While I was out

Last week, I was in San Francisco. I mostly spend my time out there on social calls, barely getting any rest. Michael  goes for work, and this time he was in meetings all day, every day. We are mighty busy while we are there, but I really love going back.

Before the trip, Duck and Lamb wanted us to know that they were going to miss us. They even offered to go.

But I doubt they’d make it through airport security.

Remarkably, I don’t think I really took many pictures of the trip. I took pictures of the yarn I bought at my favorite yarn store. I took pictures of the mitten I have in progress. Somehow, I just couldn’t seem to get pictures of my friends or the city. It’s a shame, but I will be back.

On the plane ride, I cast on a Bella’s Mittens. The version I made for my friend Vickie was too small for my hands, even before I felted it, so I used a larger needle (size 9) and a slightly thicker yarn (Rowan Cocoon). So far, the first mitten seems to fit. I am going to use it for a shop sample for the class I am teaching on these mittens. I figure it’s a good way to teach magic loop knitting and how to do cables.

By the time I left Knit Night on Wednesday, I finished the first mitten. These really work up fast, and might make good Christmas gifts…

So, of course, while I was gone it snowed. I can’t say for sure how much, but there was some snow on the ground when we got home. In fact, if you look at the back yard, you can see we have two seasons in one. Pick a lane, Mother Nature!

On the left we have winter, and on the right, fall.

The kittens continued to thrive while I was out. This is the first time I’ve ever had to leave foster kittens at the house, and I had to wonder how they would do without me. I must have good judgment in sitters because, I’ll tell you, those kittens are huge! Jacob made weight today, but he’s so far ahead of the others that he won’t get to go up for adoption while he’s little. It’s all well and good, because he’s fluffy and cute. I managed to get pictures of all but Bella since I’ve been home.

They have lost a lot of the baby look in the few days I was gone. They’ve also gotten really playful. Some of them (like Emmett and Rosalie) are even interested in people as playmates. Edward seems to have lost his mind – who knows what that boy was thinking when he chose to lay on my shoulder in the head stand position!

Duck and Lamb are still doing well. Lambie finally got cleared of the whole ringworm thing. The problem is, she is a bigger black kitten, and that makes her less attractive to potential adopters. Plus, Halloween is coming up soon, and I just don’t think it’s the right time to send her back. We’re going to have her spayed on Wednesday, and then I’ll try to get her a return appointment for November 1st, after Halloween.

I have no idea how Duck is going to take the loss of Lamb. She’s  been living with so long that she’s practically family. I have to admit, I’m not sure I can take her to the shelter. I may have to make Michael do the dirty work for me, or at least go with me. I just feel like such a jerk. She’s wonderful, really, but five cats is too many for me. Four is questionable with all the extra kittens that wander through here. Luckily, Duck is pretty easy-going. He doesn’t demand a lot of attention, and he plays well by himself. The thing is, this is all true while he has another kitten in the house who happens to be his age. He may not be so easy without a young playmate. Fortunately, Serra likes Duck a lot. She bathes him in the morning when they wake up, and she tries on occasion to play chase with him. Wesley is indifferent to the little guy, and Buttercup has decided that she can sleep on the couch with the kittens, but only if she is on the back of it while they are on the seat.  Butters still refuses to stay in my lap if Duck approaches us. Still, it’s a start. She’s way cooler with Duck than she was with Serra at this point.

In addition to all the kittens and the classes, we have another renovation going on this week. Fortunately, I’m not doing it this time – we have professionals.

This is my kitchen. We’re having the cabinets re-faced and we’re having silestone countertops installed. Fortunately, this process only takes a week, so I’ll have the kitchen back soon enough. I should get to the painting that got put on hold when the floors went in, but I think I hear the yarn shop calling…

A slow day

Kailua-Kona (on the Big Island of Hawai’i)

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For some strange reason, I had a hard time getting Google Maps to show where Kona is located on the Big Island, but it’s roughly where the letter is on the map. I guess it’s fitting, given what little I have to say about it. Kona is where you get Kona coffee from. Although I am not an avid coffee drinker, I can tell you that it is good coffee. I understand it’s well regarded in coffee-drinking circles.

