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February 26, 2006

And Now For Something Completely Different

Knitting content.

She's finished! Actually, she's been finished for over 2 weeks! Shame on me! Work is crazy, home is crazy... I can't believe it took this long to get to it! Last night, Mary agreed to take a couple of photos for the ol' blog. Well, a couple turned out to be a couple dozen. Between her being a delicate artist and me being terrible in front of cameras... well, it took a while.

But here's a shot that I think should do....

Red Hot Somewhat Cowl
pattern by Wendy at Knit and Tonic
size: 36" bust
yarn: Blue Sky Alpacas Alpaca Silk in tomato, almost 6 skeins (one and a quarter skeins less than what was called for!)
needles: addi turbo circ's, sizes US4 & 5
comments: Well, golly - I really kinda wish I had added some waist shaping a la Madame Gleek, but I'm pretty happy with the outcome overall. It is a little on the big side, but fits at the bust just perfectly. I think if I were to make another, I'd join the body a bit earlier to keep the sleeves a bit closer to the 'pits and see how much that would effect the bust area - and add some waist shaping so it would be a little more sex kitten-ish. :) But it's still red hot, damnit! And it's gotten a lot of wear recently.

Curious to see what photos I had to sift through to find one suitable for this post? You know you are. Lucky for you, I've captured them all right here on this smart little slideshow. Go ahead - please. Have a good laugh at my expense. I encourage it.

Last night was a fun filled evening of debauchery. Mary, Michelle and I intoxicated ourselves in various ways, ate a pudding pie and played Karoke Revolution for far too long. Damn, we think we're funny.

Here's a pic to sum up our feelings toward any problems life throws our way.

This is what happens when you give Sarah a bottle of Pinot, a sharpie pen and muse that you'd like a tattoo at the base of your spine.

Posted by Sarah at 4:54 PM | Comments (12)

February 20, 2006

Mary and I Dyed on Sunday.

Okay, so yesterday Mary and I were going to do a photoshoot of our finished sweaters... but we got distracted.

I bought a Lanaset Dye Kit from Sheep Hollow Farms and could no longer resist the urge to make lots of colors and dye something white!!! We had such a blast mixing dyes it made me realize how badly I wish I could just play with colors all day for a living... sigh.

Anyhoo, here are our finished works! We dyed a bunch of smallish strips of roving so we could test out each of our 18 colors in different combos!

Yummy! Not too shabby for our first real try, no? These dyes are truly amazing! I'm going to try to spin these puppies up over the next week or so to see how they yarn up. This weekend will most certainly bring round two. We are hooked - there's no going back now. :)

Of course those sweaters still need to be photographed...

Posted by Sarah at 7:29 PM | Comments (9)

February 14, 2006

Thank You.

Just wanted to slap a quick post up here to say a big Thank You to everyone for your kind words and good thoughts. It has helped tremendously, I really appreciate you guys!

I am missing my little boy-o like mad, but wouldn't you know it, I seem to have discovered Mr T (aka Evil Cat)'s cryptonite.

Tears.

I cried and he shut up. He calmed down. He was attentive and cuddly. He let me sleep past 7am without a screaming meow style wake up call that his belly needed filling. He has not ventured up the chimney in days. I am stunned.

Kyra - as I predicted - has been moping around the house, sad as all get out. But we're getting each other through it. Of course, she finds herself victim to Mister T's slow, yet inevitable comeback to the world of no-goodery... Now that he is the primary feline, why not go after his only competition? Yup. Last night he was trying to smack Kyra around. The dog doesn't seem to mind - it's still attention and lordy knows she can't get enough of that...

Knitting news to come - I do have a finished object... Finished days and days ago! Time to get the sucker captured for posterity, already...

Posted by Sarah at 1:51 PM | Comments (3)

February 11, 2006

And in the Morning He was Gone.

At 2:30am this morning my sweet little Flane passed on from this world.

My little man had lost weight rapidly over the last 3 days. I was trying to figure out what it could be that was suddenly bothering him so much. Despite the weight loss, I was able to get him to drink and nibble on his food - and, as always, his spirits were high. I decided to see how he did and I would take him to the vet Saturday morning to see if he had a tummy bug or if it might just be stress from Mr. T wailing on him for the past few weeks. I left yesterday morning for work and he was up and about wandering the house as always.

