The Mother of Cats has been making hats all week.CoalBear: She spends more time with the hats than with me. I need more toys!!!
The Mother of Cats went off and left us all weekend long and let me tell you, I had a really hard time controlling the kitten while she was gone. He left his toys all over the house. He ate all of the kitten food. He pulled one of the quilts off of the wall. I was pretty exhausted by the time the Mother of Cats came back, and after all of that the kitten and I refused to let her out of our sight. We made her feed us as soon as she got home and we loaded up on some cookies, too. The kitten made her carry him around for some time, but I’m a big girl now and I didn’t do that. We did make her play with us with the laser light: seriously, that’s the least she could do for us, right?! It was a long weekend!
Then we hung out on the bookshelf in the bedroom keeping watch the whole time she was unpacking her bags…And then we settled in up there to keep an eye on her while she slept. All night.
We’re still keeping our eye on her but mostly this week she has been good and stayed with us to knit more hats.
The kitten has been especially helpful while she has been working on the hats. He is a lot of work, but he has a good heart and is lots of fun.
Ugh. The last two weeks have been a blur. I’ve been rolling with the punches and trying to make the best of things as I dealt with all the good, bad, and ugly of the last 14 days. My son is better and is out of the hospital. I fractured a rib on the opposite side from my bad hip, and walking with a cane became utter torture for a week. My outdoor roses are blooming their hearts out. I had bloodwork done and I’m happy to report that I am recovering some lost ground with my scleroderma-induced organ damage. Ruth Bader Ginsberg died. The smoke rolled back in from the western wildfires, my symptoms flared, and the weather turned nasty hot again. Inhaled steroids brought my symptoms back under control in just a couple of days! My neighbor repaired the fence between our yards: this is great news because… pit pull in her yard. The Covid-19 death toll passed 200,000 in the US. I bought some wicked cute new clothes. Miss Pitty-Pat, the cutest hamster ever, died. I went crazy and bought new yarn, and I finished knitting my fabulous The Sharon Show.
It is done.
I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed this entire MKAL experience. It was so much fun; the rapidly changing knitted elements in the shawl made it engaging and interesting, and the support and camaraderie of the Facebook group was just amazing. Did I mention that there is cat snark and policing going on, not to mention the multi-state chase of a stolen squad car with a platter of sushi in the glove box? In fact, the whole thing has been so positive that the adventure continues with another MKAL being run by Sharon that is a cowl called The Secret Handshake and the Facebook group is all atwitter with excited knitters showing off their yarn, the first knitted efforts with Clue 1, their drinks (yes, these clues come with beverage recipes…), and the kittens that they just adopted. If you don’t want to own a cat, this is a dangerous group for you as kitten adoption seems to be contagious right now…
Speaking of kittens, Hannah and I had our birthdays last week and we made cookies to celebrate. As chance would have it, my birthday and Hannah’s 6 month birthday were the same day.
This is Hannah on the day I brought her home…
And on our birthday last week. Boy, has she grown.
I had planned a post all about Hannah, but it kind of flamed out in the general chaos of the last two weeks. She is growing fast and has really started to develop a personality all her own. Especially when I’m working in the kitchen!
Which brings me back to the cookies. 50 years ago I copied this cookie recipe out of my mom’s loose leaf collection of favorites. It was originally a gumdrop recipe that has been adapted to become my family’s favorite chocolate chip recipe. Here it is for you, as a birthday present from me. 🙂
These cookies are coming to you straight out of the 50’s. Enjoy!
Cream together:
1 cup softened butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
Add and mix well:
2 large (or extra large) eggs
Add to the bowl and mix well:
2 cups white flour (I never bother to sift)
2 cups fast cooking (minute) oatmeal
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. vanilla extract
(1 tsp. salt – I never add this as I am living the salt free life and if there was salt in the butter you may not want it. Suit your own taste.)
