It’s good to want things

I’ve realized that for once in a long time, I have a list of things that I really want but can’t or shouldn’t have now. The top of that list is probably Wisteria. I love her so much. The thing is, I also love my other 3 cats and my husband. Of the 4 of them, I think only Serra would be happy if I adopted another kitten. Sigh.

What else is on that list?

• Well, there’s a spinning wheel. I have a favorite at the moment, but I am planning to try out a few more and wait until I have a house with a craft room for it.
• I also want a drum carder. I understand that brand isn’t so important. I can get that soon because it’s smaller (and I can still spin the fiber on my spindle). The thing is, I am waiting until August 30th when a spinning (and knitting) supply store with set business hours opens here in town. I have high hopes for Urban Fauna Studio. I talked to Blas, the proprietor of the store, and he was so nice. I think he spoke with me for about 20 minutes about what the store will carry, what events they have planned, etc.
• I want/need a niddy noddy to skein my handspun yarn. I have to wait for the store to open for that, too.
• I want a freaking house! The housing market is so expensive here in San Francisco. A modest house (I’m talking small 3/2) goes for about $1,000,000. No, I didn’t add an extra 0. We weren’t hit by the housing crisis, and what’s more, houses in the safe neighborhoods near public transit have continued to appreciate in value.

I believe that if you don’t want anything (and I’m not just talking about material posessions here) then you have no reason to live. What’s the point in waking up in the morning if you don’t want to accomplish anything? I think that’s why a lot of people die right after they retire: they want nothing else from the world. Me – I’m not going to die for a reason like that. There’s always something else to knit. Besides, I always want to do something to make the world better, from raising foster kittens or making the entire country no-kill. Those are some mighty big goals.

Speaking of big goals – I have completed every goal I set for the Ravelympics. Jen’s socks were my final goal. I finished them with just a few hours to spare. I had been sick (still am, actually) for most of the day and I thought that I might miss my goal. I guess ambition won out here and I got them done. I won’t be mailing them until I finish designing a cat toy for Jen’s cats, but that will go much more quickly.

It feels good to be down to 3 (and a half – I still need to make a second kilt sock for Donald) WIPs. All I have left is:

1. Blaine’s baby blanket
2. Carisa’s afghan
3. Clapotis

That’s it. Ideally I’ll keep it down to 6 from here out. I do have to start a set of 3 dishcloths soon since my brother’s family will be here in a few weeks and I want to send them home with the cloths. I think that those will take at most 3 days. I also want to start a piece of cat furniture from a pattern I got here. After Buttercup burrowed into a shelf of my stash yarn, I promised to make her something if she just didn’t do that anymore. I don’t mind her sleeping with the yarn, but she tends to wreck my nice, neat, and (for once) organized piles. I haven’t made anything for them in a long time and they keep snuggling the cat afghan I just made. It’s sweet, and I want to give them something of their very own.

So, I am going to go to sleep with just a few things left on my WIP list. I wonder what it will feel like..?

I’ve got knitting to do – back off!

On our Wednesday knit night, Kristy came to visit. She wanted to pick up the hats we had made thus far and to meet some of the people helping with her project. She was late to our gathering, but she had a very interesting story to tell. Apparently as she was racing away from work to get to the train in time, a guy driving in front of her just jumped from his still moving car. Many other people had stopped and called for help, so she kept going. I think she was feeling a little guilty about not stopping, but honestly, if too many people stop it creates a bigger back-up and makes things worse. It was a bit of a Weird-Al moment:

Kristy said all she could think was “I’ve got knitting to do – back off!” Don’t worry, you’re not a bad person – quite the opposite.

Kristy has far exceeded her original 300 hat goal. She had knitters from across the country, from foreign countries, and knitters who learned the craft solely so they could donate to her cause. It is truly amazing to me how generous people can be. Our group only committed to 15 hats and we sent her home with 30. Dude.

I tried to finish my 7th – and final – hat for her project while she was here, but I had hostessing duties and I just missed the goal despite furious knitting. Carisa will mail it to her for me, but still, I wanted to finish in time. In any case, here it is in 2 views:

At 11:59pm on Thursday I finished my 4th Ravelympics project.