Not every day on our trip was exciting, per se. After the previous days of adventure, all 4 of us were looking forward to an unhurried, easy day. Of course, we started the day by snorkeling at Turtle Bay. The water was calmer here, and once you got away from the shore a bit, it was warmer, too. Robert and Alicia got more underwater pictures here. We’ve promised one another to send digital copies of all the pictures we took, so hopefully I get to see those pictures soon.

I should point out here that Michael and I have been to Hawai’i before. I lived in Honolulu for a year in high school before I moved in with my grandmother in Florida. The last time we went to Kona, Michael and I went to see a seahorse farm. As much as it may look like we’ve missed something by not really getting out there, I assure you, we’ve seen Kona before.

I only took a few pictures in Kona.

There was a lizard lounging on a telephone pole near where we waited for the shuttle to bring us back from snorkeling.

I found yarn at the International Market.  The International Market was  a bustling place when I was here 2 years ago. It was incredibly crowded, with vendors vying for your attention like the people who have the small Kiosks at the mall. This time it was quiet, and lots of booths were empty of content. The poor economy has wrecked this place.

I got a shot of our cruise ship from the tender boat. The ship couldn’t dock at a pier in Kona, I am guessing because it is too shallow nearer the island.

There was a sunset with a cloud that looks like an airplane (a little left of center).

And the elephant (elepani – el-le-PAHN-ee – in Hawai’ian) towel that our stateroom attendant made for us.

Since we really didn’t do much in Kona this time, I will tell you about the last time I was here.

Michael and I visited a seahorse farm. The lady who runs the place explained that seahorses are to the oceans what canaries are to coal mines, and the seahorse population is depleting. It’s bad news, in short.

Much of the time, seahorses just hang around with their tail curled around a nearby plant or other stable object. I got to hold a seahorse in the tank, and he wrapped his tail around my finger for support.

Seahorses mate for life. If you have a salt water aquarium and want to add seahorses to it, you need to get a pair or else your seahorse will literally die of loneliness. It took awhile for researchers to figure this out, so it was thought that maybe seahorses couldn’t live in captivity. The farm we visited will not sell anyone a single seahorse out of compassion for the animal.

See how they cling to each other?

I also got some really nice sunset pictures the last time I visited. I guess that is what Kona really has going for it!

And this is the ship we were on the last time.

It a good thing that we got rested a bit today, because we have a big day planned for Kauai tomorrow!

On the way to Colorado

I thought I was going to bed early last night (somewhere between 9:30 pm and 10:00 pm), but it turns out that I was just getting a nap. I woke up at 1:00 am, completely unable to go back to sleep. No matter, I will just finish the packing I planned to do when I woke up at 6:30 am today.

My plan for the week is to show you my favorites of the houses we see in any particular day. I think we are going to see 10 per day for the first 3 days, and then Michael’s mother will be coming in to see our finalists on Thursday. We hope to make an offer on a house then. It’s not like we haven’t been looking since October.

I am all organized for this trip. I am bringing the camera (mental note… don’t forget the USB transfer cable) and a composition book to record our thoughts about the various houses (remember to look for backup pens…). We printed out our list of favorite houses and their addresses.

I am really excited about bringing my new cloak on this trip. I know, I still haven’t photographed it yet – and it’s awesome. I think it will show best against the Colorado snow. On the plane, the cloak will double as a blanket (for when I crash after I am certain that all will be well).

I am off to pack the knitting I need for the trip. So far I have planned to bring supplies to finish the contest dishcloths, the kilt hose, and the scarf my aunt asked me to make. I think I may need to make a scarf for Michael as well – his wool coat is open at the top, and he needs coverage. I have some leftover yarn from a sweater I knit him last year, and I think it will be perfect for a scarf (the yarn is Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran).

I’ll check in tomorrow with the first houses of the trip!

In bed

I took several photographs of something that happened in my bed this afternoon. Wanna see them?

