Happy Blog-iversary to me...Two Years

Another blog-year older. 
Wiser? Some. 
Better? I rather think so. 
Still Knit-geeky? Oh, yeah. 


So much has happened – it seems more like 2 years than just one year.

I didn't blog as much this year. I felt I needed to apply time to my local, but distant family after my sister-in-law passed away.

And...I fell off the work-a-holic wagon so there was a lot of time invested in the work-place. 

My niece and niece-in-law both got married. Another niece graduated from High School.

The DH and I are both blessed to still be gainfully employed.

I’m still knitting (though not nearly enough to suit my knitting-yen). 

A year ago, I had just finished my 2nd pair of socks and had started on a 3rd pair. 

This week, I'm working on 4 pairs of socks (the results of severe start-itis) - which takes me up to my 9th pair. 

A year ago, Gryphon was SO small!  And BobCat was still pretty healthy, but creaky. 

A few months ago, I had to let my BobCat go - his body wouldn't let him be comfortable anymore.  He still has my heart and I miss his purr. 

Recently, we adopted two orange tabby brothers that are definitely changing and enhancing our life.

The kitty-dynamics are improving - just in the past week, I've only been awakened once or twice with hissing/growling. {grin/yawn/whew!}

I am slightly less clueless about blogs and blogging. Maybe less naive? Less clueless seems a more apt description (but it might be a kind of double-negative. {wry grin})
I'm very behind on reading my favorite blogs and keeping up on Ravelry. Hmmmm. 
However, I have been reading more books. 

A year ago, I was on the Blue Moon Fiber Arts website for conciliatory yarn shopping because I couldn't get classes at the 2009 Sock Summit (sold-out). 

A little less than a year ago, I was invited to attend classes at the 2009 Sock Summit under the Lottery option. 

What an amazing adventure. And I got to go to the Barbara Walker lecture!
So many un-posted pictures and stories. {sigh/sorry}

Oy - such long-winded stuff that did get posted. (I suspect it's kinda like inflicting hundreds of vacation pictures on your friends...)

Locally, I got to take some spiffy classes from visiting knitting dignitaries!

In the last 6 months, I listened to A LOT of podcasts and got seriously knit-inspired. (Hence the start-itis!!)

I am working on improving myself emotionally, but have been neglecting myself physically. {tsk/sigh}


It’s kind of odd looking at the past year blog-wise. I almost feel like I should make some resolutions or something

There are a lot of things I wish I had taken the time to blog about. 
Now, there's a proper Blog-iversary resolution for year 3.   

• Blog more. Post more pictures. 
• Catch up on my favorite blogs. 
• Explore more new blogs!
• Knit a real sweater!
• Laugh more (easy with my current crew of monster-cats)!
• Love more. Love myself more too. 

E-hug and blessings to you and yours. 
May we all have a stellar blog-year!

Cat Burglar and Kitty drugs

We have a Cat Burglar in our midst.
Sure, he looks all innocent and charming with his "rub my tummy" cuteness...

However, he's been spotted - on several occasions - breaking into closets, sliding the large closet doors aside so he can enter to explore (and hide from CooPurr being too rude and sniffy).

Further...He is the main suspect of some extreme shelf climbing and distribution of a controlled substance in our home: CATNIP.

I got up the other morning to find on the Living room floor, a small box that usually resides on the second shelf of one of the tall shelves in that room. As I picked it up to put it back - I noticed a significant spread of stuff on the carpet behind the couch.

About that time I realized the stuff was Catnip - I looked to the 3rd shelf where the catnip is safely double bagged in a basket with other kitty toys and some human brain-teaser puzzles - and nothing looked amiss.
There were 3 more double-bagged caches of Catnip still in the basket. The 3rd shelf (very full of books, basket, and some knick-knacks), is nearly 4 feet off the ground and seemed undisturbed - save for the one small box I'd found on the floor...

Yet the evidence of a Catnip burglary was clear.
(I wondered if levitation had been involved in the caper...)

