelope. If I see her, I always talk to her and pet her. She's looking for a forever home, and I would adopt her in a heartbeat if I had space for her.

Just recently I wrote about how much I missed Scooter, and one thing I missed so much was that he was such a snuggly cat. He loved to cuddle, and I loved it too.

Today when I went to pick up catfood, Penelope saw me and meowed at me from behind the canned catfood on the shelf. She was definitely not in a place where anyone could pet her. She went back to the counter where the cash register is, and when I got close enough to pet her, she just climbed right onto my shoulder. Most of her was on my shoulder while she purred like crazy and rubbed her head all over my face. After a few minutes, I carried her to the sofa where I could sit down and pet her.

I know it sounds silly, but the other cats don't cuddle like that. It was very nice to be with a kitty who was mega snuggly. To get all new age-y here, it's almost like she knew I needed some kitty snuggles.

And let's be honest, having such a great cat at the shop makes me want to spend my money there and keep them in business.

Gloomy weather, gloomy thoughts

Some days I really miss Scooter. I knew him his entire life. From the night I knew Pixel had gotten in the family way until that awful day this past summer when we took him for his final vet visit. I was on my feet a lot yesterday, and my back is feeling a little achy, and Scooter used to come nap on my stomach every time I took a nap. When I was sore like this, his weight and warmth felt so good. He would stay there, purring like crazy until we both drifted into sleep. He was the best cat ever.

Don't get me wrong. I love the kitties that live with us now, but Scooter was very special.

Life goes on

As do the knitting and the chores. First you see my February Lady Sweater in progress. I'm working along on the sleeve. You may remember that I was running out of yarn, and that my yarn is from October 2005. I was able to find some that were fairly close, and the new yarn is what I'm using for the sleeve. One thing about Malabrigo and other handpainted/kettledyed yarns is that they pattern one way when you knit back and forth, and a different way when you knit in the round. While the colors match pretty well, I think the swirling of knitting in the round may make the difference in dye lots a bit more noticeable. Oh well, that's what I get for changing my mind about what to use the yarn for, then changing the size. When I'm helping people purchase yarn for a project, some get a little upset that I gently insist they purchase an extra ball. Honestly, this is why I suggest that. Purchase what you think you will need, then a little bit more. It's truly better to have extra than to run short.

As for running short, I think these socks for Keith will be just fine since I'm using the Malabrigo for the heels, toes and part of the cuff. They're coming along nicely. I think the Yarnsmith yarn he chose is really quite nice to knit, and I like the way the color is swirling around the foot.

And finally, there are always chores to be done around any house, and laundry is no exception. However, there's nothing like warm, fresh from the dryer laundry to wear a cat out. Here are some pictures of Lily helping Keith put up his T-shirts. She found the endeavor to be quite exhausting, so she had to take a nap. Keith left her there to sleep, and there she stayed until midway through the night when she decided that sleeping between the two humans was warmer, more comfortable, and she could wake Keith up for a little petting.

In the last picture you can see her lip is swelling again. We went to the vet again yesterday, and he's happy with the improvement, but she'll need a few more shots of the super strong antibiotic. The vet was out (!), so we'll take her back early next week when the order comes in.

I won't tempt the Fates

I know better than that, but both of us are finally feeling better. Honestly, this is not the way we had planned to spend his week of vacation. Yes, Keith took vacation. Coughing, sleeping and complaining was not what we thought we would be doing.

That said, I have watched some movies, done much reading and just a little knitting. It's been too cold today to go outside and take pictures, so you'll have to wait until tomorrow, at which point I will have finished turning the heel, and the sock will look more like a sock and less like a willie warmer.

I did lose some weight too. Not too much, but some that I had gained back over the past month. I'll keep my fingers crossed that I'll be up for some yoga again this week.

The ones who will have the toughest transition to our feeling better? The cats, of course. We've been perfect, feverish heaters for the little devils, and now that we're up and moving again, how can they warm their feet? Keith woke the other night when Lily put her head into his hand for petting. It is terrible that the humans don't continue to pet while they sleep, but Lily just woke him up. She's been velcroed to Keith most of this week, and I know she won't like having her slave up and moving again.

A pat on the back

I normally don't do this sort of thing, but I want to brag just a little. A couple of weeks ago I got a message from a friend looking to adopt 2 kittens. His family had just lost their beloved dog, and he had decided to get kittens for Christmas. He asked me where to get them, and I was able to direct him to my two favorite local shelters, Furkids and AtlantaPets. I was quite happy to receive a message telling me thanks, that he had adopted 2 kittens from Furkids. They are littermates from a feral mom. I'm glad to have had a small part in helping them all find each other.

