A Little Yarn On The Side

So on Thursday I really thought we'd have clear sailing for one week--I had 2 days of pain killers to give Theo and 5 days of Valium for him. On Thursday the pain killers knocked him for such a loop that he spent the day laying quietly, but by Friday he was disoriented and angry and flinging himself around wildly. Worried that he might cause himself more harm, I gave him one of the Valium pills, which instead of calming him down made him even wilder and I spent 3 hours trying to keep him from killing himself. Not that the vet told us this when he gave us the valium, but for MANY cats, it will indeed have the opposite effect. Don't you think potentially giving an injured kitty speed might be a key item to mention? Since the new pain medications were making him loopy and angry, Andy made a cross-town trip to the original vet clinic last night to get another 5 doses of the pain medication we were giving Theo when we first brought him home. Mercifully, they make him really sl...

Well, we're back to this: Theo now knows that casts can be removed--though he's managed to not draw any useful lessons from the severe pain that results from pulling casts off--so we've had to resort to kitty satellite as well as the drugs. We have 2 days of kitty pain medication--which knocks him out nicely but has to be applied to his gums rather than just forcing him to swallow it. I had never noticed before, but cats really have very small gums and they're not generally fond of exposing them--except to bite someone who is really irritating them. After that, we have kitty Valium, which thank heavens is in pill form. Not as easy as the liquid oral medicines, but too many more days of the gums sort of medication and Theo would not be the one getting the valium. Full-time kitty patrol has at least allowed me to make some progress on dem fischer sin fru: and I'm just about to finish with clue 3. I don't know if I'll be able to get back to Fleur. The cuf...

I took Theo in for a checkup on Monday and to have his bandage changed. Yesterday I knew it was bothering him, but when we called the vet clinic they didn't seem too concerned or have any suggestions. This morning he was really cranky and angry--which is very unusual for him--so I put him back in the cage thinking maybe he had pulled some muscles trying to walk around on his bandaged leg. Shortly I heard a cat shrieking in pain and found Theo with his leg free and the cast laying on the other side of the cage. I have no idea how he did that, but with me pinning Theo (and trying not to faint as anything medical or involving blood makes me ill) and Andy driving like a maniac, we took off for the closest vet clinic. The one that could do surgery is across town, but they all have drugs, and all three of us could have used some. They gave Theo a shot of pain killer and put a splint on the leg, then sent us home with several doses of pain killers (which will knock him out), kitty V...

So I decided that even though I would be giving the stockings away & would rarely see them, I couldn't live with the errors. (I know--if you can't beat your neurosis, join them) So, I decided that since it was just an outline design, I would simply rip out the problematic design and do something else. Two hours later: To be fair, that did indeed work, and there's no guarantee that I would have found something better to do with those two hours of my life, but I didn't want to do that twice. I am curious to try free-hand machine embroidery, but I try to keep "learning opportunities" away from things I want other people to see. It works better that way. So, I took a deep breath and: hand stitched the missing bits. It isn't perfect or even perfectly symmetrical, but neither is the vertical one which was part of the original design. This I can live with. Before his vet appointment, Theo came in to help me and his poodle-do is now just looking ...

The 14th WIP in a row is finished, washed, and blocking: and does a pretty mean "little teapot" as well. And--drum roll please--I have now used 18,106 yards or just over 10 miles of yarn this year! Oh my! Now if that only made a sizable dent in the stash...... I haven't cast on anything new, nor have I worked on Fleur or dem fischer sin fru today. Instead, I worked on the five red stockings: and all the legs are now embroidered, but tonight I noticed this: Notice anything? Part of the design didn't transfer through to the embroidery card, so the holly leaves look a little funny. Two stockings have this problem--though I didn't notice until I did the second one. My options are to rip out the design & put something else there, try to fix it by hand (and this would be a good time to mention that I am not a good hand embroiderer--I tried doing a pillowcase a few years ago and it looks like it was done by a five year old with the shakes), or ignore it...

I was working so hard to have #14 done today, but the knitting is done and most of the sewing is as well: And of course I did have to spend some time working on Christmas gifts. I have 11 Christmas stocking to make this year, and so far I have: 6 legs embroidered. 5 to go & the sewing & names and all that. But at least I'm this far. Theo was feeling spunky enough to "help" but soon abandoned me for a more festive spot: so Callisto joined me with her best "Theo" pose: I don't think they'd have this sort of dedication if the sewing room didn't face south and have great afternoon sun. The "invalid" is doing fine and in a stunning show of independence, is refusing to join me in the sewing room tonight--I think because I won't let him go outside--and is instead curled up right outside the door. It's not much of a show of independence I'll grant you, but considering we've been almost inseparable for more than a week, I...

Last night Theo discovered the ultimate weapon in his bid for freedom: destroying the carpet. If he digs hard enough, he can pull up the towels, sheets, and garbage bags that had been the bottom of his makeshift cage. As he discovered this trick late last night when his humans were exhausted & in serious need of sleep, he has now achieved a limited amount of freedom. He's learned to crawl on & off of things instead of jumping, so I think he'll be okay, though we do keep a pretty close watch on him just in case. Right now he's snoozing in the downstairs window box in Andy's office and seems quite pleased with himself. He's still doing well, though I was having trouble getting him to drink water until I discovered he truly thinks he needs to have his water in a glass. I guess I should consider myself lucky he doesn't want ice cubes. And guess who has decided to forgive me for bringing Theo home? She's been growly and angry since Theo got hurt, tho...