CooPurr can jump and explores on a larger scale, but he's not one to investigate small places or perform tightrope walking - and he was sitting on the steps, unconcerned.
Gryphon does explore (and fall out of) places he shouldn't be - but as he and Nikoli wandered in to sniff and literally fall upon the Catnip spread - I got the impression it was their first buzz of the day rather than a 2nd hit.

Yeah, it's all fun and games until....

The Vacuum comes out (these two are so nipped they forgot to bolt at the sight of the Vacuum!):

And Mikale? Where was he during this "love da carpet" episode?
I have no idea - probably sleeping it off...

Stray Internet Personality Quiz results...

Funny - per this quiz, I'm supposed to be a rarity...although I think "odd" sums me up pretty well...ah, maybe unique...oddly unique?

Your Personality is Very Rare (INFP)

Your personality type is dreamy, romantic, elegant, and expressive. Only about 5% of all people have your personality, including 6% of all women and 4% of all men You are Introverted, Intuitive, Feeling, and Perceiving.

How Rare Is Your Personality?

Per this Jane Austin quiz, my personality is supposed to resemble:


I find this rather flattering, as I do like and admire Elinor Dashwood.

However, I must admit - I do not believe either quiz asked about the number of cats residing in the household as a core sanity test...

And then there were 4 - which, I think, takes me back up into Crazy Cat Lady Status.

A co-worker has been trying to find a home for her two cats for over 6 months. She's allergic, she and her husband moved to a smaller place, her husband (they're really his cats) joined the National Guard and is away for training, and they have a young child so there were financial and quality time concerns, as well as some sneezing.

I was intrigued by this pair of orange-tabby brothers last November, but BobCat's health was beginning to be an issue, he was over 19 and I didn't think it would be fair to inflict more younglings on him (Gryphon was more than enough of a challenge!).

Recently, I found that Nikoli and Mikale (plez pronunce vit Natasha aksent frum "Rocky & Bullvinkle") were still looking for a new home.
My husband suggested we adopt them.
My best friend suggested the same thing.

Yep, we brought them home Saturday.
Nikoli took everything in stride - purring and rubbing on me and the kitty carrier.

Mikale was not  happy on the drive home - breathing fast and panting.  I half-crawled into the kitty carrier to offer him some comfort - it helped some - I think.

The brothers are sequestered in the computer room pending getting getting caught up on their shots (tomorrow), making sure they don't have the big-ugly kitty diseases (highly unlikely - they've been indoor cats and have had some serious Vet-time...) and - to have ample opportunity to become familiar with the smells of CooPurr and Gryphon who have been camping outside the computer-room door.
CooPurr is not camping so much - he's curious, but he came from a cat rescue that had lots of cats around the house so two new cats smells are pretty bland to him.
Gryphon...he's the main "camper". Curiosity itself. Paws under the door - lots of hovering and sniffing.

Saturday afternoon/evening was pretty much under-the-spare-bed time for the brother-cats. Nikoli came out a very little bit. They ate and used the litter box overnight so that was a start. Sunday Nikoli came out more, started purring, kneading, and generally being a love.

Today - check out the lap-cat...










I found Mikale sleeping in the kitty-carrier one time, but he booked under the bed when he realized his hidy-hole behind the chair had been detected.

Another time, I found him up on the bed, in one of the 3 kitty beds up there. Again - he was down in a flash and back under the bed.

He was friendly and purr-y at his previous home so I'm hoping he'll be able to return to that level of comfort in a week or so.
Well, maybe a week or so after I add to the trauma by hauling him to the Vet tomorrow. {sigh - the guilt of it all}
It's a short ride, it'll get it out of the way for a year and he'll be able to be loosed on the rest of the house in a few days when he feels comfortable enough to come out from under the bed with one of us in the room.
Candid, under the bed shots:

See - Mikale is kind of a Strawberry Blond Tabby...

He's looking a little more comfortable.

