A Little Yarn On The Side

Today marks the end of my 11th month of knitting only from stash and the end of my 5th month of the WIP marathon, and I am experiencing SERIOUS yarn lust. The good news is, I'm lusting after my own yarn. I have either one more project or one more month to go before casting on something new--depending on when I crack. 13 down--13 to go. It would have been 14, but the lovely Hibiscus for Hope sock had an incident involving dropped stitches and needles pulled out by another project (proving my secret theory that WIPs really can get vicious if neglected long enough), and I wasn't far enough along to justify trying to pick the stitches versus just starting over--which I will indeed do at some point--but the delightful feeling of having one less WIP kept me from starting over immediately. I've done a lot of WIP Wrestling this year. The WIP pile in April: looking massive and frightening. There are actually 6 projects visible that have been finished by now, which is an amazi...

Thursday night Theo had to return to the vet with a bladder infection & kitty constipation. As if a kitty enema wasn't enough, this time he came home as a kitty satellite dish: This time his normal good humor had finally run out. I'd saved the blocking of WIP 13 for his return, but he was having none of it and I have finally blocked a sweater without any cat hair on it. Not that I blame him for being angry--I think the last round at the vet justified a seriously bad mood, but it also made him very restless, so he had to spend most of the day in kitty confinement: He has another appointment in 5 days to have the leg checked and get the cast replaced, and we're hoping to be able to give him a little more freedom soon. Today he's been in much better spirits, and enjoyed several long snoozes on our bed: while Andy & I took turns supervising him. He's not allowed to jump up or down, so someone has to be around to stop all jumping attempts. My supervisory tim...

The vet's instructions: Keep the cat confined and quiet Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Remember my brilliant cat-confinement idea? Well, it does keep Theo confined, but it stresses him out and he spent the night howling, pacing, and flinging himself around. I know he has a cast on, but I think the "quiet" part is probably the more important goal, so we finally let him out of the cage in sheer desperation & I spent the day keeping Theo from jumping onto the bed and the sink. The cast is quite festive: but in the relative scale of things, it stretches out his back leg entirely, making the leg just about the length of the rest of the body: He's a pretty sorry-looking camper all the way around, because he also has this horrible new poodle-do: where they attached his I.V.s. To add insult to injury, I have to saran-wrap his cast before he can use the litter box, and then I have to hold him up or else he just keeps turning somersaults in the litter box. I don't know--maybe I s...

The vet called at 10:00 last night to say the surgery had gone well and we could call today to see about picking up our new bionic kitty today. Thanks to everyone for your good wishes for Theo. We aren't sure how he got hurt, though falling, being attacked by a dog, or getting hit by a car are the most likely candidates. When we first took him in, it seemed like just an injured leg (which it was), but there must be an introductory class in vet school called "Scaring the Patient Means Greater Profits." After we had signed waiver after waiver stating that yes, we would want him resuscitated if he went into cardiac arrest and that no, we wouldn't hold the clinic responsible if they killed our pet, and explaining in enough detail to make me nauseous all the potential complications that could arise, we are so thrilled that he's fixed we will cheerfully pay darn near anything to get him back. Can't argue with a program that works, I guess. We expected him to ...

Either veterinarians live to scare people--which is entirely possible as I once took a cat in with a skin irritation & the vet called me with all these possibilities of diseases & did all sorts of expensive tests, then sent me home with a $500 bill, bottle of shampoo and instructions to give the cat weekly baths until the problem went away--or my little sidekick is much worse off than we first imagined. He's heading into surgery now to either repair ligaments or to fuse the bone. The vet also floated the idea of amputation, but neither of us could stand to do that to poor little Theo. We're not sure yet how much motion he'll get back, but we are supposed to be able to bring him home tomorrow. His days of being able to go outside without supervision are probably over, but we're probably quite lucky that we didn't lose him yesterday. I think I'll be able to take him out for walks on a leash because he generally trots along beside me wherever I go anyw...

The sewing kitty came home today with a broken leg, so the poor little guy is spending the night at the vet clinic--and his fleece is with him. Looks like he'll ultimately be fine, but there will have to be a little kitty physical therapy, and they suggested kitty water aerobics. Oh. My. God. They'll give me a little harness so I can put him in the bathtub and have him swim. If this occurs, I promise to film it.

It seems cats can hold grudges. Yesterday morning while I was unpacking, Theo watched but kept his distance--which is never his style. This is the "interested but aloof" pose-- complete with "alien eye syndrome." Did you know that "red eye" features can't fix green glowing eyes? After a couple hours of sulking, I got desperate and broke out the fleece, which made things a bit better. Today I promised Theo that there would be lots of sewing on Saturday and all seems to be forgiven-- And I'm not sure if you can tell from these pictures, but Theo got his winter coat while we were gone and is about twice as poofy as he was before we left. Maybe it was in reaction to our week without heat? The dem fischer sin fru shawl got a little more action today, but it basically still looks the same. It's a faroese-shaped shawl, so it starts at the top and gets wider as it goes along, so at clue 3 the rows are slowing down and we're entering that not-fo...