Serra loves kittens.

Serra’s behavior has improved dramatically since I started letting the kittens roam the house full-time. Sure, the kittens have ringworm. Sure, my cats have been exposed to it now (Serra’s the only one who contracted the ringworm, for the record. Buttercup and Wesley seem immune after 2 months of exposure). Sure, my house is completely covered in ringworm. I’ve decided I just don’t care any more. The more I tried to contain it, the more the ringworm just kept coming back. I would go a whole litter or 2 without getting more of it, but as soon as I took some of the kittens in for their vaccines they would contract it at the shelter. I have had steady ringworm since Patch. These are my last litters here, and most of the furniture exposed to the ringworm will no longer be accessible to the kittens in my new home. The point is that Serra stopped biting me and chewing my knitting since she got babies to care for. Plus, I spend a lot less time bleaching the kitten room these days. It’s worth it.

Since I am no longer obsessing about fungus, I am moving on the better things. I am working on the dishcloths for the contest winners, but I suspect that those are coming with me on the plane Sunday. Maybe I can mail them from Colorado. I am finishing up the kilt hose I started a long time ago.

I also made a swatch for some gloves I plan to make now that I am going to live in a climate where it snows. I am trying not to start the gloves before I have the dishcloths, kilt socks, and a scarf my aunt commissioned me to make for a friend completed. I just know that since it is forbidden, I want to work on it more. I may have to bargain with myself – I can only knit an inch after I’ve met a goal (i.e completed a dishcloth, knit 2 inches on the kilt socks, knit a few inches of the scarf…).

I think the reason I am really so hot to make the gloves is the yarn. It’s a handpainted 100% merino wool  sock yarn from Malabrigo.  It is labeled as #853 abril, but as you can tell, it’s much darker than the website shows for the same colorway. I know this was a test skein, so maybe that accounts for the discrepancy between the colors on the website and my particular skein. Anyone who has touched Malabrigo yarn would know why I want to knit with it.

I sent the itty-bitty kitties to their babysitter today. I am going to drop off the 3 bigger ones at their babysitter on Sunday morning, right before we head out on our plane trip. It seems surprisingly lonely with only 6 cats in the house. Never thought I’d be saying that.

Sprout got spayed today. I thought she would be loopy from the surgery, but somehow I’ve forgotten how quickly kittens recover from early spay/neuter. Sprout came home feeling great! She explored the house, marked Wesley, Serra, and me as hers, and she’s sitting in my lap right now as I write. The incision is tiny, as you can see from these pictures:

I hope that Sunday is the last time I ever see Sprout again. I believe that her babysitter will be taking her to the shelter to try to get her adopted. Now that she can go home on the same day as the adoption, I believe she will be a more attractive choice to a potential adopter. If an adoption doesn’t happen while I am gone, well, we will just have to keep trying when I get back. I love Sprout, and I want her to find her forever home soon.

Let it go

I made yarn! I think it took me something like 12 hours altogether, but I have about 190g/535 yarns of worsted weight, 3-ply wool yarn. It’s a little scratchier than I like, but the scratchier yarns are easier for a beginner to work up.

I made this yarn in a colorway that I am not find of. The reason is, I want to be able to give it away or sell it. I have a hard time giving up yarn. If I continue to make yarn, however, it will overrun my house. I won’t be able to knit all of it, and it will be wasted just lying around. I think I am going to make a supply of yarn and open an etsy store. I may be new to spinning, but this is one thing that I am really good at, so I have grand ideas for my spinning future.

I’ve also spun something that I think I want to keep for myself.

It’s the merino/tencel blend I got from Urban Fauna. I had a hard time getting the hang of spinning a fiber like tencel, but it just took a few inches, maybe a few feet before I caught on. It’s very fine. I’m not sure if I am going to make this a 3-ply yarn or a 2-ply. I like 3-ply because I understand it wears better. However, 2 ply is easier to spin and it could make a very nice yarn. I think I’ll just get started on a second bobbin and see how I feel.