Nikoli - is not hissing at the door any more so I'm hoping that will bode well for CooPurr/Gryphon  introductions - possibly later this week.  We're waiting on Mikale. (Though, I'm having a hard time convincing the DH to wait on kitty introductions. Jeez.)

Hence, I'm back up to 4 cats and Crazy Cat Lady status:

"It should just work!" and "Where did you say my truck was?"

I'm being petulant.

It should just work.

If I buy a Consumer-Reports super-blessed Security Suite to protect me from the unpleasant aspects of power-tripping jerks on the Internet - it should just work.
If I use the Internet browser at home that is so favored by our company's nifty IT security guys that they expect us to ONLY use that browser at work - it should just work fine at home.

I don't want to have to wait for my PC to get it's first Security Suite update of the day before I can do anything on the computer.
I don't want to have to take breaks or slay the Security Suite because it gets stuck doing an update and sucks up all the CPU. (Yes, the prescribed solution from the Security Suite help-it's-not-working site is "do a hard boot". Nice.).
I don't want to have to un-install and re-install the expensive Security Suite because it has a little bug in the last update so it stopped getting updates and wouldn't let me open the frigging program to run a scan on my PC.

I don't want to have to go through the Security Suite's learning process a 2nd time because I had to reinstall it - and now it doesn't remember on which sites I allow pop ups or that funny program I'm trying to open the Borders coupon link from is my E-MAIL.

I don't want to have to shift to the less blessed and supposedly less secure Internet browser because the latest version of the favored Internet browser did some clever updates so it doesn't play well with Blogger anymore. {grrrr/oy}

I don't want to revamp my blog format because... the nice people who let me blog for free...with all sorts of nifty options..and reporting, and.... yeah, I probably shouldn't be whining about this one.

Minor announcement! I'm revamping my blog format inspired by the latest blog system improvements.

We could use a change! There's a buncha new formats available and so long as I don't used that work-favored Internet browser I can even make some changes to my blog! Wish me luck!

BUT - THE REST OF IT SHOULD JUST WORK! Arrrrrgggghhh.

Ahem.
Ain't technology fun?

~*~

Last night, I was merrily finishing a book and getting started on the 2nd half of my 4th pair of socks, when...

(And yet the 5th pair of socks (made for a friend) was finished a couple of months ago...go figure.)

 

Anyway - I had started on the 2nd sock when the doorbell rang and a gentlemen I'd never seen before asked if I had two white trucks. I cautiously answered yes, wondering if someone wanted to try and buy one again.

(No - not the newer one that's about 5 years old - people ask to buy the 20 year old Isuzu. Again - go figure.)

He asked if that was one of my trucks - pointing down the driveway. I looked 'round the entry way...

And there was my very well-loved little Isuzu sitting sedately in the street, hogging most of the two lanes, with the M&M sun shade keeping out the starlight.

And my intelligent reply to this spectacle?    "Well, that sucks."

I thanked the gentleman for bringing this to my attention mumbling "The emergency break must have let loose." and turned back into the house to get my keys. I heard a slightly disgusted "It's her truck." from behind me and the several cars that had stopped to ponder my sliding parking job began to dissipate.

I grabbed my keys and padded barefoot out to my little truck sitting in the street.

The emergency brake was on. I think it was in 1st gear too. Uh-huh. Lovely.

I re-parked it back up on our sloping driveway, set the Emergency break really hard, turned off the truck and sat in it for a while trying to rock it out of place - it didn't budge.

Inspired by the parking shenanigans, I got up to check a few times through the night to make sure the truck was still in the driveway.

I told the DH about the unsupervised trip the truck took last night and he mentioned something about how maybe the last time he changed out the breaks that he might not have re-tightened the emergency break.

Uh-huh.

(It should Just Work!)

.