Yes--I do still exist and there has been some knitting, if no blogging. We have been on a marathon trip of visiting friends on the east coast, and I thought about trying to do a few updates while traveling, but we still have the psycho ex-wife stalker (5 YEARS after the divorce, mind you, and 2 years after Andy remarried--talk about pathetic) and we find it best not to announce any plans on the blog as she seems to be a few pom-poms short of a hat. The only good thing about long flights is the uninterrupted knitting time. At home, I could be doing other things--laundry, cleaning, taking care of the garden, painting the dining room, cleaning out that back room--but in a plane, there is NOTHING else I could be doing except sitting. In fact, those cheerful airline attendants would get quite cranky if I really did try to be up cleaning something, so this is the ultimate guilt-free knitting time. Which is perfect, as Theo chose to inspire some last-minute guilt as we were leaving: Could...

After three attempts and much swearing, I am finally finally FINALLY putting the edging on Fleur in the right place, in the right way, and unless it spontaneously combusts--which I don't think cashmere generally does--I may actually get the darn thing done. I think in a small act of atonement, the edging is actually laying flat this time, so that has improved my knitting mood somewhat. The edging strip is a little longer (12 inches "little longer") than necessary, and I'm debating whether to rip it back, or simply cut the darned thing where I need it. This would be a VERY big thing for me, as I am not generally a cutting knitting sort of person. More of a cut-that-knitting-and-there-will-be-bloodshed sort of person, if truth be told, but I always hope that I'll experience Personal Growth while knitting. And then I wake up. I also finally admitted that I had gone a bit overboard on the back of this toddler sweater: being at least 3 inches PAST where I should ha...

But not so much knitting. I did finally buy myself a little reward for finishing 10 WIPs in a row: The Yarn Harlot's latest book, Free Range Knitter . Her writing is so witty and charming that I wish she could rake in the kind of money Danielle Steele or Stephen King does, but I don't suppose the movie rights are worth very much. Any knitter could, of course, appreciate the horror potential of a Hitchcock-esque "The Moths," but I just don't think the general public has that sort of fear of fiber-eating bugs. I did sit down to work on Fleur, and let's see if you can spot the problem: That's right--I started attaching the edging IN THE WRONG PLACE. I started here: thinking a join would be less noticeable at an existing seam. I ripped back the seam--chastising myself for having been so proud of myself for sewing the edging on while knitting it because then I wouldn't only have sewing left to do--then reattached it here: Which is the shoulder seam, whic...

You can blame the lack of knitting on this: About a week ago our furnace started making really strange noises. Being a much newer and more complicated model than either of our old houses--which meant my old just-jiggle-the-wire-trick wasn't going to work, we immediately called a repairman. He found nothing--and the furnace refused to reproduce the strange noises while he was here--so he made a strong push to sell us a water pump that wouldn't solve the problem and left. Yesterday the furnace would come on briefly, then go off, leaving us cold and hopeful. In case it was a gas leak, I shut the thermostat off and called the repairman again. He walked in, flipped on the thermostat, and we had heat. I told him I had turned the thermostat off "just in case" but I don't think he actually believed me. I had him do the winter maintenance on the furnace in case that would help, and he left thinking I probably didn't know "on" from "off." Toda...

(Had to add that little hyphen there to keep me out of the more colorful Google searches.) The left front of the baby sweater is done, which I would be showing you if the battery on my camera weren't dead. Since I've been "organizing" the sewing room, it took a 20-minute search to locate the charger, but I did eventually find it and there will be pictures tomorrow. Dem fischer sin fru actually got a lot of attention last night because it turns out that election returns actually come in very slowly. There were a few dropped stitches in my excitement over the huge voter turnout nationwide, but all in all, I got a few decent rows in. I'm still on clue #1 of course, but Imight finally be halfway through clue 1. I'm not ready to think about those 5 remaining clues just yet. I've been sewing "thank you for letting me stay" gifts for an upcoming trip to see friends on the east coast, which I would also be showing you now. They're Christmas tabl...

Ahhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm trying to knit while watching the election results! I think the stress is going to destroy my gauge. Anyone else's dem fischer sin fru end up looking like ramen noodles???

Still completely jazzed about making it to 12 WIPs in a row, rather than picking up Fleur, which really is almost done, I picked up one of the baby sweaters I found languishing in a knitting bag. I can narrow it down to being cast on between 2-5 years ago, but that's as close as I can get. I finished the back last night and started on the left front today. Admittedly, this is not a really great pattern. It's from this book, which has cute pictures but the sweaters area bit awkward and shapeless--things that one would only put on a small child who can't complain. Luckily, that's who I will be giving it to, so I guess that works. This morning I washed and blocked Ruched Magic, but Theo would have none of it. I think he's a fiber snob.

Here it is: Finished WIP #12! The pattern is called Ruched Magic and it's from this magazine: which is Knitter's fall 2002. I'd link to it on Ravelry, but it isn't currently on Ravelry. Ah--there is just something psychological about having finished one dozen projects without casting on anything new. Wait, or was that psychotic? Anyway--that currently leaves 15 WIPs left to go! I'm off to find Theo so we can wash & block the sweater. On to number 13! Blouse? What blouse??