The Romantic Cardigan, in all it’s imperfect glory. There were a few problems special design features in this one. First of all, the pattern was full of mistakes. There are comments on Amazon about this issue. I couldn’t get the stitch count correct for the main body portion, so I had to count the stitches on every row and fudge the rest. The border for the main body has some instructions that are impossible if you complied with earlier instructions. I had a hard time finding the written errata for this pattern, but I didn’t think to look in time to do anything about it if there was something. Oh well.

I also had something happen with the yarn in this project. The ball bands all claimed that the yarn belonged to the same dye lot. When I got to the actual crochet, I learned that this was a huge LIE! In person it isn’t quite so obvious, but the camera tells no lies. I wonder how this happened. Maybe the ball bands came off and someone just randomly replaced them? Maybe it was a factory error?

As for the kittens -

Cute as ever. I got the orange guy’s tongue by accident. He begs for his food by holding my leg and meowing while I am busy scooping it onto the plates. Tiki was having a “cute session” – she was sleepy and lying in bed, lazily posing for me. The picture of Sunshine yawning was actually part of the same picture of Tiki yawning.

We are keeping (for foster) the 3 kittens that I acquired this weekend. We do not yet have a name for the mostly white kitten – any suggestions for the comments? We’re calling the black and white girl Panda. The orange fellow is Puddles. That boy just tinkles anywhere, even right in front of his food. He’s just learning, so I’ll give him a break. The others have already caught on to the whole litter box thing. The only time they miss is when they have diarrhea.

Which brings me to the next challenge. The boys and Panda have the vomit virus that the Constellations caught months ago. It is accompanied by diarrhea. You know, it almost looks like food poisoning, except that all of the kittens eat from the same plates, so they would all have it. The sick ones are on antibiotics and fluids for the moment. I knew that continuing health was too good to be true. Puddles feels so bony – almost like Moonlight did when I got her.

Sunshine made weight yesterday. She is adoptable now, but she won’t pass behavior at the shelter. I am going to have to advertise her on Craigslist or something like that and make appointments for her adopters. She is a total sweetheart – if she is in the kitten room. If she is in an open space, she freaks out and runs for a hiding space. Michael and I are trying to give her intense snuggling while we watch TV, but she is trying to resist rehabilitation. She’ll need a home with patient parents and no small or particularly loud children. Sunshine will need to be confined and only gradually allowed access to the rest of her new home so she can gain confidence. This process may take a lot of time. By the way, if you live in the San Francisco Bay Area and want to adopt her, please leave a comment. I’ll follow up in email.

Moonlight, on the other hand, is a total snuggle fiend. She hides if left to her own devices, but if I stick her in my lap she forgets everything else and starts rubbing herself all over me. She loves to be scratched under her chin and kissed. Moonlight purrs constantly when she’s held. When she makes weight I think her behavior will have dramatically improved given her progress thus far. She’ll also need a quiet home (maybe with Sunshine?) but maybe she won’t need as much time to get comfortable.

Anyway, I’ve got knitting to do if I am going to finish the Ravelympics with the gold medal. All I have to do is finish Jen’s sock. I feel a little torn about Donald’s kilt sock. My goal was to have a sock made that I could take to another fitting. I did that, and it still needed to be altered. Is my goal met? Do I have to make it fit before I can call that one complete? I didn’t plan on making the entire pair, but am I cheating if I call this one complete when it still isn’t quite right?

Third opponent on its knees

Well, the third opponent is getting close to the knees anyway. I finished the kilt sock in time to have Donald try it on again at dance class. It still needs just a wee bit more adjusting. You see, I failed to account for the fact that when I added width to the calf area, the sock wasn’t going to stretch as much; therefore, I did not need to add height. Oops. This is the sort of thing you learn when designing your own patterns.

The last few days have been busy. On Friday Carisa, Ryan, Michael and I went to the San Mateo County Fair. I learned that county fairs are dying out because people aren’t really entering things for competition anymore. Carisa and I decided that next year, we are going to enter our yarncraft. I figure I’ll enter knit, crochet and handspun yarn. I urge any crafters out there to figure out how to enter your projects in your local fair. Let’s keep ‘em alive!

I love the fair and try to get to there often, but we picked Friday for a very good reason:

Weird Al Yankovic was performing! I am aware of what sort of geek this makes me, but I adore Weird Al.

