Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Cutie

It's been really hard lately to do much of anything.
My Cutie, best friend of almost 20 years, has gone. He isn't suffering anymore, and for that I am glad, but I am utterly distraught. He was the most gentle and loving cat in the world, and he admirably tolerated such things as my childhood, a mother who chewed off his whiskers, and having to get shots in his eyes. There were many times when we thought the end was close, but he pulled through and outlived any of our expectations.



I think it was about three years ago that Rachel was home alone with him (Mom and Dad were visiting family, and I was in Austin taking a summer class), when he took a very bad turn and she took him to the vet to be told that he had a tumor, and wouldn't last long, so she should take him home and spoil him. At his age, he had little chance of surviving cancer treatment and even if he did, his quality of life would greatly decrease. It wasn't worth it. So we spoiled him, and he stuck around for it longer than we thought he would. Every day with him was a gift.



I've finished the knitting on my Market Squares bag, and that seems like such a worthless accomplishment.
But I think it's good, in my grieving, to keep on doing productive things instead of hiding under my covers all day and wishing I were dead too, so I'm trying.

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Bummer and WIP

I finally got my Winter issue of Interweave Knits...


So I wrote them an e-mail as per the instructions on the website. They must be sick of hearing from me about this damned issue. Oh well! It's not really my problem!


At least the Market Squares Bag, which I started yesterday, is progressing nicely.
wip market squares
Banzai is inspecting my work. It's his job. I love the colors I've got, and I'm doing the tiers in a different color sequence because the final color (an off-white not seen in this photo) wasn't added to the project until after I'd started on that beige there and the two next to eachother lacked contrast and that just wouldn't work. And don't worry, according to somebody on Ravelry (I forget who), even the off-white color of this yarn felts. Huzzah.
This is such a learning project for me. Hem, entrelac, felting. And I'm finding that wool is really a pleasant yarn to work with.

Monday, January 14, 2008

Some knitting, but mostly cats

KNITTING


I finished another string bag and it has already been put to that most noble purpose of carrying a yarn store purchase, since we ate lunch at India Oven today and were so close that we had to go to Yarnivore. I spent $40. I am weak. But from that I should get a bag, some socks, and some playing, so it's not TOO bad, right...?




CATS

Cutie, now 19.5 years old, has been climbing the stairs mom made him to get up onto her bed to enjoy the sun that comes through the window and warms it. I love pictures of Cutie sleeping. He looks so peaceful and his back paws are crossed.
cutie_zoomed

This cat below lives in our neighborhood and likes to hang around our yard. I guess she's probably about a year old or so.

IMG_0066

Sunday, January 13, 2008

string bags

market_bag
I've been knitting some shopping bags lately, for my own personal use, and of stash I've had lying around. The blue/green/yellow one has gone to my mom, though, when she commented that shopping bags were "really a good idea". These are both of my own design, and very simple. The ecru-colored one is some twine I picked up at the UT co-op, and is done in crochet only. The colorful one, with knitted body and crochet top and bottom, is Sugar'n Cream in "Summer Splash" that I bought a ton of way back when I started to knit because the colors so charmed me. I still feel just as fond of it because it's so cheery.
new mesh bag
Every time I take a step, I feel like it's not enough. So I'm trying to remember that no matter how small, a step is a step. And I think that maybe the next step is to try and get everyone I know to use reusable shopping bags. I figure that, with any luck, I could even sell them at like $5 each? I don't know.