Passing through

A lot of changes over the last few months on a lot of fronts.

And yet a lot of things remain the same.

First things first.

In May, I decided that I needed the pitter patter of little feet around the house.

I think they like it here.

More later!

Goodbye my sweet girl

My sweet kitty crossed the rainbow bridge this morning. It was a two week whirlwind of vet visits and medications, but ultimately there was nothing I could do.

This little cat was a lot of things in my world over the last 15 years, the quiet second to her bigger brother, the touch-me-not-cat, the type-A "who are these people and did you ask me about this first" overseer, and best of all a cuddler. She was an only cat for a precious nine months and I think loved every minute despite the "work" involved in watching my every move.

Goodbye 2010

I know, it is already 2011, but I spent my day helping my friends at the LYS packing (and inventorying) the shop in order to move over the next few days. The new shop is going to be great! But now, I am so tired, I can barely move, much less think straight. So I am going to make this short. 

Christmas eve found me much like last year, whipping up cat toys at the last minute. The princess loved hers.

Christmas morning found me the recipient of this from my grandmother:

Pretty ain't it? She informed me that she loved this type of potholder, but all of them are now dead and she would greatly appreciate it if I would knit her a few for her birthday in March. 

Except it is actually crochet. 

Which I really don't do. 

So thanks to Ravelry I found a free pattern and armed with my "Chicks with Sticks" learn to crochet book, a fancy addi hook and some sugar 'n cream, off I go.

Only one problem.

Oops. A 4" potholder can't be a good thing. So now to do some experimenting.

Victory!

2010 recap and 2011 intentions and goals to follow!

Surfacing

It has been a crazy month adjusting to a one-cat household.

I think the princess (the name fits, believe me) loves being an only cat, though I worry that she is going to be lonely with my hours. In the meantime, she has been diagnosed with hyperthyroidism. I am hoping that the medication will bring it under control soon, as well as her "extra-talkativeness" - as it is to new levels!

But wait! This is a crafting blog! Of which, there has not been much.

Here is my "M" fairy, I committed to finishing this as part of my EGA Chapter UnFinished Object Challenge - supposed to be completed by our meeting on September 11. But I suspect I will be coughing up the $5 I pledged if I didn't finish it.

On other craft-fronts, been working on potential classes. Sadly, not much to show. But I hope to have some soon!

Oh! And here's my porch! I finally got the porch screened in and found some wicker furniture that actually fit. THAT was a bit of a scavanger hunt. And I think the hunt for cushions and an outdoor rug have come in for a landing. Though I think I need another small cushion or two.

Now if it will just get cooler!!! I have a bunch of work and appts this week, but am hoping to be off at the end of the week (nothing fun, just house repair appts). So maybe more progress soon!!

Goodbye, my sweet boy

After a wonderful 14 years and 3 months, my sweet fiber cat crossed the rainbow bridge this morning.

Who would have thought this big boy (@ 13 pounds, "dieted" down from 18!) could have started as a 1 lb teeny boy (messing with his sister).

 He loved to "help" me with my stitching/knitting/spinning, help himself to whatever was on the kitchen counter, and always wanted to be on the top shelf of my clothes closet. His sister and I will miss him. There's more I could say, but let's leave it at that.

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!

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!

No crafting, just life

Another couple weeks of work craziness. A couple of big deadlines are this coming week, so I am expecting my desk to continue to look like this:



Albeit less blurry! By the time this was taken yesterday, I was really exhausted. I am really good about staying hydrated on these long days, but am bad about not taking a break from my desk.

I am going to be working a bunch this weekend, so luckily I can work from home so at least I will have clean clothes next week! Plus I need spend some quality time with this guy and his sister.



We had a quick trip to the vet this morning and he was ready to be inside and have his tuna! I had been noticing a definite smell from his mouth the last couple of days, so this visit was to ease my peace of mind. The vet continues to be very pleased with the quality of life he continues to have. No fever, still maintaining his weight at 13 lbs, but the tumor interferes with his ability to clean food from that side of his mouth very well. The result is that food is getting trapped, which is not good. They cleaned it as best as they could with him being semi-conscious, gave him an antibiotic shot, and sent us home with some probiotics to help his immune system a little more.

Our next checkup with the oncologist is Friday, so hopefully she will have some suggestions. In the meantime, I am going to use/increase some of the herbal remedies I've been researching and see if that can assist some too.