I figured if I went to the fair, I should see the exhibits as well. It’s funny, because Michael and I observed that when we were kids, the fair was all about the rides. Now I like to look at the craft vendors and competitions. There was surprisingly little yarn craft, but there were quilts everywhere.

We also saw animals. I have here some sheep, a camel, some baby birds, and a pair of alpaca.

It was a long, fun day!

This morning we woke up to attend a different sort of fair – the Renaissance Faire. I finally invested in a peasant costume. I figured the best place to pose would be right in front of the spinning booth. I spoke to the spinning lady at length. We discussed wheels, fiber, and the possibility of me coming to demonstrate next year! I need to tell my spinning friends about this.

There were other cool things to see at the Faire as well.

We had a faerie blowing bubbles,

fencing,

and a host of other exciting things to see.

In case the last few days weren’t busy enough, I got more kittens. I actually went to the shelter in my peasant costume to pick up Tiki and Ling Ling’s other 3 siblings. The mostly white kitten with calico spots, the orange kitten, and the black and white kitten underneath the mostly white kitten are the new ones. I am babysitting, but they could become my fosters (depending on their mother’s situation when she gets back from her trip).

The other kittens are still with me, of course, making a total of 8 kittens in my foster room. We had to feed the littlest ones before we left this morning, and Ling Ling was lucky enough to have breakfast in bed.

Wisteria came out to play for awhile on her own (she has more energy than any of the other kittens), and she found her way to the Louet wheel I am borrowing. She went on the magic treadle ride a few times before I managed to get the camera, and by the time I tried to videotape it she had lost interest. It was so cute! Later I went to check on her and found her sacked out in the middle of the floor. I think she was in a sunbeam that moved.

Last but not least, Sunshine and Moonlight are learning to love laptime. Aren’t they cute?

Second opponent crushified

I’ve taken on my second opponent for the Ravelympics WIP Wrestling event and crushified it. The tunsian crochet cat bed has a mistake in it, but since the kittens don’t notice, I will also pretend not to notice. The colors are more accurate in the picture with Moonlight on it.

I went for the easy ones first. I figured that having fewer WIPs on the list would help me be able to see my progress. Plus, finishing 3 projects in 11 days seems much more doable than finishing 5. I am really working my way through the kilt sock right now. All I need to do is finish the fold-over part and I have completed the one sock for my goal. I am using the trinity stitch for that because all of the action happens on the backside of the work and this part has to be worked inside out. There is no translating for me to do.

I’ve also crocheted some of the Romantic Cardigan. The only one I haven’t touched is Jen’s sock. Really, all I have to do is stick it in my purse and it’ll get finished in no time.

I’m not the only person who likes that I am getting WIPs finished. Wesley always loves sleeping on my afghans.

I have a limited time with my spinning wheels as well. Sunday is the last of my spinning classes. The wheel I borrowed this week is the Ashford Joy. I LOVE this one. It’s small, so it could easily be stored in my apartment. I don’t need to reach down to start the wheel – it starts on its own when you treadle. Oh, and it has the double treadle that I really wanted to try. The only complaint I have is that the orifice (the tube that you feed the newly spun fiber through) is a little lower than I would like. That can be solved by finding a lower chair, I guess.

I bought some more fiber for my last few days with the wheel. It’s a tussah silk/merino wool blend. I’ve made just one singles so far. I am not sure if I want to ply it on itself or if I want to mix it with another fiber. Michael says I can buy a wheel when we have our class field trip to Purlesence, but I am not sure if I will be ready. It’s a big investment.

On Sunday, I mixed my mystery batt with the Waitaki that I had lying around. It’s 3-ply: 2 of the plies are Waitaki and 1 is the mystery batt.

My “nephew” Phil (Jen, send me a picture of your son) has asked that I make him a cat toy soon. He saw that I was knitting his mother a pair of socks, and figured that I could send him something to play with. He and his sisters Sam and Pookie have one I made a long time ago. They’ve shredded it by now, so I guess it’s time. I think this is the perfect time to start designing cat toys for a pattern book I’d like to write. I’ll make some of the patterns free on my blog, and some will be exclusive to the book. Wouldn’t it be cool to be a published author?

One opponent down

I’ve beaten my first opponent in the WIP Wrestling event. It was a long, imperfect battle, but I did it.