At long last, a decision I have been putting off is demanding to be addressed. On Tuesday, Wisteria made weight. She is technically adoptable now. The thing is, I can’t bring myself to let her go. I loved her from the moment I first saw her. Shoot, everyone does. She is so pretty, so unusual, so fluffy… Wisteria also has good manners. She is polite to Buttercup and doesn’t press their relationship. She and Serra have a jolly time playing together. When Wisteria is out of the kitten room, I never have to worry where she is – I just look down to my feet.

The thing is, keeping Wisteria would be a big deal. She would be the first foster kitten I ever kept. I would have 4 cats – that’s a lot of attention to give. I wouldn’t have the bandwidth anymore to keep a long-term foster kitten if something came up. It’s one more mouth to feed, one more cat to haul to the vet. Right now, Wisteria is a lot of work. It’s one thing when the kittens are generally contained in the kitten room. If Wisteria were to become mine, I’d have to let her out. She wants to play with me late at night. She needs to be protected from Buttercup. She is terrible at keeping her hind-end clean, and I have to do it for her (I really hope she learns to care for it herself soon).

This is agonizing. It makes parting with my yarn seem very easy in comparison. I thought about the idea of trying to get someone I know to take her, but all my friends are cat people with plenty of cats already. I’ve parted with another cat who I loved as much once before. Her name was Margo (I’m sure her new people have changed it by now). She was this shiny black mom cat with intense orange eyes. She had the same quality that I love in Wisteria – a bright, shining outlook on life. She was self-confident, happy, and affectionate. I still think about Margo a lot. I hope she isn’t a cat who was abandoned (or will be) when her people lose their house to foreclosure. I have no way of knowing.

I have a little more time to meditate on this. My brother and his family will be here in just 2 weeks. We are leaving town to go camping, so I either have to return Wisteria then or adopt her. I am hoping Moonlight will be ready by then, too.

In the meantime, I have continued to knit the baby dress. I’ve added some pink stripes and spots for interest. I was stupid, however, and left the project at Carisa’s house last night, so I can’t work on it today. I’ll just spin instead.

In deep

I have no idea what’s wrong with me. I keep taking on projects despite my new, self-imposed 6 WIP limit. Here’s what happened:

Earlier today I received my Lion Brand email. They talk about new products as well as offer free patterns, pattern stitches, advice, etc. This time they tempted me into a Crochet Along (CAL). I have plenty of stray Lion Brand Wool-ease around, so I thought, “Sure, I should do this.” I mean, it’s an afghan – it should take lots of yarn! It has the added benefit of reducing my stash. I was merrily putting all my new WIPs on Ravelry when – tartar sauce – I discovered that this one makes 7. I wanted to stay at or below 6. I’m going to defend my decision to do it anyway by pointing out that there is a time limit here – 6 weeks. Maybe I can give it to someone as a Christmas present. I should have the baby dress done within the next 7 days, so I won’t be above my limit for long.

The baby dress is coming along well. The measurements are coming out spot-on (for the moment) and it’s working up quickly. The pattern is easy to remember – there are 3 stockinette rows and 1 row with a 9 stitch repeat. The yarn is just fabulous! I love Berroco Comfort in all its different weights. It’s nylon and acrylic, washable, and soft as can be.

In other news, I sent Sunshine to the shelter today. They are going to see if she is accepted by the other shelter we work with. If not, I’ll pick her back up and try on my own to get her into a good home. She has been super nice, and she did well when she was handled by all the staff at the front desk. As soon as she was put into a cage though, she cringed in the back and flattened her ears. Moonlight has been hiding since I took Sunshine away. I’m worried that they are bonded and need each other for security.