I am slowly doing a second swatch of the cotton supreme for Que Sera. Trying to wrap my head around gauge. The loom is calling as well, but that will just have to wait for now.

Drive by blogging

Even though I technically had a three day weekend, Monday came far too soon! I am ready to head to bed, but wanted to post some progress pics.

I am starting a new embroidery project shortly, so I am really hoping to finish up this needlework project. I love this cute little pattern. Some parts of it are car-friendly, so made a fair amount of progress on this piece riding in the car to the vet on Friday.



Cat by the Hydrangea Bush
Rowandean Embriodery
Progress as of 3/19/10

I remember seeing projects from Rowandean in a stitching magazine years ago. Imagine my shock to walk into a local needlework shop and find several of these kits while on vacation. Straight stitch, detached chain, bullion knot, satin stitch, and my archnemesis, the french knot. I've used them all in this project and have lived to tell the tale.

On the spinning front, a small progress view of the Mjolinar. Louet Merino Silk. A bit darker than it shows, but it is very very lovely.



And to close out this post, random cat picture. This is what happens if you get distracted while cleaning out your purse.



The monster cat is doing well, the tumor has decreased in size again and the infection has cleaned up.. So hopefully we will maintain the course.

That's all for tonight! Night!

rain, rain go away......

It is a gloomy day in the South today. Rainy most of the day, now just gray and damp. I just want to sleep and catch up on my NCIS watching! My wheel is calling me, but I am still able to ignore it for now. My stitching is my obsession for the moment, so here are some progress pics.


M - Madeline
Letters from Nora/Mirabillia
Progress as of 3/15/10


Cat by the Hydrangea Bush
Rowandean Embriodery
Progress as of 3/16/10

I watched Judith Mackenzie McCuin's Wheel Mechanics while I was down with a stomach bug. It was great!!! It and some other recent happenings got me inspired to do a little bit of shopping on etsy. Gale's Art is an indie dyer in Georgia - I got some merino silk and alpaca silk. She was running a special that included some silk hankie butterflies that are just beautiful!!!




In noncrafty news there has been lots of wildlife sightings...."water turkey," turtles of all shapes and sizes, and of course the geese. No sign of baby geese at this point.



There's just something about watching a cat sleep.



Her brother will be heading back to the doc at the end of the week for another checkup. It is really hard to tell how he is doing, he hides it pretty well. But he is still eating and demanding attention, so I really can't complain.

Hopefully another update this weekend!!

And the butt kicking continues!!

Since this is actually a crafting blog, here's the good stuff at the top. Updates on life in general, the house, and cats are after the pics of the monster cats. Sorry for the less than ideal iPhone pics, my camera has gone into hiding so until I find it or buy a new camera, it will just have to do!

First I'm declaring myself as sidelined from the kitting olympics due to injury. The carpal is just not letting me working on Laminaria very long each day. I spent some time in the car with it and it is still in the transition chart stage.



I am still going to limp along on this project though. And am also planning to start the Evenstar Mystery Shawl at some point very soon....using Skacel Merino Lace. This one will truly be a challenge, a round lace shawl that measures about 5 feet across. Many knitters have already begun this mystery, and the knitting is truly lovely.

Luckily, my "oh shiny" crafting distractability can give me some other things to do while my hands heal up from my carpal flare-up.

My stitching mojo is definitely back! Went to the not-so-local shop today and picked up the missing color for one of my stitching projects. I am working on Mirabilia's "M" fairy. Upper body is completed, moving down her skirt and the "M". I also picked up a few goodies at the shop!



I will also have some stitchalongs starting soon. My EGA chapter will be doing a silk ribbon group correspondence course and we are also embarking on an intro brazilian embroidery project. Updates on this coming soon.

Spindle spinning is also becoming almost a daily activity. I turned a little bit of this Paigewood Fiber Puffs into this little length of navajo-plied yumminess.




I have a Damsel Monique spindle in my desk drawer for some breaktime spinning with some merino-silk blended beauty, but I am strongly considering putting these puffs in a bowl on my desk with my Hound spindle. It is not the easiest for spindle spinning or for plying on the spindle, but it is a lot of fun to look at and fondle.

To continue my Greensleeves Spindle addiction, I finally picked up the spindle that has been yelling at me at the shop for months - a Connie's Mjolinor. Yet another laceweight spindle. On it is a small sampling of the northern lights roving from louet. Now it is working through a merino/silk blend in a lovely blue. Pics on that later!