The Cat and Mouse Afghan (I call it Cat and Yarn on my Ravelry page) is now lounging on my sofa. I’ve had it in my hands for days now every time I sat down. Bit by bit the yarn disappeared, and in the end, I had an afghan. Groovy. Now, just 4 opponents remain.

I did less spinning than normal in class this week. Instead, I got to play with another tool that I thought I might want – a drum carder! Drum carders are particularly good for mixing different fibers and getting variegated roving or fiber blends. They make these things called batts. Mine looked like this (well it was one solid sheet, but I didn’t get to photograph it before the teacher showed me how to tear it into a usable form).

When the fiber was formed into a bump, it looked like this (since it’s variegated, I took pictures from different angles so you could get a better idea of what it looked like).

I’ve actually spun this fiber plus two bobbins worth of a complementary color and plied them. I will set it and take a picture. I am tempted to knit some of this one up before next class (although it does interfere with the Ravelympics projects – ugh).

I’ve also beaten an opponent in the kitten world today. Sunshine turned from being a scaredy-cat today into the most affectionate thing I’ve seen in awhile!

You can actually see the partial leg a little better in this picture. But look how happy she is! Linnea and I played with her for a good, long time last night. I think that she had such a good time playing with us that she decided we were friends after all. Sunshine got pretty helpful yesterday, too. She pottied Ling Ling for me (that is a job that I am really happy to hand over). It’s cute to see a small kitten with a mothering instinct.

Moonlight was incredibly cute last night, too. I use a thermal mug full of warm water to warm the bottles for Ling Ling and Tiki. Moonlight apparently likes warm water (very reminiscent of the way my cats drink water from the shower floor when I get out), and repeatedly went to the mug for a drink!

Wisteria has gone back to eating on her own. Last night she found eating to be too exhausting and fell asleep in her food!  It happened about 3 times before I finally got the camera. She had been wrestling the little kittens before her dinner, which is probably what wore her out. Today she got vaccinated and fawned over at the shelter. Two big days in a row – whew!

The tiniest kittens are finally getting teeth. When the first nubby little teeth come out, I add a spoonful of baby food (or in this case, regular wet food) to the bottle. Tonight both of the little ones ate wet food from my fingers. I need to tell Toni – she has their other 3 litter mates. I also saw Tiki using the litter box on her own today. It seems like they go from one stage to the next in a matter of hours. It’s kind of cool.

Ravelympics

Ravelympics has started and I am getting busy. For my (yarn) crafty friends who have not yet heard of Ravelry, just check it out. I think that there is still a waiting list to get it, but it isn’t all that long – maybe 2 days or so. My user name is TicklesLordChaos. The first thing you’ll notice is that dude, I have a lot of yarn. What’s worse – what I’ve listed is only a fraction of what I own. The Ravelympics projects I have registered are listed on the site as well.

In an attempt to reduce my number of WIPs, I joined the WIP wrestling event. I registered 5 of my projects:

1. Donald’s Kilt hose. At this point, I’ll settle for one sock that fits. The other will go quickly when I don’t have to do any designing.
2. Romantic Cardigan. I started it in October, and I really want to be able to wear it, but I just needed a timeline in which to finish it.
3. Jen’s socks. I am so close. I just need to finish the foot of sock #2 and we are in business.
4. Tunisian Crochet cat bed. It’s a small project, and I can totally do that in a few hours if I just sit down with it. It’s going to be kitten sized, and I do have several small kittens who might like it.
5. Cat and Mouse Afghan. Dude, all I have to do is sew the panels together and add the border.

The idea was to set a goal bigger than you think you can achieve in the 17 days of the Olympics. With all the other stuff I have going on, I think this may be only just a little more than I can complete – I can take a bronze medal. Or who knows, maybe I can go for the gold?

It’s a good thing that I don’t have to do anything athletic in the traditional sense for this event. I went to see a massage therapist this morning. I have found that it has actual medical benefits for me given some of my endocrine diseases. Well, when we finished our session, the therapist said she wanted to talk to me. My calves are in pretty bad shape (and I’m sure the spinning isn’t helping). The therapist said that she thought I might actually want to consider some physical therapy for what is happening in my calves. They have been rock-hard for about a week now, and it just doesn’t show any signs of letting up. It’s really sad because it makes dancing rather hard for me. Sigh.