Ok, so maybe that really isn't bragging, but I'm a still partially sleep deprived, not yet caffeinated, possibly H1N1 carrying knitter who is still wondering in the back of her mind just what movie will fill another long day of just lying about the house.

A mixed day.

Miss Lily made her third trip to the vet over the past 18 months for her swollen lip today. This time, finally, there was something the vet could see. She has a mass growing in her lower lip. Poor thing had a punch biopsy with the sample being sent to the lab. The vet called me about an hour after we had dropped her off to tell us the news. Keith was able to pick her up about an hour after that. Apparently she needed a whole lot of lap time when she got back home.

I don't know about Keith, but I'll be on those pins and needles until we hear the results of the biopsy. We're hoping for something benign. I'd hate to think that Lily has more hardship in her life. She showed up here as a stray who decided we were where she wanted to live, and she's Keith's baby.

On to fun news. I purchased some bookmarks from Moonwood Farm, who was raising funds for one of her sick alpacas. Purchase of the bookmarks entered me into a drawing to win a prize. Honestly, I didn't for a minute think I'd win anything, so I was flabbergasted to find a notification that I'd won second prize! Woohoo! I'll receive membership in her Moonbeams club. I'll have to oil up the wheel and get a-spinnin'.

As for now, I need to find someplace better to sit. Princess Plumeria is in my lap, looking happily catatonic after kneading on me, but my leg is falling asleep. (She's a big kitty. Not fat, but big. And she's convinced that I can't sit anywhere in the house without her in my lap to hold me to the chair. She's the reason that I'll need hip replacement surgery in the future.)

Sorry that I misinformed you

I really and truly thought I'd be back to blogging more regularly this past week, and before I knew it, a whole week had gone by.

At least I've got some pictures for you today.

Miss Grey has been a velcro kitty today. A quick word about Grey, a.k.a. Princess Plumeria. She is a large kitty. Not fat, but large. She's larger than either of her parents were. Her mama was a somewhat petite, but fierce, stray kitty that we named Fluffy Meow.

Her daddy was a feral male we named Howler as he was always running around yowling. This was back in the days before I'd ever heard of TNR, and while I fed Howler, I didn't know what to do about getting him neutered. Unfortunately, the life of a feral can be harsh, and he disappeared one day. I did find a home with my cousins for Fluffy and one of her kittens, and Grey and Monster stayed with us.

Anyway, Grey is a large, nicely proportioned kitty, who still thinks that she's the tiny thing that would fit so nicely in my lap. My legs usually fall asleep, and I'm wondering if the hip pain I experience has less to do with my age and more to do with Grey and Scooter sitting on me so much over the years. In his prime, Scooter was a fat kitty, weighing in around 13 pounds. I'm not sure I want to know what Grey weighs.

Truthfully, I'm surprised I've been at the computer this long without Grey trying to sneak her way into my lap.

Without further ado, knitting from these past few weeks. This week I did finish the first sock from my Miss Babs Yummy sock yarn. I started it months ago. It was my sitting at traffic lights, waiting in long lines sock. I took it out as I was getting panicky about some knitting math I'd done on the next object, the February Lady Sweater. Sometimes it really is better just to trust the pattern and not do the math that might freak you out.

The February Lady Sweater is the orangy thing you see somewhere on the page. I've learned no amount of my editing will convice blogger to format the page in the same layout as I see whilst typing it.

Next is a skirt for a bear for the Atlanta Knitting Guild. This is a challenge bear that I accepted with some donated yarn in coordinating colors. Ugh! The yarn is so gross. Kind of a scratchy acrylic. I'm doing my best with it. I did the skirt with no pattern, just adapting it from hat construction. I was a little dismayed to put it on her to find the waistband was under her armpits, so I've included a picture of the undressed bear. She doesn't have the easiest figure to dress. I'm still debating about what to knit next. Last night I cast on for a cardigan (no pattern again), but my half assed math was off. I also tried a poncho that I ripped out. I'm taking the lazy way out and searching the AKG website for a pattern to use.


Finally, I spent part of Tuesday looking all over for a bobbin of yarn so that I could ply the two bobbins together. After much searching, I realized that I had never actually spun the second bobbin. D'oh! Tuesday night I sat and spun that second bobbin, and I'll ply them together in the next few days. I forgot to take pictures this morning while taking the knitting pictures, so I'll take them and add them later in their own entry.