Add in 12 ounces of chocolate chips (or about 2 cups) and mix well. If the mixture is too crumply for your liking you can add a little milk.
Spoon cookie amounts of the dough onto the cookie sheet, flatten a little if you like with a little pat, and bake about 10-12 minutes at 350°F. The cookies should be lightly brown on top and will spread as they bake; they puff up while baking and then flatted when they are done. Let them cool before you start eating them!! These cookies freeze well and have survived shipment in care packages many times over the years.
My mom would put all kinds of things into the dough… raisins, chopped dates, nuts, gummi bears, shredded coconut, you name it. It’s your cookie, make it your own!! The total amount of additives should be around two cups. I’ve also used old fashioned rolled oats, but I didn’t enjoy them as much as the instant oats.
Happy cookie crunching, everyone!
I think that I may now go online and buy a little more yarn while crunching my own cookies…
I love water. Water is my favorite thing right now. I watch it in the sink. I play with it in the bath tub. I splash it around my food bowl. I play with the water that the Kitten Mom puts on the plants. I love to knock over the water jug over to make the water come out. Water is fun…
There were big crashes and lights and loud noises and these huge blops of water fell right out of the sky and hit me right through the window screen. I didn’t do anything and IT HIT ME!!! And the noise just kept getting louder once the water blops started.
I wailed. Kind of a lot.
The Kitten Mom carried me until it stopped.
Then I had cookies.
Hannah, 5 months old.
>^..^<
Note from Kitten Mom: After almost no rain in two months we had a real thunderstorm with huge drops that had to be melted hailstones along with thunder and lightening: Hannah’s first real thunderstorm.
Here I am again, posting late on Sunday night. This week was not good. Bad week, bad!! Seriously, it was just multi-dimensional in the badness that went on during the week. I have to admit that it can’t all be blamed on the calendar, although I do think that 2020 continues to behave in a completely unacceptable batshit manner. Fire tornadoes?! Really! Two hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico at the same time?! There is an asteroid approaching earth? Of course there is! 2020, just stop right now!!
An interesting development of the week was Hannah discovering MacKnitzie on the bookshelf. She’d been up there several times before, but now she thinks that it is fun to drag him down by his tail onto the floor to play with. Such a determined girl, she is undaunted by the crash of falling books…
Incorrigible! I think that MacKnitzie is in for a few adventures…
There was almost no reading this week and very little knitting. Why? Just read on, my friends. 🙂
I am fighting an infection, which is always a situation where I first respond with an “oh, oh” and then with a shortly followed word that won’t be shared here. I went onto antibiotics and off my immunosuppressant drugs: race time!! As my immune system revs up and attacks the infection I am also going into a flare of my disease. SO NOT GOOD!! The plan is that the antibiotics will tip the scales to favor defeating the infection before I’m too sick. Ugh. As I got sicker and sicker from my autoimmune buddies I started sleeping through most of the day.
We waltzed around with triple digit heat all week. That slight wailing you hear is my crispy garden plants crying in the heat. The louder wailing you hear is me…
There are horrible wildfires going on in my state and California that are sending smoke my way. A lot of smoke. The sun is a dull red ball in the sky, ash is falling, and things don’t look to improve soon. My distress needle is firmly pegged in the red. My lungs think this isn’t optimal. The smoke is affecting my eyes so I can’t read and I’m staying on oxygen 24/7 while this is going on. I know that this is nothing compared to the people fighting the fires and evacuated from their (possible destroyed) homes. The latest news is that Australia is sending California fire fighting resources, and our governor just activated the National Guard. There is another tough week ahead.
The nightly news over the last week was also enough to make anyone go back to bed. In the midst of an uncontrolled pandemic that has me trapped in isolation with my adventure-seeking kitten, completely dependent on delivery services, evidence surfaced this last week that the postal service has been sabotaged. No wonder my prescriptions have been wandering around and arriving late and why hasn’t my printer ink come yet!! I’m taking this really personally since now, instead of just messing with the world supply of hydroxychloroquine, a drug that I need to control my Sjogren’s and scleroderma, the agency I need to bring it to my door is also under attack. Instead of knitting I directed energy to writing my congressmen.