I arrived home to discover him curled up in a corner of the bathroom. A place I've never found him sleeping before. One look and I knew something was terribly wrong. He looked like a different cat than the one I had kissed goodbye that morning. He was having trouble breathing and couldn't move around without terrible effort. I called the emergency clinic - and Mary. For the first and only time, Flane didn't put up a fight to get into the carrier. We were on our way.

I consider myself blessed that the nearest emergency clinic wouldn't accept the only credit card I had access to. It placed Flane in the caring hands of Dr. Pelletier in Cheshire. I knew from the moment she walked through the door, that if this could be fixed, she would do it. Upon examination, she said she could see that he was very ill, but had to keep him at the clinic for tests to find out what the problem was.

I kissed his mug goodbye and Mary and I made our way home to wait up for the doctor's call. It came at midnight and the news was not good. Flane had cancer. It was in his lungs and in his bone marrow. Chemotherapy was an option she said, but to go through it he had to regain his strength and she feared he wouldn't make it through the night. He had been hiding a serious illness from me for a very long time. Which, if you had the pleasure of meeting Flane, should come as no surprise. The strong, silent type for certain. Our little Buddha. Nothing has ever phased him. He has always just glowed - upon meeting him you instantly feel that he has figured something out that you have yet to even ponder. A very strong and loving soul. A soul that has doubtlessly reached enlightenment and has wisdom beyond his earthly years.

Here he is nuzzling little Julian. Pulled ears meant nothing but love to Flane. I've never seen a cat so patient with kids and their grabby hands.....

The doctor told me that while she could help with pain and appetite, the few tools at her disposal to try to help with his difficulty breathing were not helping. It was expending all of his energy. He was struggling. He was dying. I've been very lucky in my life to have never have to make the decision I did last night. Animals who have spent their years with me and my family have always left on their own. Through illness, injury or old age. If there was any chance that he could pass away comfortably at home, it is surely what I would have chosen. It just wasn't the case.

Mary and I cried and talked and collected ourselves. At about 1:45, we climbed back into the car and made the hardest drive of my life. I wanted to get there so quickly. To be with him, and hold him and kiss him and let him know how much I loved him and that he was the biggest blessing ever bestowed upon a sad little girl like me. But, I wanted the car ride to slow every time I realized what was about to happen. We were going to say goodbye. Something that we shouldn't have to do for so many more years.

As soon as I saw him again, I knew he was in so much pain. He couldn't breathe. It couldn't be fixed. He looked at me with those big golden eyes and it was just incredibly hard. I kissed him about a hundred and fifty times. I was crying. Mary was crying. The doctor was crying. Every single one of her staff was crying. How do you say goodbye to someone who has given you so much? Someone who has gotten you through the toughest six months of your life so far. This little someone was so much bigger than the fluff and bone encasing him. I had to be as strong as Flane to end the pain and let him pass on to whatever was next for him.

I miss him. To be honest, right now I hate this house without him. I see him everywhere and I can't believe what just happened over the course of one evening. Three days ago he was his normal self. Following me room to room like a little dog and curling up next to me at night in the same exact curve of my leg as we both fell asleep - just like every night. But, not last night. And it is killing me. I want to write that I know I did the right thing. I want to write that there was no way for me to know what was going on inside of him. But, to be honest - I feel guilty. I feel like I let him down. There should have been something for me to do. Some way for me to help him. It seems so surreal that he could hide that kind of pain for so long.

But, ultimately I have to realize - that was Flane. Flane never cried. He never complained. He was a taoist. He was a stone in a stream. The water would rush around and over him. But he remained steady. To the end.

I miss you boy-o. My little Irish man. My redhead. My roommate. My friend. I was a lucky girl to have you in my life as long as I did. Until we meet again.....

Mary posted some great pictures of our little guy over at her site and tells the story of our first meeting. I'm eternally grateful for her being with me last night.

Posted by Sarah at 3:16 PM | Comments (25)

February 6, 2006

Dreaming About Umbrella Drinks

My mind has recently been fixed upon getting to a warm climate and lounging on a white sand beach with a fancy umbrella drink in hand. So, it should be no surprise that my recent dyeing excursion should yield a result which totally reflects that mindset....

I really dig this colorway, I call it Cayman. :)

I used teal and spearmint dyes, leaving a fair amount of white wool. I love how the colors seep into one another.


Here it is in singles on the bobbins....

Plied up and the twist is set!

And wound up all perty.