Wisteria is getting close to being available for adoption now. I’m guessing 10 days away. I’m not sure I am ready to give her up…

Sleeps on Pants

I may have to rename Serra “Sleeps on Pants.” She has this amusing habit of lying on any clothing I take off and put on the bed. She likes pajamas, jeans, whatever I was just wearing…

Serra and I communicate well. Neither of us speaks the other’s language, but we each have a pretty good idea of what the other is saying when we address one another. Serra has several different body language/voice modulation combinations that I can clearly identify. For example, when she wants to play, Serra rubs my legs and runs to wherever she left her rope-on-a-stick toy. The whole time she speaks in a very excited tone with short, desperate meows. When she wants her dry food (grain-free, in case Buttercup decides to try it), she gives me slightly longer meows coupled with the leg-rubbing and a trip to the bag where her food is stored. When Serra thinks I am not home, she sits in the living room and howls a forlorn, deep sound.

When I talk to Serra, she nearly always reacts with an appropriate response. When I walk into the bedroom while she is taking a mid-day nap, I often address her with a “Hi, Serra.” She generally responds with this cute little scratchy “Mama” noise. If I address another cat sleeping on the bed with her, she doesn’t respond. I found it particularly amusing that for the above picture, she climbed on it in response to a statement I made that went something like this: “Hey, Serra, I’m going to dance class so I am changing into more appropriate pants. I know how much you like sleeping on my clothes while I am out, so here are my jeans.” It was so cute, and I think she even said “thank you” when she got there. I love our relationship.

Wisteria is growing up more and more every day. She now understands that the food is for eating. She does best when I let her eat with the big cats, but if I lead her to it, Wisteria will stay at the food bowl now until she is reasonably satisfied. She’s also learned to almost exclusively use the litter box. I think she only misses when she is surprised by what’s coming.

For awhile I had to start her out feeding in my lap. She still associates me personally with food. She won’t eat much, if anything, when left alone with her plate, but when I am with her she scarfs it up. This is probably the most filthy part of her independence training – look at my pajamas! The baby eats with her entire body in the food, then she tracks little food prints everywhere when she goes away.

I’ve gotten a great deal of spinning done this week. I can spin for hours, but the teacher says that isn’t really good for you. I guess it’s like sitting in front of a computer for hours, which I can do as well. I had some fiber that I needed to spin for homework, so I got to my stuff first. I pulled about 200 g of fiber from a few different colored bags of roving I got recently. I chose bright colors that I don’t normally like so that I can make something with it or give it to someone else without feeling too attached to my work. I plan to make this yarn a 3-ply, so I spun about 1/3 of the total fiber. It looks good for someone who just got started, no?

I had to take the fiber off the bobbin since I will be using another wheel next week and the bobbins are not interchangeable. I don’t think using different wheels should be a problem as long as I keep the size of the singles the same and put in the same twist. I put chopsticks in the middle of the ball to keep the core from completely collapsing on itself in case I want to make a makeshift lazy-kate to ply it from. I meant to put a toilet paper tube over in the center of my ball-winder when I made the ball, but I kind of forgot until I had already started. Oh, well.

I’ve spun my homework yarn (work – never!). I just need to remember to photograph it before I take it in to class. We are supposed to ply it this week and dye it! Oh, joy! I love all things fiber right now. I cannot wait.

New skills

It seems that many of us in my household are learning new skills lately. I’ll start with the most exciting: Kai! Mostly, Kai has been fearful of me. He hides behind the toilet when I visit him. He hisses when I reach into his carrier.

I was thinking of moving him to another foster home because he just wasn’t making progress with me. But lo, and behold – Kai loves me now! He started this morning just as surly as normal, but when I scratched his ears, he started to purr almost imperceptibly. I put him in my lap so he could help me with my blog post, and now he’s purring like crazy. He’s also sucking on my t-shirt, but I’m not complaining. The more I rub his ears, the louder he purrs! Congrats little buddy!

Lani is developing her super model skills. She posed for me this morning and I got this lovely shot of her:

I’m still worried about the FIP thing because her belly is still a little fatter and firmer than I like. I’ve seen lots of kittens in my time. They all tend to be a little fat for awhile, and then they get skinny. The fat is usually soft, though, and hers is not. Kai’s is much better, so I think that Lani will get better, too. I would be so relieved to learn she just had an infection. I like her too much to have her put down.