It is the 6th anniversary this week of my scleroderma diagnosis. Normally this date wouldn’t lay me low, but this week I couldn’t walk, breath, eat anything without a negative consequence, and… you get the idea. Sad anniversary, scleroderma.
Whew! The flaming hot hard lump in my leg is much better today and I went back onto my immunosuppressant drugs. This evening, as I type this, my dizziness has faded away and I feel almost peppy walking on legs that don’t hurt. Yay! Hopefully the antibiotics will manage on their own from now on.
Bring it, 2020! I’m ready for you again!
Knitting
I did manage to get some knitting done through the week. I am now working away on the lace outer edge of my Far Away Dreams Shawl. Look!
My goal for the week was to get the lace edging done, and truthfully I worked into the wee hours of the morning last night to get there, but nope, not yet. It is starting to look really nice (all bunched up on the needles…) and I’m liking that dark color for the lace more and more.
I’m also still working on The Sharon Show. The third clue dropped Friday but I am doggedly knitting along on Far Away Dreams since I am so close to the end and I should be able to catch up with Sharon later on in the week. I did download the pattern and discovered that this third clue had lace sections. WOOHOO!! I love lace. This MKAL shawl is going to fantastic. The knitting goals for the week are now set: finish Far Away and then Clue 3 of the Sharon Show.
Also, I dug around in the yarn stash to find some yarn to make another Sharon Show. This shawl is fun!
Garden
I can’t really go outside too much, but by wearing a mask I’m managing to make short trips out to water plants and pick up mail. I wanted to buy some more bedding plants for the fall to replace ones that expired in the heat, but the way things are going right now I decided to take down the hanging pots and put them on top of the dead planters in the front yard. What do you think?
The heat hasn’t been kind to the plants so I babied them for a week on the deck before moving them out front. There is more shade in the front and I hope that they will continue to recover and bloom.
Books: don’t make me laugh. Smoke in my eyes and all that…
Have a great week, everyone!!
Read a little, knit a little, and garden like your heart can’t live without it.
Here I am with a late post following an hectic, nonproductive week. Well, it was actually productive, but not in the ways that I wanted it to be. It is very hot here, very dry, and our wildfires are worse than they were last week. There is so much smoke in the air now that I’m trapped in the house from the air alerts: tonight I wore a mask when I watered the lawn and that helped. Good thing I have some masks laying around, right?
So, what is going on, you ask? I’m knitting, and cooking, and cleaning house. I bought stuff on Amazon to fix things up. That sounds good, right? Well… I’m doing the Sharon Show MKAL and I really, really want to print out the pattern. I ordered ink, but it doesn’t fit my printer. I found an old printer from my classroom in the garage, hooked it up, and tried to get it going. Nope. I dug through office drawers and my old school supplies hunting for ink cartridges and cords. I learned how to activate wireless printing. Three hours later I had cleaned parts of the office and garage while fussing with the printers and I had gotten no where. I gave up and ordered more ink for both machines. Sigh. I need a print out of the pattern to get through the next round of clues… Hey, I’m chronically ill. After all of that I couldn’t knit anyway. Nap time!!
Round 2 of the quintessential summer game.
Last night a moth got into the house and flapped its way into the tall torch floor lamp by my knitting chair. Hannah immediately went airborne, tore right up the lamp to get her moth, and the whole thing came down in slow motion with me trying to get untangled from my knitting fast enough to grab the lamp while Hannah scrambled to get out of the way. Disaster in slow motion!. It took a bad bounce off the chair and hit the floor: the glass shade and a light exploded into shards. Standing at the perimeter of the debris field Hannah and I could see the stunned moth at ground zero; undaunted by events, Hannah just tip-toed in and took her moth away. Instead of playing with the moth I collected glass and vacuumed the downstairs for the second time in one day. Hey, I’m chronically ill and that was the end of the knitting for the night. Bed time!
