How soon we forget.

I forgot what it was like, having a new kitten in the house.

You see this little, scrawny, crying kitten outside and you can't help but want to care for it so you coax it over to where you are already feeding the neighborhood strays.



He immediately takes to you and your daughter.

But because he's lived life in the streets, he's not so fond of other cats. Three months of having to fight for survival has earned him the name Razzi.

He kicks Nimue out of her house and takes over.


Because you are married to a person who is not 'one with the animals' Razzi has to live outside. You and your daughter spend enormous amounts of time just sitting and loving up little Razzi until he gets plump and round and looks healthy again.


Then, one day, you go out to feed him and he's limping badly, not eating or drinking, and has a bloody nose.

Help me!

So you bring him inside to make him comfortable, and too keep him safe, until the vet office opens on Monday. You were already selling things on ebay in order to pay to get him fixed/inoculated and for food for all the strays this winter. What's one more vet bill? You block off the living room to keep the other cats out (4 house cats), and make him comfortable. You search online and find out the bloody nose could be an upper respiratory infection and by Monday he has stopped limping and the swelling is almost gone. You decide to keep him in the house until his vet visit, just to be safe. In the mean time, the one who is not 'one with the animals' hears about the amount this will cost and is baffled that anyone would spend so much money on an animal that is not 'theirs'. He gets talked into allowing Razzi to stay inside as part of the family and given to his daughter who is about to turn seventeen.

And that's the story of how Razzi came to live with us.


Chapter two of Razzi's life includes threatening to beat up the local household residents until they have to take cover,


Enjoying excellent music,


Learning how to climb and uproot houseplants


And ticking this one off so much that she felt the need to climb up onto your desk while you are writing this post, and pee all over your stack of papers.


It almost makes me feel not guilty for his third vet visit next month. The one which will ensure that he won't create anymore unwanted kittens, like he himself was.

Well. Unwanted until now that is.


"Thank you for saving me", he says.

Found on Ravelry

Click to enlarge.

Procrastinators unite

This has nothing to do with anything I'm supposed to be working on, but it's so pretty I can't keep my fingers off it.



This is Brown Sheep yarn mill ends - black tone from, The Sheep Shed.

I love this stuff. It spins up to a really pretty heathery grey. I'm thinking of spinning a 3 ply yarn and making a hat/mittens/scarf set. I have some beautiful green mill ends too that I'll use with this.

Is there a wool intervention?

Last April I learned how to knit Intarsia. I instantly came up with ideas for knitting, not one but FOUR, afghans as Christmas presents. THIS Christmas.

Then a day spent surfing the web and I've rekindled my passion for learning how to hook rugs. BAM, I have a sudden brain storm for my mothers' Christmas present. THIS Christmas. Mind you the only hooked rugging I've done was latch hooking as a child. This step runner has to be classy and look realistic as the recipient does not appreciate anything remotely folk artsy.

These ideas and plans can not wait for Christmas's down the line, oh no! They HAVE to be designed and created by me in time to give this year.

Christmas 2013 now looks like:

One Intarsia Rainbow Dash afghan

One Intarsia Pinky Pie afghan

One Intarsia Apple Jack & Big Mac afghan

One Intarsia honkin' huge block afghan

One hand dyed, hand spun, hand hooked step runner (learn how to hook rugs first)

Four hand dyed, hand spun, hand knit Christmas Advent Wreaths (learn how to knit on dpns first)

Two or three hand spun skeins to gift to someone who doesn't think handspun should be sold for a lot of money.

I've said before that I need a wool intervention. Then it was to keep me from buying more fleeces. Now I need one to keep me from having all these "wonderful" ideas.

tdf13 - last post......probably

1 – Super fine BFL, Colonial top, & baby Suri alpaca: hand dyed by me, drum carded. 100 yards, N-plied, fingering weight.

2 – Super fine BFL, Colonial top, & baby Suri alpaca: hand dyed by me, drum carded. 298 yards, N-plied, fingering weight.

3 – Super fine BFL, Colonial top, & baby Suri alpaca: hand dyed by me, drum carded. 568 yards, N-plied, lace weight.

4 – Merino/Bamboo/Silk: dyed by WoolGatherings. 314 yards, 2 ply, fingering weight.

5 – Super fine BFL, Colonial top, & baby Suri alpaca: hand dyed by me, drum carded. 262 yards, N-plied, fingering.

