Morning ramblings

I am officially on day four of my vacation. And while every day has not actually been a vacation, it is nice to take some time. Even though it is ridiculously hot out these days, early mornings on the porch are doable.

I spent one day at a nearby beach, though I neglected to take any pics. It is close enough to drive to for the day, even better to stay for the week. Growing up, I think I spent a good portion of every summer there and I hope to get back there before the oil arrives sometime this next week. The oil.....argh....I still can't put into words the sadness and frustration I feel for what is happening in the gulf.

The big guy's tests are indicating that he may be going into renal failure - we have to go back in a couple of weeks for yet another evaluation. But he is not acting like he is in pain or anything. So toys and tuna are constant activities in Chez Shell.

Both he and his sister have been hanging out with me in the studio while I spin. Spinning is becoming a regular activity. I finished up a small bag of tussah silk yesterday and plied it up.

Will measure and weigh it after I set the twist today.

As for the house.....I've found more items to go into the studio and started my next destashing pile relating to stitchery stuff. I'm meeting friends for brunch in a bit and then the rest of today is cleaning, sorting through the stuff evicted from the studio, and laundry. Do I know how to have fun or what?? ;)

The outside of the house and the deck are supposed to be painted tomorrow, but we have a fairly high percentage of rain next week. So that may be pushed to the following week, we shall see. Next major house task post-cleaning and clearing will be clearing out my clothes closet, now THAT should be fun!

Busy bee

I'm coming up on some vacation time, and I am sooo ready!

The studio is pretty much "done" for the time being. I am still working on furniture and decor, but the primary goal was met: all of my stash currently lives in this room. My needlework has not been sorted yet, but all yarn and fiber have been looked at and sorted.

The full set can be seen on my flickr page here. The short answer is that I have a very large stash of yarn and fiber. I am hoping to work through it some, now that I truly know the scope of it.

I think I want to join the Tour de Fleece (rav link). But I do so horribly at knit-a-longs and spin-a-longs! Regardless, I have been training on the matchless:

This is a wool blend from Spunky Eclectic, in Pine from the semi-solid series. I've got 2 ounces and have done about an ounce.

Stitching and knitting continue. Right now, I am working on a shawl that I started when I first started knitting:

And my Mirabilia fairy now has part of an arm!

The monster cats have been enjoying the studio as well.

The big guy and I are heading back to the specialist at the end of the week. His recent bloodwork has apparently gotten the vet concerned. So we shall see how things go.

The rest of my vacation will be some more house projects and hopefully some shopping trips, catch up on some movies, and maybe make a beach day trip (cross fingers). Oh yeah, and my birthday is next week!

blocked and ready to go!

I adore silk, even though my lifestyle doesn't necessarily love it.

Tilli Tomas silk in American Beauty colorway. 

On to the next project!

One for the memories

Yet another bad pic. 

The face of innocence, no? This is from the weekend after a session of playing with his cabled mouse.

The living room is amass with boxes and bags o' stuff, though I have left a decent sized path across it in order for myself and the felines to get to everything we need to as I do this studio clean out over the next week or two.

Tonight, this little bugger has chased his sister through this path, not once, but twice, in rapid succession. And blocked her way several times, leaving her leaping and hissing. And me yelling at him for being a brat.

His response? He decided that my bag of knitting projects in progress (was 8, now 7!!) deserved to be knocked over. Actually, I think he was trying to climb into it, but then it fell over. 

Ah, cats.

Still in the Tunnel - Random Thoughts

No real coherent thought here, but I feel like if I don't blog now, I just won't.

One more week of "the tunnel" I think, couple more things to wrap up and then I am off most of next week for training.

Bad iPhone pic of the patient boy at the vets a few weeks back, waiting for his meds to be ready.



The good news is that his tumor still shrinking. The only real side effect I have found from all of this is that some of his hair fell out and the regrowth in that area and around his tumor has changed. Am hoping we can take a break from all the antibiotics, but don't know how realistic it is. But he is playing with his toys, chasing his sister and demanding cuddles.

I feel ridiculously grateful for the extension he has gotten. If I knew then what I know now, would I do it all again? I just don't know.

Next checkup is around the beginning of July but I may move it up to avoid the whole holiday traffic thing. Let's face it, far too many idiot drivers out there....

Starting next week I am taking a day or two off each week to try and get Chez Shell under control. Right now, the studio is about half emptied. Living room is crowded with evicted studio stuff. I know the "experts" say to not pull everything out, but everything has been so topsy-turvey with my organizing efforts I pretty much have to. It's a good thing that I did, I have found yarn in just about every corner.



The first couple of skeins were humorous to find, but most would have been candidates for the yarn yard sale. So, more stuff for the donation bag. I will take a picture of the final "Mt. Yarn" once I am sure that I have found ALL of it.

Right now, it is about a 6' tower of large bins.....right next to a 5' tower of medium size bins. Yeah. Seriously scary that I am describing my "after" stack. Did I mention that was only my knitting yarn? The 10/2 and 8/2 cotton for weaving are in other bins, sorted by size.

On to better topics, like KNITTING!

The studio sort has also uncovered knitting WIPs, lot of em. After a brief round or two of Survivor WIP, I now have a list of 27 projects in progress. 27!?!?! I have a sneaking suspicion that like the random yarn balls, the studio will uncover another project or two, but in the meantime, I have pared that 27 down to a cast of eight projects that I plan to concentrate on.

First project is this one:



using Tilli Tomas silk in the American Beauty colorway. This is an old picture, but it still looks like this, just much longer. Should be finished up in the next couple of days, assuming I don't drop the needle out of the project.......again.

That's all for today. The cats are pacing, which means it is time for bed!
And maybe a snack!