The pill organizer that my sister sent me to help me keep track of my meds for the week.
Today I carefully set up my pill keeper for the week making sure that Hannah was safely occupied and unlikely to get involved. I was being sooo careful with the pills. I just needed to get this new bottle of one medicine from the drawer to finish up… and I bumped the phone cord, the phone hit the pill case, and the pill case with all of the little doors open tipped over and hit the ground. I threw Hannah out of the room and carefully picked up all the pills, counted them and returned them to the little compartments with little Hannah paws flashing under the door all the while. All good, except that there was one pill missing… I searched for that pill for 2 hours as I moved furniture, books, and then vacuumed the room again. I ended up cleaning the bathroom and laundering the bedding while I was on the search, but I never found that pill. I am sure that it is not where she can easily get it, and that will have to do for now. Hey, I’m chronically ill and I didn’t get any knitting done until late this evening because… nap!!
So, with all of the disasters, cleaning, naps and everything else, I just didn’t get that much done this week. I’m staying out of the garden because of the smoke, and outdoor pictures are really poor now, too. I’m not reading this week either because the smoke affects my eyes. I do have some knitting to show off!
Knitting
I’m finally knitting around the edges of the Far Away Dreams shawl. Next up: the lace border.
I have mixed feeling about this shawl with the light interior and the darker lace, but that’s the way the stash worked out. I already have plans for another version with a darker interior and a very light lace border. This is a nice calm knit for stressful times and I may be making a few more to gift at the holidays.
I was going to be good and not show off any pictures from the Sharon Show MKAL, but it is on Facebook now and I’m going to show off some of my efforts. If you don’t want to see any of these pictures, just stop reading my blog right now! Three… two… one. For anyone who is left, I just have to say that I am having so much fun with this!! The pattern is just a riot to read and I love the snarky cat voice of Sharon. The shawl contains many little sections showing off the colors, patterns and some texture, and the names are just a riot!
This little section is called “Scratch Marks on the New Velvet Chair”.
This section which features thorn stitch is called “Secret Spy Place”. All cats have secret spy places and this stitch also evokes the very floofy tail that Sharon flaunts.
See Hannah in her Secret Spy Place in the yarn stash?
Here is Hannah napping on the finished Clue 1 of the shawl. I am so happy with all the action going on as I knit.
This is a great, fun project and I am hanging out with people on a Facebook group as we all knit. I am thrilled with the size, and as I wear a lot of grey and black in the winter this shawl is going to work out great for me. That is, if Hannah is going to let me wear it… Today is her 5th month birthday and she is kind of wanting the shawl all for herself!!
After the whole moth/kitten/lamp adventure that’s MY shawl, Hannah!
Let’s hope that the printer ink from Amazon comes in another day or so as I am at the point where I really, really need a paper pattern to work off of.
Sharon, please don’t write me a citation for being bad and showing off the shawl in progress. I did warn people, I did!!
Have a great week, everyone!!
Read a little, knit a little, and garden like your heart can’t live without it.
I love hanging out in front of the window fan in the mornings.
The Kitten Mom and I have been hanging out indoors all day long because it is really hot and smoky outside. A brand new box of toys came from Chewy this week and I was so excited to help the Kitten Mom unpack it. There was kitten food (!), kitty litter (ugh) and some toys. The best thing in the box, however, was the packing paper!!!!
I love the packing paper! I sleep in it, play with my toys in it, and drag it all around the house.
I go crazy running through the paper with my toys and every single time the Kitten Mom walks by I flop over in the papers, meow, and make the Kitten Mom pet me for a few minutes. She has been remarkably easy to train, the Kitten Mom.
Then she used the Chewy box to make me a playground of connected boxes. I have half of my toys in there already!! There are doors that connect all of the boxes so that no matter where the Kitten Mom is walking I can rush out and attack her. This is so much fun!!!