The Grand Sweater Resurrection Scheme

I have this great knitted sweater/jacket. LOVE it!
It's from LL Bean, circa 1985 or so. It's made of Shetland Wool.
It was a gift from a very special man who no longer walks this earth - but who had excellent fashion sense.
My first (less than enthusiastic) reaction when I opened it was:
"It's grey.".
I quickly figured out this jacket is comfortable, warm, and goes with pretty much everything.

With learning to knit in the past few years, I developed a grand scheme that I would someday be a good enough knitter to recreate it before it fuzzed apart.

I glibly mentioned this plan to a lovely woman at Kiwi Knitting who had generously complimented me on my sweater.
She then asked if I'd looked at my left elbow lately...
There was a hole.
Like a 2 x 2 inches hole!
And I was clueless - you'd think I'd have noticed the draft at my elbow..

The stellar Tracy at Purls of Tucson, in her role as "Knit Doctor" - identified that the sweater had been created in the Brioche Stitch, found a near-perfect grey wool to match, and patched my elbow quite nicely. She was NOT entirely thrilled with her patch (I was) and refused to charge me for her time but accepted a Starbucks Gift Card as a show of my appreciation for the resuscitation of my favorite sweater. (It seems Knit Doctors are largely fueled by coffee...).

With the obvious repair addressed, I began to realize my favorite sweater was showing it's age. (Not unlike myself, come to think of it...).
It's a teeny bit felted. And there are a few stitches on the cuff and elsewhere that no longer connect to each other. 
And there's these little piles of fluff I find collecting around my desk at work that bear a striking resemblance to the shade of grey in my favorite sweater...and they only seem to appear when the sweater has been to work with me a lot.

Being that the recreate-the-sweater-before-the-sweater-sheds-away scheme is becoming less of a some-day project and more of a kinda-soon project...

• I took a class on the Brioche stitch with Janet Szabo. ("Oh - that's what that stitch is...")
• I got a copy of "Knitting Brioche" by Nancy Marchant - quite a spiffy book. (I've already marked 6 wanna-do patterns in this book. Very tempting).
• I figured out that my original sweater is not knitted in worsted weight...it might be 2 strands of fingering weight yarn.
• I've e-mailed LL Bean to see if they might be able to hook me up with the pattern. (Hey - I had to ask. And a question like that will be cheap entertainment to the LL Bean help desk after all the too large/too small questions!)

Hmmm - I think I'm knit-stalling.
Ok - I'm a bit daunted (understatement) at all the counting I'll have to do to recreate the pattern. Woof.

So... the button.

Part of the plot in recreating the sweater was that I would just shift the old, charming, wooden button from the original sweater to the recreated sweater when the time came.

Not gonna happen.

Why? It would appear Gryphon (aka the "Gryphon-ator") applied his puppy-like chewing to the wooden button on my favorite grey sweater/jacket.

It's a good thing he's so frigging cute.

 

("baby" picture from July 2009)

To Play "Catch-up" or not...that is the question.

Where to start? How to start?
(I guess those questions would be the start...)

2009 was amazing and taxing. Blogging, crafting, exploring Ravelry, family loss, taking a lot of pictures and knitting classes, inheriting the little black monster-cat, and even taking an amazing trip to Portland.
I was expanding my comfort zone some. Not always on purpose.

2010 is paradoxical and I'm feeling pretty clueless.

Big Brother.
The unexpected passing of my sister-in-law last August has shifted my reality. I've been spending more time with my big brother. I think I've been of some use and sometime useless.

I am finding the big brother - who was my hero as a child and who was sensitive, perplexing, and devastated at the loss of his first wife to Cancer - is now, after the loss of a 2nd wife to Cancer, a very different person than I had thought.
I admire some aspects of his current personality - how spiritual, intelligent, and generally calm he is. (Actually, he was always pretty calm and intelligent.) However, I have profound issues with some of his political perspectives and the lack of tolerance he has for things that are important to me. Which means he's probably not too tickled with me, either. His perspective of politics, the world, ecology, taxes, and...well most every topic I can come up with...is dire and there is ALWAYS a conspiracy at the core.
I suspect some of it some of it is the influence of a friend of his and maybe a lot of it is the grief and, I think, depression.
It is entirely possible he has always been this way and I just didn't have a frigging clue.

