Singular Stitches: February 2007

What's soft and warm and purple all over?

Why, a new afghan, of course!

The mindless knitting of the last afghan (and, no, no new hairballs) was so fun, that I started a new one. I'm using up yarn stash which is also a good thing.

It's Lion Brand Homespun, in the colorway Barrington, a sumptuous mix of mainly a deep purple, with some magenta, robin's egg blue and sage thrown in for good measure.

Here's a closeup of the colors:

It's a replica of the first afghan, on US#9 circs, but it's not as many stitches across. The first one I made a bit on the wide side, but it's not worth ripping out and doing again.

And when I brought my computer down to the Ladies' Parlour to blogulate just before, I noticed a cluster of four ears over the edge of my blue chair in the family room. I HAD to grab the camera and share such cutitude...

Have a lovely weekend!

The Afghan

Here's the afghan:

Yarn: Lion Brand Yarn Homespun (Tudor colorway, 7 skeins)
Needles: US#9 Circular
I'm 5'3", so it's just about 5' long and about 3' wide, and very comfy!!

The pale stripes in the center were totally by accident (but if anyone asks, it was all part of the design plan :o). It just happened to be an oddly colored skein of yarn.

Needless to say, the kitties love it! So much so, that Abner felt it worthy of one of his hairballs. So, as I type this, the afghan has had it's first bath and is hanging to dry...

While on the subject of the kitties, we had LOADS of fun taking them to the vet this weekend for their annual check up. Since it's been so cold, DH went down to start the truck and run the heat, and I was left to round up the critters and deposit them in their carriers. (I really think DH planned it that way all along)

As soon as they saw me bring down the carriers, they ran upstairs and hid. (Note to self: Next year, close all upstairs doors before bringing the carriers down) Wow, can they hide! After working up a good sweat on the search and 'rescue' mission, both cats were loaded in the truck, singing us tunes (of love, I'm sure).

We always give the vet the choice: the easy one (Itchey) or the hard one (Abner) first? Itchey won, and when we took her out of the carrier, we found that she must have been so traumatized by the whole affair that she went in the carrier. I had to wash her off in the examining room sink before we could proceed. Other than that, Itchey is very accomodating and typically resembles a limp rag.

Onto Abner. He's not aggressive and has never bitten a vet, but he pretty much hisses and growls the entire time and will squirm. I held onto him and scratched his head (so in between hisses and growls, he'd briefly purr. Go figure).

The sad thing was a comment the vet made about him. She noticed while looking at his eyes that a slight film has begun to start on the edges. It's not cataracts, and it won't affect his vision, just a natural sign of aging. The kitties (my kittens) will be turning 11 this year and this is the first time they've showed signs of aging. My babies are growing up (in human years, they're 60), and there's physical evidence that they won't be around forever.

I guess the reason this has bothered me so much is that a coworker had to put her kitty down Friday evening. He just turned 18, and in a recent picture of him, he really looked no more than 10. Unfortunately, his kidneys stopped functioning and he went down hill very quickly. He was as special to her family as our kitties are to us.

Not trying to be down, the rest of the weekend was spent pampering the Puddies with even more attention, kisses, scratches and pets, cherishing their presence in our lives... :o)

And a happy Valentine's Day to you, too!

The past two days, we experienced what has been called the Valentine's Day Storm of 2007. Yay.

Tuesday came the snow, not like what New Yorkers have experienced, but a healthy 8 inches of snow. Snow I like.

DH being, well, DH...

Tuesday night brought sleet and freezing rain. Ice I do NOT like.

Unfortunately, this picture is blurry, but is does show what the snow looked like after getting freezing rain. It actually looked like Styrofoam. You can see the light from the lamps reflecting off the surface.

Both Tuesday and Wednesday, I worked from home. The kitties loved having Mummy and Daddy home. And don't they have the perfect solution for weathering out the storm?

BTW, that is the afghan I've been working on. It's completed, and I'll try to post a picture when the cats aren't using it. :o)

DH did try to put a positive spin on things, commenting that at least we spent all of Valentine's Day together...

Sylvie saves the day!!

I looked at the date of my last post. I really have been in hibernation mode! I'm surprised that Blogger recognized me!

It's been so cold, with highs in the teens (F) and lows around 0F. We've pretty much come home from work and curled up under a cover with a book (and a cat or two). Good old Punxsutawney Phil had better be right or we're voting him off the island!

I haven't even felt like cross stitching! (you know it's bad!)

A while back, I signed up for the Crazy Cat Lady Exchange at the Robin's Nest. The person who was supposed to stitch for me went MIA. Sylvie, the moderator for this exchange, kindly became my 'exchange angel' and I recently received her lovely package. The stitched pieces are cushion covers! Adorable! She also included a stitching kit of a kitty that looks like Itchey (I had just seen that kit online recently and was planning to get it!) and an Abner-themed dish towel for the kitchen.

She even included goodies for the kitties...

Here's Abner with Francois (so named by DH). And yes, those are my flannel cat paw PJs I made a number of years ago. The buttons on the top are alternating black and ginger cats... (why, yes, I AM a Crazy Cat Lady! :o)