Then there are the toys that I find by carefully exploring the house. I got the best ribbon in the world off of the new orchid plant, and after dragging around a plastic bag with spinning fiber the Kitten Mom gave me a skein of yarn in a plastic bag secured with a hair tie. That yarn is the best kick toy ever!!
I love these toys!
I play a lot in the bathroom in the mornings. I pull up the drain plug in the bathtub, chase through the shower curtains, and put my toys under the rugs. I sleep on the wet towels after the Kitten Mom’s showers and help her water floss her teeth at night. The bathroom is a whole kitten playground!! My favorite, by far, is the toilet!! Oh, my goodness! This is so cool!
I do have to mention that there are some things that the Kitten Mom seems to feel are NOT toys. I tore a piece of the fern off and she was very disappointed with me. Oh. That plant is not a toy, I guess. She actually said NO! to me. I dragged the Teflon sheet that she uses while working on the quilt downstairs and she took that away from me too. Hey, I only tore it up a little bit… those holes aren’t that big. It was okay because that is when she gave me the bag of yarn to kick and bite on. Finally, there is the issue with yarn. I like to bite the yarns in half. The Kitten Mom is always a little sad when I do it, so I am stopping that too.
But yarn is really nice to take a nap on!
Notes from the Kitten Mom:
There are several serious fires burning in Colorado this week. The I-70 freeway through the Rocky Mountains is closed right now because of a fire and there is a really large one on the western slope too. The weather continues to be hot, dry, and windy which isn’t helping the fire fighters. I’m indoors for now avoiding the smoke.
Do a look a little startled? That’s because Kitten Mom woke me up for this picture.
I’ve been very busy the last two weeks. I’m growing like a weed (that’s what Kitten Mom says…) and I’m learning lots of new things and developing some wonderful skills. I can now streak up the screen door all the way to the top every time the Kitten Mom tries to come in! I love to race through my crackly tube when we go downstairs. I can jump higher and race faster then ever, and there are so many wonderful things that I can do now.
Like hunt bugs!
This moth was hanging out on the wall in the bedroom one night…
when I saw it!
I launched right into motion! I flew past the Kitten Mom’s head, pushed off the headboard, and hit the wall right next to the moth. I knocked some stuff off the table as I followed the moth down (who knew the Kitten Mom could grab a falling lamp that fast! Almost kitten-like in her reflexes…) That moth took off across the floor and I dove through a gap under the table to grab it mid-air. What an awesome move! I looked like the kitten version of She-Ra!! Then the moth darted sideways and flew into the bookshelf…
Hey, where did it go? I saw it fly in here, but now it is gone…
I found one of the wings on the floor, but the moth is just gone. I’ve been looking for it for days now in the bookshelf and there just isn’t any sign of it. Hey, that is so unfair! I wasn’t done playing with it yet! I’ve looked in the bathtub, and under the bed, and all through the bookshelf several times, but I still can’t find it. Darn.
I asked MacKnitzie where the moth is and he doesn’t know either.
Today I got over the moth and doubled down on playing with the water in the toilet. The Kitten Mom keeps messing with it and the WATER MOVES!! This is so cool. Almost as cool as the moth.
Sigh.
Forget the toilet. I still want my moth. Maybe tonight it will be there if I push down more books…
Notes from the Kitten Mom:
Hannah is a very effective bug hunter and has located several creepy crawlies since she came to live with me. I don’t know whether to be grateful that she locates those spiders or horrified that there are spiders for her to run to ground. Anyway, she plays with them until I take them away. Moths, however, are where she shines as she can instantly transform into an athletic airborne kitten wonder. Who knew?