I don't know how to explain it or make a difference. My tolerant political leanings and semi-tree hugging mentality doesn't inspire any respect from himself.
(Dark humor - I just got the irony of referring to my older brother as "Big Brother" considering his opinions. Ha.)

Enough of that bit of emotional baggage. I'll keep trying to be there for him, but I need to separate the little sister blind-trust that is beating the hell out of my self-worth and come up with a healthier perspective. Bleh. Sigh.

Kitties.

CooPurr is still a gentle, sweet giant. He weighed in at 18 pounds today at the Vet. (He recently discovered where we've been feeding Gryphon kitten chow and CooPurr thinks high-calorie kitten chow is quite yummy.)

Gryphon is nearly a year old. He is handsome, rambunctious, ornery, chews like a puppy {ugh}, and makes me laugh pretty much all day.

He and CooPurr play well together and dash all over the house.

Gryphon is determined to be the Alpha-cat.

CooPurr doesn't really care who is Alpha-Cat.

But when Gryphon was being particularly obnoxious and bite-y last week - CooPurr put up with it for a while and then, with great restraint, made his opinion known. Gryphon was a little slow to catch on. CooPurr patiently indicated "NO" (like 7 times) ...and then the claws slowly come out to prickle Gryphon's forehead where CooPurr had been holding him at bay with one big silver-edged paw.

No damage done and Gryphon finally got a clue and went off to attack a kitty condo.

On Easter, I had to let my BobCat go.  He was about 19 or 20 years old and had been having Thyroid/Kidney/weight/intestinal issues since December. The Thyroid thing kicked in coinciding with a change in meds so it took a little over a week to step back to the old dosage, reduce the dosage, take him off the meds to find out the sudden loose BM and weight loss had nothing to do with his Mega-Colon meds.

I would get him stabilized and then he would have another bout of weight loss.

He ate REALLLLLLY well the week of Easter but Saturday and Sunday he was seriously failing, wasn't purring or comfortable, and we took him to the Vet Sunday night to let him go.

CooPurr and Gryphon have been doing their level best to be charming and entertaining at all times, but BobCat had my heart and I miss him terribly.


Such a happy blog today - sorry. Such is life just now.

Internet Community.
During the above, I had been sporadic in my Ravelry visits, blog reading, and obviously absent on my own blog. {understatement}

However, I have gotten somewhat acquainted with iTunes!

I purchased a used iPhone from my Big Brother. The phone part is disabled so I essentially have an iTouch with a Camera. I have purchased just a few applications (Apps) .
I tend to study a lot before I buy.
(Why yes, the first Apps I got were knitting-related. Truly- you're not surprised, are you?)

The iPhone has A LOT more memory than my recently-upgraded MP3 player. And we won't get into the improvements it has over my very ancient Zire PDA.
(The DH was glad to receive the MP3 player as a gently-used bit of fun technology. I cleaned off all the podcasts, audiobooks, Opera, musicals, and most of the Josh Groben to leave him a selection of Vince Guaraldi, classic Jazz, Eric Clapton and Journey to get him started.)

I so GET the iTunes infatuation now.
I think they need to re-vamp their search engine and step in when people don't fix buggy apps in a reasonable time period, but other-wise - pretty darn spiffy.