Poor Wisteria is learning about all sorts of new things these days. She has had diarrhea for awhile now. Diarrhea is VERY common amongst bottle-feeders. I have no idea if it’s the formula or the way we feed them, but it is almost guaranteed. The only bottle feeders that survive it are older and bigger. Almost every time I visit Wisteria she is covered in poop, which means she gets a bath. I also have to put cream on her poor, sore bottom. She hates me touching her “there”.

Her life is just completely miserable right now because she is also experiencing the weaning process. Wisteria loves her bottle. I thought at first she just didn’t like the food I was offering her. I tried several types.

She would eat them all from my finger or a spoon,

but just as quickly as she started eating from the bowl she would stop.

I tried feeding her formula from a saucer, but she didn’t want that. I then had the idea to see if it was the vessel and not the food she was objecting to. I made a mush of formula and wet food, cut a bigger hole in one of her bottles’ nipples, and tried to feed that to her. I was finally successful. She’s been consuming food that way since yesterday. I moved her to a bigger box and added a litter box and food bowl to her space. She still hasn’t really touched the food, but it’s available if she wakes up hungry. She only uses the litter box about half the time as well, but I think she might just be fastidious enough to get the hang of it when the diarrhea goes away.

I, too, have been expanding my skill set. I finally started to spin yarn in class. My first yarn from the wheel was not nearly as good as my first yarn from the spindle. Every time I read about spinning, it is always advised that you start on a drop spindle. I don’t know why – it is a very different skill. I was excellent at drafting on the spindle, but my hands were in a different place and had to do something different for the wheel, so it didn’t translate. It took me longer to get the right rhythm.

On Monday I worked on my homework. We were given two different (natural) colored pieces roving to spin. Next week we are going to ply it. In any case, that went incredibly well. I was able to spin while – get this – talking on the phone and watching TV.

Get a load of the singles I made – I am impressed with it myself. (Oh yeah, did I mention I am re-learning Calculus, too?)

I only have 2 bobbins, so I think I am going to spin some of my own roving before making the second singles for class. I have a week and incredible enthusiasm, so I figure that it’s doable. I separated about 175g of roving in 4 colors for my own project. You know, I really need to invest in a niddy noddy (a tool for winding yarn off of a bobbin into a skein) soon…

Serra likes my spinning, too. She just had to take her turn after I left.

And finally, today is Buttercup and Wesley’s birthday. They turn 7 today! Hold cow – I am the mother of 7-year olds. How did that happen?

Lots of Yarn

This is the first wheel that I got to borrow from my spinning teacher. It’s really pretty, but after practicing treadling, I think I want one with a double treadle (two foot pedals). I also need either a cat-free room to keep it in or a cover. Serra loves the wheel. She keeps visiting it and trying to make nice to the drive (the string that connects the big wheel to the bobbin and another part that I cannot recall the name for). I can’t wait to start making yarn!

Despite not being able to spin yet, I managed to acquire quite a bit of yarn this week.

It started out a a legitimate need. A month or so ago, Linnea had the brilliant idea to actually use her Knitting Guild membership and take a few of their correspondence courses. She wants to do the Masters Course, but she started with the Basics, Basics, Basics course just to warm up.

I thought Linnea’s idea was fantastic! I do not belong to the Knitting Guild, but I am a member of the Crochet Guild of America. Since the Crochet Guild has similar courses, I figured it would be cool to get a masters cerificate. I sent off my application (and the fee, of course) and waited a few days. On Monday I got this in the mail:

Woo-hoo! I read the course like a recipe to see what ingredients I had and which ones I needed. I had all but one of the hooks I would need, but I had none of the yarn. You need a light colored, smooth yarn for the swatches. I had light colored and fancy, I had dark colored and smooth, and a few things that were both light colored and smooth, but not in sufficient quantities. Not a big deal – I do love to go yarn shopping.

For a course like this, I decided it was best to use inexpensive but decent quality yarns. I think wool-ease is a good standard yarn to work with. You can get plenty of it, it isn’t expensive, and it comes in several colors.

I chose this for my main color.