Are you ready for this? I’M OUT OF THE FLARE!!! Whew. I was starting to get a little depressed with the whole flare experience when suddenly I turned the corner and I was finally on the mend. I’m crediting the improvement to the change in weather here in Colorado: the monsoon started and we have had days of cooler weather with rain and absolutely no smoke. I’m up getting things done again, I’m eating real food, and life is good. Just in time, too, because this week has totally been the Hannah show.
You’re talking about me?
Suddenly Hannah is brave and exploring; getting into trouble everywhere. She climbed into the refrigerator. She attacked the orchids. She pulled my knitting out of a bag and ran through the house with it. She rushes through the door into the backyard each time I open it. She ambushes me from hidden locations as I walk by… and she helps me with all of my projects, of course. She’s pretty sure that I just exist to play with her, which is kind of accurate.
Quilting
Hannah and I have returned to the craft room where I’m working on a quilt and listening to audiobooks while Hannah bats at everything that she can and tortures the orchids.
I’m almost done with the first block of the Calling Me Home quilt by Pine Needles. This is the detail work on the left side of the block.
This is an art quilt that is created by fusing little pieces of fabric down and then stitching around each little piece when you do the final quilting. I still have to build a little log cabin and an eagle on this block, and then it is on to one with bear cubs climbing up a tree. This is so much fun! Hannah is having the time of her life and I have developed new levels of materials management.
Knitting
I am just rolling in knitting projects at the moment with 4 different WIPs going at once: two shawls, a cowl and a pair of tipless gloves. I buckled down and focused on one project this week; I finished the Breathe and Hope shawl today. It’s not blocked yet, but it is done!
Here it is, an unblocked heap. Still, you can get an idea of the colors and different textures that make up this shawl.
I was first drawn to the shawl by the corrugated sections which are actually mosaic knitting as you knit only one color at a time and slip the other colored stitches as you knit along. Between the mosaic sections there are blocks of knitting that are built on variations of garter and stockinette that feature knit below stitches. I kind of knew about “knit below” but this is the first time I’ve actually created something using them. They kind of mimic brioche, and I’m now a fan!
Sections of garter separated by K1, K1B sequences which build the lacy look of the variegated yarn.
Now that I’m done with the shawl I have to say that my absolute favorite part is this bind off with the knots inserted into the purl stitches of the K2, P2 ribbing. So cute!!
I still have those three other knitting projects to work on in the coming week, but I have to admit that I am champing at the bit to cast on another Breathe and Hope. Maybe one with brighter colors?
Garden
After weeks of hot dryness the garden had been struggling, but this week the cooler days and rain really turned things around. Plants are growing again and I think that there are some buds appearing on plants. I’m very hopeful of blooms to come! In the meanwhile, let me show off the bunny that has brazenly taken over the back yard and teases Hannah at the back window.
As you can see, this bunny is being pretty brave and has been cruising the back yard eating all of the plants that I have been nurturing for Miss Pitty-Pat’s snacks. Hannah is a fan of these visits, however, so it’s all good. Sorry the window is dirty… as you can see, it is at ground level and the rain splashes up dirt. On the other hand, if it wasn’t at ground level the bunny wouldn’t be looking in at Hannah!
Books
I’m still working my way through the science fiction series from last week, but last night I switched over to a new book for my book club. I’m not too far into it, but it is starting out strong.
I’m back in Mexico!
I lived for years in a city located right at the border with Mexico along the edge of the Pacific Ocean; reading this book makes me long for good Mexican food and the colors, smells, and sounds of the city I came to age in. I want a good taco!! Is it too much to ask for fresh fruit and ocean spray? Maybe a little barbacoa? Anyway, starting this book makes me remember the abandoned American Dirt sitting on my shelf. Guess I’m going to be in Mexico instead of outer space for the next week.
Have a great week, everyone!!
Read a little, knit a little, and garden like your heart can’t live without it.
Footnote:
Where is this city that I’m waxing nostalgic about? It would be Imperial Beach, California. Here’s a shot I stole off Facebook of the street I used to live on…
Doesn’t this make you long for tacos, salty air, and the call of seagulls? Of course, classmates who had gone to Mexico City told me that our version of tacos was pathetic compared to the authentic, street cart versions they discovered there.