And now for the non-crafting component of the post. I truly want this to remain a crafting blog. But as you know, real life tends to interfere with all crafting all the time - so no blogging material. And while a lot of real life I want to leave unblogged, there are aspects that I want to share. So here's a (mostly) quick catch-up:

The "other busy season" at work begins next week. So I have been frantically running errands to stock up on essentials, catching up with friends, and trying to accomplish just a few more house projects.

My carpal continues to be a problem. After too much caffiene and regular knitting, my hands and wrists are not amused. I have taken pain killers and plan to break out the ice packs shortly.

The homefront....is still in flux...many projects this weekend and a post to follow involving geese, beavers, decluttering, and my ridiculously huge stash.

And now for the true butt-kicking component of the post.....I should know better than to be more than cautiously optimistic on the cat's progress. His check-up was less than positive, an infection has returned and his tumor has not shrunk further. In fact it appears to have grown, though the vet acknowledge that it may be related to the infection rather than the tumor. So we have another med added to the mix and a follow up in 3 weeks.

2010 has been kicking my butt!

No time or energy to blog this year.....Between daytrips to the out-of-town vet, work ramping up again, house stuff, and carpal flareups....I have been too tired to be much of a conversationalist....just ask my friends and family! So blogging has been very far down on the list.



While not a happy traveler, the monster cat has been fairly good traveler. His tumor has responded very well to the meds. His hair has still not grown back much, the shaved spots on his jaw and legs are covered in almost a fine down. But the abscess has healed up, he is acting and eating as normally as he ever has. His weight is back up over 13 lbs, so I think the oncologist will be pleased when she sees him at the end of this week (though needless to say he will be less than thrilled to see her).

The medication schedule is mostly manageable for me, though I need to give him a test run at my parents or find a sitter before I feel comfortable leaving town for anything. He is unpredictable with his willingness to take them and given his size, I'm not sure that even my mom can manage him. So I have pretty much written off going to Convergence this summer. After this check up, I plan to ship him off to mom for a test run.

For some insane reason, I decided to sign up for the knitting olympics and cast on Laminaria by Elizabeth Freeman (ravelry link). I am making a shawlette of sorts using one skein of Handmaiden Mini Maiden. I seriously doubt I will finish it before the closing ceremonies, but we shall see! In the meantime, here's a bad picture.



While I like this yarn and the pattern so far, I am not totally loving this yarn. The single spun yarn tends to get a little shreddy, for lack of a better descriptor. Maybe I rub my hands too much on it, or my hands are just too warm, but there is a definite halo to this.

I think I have my stitching mojo back....I finished Iris Window Garden by Calico Crossroads today! This has been a longterm work in progress, which is sad given its small size. I worked this on linen using silk threads and a black metallic for the back-stitching.



I still need to date it and attach the charm, but it is essentially done! So I have picked up my Mirabilia initial project, when I should be working on my Olympic knitting project. But that's what I am in the mood for right now!

Hopefully more later this week....

Running Fast Yet Staying In Place

Christmas came and went like a blur. I was able to spend a lot of time with my parents, which is great. I am lucky to be off this week as well, but I fear my to do list far exceeds the amount of time available - short of being cloned or hiring a fleet of helpers. So I suspect that while I will likely accomplish a lot of stuff this week, it will feel like I didn't accomplish anything.

The monster cats and I moved home last week. Big monster kitty got his biopsy stitches out, by some miracle, he was very well behaved. He has been diagnosed with a squamous cell carcinoma, which while it is not bone cancer, it is still cancer with not a good outlook. As a last hope, I am taking him to a vet oncologist tomorrow to try and figure out if there is any reasonable course of action that will still give him quality of life.

For Christmas this year, I whipped up three of the cabled mice from WendyKnits - two for them and one for my grandmother's new kitten. The first one was "disappeared" within 24 hours. The second is still hanging in there and is quite popular. Here is an assortment of bad pics to show how they were enjoyed. You can really see the lump on his jaw in one of these:

I also finished Oceane last night and wore it out today to my dr appt. This was a super easy knit, a bit monotonus, and I got nervous towards the end that I would run out of yarn before completing it. But it all ended well and it looks like this in the wind.

I used one ball of Marble Chunky from James C. Brett, which is 100% acryllic. It is a very nice acryllic with multiple color strands plied together. It is very soft, not scratchy, so I think this yarn would be great for a lap blanket or baby blanket also.

Time for dinner and some relaxing with the family. More later!