This one is my contrast color (this one is allowed to be bright).

This one is my sport-weight yarn.

And this one is the crochet cotton.

I’ve made a few swatches already. I won’t post them all here just because I am not really sure what the guild does and does not want posted on the internet. However, it doesn’t hurt to give all the crocheters some sort of teaser!

I apparently picked a great time to start my crochet masters course. The craft store was having a big sale this week (you have to go to the brick-and-mortar store – the online store is different) on a lot of yarn that I already like. I have received a lot of requests for dishcloths (from family, mostly), so I bought a bunch of Lily Sugar and Cream. As a side note, if you are in a bind at Christmas and need to get a gift out fast, make dishcloths. When you give them to the recipient, the first thing you get is a mildly disappointed look. She (or he, but for grammar’s sake I’ll say she) has no idea at this point what she is getting. A few weeks later the recipient will just try the stupid dishcloth, and she will see that it is so much better than any other dishcloth she has ever owned. In fact, she may even be inspired to call you and tell you how wonderful that thing is. In a few months she’ll be asking for more because the ones you made will wear out and she will discover that she can’t go back to store-bought. This is an opportunity for you. You can either: A) teach this person to knit her own, or B) make the (quick and easy) dishcloths as gifts for the rest of this person’s life. Either way, you win.

Clearance is a great way to enhance your stash as well. There was some Vanna’s Choice yarn on clearance (probably last season’s colors or something) and I decided to give it a try. I mean, for $0.97/skein, you can’t go wrong. It’s acrylic, but it feels relatively soft and it comes in good colors.

I got a few other random sale yarns as well, and one of them I will use for a Kristy hat. Speaking of which, I finished a sixth hat at the Stitch-and-Pitch game in San Francisco. Carisa gave me the yarn for this one to use for the Kristy hats. It is another colorway of some yarn we got for free at the Knit and Crochet Show when it was in Oakland. My friend Melinda thinks that her mother would like the yarn, so I gave her the leftovers.

Our knitting group has finished quite a few hats for Kristy. We have more than the 15 I was sure we could do, and we’re still going. This is a great way to use up stash yarn.

I’ll leave you with some shots of the Tuesday night Stitch-and-Pitch game.

This is the first time I’ve seen string quartet play the National Anthem at a baseball game.

Our seats were decent. We got to see the Giants hit 3 homeruns!

One of the big reasons I like to go to the ballpark is the food. The garlic fries are always exciting. Sometimes they are so garlicky that you taste it for weeks, and sometimes they are milder. We got milder fries this time.

I got to see Melinda for the first time in forever. She moved to Oakland not long ago. Melinda brought along a crochet monkey – this is his face.

It was a good night to be out with fellow stitchers!

Comings and goings

Cupcake was the healthiest kitten I’ve ever had. When the others caught a URI, she was unfazed. The other kittens caught ringworm, and she never even got a smidgen of hair-loss. She was healthy, fun-loving and affectionate. So it comes as a surprise that, as of a few days ago, she is dead.

The shelter I volunteer for is the city shelter. They have had a partnership with another privately funded shelter in the city for many years now. This partnership allows the city shelter to transfer its overflow so it doesn’t have to euthanize for space. Cupcake was sent to the other shelter because Biscotti had eye boogers, marking him as a possible URI case. Since the others who were with him were exposed, they had to be moved to the private shelter as well. The city shelter really can’t afford to treat sick kittens, so this has worked out in general.

I have a much harder time tracking my kittens when they go over to the other shelter. I used to volunteer there, which would have made it easy, but I no longer go for reasons I would not like to discuss here (although the following story does illustrate one of my reasons). I have my friends look out for my babies in my place. I am glad I have these people because I would never have known otherwise. Apparently, Cupcake’s belly started to fill with fluid and she developed a fever. It came on pretty quickly, so the other shelter ran some tests. You see, they expected she had FIP (Feline Infectious Peritonitus). I know that the other shelter has a few misunderstandings about FIP. They think that if one kitten in a litter gets it, all will get it (we’ve almost never had more than one kitten in a litter develop FIP at the city shelter). If the kittens are genetically related, the other shelter will kill them all. I had to get the city shelter to make the private (and might I add, very wealthy) shelter promise to return the other kittens in the litter or at least wait and see if they, too, develop FIP before killing them. They gave us a line about genetically related kittens being nearly guaranteed to catch it. We had to prove that the 3 kittens in that group were not genetically related and we told them our postition on the matter. The other shelter was ready to just make a few assumptions and kill them all, but my friend and I saved Biscotti’s and Milkshake’s lives that day. Why so quick with the killing, I wonder?