I’m exactly 4 months old today. Don’t I look wonderful?
It’s also been a whole month since I came home from the scary cat shelter to live with Kitten Mom. I was really upset the whole way home in the car and then cried whenever I lost sight of her for days. It was a scary time for me. The Kitten Mom petted me a lot, fed me yummy kitten food, and gave me lots of toys. I love my toys!! I take them everywhere with me.
I learned how to climb the screen door.
I started taking naps in the weeping fig tree’s pot.
And I made friends with the hamster. Kitten Mom tells me that her name is Miss Pitty-Pat.
I love Miss Pitty-Pat almost as much as I love my toys.
This week the Kitten Mom and I have been playing in the yarn room (Oh my goodness, you wouldn’t believe all of the exciting stuff that is in that yarn room! I learned how to climb the bookshelf and push down boxes of yarn! I dragged balls of string across the floor and found lots of crinkly bags to sleep on!), and this morning she decided that we could play with some pink and grey yarn. We took the yarn downstairs with some other stuff. Toys!! I was so excited to have another toy. Look at this:
Kind of a funny kitten toy, don’t you think? Still, this could be fun…
Hey, why does this yarn keep moving? This isn’t as much fun as I thought it would be.
Wait. There is paper! I like to chomp and chase paper… How nice of the Kitten Mom to put this toy here for me!
Now the Kitten Mom is knitting with that yarn.
See what a good girl I am? I don’t really like to chase the yarn while the Kitten Mom is knitting; I like to eat the papers!! All the papers!! Maybe I can chase them a little too, but mostly I have to tear them into little itty bitty bits. Maybe she will give me papers later… or some other toys… or just pet me… or…
Hannah, 4 months old.
Maybe when I wake up we can play some more…
Notes from the Kitten Mom:
Hannah was the last kitten left in the shelter when I saw her last month. She was a failed adoption who had been returned after three days in her first home. I put her on my lap and petted her for a few minutes as she purred; when I tried to put her back on the ground she cried and clung to me. That was that: I had a kitten.
As I filled out her paperwork one of the shelter employees asked if I was prepared to deal with a crying kitten at 3am. Oh. That’s what the problem was, I thought. Hannah cried at me through the window the entire time I was getting the paperwork done. Good set of kitten lungs, I thought.
Yep. She glued herself to me for the first 24 hours and cried each time I moved. Poor thing. We got through the night and she continued to stay right with me at all times for the first week. Now she still stays near me and uses me as a huge playmate/cat toy. Except at night. Then little miss independent rockets around the house with a toy in her mouth. She and Pitty-Pat are best friends.
There has been some yarn chomping, but she has already grown out of the behavior. Now she would rather eat the pattern pages.
I had desperately wanted a yellow tabby stripped male kitten, but ended up with this tuxedo coated little girl. I have exactly the kitten that is right for me.
She doesn’t like kitty cookies: MacKenzie would be so disgusted!
Week 26?! Do you realize that we are now at the halfway point for the year? I don’t know about you, but 2020 has been just horrendous so far. I do hope that it decides to straighten up and fly right for the second part of the year…
There has been a lot going on for me this week, but I think that I will just start out with the Hannah update. Hannah, who is almost certainly the last kitten that I will raise, is turning out to be the perfect mix of all the cats I have loved in the past. She is affectionate and attached to me, easy to distract and train, smart, talkative, and fearless. She ignores the plants and hasn’t gone after my knitting all week!!
She is particularly fond of little stuffed toys that she can fling around and carry from room to room in her mouth.
Okay, it isn’t all sunshine and roses. She climbs into the refrigerator and dishwasher every time I open them. She started climbing the screen door and curtains today. She pestered me to wake up this morning because she wanted me to turn off the oxygen machine so she could play downstairs… I’m hoping that that doesn’t turn into a thing! Still, I am so happy to have my little buddy now that it appears that Covid-19 won’t be going away any time soon in my part of the world.
