Skipping about

I recently realized that I'd been skipping about the edges of topics in the last few blogs and that you-all were getting stray comments instead of plot threads...so here's an attempt to fill in the blanks.


Kitty introductions:
When I said, "The kitty-dynamics are improving - just in the past week, I've only been awakened once or twice with hissing/growling." in the Blog-iversary blog, I was referring to how the Kitty Introductions went when we loosed the orange-tabby brothers from their quarentine in the Computer room.


We started letting Mikale and Nikoli out for supervised visits with Gryphon and CooPurr almost a week after the Saturday when they came to live with us. 

Friday night we let them out for a little bit at a time - there was some general hissing and growling which devolved into sniffing and hissing.

We let them out a little more Saturday until they were loose in the house all of Sunday and Monday and pretty much no hissing. DH told me that Gryphon gave Nikoli kitty-kisses on his head on Monday so I thought we were golden. 

Tuesday, there were minor but LOUD fisticuffs…the big sweetie cats Mikale and CooPurr had some kind of disagreement – of which I missed the specifics.

I did get to see Gryphon streaking down the hallway to jump into the middle of whatever had started and he escalated it. He and Mikale did a couple of laps around the living room yelling at the top of their lungs. Some fur did fly and then Mikale and Nikoli headed for the computer room and I rousted Gryphon (who was now even hissing at CooPurr, just ‘cause) out of the computer room and everyone got a break for a bit. I let everyone out about a half hour/45-minutes later and everyone was fine.  


Things have settled down some. Mikale and CooPurr take turns copping attitude on each other – only sometimes – and generally limited to hissing and the occasional swipe.

Gryphon only gets riled up when everyone else does. He’s been investing time, somewhat successfully, in trying to get Nikoli to play with him. 

The nights of being awakened every couple of hours by someone growling about something seem to be past. (Yep, I'm tempting fate typing that bit...). Everyone is familiar with the squirty bottle concept and they scatter when  I get up and arm myself to diffuse growling fits.  

Blog Stylings:

Back in this bit o'ranting, I made an "announcement" that I was gonna revamp the blog format! 

I did invest a fair bit o'time in playing with the available formats. 

However, I could not find format that made my little blogging heart sing.  

Pretty formats & fun shapes - but they didn't keep things partitioned nicely. 
Too streamlined ("what happened to my stuff??" {stuff = lists to the right of this verbiage}), too pink (ugh/shudder), too many polka-dots, or the color scheme didn't work with the  banner picture I use...yada, yada, yada. 

Hence - the effort was made but I found I still liked my original format best.

(And...yet...now Blogger is tempting me with a "New! Template Designer" feature. 

Well, heck yeah, I'm gonna go play with it! Some time or 'nother... )

Sockiness:

The 5th pair of socks that I made for a friend - she loves them and THEY FIT!! Woo-hoo!!

And the 4 pairs of Socks I'm knitting on now...
Pair #6 - The "Lenore" Socks by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee in Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock Lightweight  "Raven Clan Corbie" colorway. 

Pair #7 - for my niece-in-law. I bought this yarn for her mom when I heard she was in the hospital. When I didn't get to give  my sister-in-law the yarn, I thought I could make socks for her daughter. 

The "Columbine Peak" Sock pattern by Cat Bordhi from Socks Soar on Two Circular Needles in Crystal Palace Panda Superwash Bamboo & Wool.

Pair #8 - The Eight of Diamonds" pattern by our own Purl's Knit Doctor, Tracy, in Steinbach Wolle Aktiv Effekt. 

Interesting sock pattern. 

Entrelac - love it!

I'm glad I did it, but it probably won't be an everyday pattern for me. 

The striping on this sock yarn is quite nifty. I'm thinking about getting one more skein. 

OK, I know the picture above looks a bit bizarre. 

Here's an on-the-foot picture so the sock concept can be more easily applied. 

Sock #9 - this one is all about the yarn. 

Well, not entirely - I am quite tickled with the Dublin Bay pattern I've been wanting to try for a bit. 

But the Flat Feet Hand-painted sock blank that I "rip"/un-knit in order to knit my socks is entirely tooooo fun.


I'll figure out what else I've been skipping and I expect more posts will follow.
For now, I'm off to do some knitting and Nikoli is "supervising" my computer time. 
I didn't see him fly up there, but there he is...