Probably my favorite thing - it is SOOOOO easy to get Pod Casts. {happy sigh}
I'm sampling a lot and subscribing to the ones that tickle my heart and fancy.
I'm "living in the past" of these pod casts - listening from the beginning up to current day. I'm nearly "back to the future" on a few of these, my favorites:

• Knitmore Girls Podcast - Charming, fun, educational, and the mother-daughter relationship of these two special ladies is heart-ful! They make me smile and are inspiring some seriously adventurous start-itis.
• Sticks and String - "A podcast by an Australian bloke who knits" - interesting, excellent taste in music, and a lovely resonant voice - yes with a nifty accent. He also makes me smile with a genial humor.
• CogKNITive - I was referred to Dr. Gemma by the Knitmore Girls and she is funny, intelligent, and very interesting. It's kind of like hanging out with a comfortable, good friend who is really well-adjusted. {wry grin}
• Craftlit - the ever-spiffy and way-more-famous-than-I-had-a-clue, Heather Ordover, presenting crafting and life insights as well as a really cool Literary Professor intro/interpretation of some excellent reads. I started over from the beginning and re-listened to "Pride and Prejudice". {Excellent book - love the humor!}
  (I have to wonder if Heather and David Reidy of Sticks and String have ever interviewed each other. Two such lovely voices in one podcast would be a treat!)
• Gives Good Knit - We first met Tika on the Knitmore Girls podcast and she's gone and started her own podcast. This girl READS voraciously! I really like the goals she sets - inspiring. I do like her book reviews as well and she might be somewhat responsible for my recent reading binge.
• Here's to Ewe - these two ladies have so much fun pod casting. Both have great laughs. I'm still in the early casts but their fibre focus is on our end of the country (West). I'm also becoming quite intrigued about the Knitting Guild Association Master's Program. (Being pursued by one of these pod casters and also by Tika from Gives Good Knit.) Hmmmmm.
• Weavecast - feeding my starving Weaving aspirations. So much to learn. Most especially - how can I dress/use the loom without Gryphon eating my warp and ending up at the Vet. {oy}.

I'm going to stop here or this post will overdose on Pod Casts.
(Which wouldn't be such a bad thing, really...)
Anyway - lov'n iTunes and ... (don't tell my PC) I'm definitely leaning towards an Apple in my future.

Knitting. (You KNEW this topic would be in here somewhere...)

• I got to take two classes with Gwen Bortner at Purls - she does excellent documentation for her classes.
• I purchased my sister-in-law's sock club membership at Purls. They provide a sock pattern (sometimes a published pattern, or a new, custom pattern, or a pattern from Knitty) to compliment the new sock yarn before it is available to the general public. We get first yarn-dibs and a discount on the sock yarn, and yes, some stash enhancement has occurred.
• I ALSO joined the Blue Moon Fiber Arts 2010 Rockin' Sock Club. I've received 2 of my 6 sock club packets. Each has two patterns (amazing patterns thus far, I must say) and a skein of lovely Socks that Rock Yarn in a special/new colorway. I am a teeny bit disappointed to find there is a definite leaning toward the pink end of the color spectrum featured in the first two skeins. Ok, the first one is more like a fuchsia and I'm rather fond of it. The 2nd one - is definitely pink and... leaf green - and the hackles of my pink-aversion are up. However, my mother-in-law and an good work friend LOVE those colors and I could make some serious points knitting socks for one of those more fond of pink than myself. I am hoping the next delivery will not be pink-oriented. We shall see...
  (Disclaimer - I am aware that my pink-aversion is peculiar to me {and a few other ladies of stellar good taste ;-) } and that it is in direct contrast to one of the most beloved female stereotypes. Just think of it as "more pink for you". )
• I participated in the 2010 Winter Ravelympics AND I received 6 medals for finishing 2 "WIPs" - Works in Progress, and for starting and finishing 2 projects from scratch:
1.  WIPS Dancing Event - finishing the Seamingly Simple Vest (I'm really tickled with it!)
and a knitted beaded bracelet!

2. Felting Event and Bag Jump Event - Knit and Felted this Bucket Bag (love the colors)
3. Felting Event and Bobsled Event (knit for pets) - knit and felted this Moebius Cat bed for CooPurr  (yes, but Gryphon helped me take the before-felting pictures).  

I think that's about enough blathering for now. If you made it this far down, you are a brave, intrepid soul! Blessings be on you and yours.