Knitting
I’m making some progress on my socks! The first sock is done, and now I’m cruising through the second sock. I’m focusing on small projects that I can quickly stuff into a project bag because… kitten!!
Look at how much progress I’ve made!
I really like the way the knitted fabic looks!
I love the stripes so much that I’ve been daydreaming and trying to work out how to knit tipless gloves by adapting my usual fingerless mitt pattern to put on the half fingers. Wanting to maximize the amount of leftover yarn I dug through the stash and located the purple yarn that I’m using for the heel and toe portions of the socks. I’m pretty pleased with the look, and now I’m wondering how to incorporate the purple into the gloves. My Ravelry notes are here.
Garden
The week has been one of gloomy afternoons and thunderstorms. Luckily I haven’t had damaging wind or hail, and the roses continue to strut their stuff. My Princess Alexandra of Kent rose in particular continues to shine.
This rose is a David Austin English rose and I keep thinking that I should get some more. My neighbors and I fixed the fences this summer, so maybe those new fences should have some climbing roses planted near them. Something to think about. I really like yellow roses…
Books
I finished The Mirror & The Light this week. I hardly know what to say. This is a rich, rich book that will continue to haunt me in the weeks to come and I may need to read the entire Wolf Hall trilogy again. Maybe it is because I am entering my fourth month of isolation, and I have lots of time on my hands to reflect on things, but the richness of the characters and the subtle connections of the past to the present as the story plays out, but never really ends, are just astounding. Cromwell ponders on how images painted in the past bleed through new paint to show in the present as he remembers violent actions in his past. Memories of his years as a soldier rise as he marches into meetings and dinners. Near the end of his life, imprisoned in the Tower of London, he recaptures that transformative moment, broken and bloodied in the street, when he abandoned his childhood to launch on the path to who he was now. At the start of this book one of the standout lines is, “if you cannot speak truth at a beheading, when can you speak it?” At Cromwell’s own beheading there is a sense of truth and transition again; I was dreading the end of the book, but you know what, it was actually hopeful and a befitting closure to a great life.
After a book like that, what next? Science fiction, of course! I launched right into a fun little space military opera that is a three book series and I’m happily working my way through it.
There are a number of characters who are slowly being developed and connected as the story line progresses. There was a war. One planet lost. The losers are suffering under harsh peace treaty stipulations. There is some type of rebellion brewing. I sniff corporate greed and political machinations on the horizon. Must keep reading…
Quilting
Look at this! A new category just appeared again. This week has been kind of tough on me joint-wise, and I have finally made myself admit that I need to lay off the knitting for a while. Okay, my joints are really kicking up a fuss, and my shoulder is the biggest complainer. Sigh. It’s like all of the tendons and ligaments are under attack at once, and my drugs aren’t keeping up any more. I’m already on a lot of drugs, and in the world of Covid I’m fearful of getting steroid injections into the worse joint complainers because it increases my immunosuppressive load. Scleroderma, you need to behave yourself!! Anyway, I need to lay off the knitting, so I dived into my endless stash of “projects that I want to make someday” and…. pulled out a really cute art quilt!
This is the first block of an eight block quilt.
This is the first block to build “Calling Me Home” by McKenna Ryan. The picture is built by tracing the pattern onto little bits of fabric that are then fused together. No sewing at all until I get the whole quite top put together. I’m thinking that my shoulder can handle this…
All of these little bits of fabric, to be exact.
It’s like an adventure! All I have to do is figure out which little fabric bit goes with what. Luckily I have that picture to help guide me. This is going to be a little like building a jigsaw puzzle! I hope that Hannah behaves herself while I’m cutting all of the pieces out.
Have a great week, everyone!!
Read a little, knit a little, and garden like your heart can’t live without it.
Yarn, Books & Roses 