Goodbye, Mr. Hyde

Mr. Hyde died on October 13. We miss him terribly.

The Return

Siamese Catfood Breath #1,

aka Mr. Hyde, Count Hydula, Mr. Hidey-Tail, Amalmal, Piggy, the Hydamaphone, Count Wide-ula, Big Jekyll, and Darth Hydeus

was found to be suffering from kidney failure on Tuesday afternoon. After much soul-searching, it was decided to admit him to the vetrinary hospital Wednesday morning, where he stayed for 2.5 days receiving an IV treatment which may extend his life up to six months.

He came home this afternoon. He needs special prescription cat food, IV fluids every other day, and is somewhat incontinent due to the huge amount of fluids needed to flush his kidneys.

It wasn't his time yet.

If it is possible for a cat to be deliriously happy, he certainly is. (he's not the only one)

Postus Interruptus

I know, I know....but regular posting will resume soon.

We promise!

Pressing On

In an act of amazing self-control, a skill that I am not ordinarily known for, I have resisted casting on another project and continue to chant the mantra 'Lace Ribbon Scarf, Father & Son socks, Stork's Nest Socks, Print O' the Wave...........Lace Ribbon Scarf, Father & Son socks, Stork's Nest Socks, Print O' the Wave.....".

All the while my brain is screaming "...Salto!.....SALTO!.....SALTO!!!!!!

In this:

Sundara Sock (what else?) in Toffee

Progress on the Lace Ribbon Scarf:

More than ready for that last ball to shrink into nothing.

In an attempt to stay focused on the projects at hand, I have been documenting my yarn stash in order to have a complete accounting on Ravelry. Stash pics here. Before you say "Wow, that is A LOT"......wait. That is just my sock yarn (mostly). More to come.

Can I say again how much I LOVE this camera?!!? A piece of foam core and some nice indirect afternoon sunlight and my pictures are filled with a personality that I have never seen before. Some of my favorites:

Claudia Hand Painted Yarns in Purple Earth


misc. Fearless Fibers


misc. Radiant Twist

In an experiment I wondered if this treatment would raise the status of some other household objects:

Little broken bunny


Shaving mug


Pee Pee Boy

Maybe, maybe not?

I didn't mess with the manual controls at all, but I intend do. All of this was done in a 15 minute chunk of yesterday while Charlie did this:


And although it looks like it could happen, no, he has never fallen off of the bed and landed on his head.

In Focus (finally)

It was my birthday on Friday, Christian got me this gorgeous camera, which I will share with you by showing the amazing pictures that this camera takes. In a serendipitous occurrence, I received a shipment of Sundara yarn the same day, so without further ado, here are some lovely, lovely, lovely pictures....

These three skeins are Blue-Grey over Shell, destined to be some kind of shawl, when I get some more WIPs out of the way.

Next is Orchard Pear, which I think looks a lot like Mossy from the Autumn Season's Club. I don't mind in the least. I specifically chose the Blue-Grey over Shell, but I also asked Sundara to throw in a skein of her favorite color from this batch, and this is what she chose.

And finally, here is my last shipment from the Season's Club--this is probably my favorite color right now. I'd love to do a little scarf out of this one as well.

I can see many, many more pictures finally showing up in my Ravelry stash.

To Do/Have Done

To Do:

1. Finish Early Spring socks. I've nearly finished one, just need to fix the bind off (it's TOO big, if you can imagine that!). I have my doubts on how practical making socks out of a yarn made out of half silk, half merino is, but I just couldn't resist it when I had so much left over from my Stork's Nest Scarf. They will probably fuzz up after 5 minutes of wearing.

2. Finish Christian's socks (still!). I finished two pairs of socks while in Florida, but avoided these, probably because I'm nervous about finding my place in the pattern after so long.

3. In place of not working on Christian's socks, I started the Lace Ribbon Scarf from Knitty. I bought two skeins of Silken Straw from Yarns 2 Ewe several months ago, and this is just the project to use them. It's a quick knit and I hope to have it done by my Grandma's 90th birthday at the end of April.

4. Another thing that I need to have finished by then is this big orange mass. It's hard to tell, but this is the ubiquitous Print O' the Wave, almost finished except for of the knitted border. It's really less of a shawl and more of a small blanket now, which is fine for my grandma (it's destined to be her present). This has been 'Hibernating', to use Ravelry terminology, since February 2007.

(eek, I can't find it! Picture coming soon!)

5. Resist the urge cast on for the April Sockdown challenge on April 1. (yeah, right)

6. Figure out why my loaves of bread ended up looking like this. (hey, I'm a bread baker now!)

Have Done:

1. Dipped my toes in the Atlantic Ocean. I don't get to do this again until June.

2. Finished Marina Piccola. I'm not very happy with these, and am glad to finish them. I got so sick of knitted twisted stitches on size 0 needles. Plus, since I was actually purling on half of the second sock, and not at all correctly on the first, even though they are exactly the same, the gauge is off, and one if a half inch longer than the other. You can't possibly think that I would even consider reknitting one, just to make them match!

3. Finished Undulating Ribs. I love the yarn base, I love the pattern, and yes, I do love the fact that they are fraternal twins. They were promptly stolen by my sister. (I secretly love it when non-knitters covet my knitting)

4. Baked bread. I can actually cook with yeast, and things (mostly) turn out! I also made hot cross buns for Easter, but I don't have a picture.

5. Helped Charlie eat his Easter candy. Even though I made an effort to buy only a minimal amount of candy, we still ended up with way too much.

6. Attended the Houston Rodeo. Lesson from the rodeo: if something could have rhinestones and/or studs on it, it SHOULD have rhinestones and/or studs on it. A LOT of them. (it was totally awesome!)

Time to publish this and knit a few more rows before I was Mr. Ickle up from him nap. Cheers!

A Day in the Life of Charlie, Part III

We're heading out to pick up Christian from work, and on our way to the car have the following conversation:

Me: We parked our car downstairs to we need to use the........ (elevator)

Charlie: Elevator!

Me: Yep. We have to use the elevator to go down to the........ (car)

Charlie: Car!

Me: That's right! We're going to the car to pick up .......... (Daddy)

Charlie: DOUGHNUTS!!!

Mmmmm...........Do-Nuts.