6 – Super fine BFL, Colonial top, & baby Suri alpaca: drum carded. 286 N-pied, fingering.

7 – Super fine BFL, Colonial top, & baby Suri alpaca: hand dyed by me, drum carded. 124 yards, N-pied, fingering.

8 – Merino/Bamboo/Silk: dyed by Fiber Fancy. Hand carded into rolags by me. 168 yards N-plied, sport weight.

9 & 10 – Falkland: dyed by Fiber Fancy. 540 yards total, 2 ply, fingering.

11 - Super fine BFL, Colonial top, & baby Suri alpaca: hand dyed by me, drum carded. 452 yards, N-plied, fingering.

12 – Super fine BFL, Colonial top, & baby Suri alpaca: hand dyed by me, drum carded. 262 yards, N-plied, fingering.

13 – Super fine BFL, Colonial top, & baby Suri alpaca: hand dyed by me, drum carded. 268 yards, N-plied, fingering.

14 – Super fine BFL, Colonial top, & baby Suri alpaca: hand dyed by me, drum carded. 248 yards, N-plied, fingering.

15 – Finn/Dorset/Traghee fleece: hand washed & dyed by me, drum carded. 146 yards, N-plied, bulky.

16 – Super fine BFL, Colonial top, & baby Suri alpaca: hand dyed by me, drum carded. 248 yards, N-plied, fingering.

17 – The left over single from #4, N-plied. 23 yards.

18 – #’s 8 and 15 plied together. I had planned on making this yarn but didn’t like the way they looked together. 15 yards, 2 ply, worsted weight.

19 – Not number but is the yarn all on its own. Australian Merino & Faux Cashmere. Dyed by Pickin and Spinnin. 212 yards N-plied lace weight.

Totals:
Singles – 12,733 yards (7.23 miles)
Total plied yards – 4,534 (2.57 miles)

Goals:
To get my initial fiber spun for Christmas knitting. ACCOMPLISHED and more.
To learn to spin longdraw. FAILED miserably. Yikes, it looks so easy when someone else is doing it. I will try again with a long fiber and when I have more time to sit and think about it.

All in all I had a very good tour. My daughter helped out with the cooking, did all of the photography for me, and generally made it easier for me to find time to sit at my wheel. Now I need to change gears and get out of spinning mode and into knitting mode. I have planned way too much knitting for Christmas.....again.

tdf13 23rd and final day

I started off this tour wanting to get all the spinning done for the advent Christmas presents I'm hoping to make. By the time the tour was ready to start, I had 2.55 pounds of fiber died and drum carded, ready to spin.


I was kind of worried that I wouldn't be able to get it all spun in time. I've never really timed myself to see how long it took me to spin a skein of yarn, but by day 18 I'd spun it all

(Minus the dark blue teal which I spun pre- tour)

So I had to go stash diving. A terrible problem, I know. By noon today I had finished my last skein. Cara took pictures of all the fiber I'd spun up for Tour de Fleece 2013.


And then I sat there, twiddling my thumbs, until I said "Screw it" and threw this on the wheel.

An Australian Merino/Faux Cashmere batt ( a little under 2 ounces) from Picking and Spinning. And silly me, I decided to spin it lace weight and challenged myself to get it finished in time for posting tonight.


I was done and Cara was taking a picture of it at 8:30.

It amazes me how much yarn I actually got spun in the tour this year. The only other time I was part of the tour was when I was spinning with drop spindles. This time, with my Ashford Traditional wheel, I spun a grand total of:

3.9 pounds and 4,534 yards (mostly N-plied) That's over two and a half MILES of yarn!

I think it's safe to say that I've had a good tour. Also, looking at other peoples spinning, there are a lot of beautiful yarns and yummy fibers out there. Way to go us!

eta: I forgot that I can't post pictures on Ravelry unless I steal them from here. So:

tdf13 day 22

I spent most of the day reskeining all the yarn I've spun this tour. I really make a mess of my yarn when I wash it after spinning, so I always have to wind it up into a ball and niddy noddy it again.

I did get some spinning done though. As always, I've spun more than it looks like because I stop and get a picture before the sun goes down. This picture was taken around 7pm and I didn't stop spinning until 11. By then I had two half bobbins spun up. I'll ply them tomorrow.