Back at home, I had more kittens to deal with. Wisteria learned that the bottle is her friend, and now she asks for it a little more often. She’s still pretty quiet, though. She was constipated for about 4 days. I gave her 0.1mL of vegetable oil, and a few hours later she passed a really hard (like dried pasta) poop. I gave her one more dose that night, and she passed a few more. It’s a good thing, because constipation can be just as deadly to a kitten as diarrhea. I figured she needed more bulk in her diet (she just sprouted teeth, too), so I’ve started adding a tiny bit of wet food to her bottle. I also gave her some KMR 2nd step (it’s like rice cereal for kittens) via a syringe. It seems to help her bowels keep moving. Most kittens are like a poop vending machine – put in a little milk, tickle their tummies, and out pops a turd. Wisteria is more difficult than that. Some kittens just are, I guess.

I had some overnight guests this weekend. These little boys were about 24 hours old when I got them. You can see in the picture of the brown kitten that he still has his umbilical cord attached. A mother cat left a few kittens in some construction machinery, so one of the construction workers brought them home so he and his wife could raise them. It didn’t take long before they realized that these kittens were way too much work for them to handle (they cried for food every 2 & 1/2 hours, which is more than any other kittens who lived with me needed), so they contacted our rescue group. After the way the Stars turned out, I decided I didn’t want to take kittens that small again. It just takes a lot of resources and the chances of their survival are slim – I’m thinking less than 5%. Fortunately, there was a cat at the shelter who was due to give birth any day now. I cared for them in hopes that they could be added to the litter, but I had to pass these kittens to another foster parent because we had a few unexpected things come up this weekend.

Lani and Kai are still here as well. Lani is getting friendlier by the day, and Kai has learned to at least tolerate us – it’s progress. They are growing like weeds. This is a welcome change from the last kittens. Some of them really held out there.

I started my spinning class this weekend. I am enthralled, to put it mildly. I got to take an Ashford Wheel kind of like this one home. I’ll include a picture tomorrow. I had to cover the thing up because as soon as I got it home, Serra figured she should make friends with it. It isn’t mine, so I have to be extra careful that she doesn’t hurt it. My homework assignment is to practice treadling. We didn’t get to spin this week because the teacher thought that learning to use the treadle and draft yarn was a lot to do all at once. She is ok if we try to spin this week, but she didn’t show us how, exactly.

I learned a lot yesterday. The teacher showed us new tools and the rawest of materials for spinning. She had a fleece that she divided up for us to take home and wash. It’s kind of easy, but I think I felted the grey one a little. I’m not sure how – they were all in at the same time. I should have gotten a picture of them before I washed, but maybe I can get a shot next week at class (I forgot my camera this time- crud).

We all were given a few pieces of skirted (washed) fleece to practice carding and making rolags (pronounced roll-logs). The bright pink stuff at the bottom is something she gave us to blend with the white stuff so we could practice blending. I’ll get some pictures of the process when the fleece I washed at home dries.

I was pretty proficient at carding. I made rolags like they were going out of style – the teacher decided that I needed more fleece to take home so that I wouldn’t get bored before our next class. I truly love this whole process. I think I was born in the wrong era. Oh, well.

I daresay I am a natural with this fiber making jazz. I showed the teacher the ball of yarn I made recently with the drop spindle, and she was genuinely impressed. I like that I have found a hobby that I have some natural talent for. Now I just need to buy a stinking house so I have room for a wheel. Sigh.