Hurricane Ida wasn't too terribly bad here in my immediate area, but other parts of metro Atlanta flooded again. The ground is still pretty saturated, and it didn't take too long for water to start backing up again. Our sump pump was going almost constantly starting sometime Tuesday during the day, and we are still hearing it sporadically even today.

I must go now. Keith thinks Mr. Chubbers has a tick, and my beloved isn't very good at removing them. I suppose I'm a jack of odd trades, master of few.

Where did the week go?

I didn't realize it had been a whole week since I've posted. I guess I've been busier than I thought, including several nights where I was only on the computer long enough to check the weather and make sure I wasn't needed anywhere.

Things are returning to a state closer to normal now. Last Monday we had a rather large pile of trash at the street. We have a few more things to add for tomorrow, but it's almost back to our low levels of trash (thanks to curbside recycling).

Keith was able to fix the dryer yesterday. I had spent Monday afternoon at Gale's house. She worked in her dye studio while I knitted and dried 3 loads of laundry in her dryer. I had missed hearing from Chicken Goddess, who also offered me use of her dryer. She had emailed me, but as I've not been on the computer much this week, I had missed seeing the email.

Tuesday involved the dermatologist, and I honestly don't remember what I did after that, other than cooking a big breakfast when I got home.

Wednesday I was gone all day working, then out at the Artist's Way Group that night. No computer time at all that day.

Thursday. What did I do on Thursday? I honestly don't remember. I think it involved catching up on dishes, but about all I remember was staying in my pj's most of the day until it was time to shower and get ready to go to knitting guild. Candace Eisner Strick was there. She was in town to teach some classes, that honestly I wasn't much interested in taking. And I'll admit that some of the guest teachers have given such boring presentations at the meetings that I don't much look forward to the "superstars". However, I found Candace to be very entertaining and interesting. The knitted items she had with her that night were really quite nice too. She made up for my missing Fringe.

On Friday. How will I ever be able to forget Friday? And I must blame/thank Chicken Goddess for it.

The day started innocently enough. I had gone over to CG's house last month to watch Bollywood and knit, but her TV system went kaput on her. She had to get a new home theatre system to replace her aging components which couldn't or wouldn't communicate with the newer ones. (This is something that I know is in my future. Our ancient console TV needs a good slap to get it going when we turn it on. Yeah, let's leave out the B&D jokes surrounding the TV, shall we?) Thus, she has insisted that she has purchased all this stuff just for me, and I must come over to watch it with her. The whole basement flooding/stuff getting wet/appliances not wanting to work thing has sort of consumed my life this past 10 days or so, and I just hadn't felt like I could run off to watch TV and knit all afternoon. Besides, my beloved husband would have a fit that I was goofing off and not working on the house when it so desparately needed it.

However, I had gotten laundry caught up, thanks to the kindness of neighbors and friends (I don't think I mentioned my neighbor Wanda let me dry 3 or 4 loads of laundry last Sunday, did I?) The house, while not exactly wonderfully clean, was good enough I could sneak off for a little while, and so I did.

I have now watched Om Shanti Om and Jhoom Bara bar Jhoom (my spelling may be a bit off). You must remember that most of the time I watch movies that have monsters or aliens, explosions and lots of muscle. After all, Predator is one of my all time favorite movies as it has Arnold in his prime, miles of steriod enhanced musculature and one mean m-f of an alien. Watching these movies full of singing and dancing (and one majorly hot, probably yoga enhanced male torso) were very different from my usual fare. I wish I could instantly learn Hindi so I wouldn't have to read subtitles. That's very distracting from all the dancing. And knitting? I gave up trying, especially after Jackson, a very large grey kitty who has coloring like my Princess Plumeria, except his fur is short, decided that my lap was wonderful. I sat there, hypnotized by Bollywood and Jackson's happy purring. That sure as hell beats mopping any day.

Well, I'll pay for it today. We had some things in the cooler from the downstairs fridge, and I totally forgot to buy more ice. I have to go through and toss some more stuff. Time to get the compost bucket and spend some quality time in our finally dried out and smelling much better basement. I still have this running through my head.

Oh yeah, there are knitting pictures way up above, aren't there? The sock is another sample for Gale's Art. The colorway is Autumn Fire, which I can't seem to properly photograph. The other is a Baby Surprise Jacket in her Crayon Box colorway.

The kitty picture is Mr. Chubbers dawdling on his way back into the house. Kitties really can be like stubborn kids. Sure, I'll go back inside, but I'll take my time and maybe you'll forget you want me to.