This will be a birthday gift for my friend's daughter who is turning 10 this weekend. She's a very talented little knitter and I think she'll get a kick out of the fact that I dyed the wool and spun it into yarn for her! :)

Posted by Sarah at 6:59 PM | Comments (6)

February 3, 2006

Somewhat Pleased

About halfway through the first sleeve of my Red Hot Somewhat Cowl and I'm pretty happy with how she's turning out! While I hit gauge, I do have to say it is coming out a bit on the big side. Kaitlyn mentioned that Steph was adding waist shaping since she has an hourglass figure - I now see the wisdom in her decision... I think the chest size is right on, but it does just hang there when it comes to the waist.... But, c'est la vie! I think it will still be smashing, just not as snug as I would have thought. We'll see how she turns out after being blocked. :)

Here we see my doppelganger Gertrude modelling the RHSC. Gertrude, you sexy little bitch!

And the back.... Gertrude's got some booty goin' on! Yowza!

I just brought good ol' Gertie out off of a long vacaction. Back to work, doppelganger!

*sarah cracks her whip*

Posted by Sarah at 6:15 PM | Comments (9)

February 1, 2006

The Eternal Battle of Good vs. Evil

Mr. T has taken a turn for the worse. His sometimes funny, but mostly painful, habit of biting me on the nose when I least expect it was just an introduction to his fierce temper and twisted little sense of humor. Over the past few weeks, he has grown increasingly aggressive with poor little Flane. (The difference in their behaviors is so staggering that I have begun to call them Evil Cat and Good Cat. Guess who's who.)

Good good Flane taking refuge on top of the couch behind my head.

What's most alarming to me is that it seems he gets most aggressive when Flane is trying to spend any quality time with me. It used to be that T would just chase him around a little bit - it seemed fairly random. When T got bored, he'd chase Flane. When T got really hepped up on catnip, he'd chase Flane. When T was hungry and I was ignoring him because he just ate a HUGE BOWL OF CAT FOOD AND THEN SHOVED HIS FACE INTO FLANE'S BOWL AND ATE HIS TOO, THANKYOUVERY MUCH, he'd chase Flane. Kyra is usually the mediator... she runs in and breaks it up and Flane runs away while T gives Kyra a nasty look seemingly the feline equivalent of sticking your tongue out at someone - while standing his ground entirely. He's not afraid of the dog.

What has changed, you ask? Here's a typical evening in my apartment:

Poor little Good Cat jumps on the couch and lay down next to me. Evil Cat comes out of the kitchen like a bat out of Hell. He leaps through the air, lands on Good Cat's but and BITES. Good Cat yelps! He flees! Evil Cat pursues!

Once Good Cat is out of the picture, Evil Cat immediately returns to take his spot on the couch next to me. Ummm... NO. Evil shalt not be rewarded in my house. "Scoot, scoot", I say.

Quickly, he jumps off the couch and runs to attempt another daring escape up the chimney. Good thing there's a flue - even if it is broken.

Now Evil Cat is - very appropriately - covered in soot and appears pitch black instead of his normal misleading shade of apricot. I chase him to clean him off before he sits his evil ass on my white couch. When I catch him, he is purring. Loudly. Then he bites me. I yelp. He tries to engage me in a staring contest that I'll never win. Once he is clean he runs to one of the few pieces of carpet in the house that is yet to be destroyed by his claws and digs in, making sure I can hear his claws and his purring. In my most loving tone, I tell him, "STOP IT, YOU PSYCHO!" and he books for the chimney again. I pour a big glass of whatever liquor has most recently been left at my house.

Evil Mister T trying his best to look inconspicuous.

This is far from the worst thing he's done yet. But it is a typical evening en la casa de scissorina. What, may I ask, am I supposed to do? He is destroying the entire carpet in my apartment. He corners Good Cat on a daily basis and it is actually having a negative psychological effect on the poor little guy at this point (last night, 1am, T has cornered Flane downstairs and they are going at it. I run down there to find Flane curled up in the corner puffed out and hissing. I carry him upstairs and since Kyra has already suckered me into letting her sleep on the bed, I place Flane in a safe spot between the two of us. He cuddles as close as he can to me. :( My poor little man!)

I so prefer dogs. You can train a dog. What the fuck am I to do about this???

edited to add: and the protective nature doesn't end with felines. evil cat took issue with my human male friend this past weekend. ears back, cold stare. nope, he doesn't like competition - no matter the species.

Posted by Sarah at 7:41 PM | Comments (8)