Saturday, June 30, 2007

Due to unforeseen circumstances........Knitting interrupted.....

With all the issues involved with finding the kitty a home, not much knitting happened this week. I am 2/3 of the way through the foot part, but, not ready to decrease for the toe yet. Maybe by tonight...... Home on vacation all this week with much running around to do.....Hope to get some knitting in too...........
Kitty rescue and drama.... sad story with a happy ending

A close friend of mine is very ill with cancer. Last Monday, she had to concede the fight to live at home with help coming in every day. She went to the nursing home. It's actually the best place for her at this time. She has company, is not alone, and is safe. She feared dying alone in her apartment, even though her son and his wife live in the same complex and building.

This move also meant a major upheaval for her 7 year old cat. Whiskers is a beautiful, huge, Sylvester type kitty and very loving. The son and daughter-in-law were taking him, but, she is extremely allergic to cats. Whiskers stayed in the apartment by himself with multiple daily visits from the two of them. He desperately needed a home by today or would be put in the pound or sent to kitty heaven. (I have since learned vets don't euthanize healthy cats upon request). It would have definitely been the pound.

I worked all week on trying to locate someone who could, or, knew someone who could, save his life. The only reason I could not keep him myself, is I am already way over the amount I should have -- as anyone who has read this site before would know -- and I have special needs pets at this time.

Well, the cat angels above must have been listening because he now has a home with one of the doctors from my job. She already has two other cats and instantly fell in love with Whiskers when she met him. We brought all his toys, supplies, and him to her house Thursday evening. He has already started to settle in nicely and I foresee a great future for him.

The previous owners have been invite to visit him any time they wish..........

Saturday, June 23, 2007

Yarn, Yarn, Yarn from the mail box...........

My Lime N Violet package arrived last week and I truly love the colors of both of my selections. I also had discovered KindredSpirits.com site and ordered 2 skeins from them. This arrived the other day and is now sitting on my cabinet near the desk along with the LnV package. All I am saying is this..........They are evil....... They tempt me to forsake my other sock in progress to cast on one of them now.........I can almost hearing them calling me to pick them up and squish them a bit. I have a pattern in mind for the dark blue from Kindred Spirits and the light pink/white multi from LnV already. Just Must Resist Urge to Start Them..........
Zipping through sock 2 of this pattern........

I started the mate to "Go With the Flow" last Sunday during a leisurely drive to the flea market in Mansfield, CT. If you drive slow, it's about an hour and a half away. We take rte 6 through Scituate and parts of CT. It's a very picturesque route with some highway as well as rural areas blended together.

The cast on was being difficult for some unknown reason and I had started this sock about 4 times before it finally clicked. So, the cast on and first 2 rows of the cuff were already waiting for me from a previous day. As I joined the stitches, I could feel myself relax.......Knitting usually has that affect on me....... Then I resumed working the cuff pattern, then the actual leg pattern. By the time I got to the flea market, I was into my second repeat of the leg and really was remorseful about getting out of the car and leaving it languishing in it's bag on the floor. I just wanted to sit there and work on it.

I wandered around the grounds, but, could feel the tug of the sock calling me back to it. When we returned to the car, I picked up my bag, got comfortable, and started knitting before we had even pulled back onto the road from the entrance. The needles only stop moving once for a stop at Walmart to pick up a couple of items before we headed home. Purl, purl, knit, k2tog, yo, knit, purl......all the way home.......

Now it's Saturday, a whole 6 days later. I had high hopes to finish the poor sock by now after that great start. Sadly, I am just starting the gussets. My friend has been placed in a nursing home and I have been trying to find placement for her cat. Her son's girlfriend is highly allergic and can't keep him like she wanted to. I am over full with my "kids" so it's not an option for me. I have the kittens, my older cats, the diabetic cat, old dogs and puppy. It's just not possible for me to take another animal. Finding him a home has taken priority over my needles. We have some other people asking their friends and family if anyone can help us out in the circumstances.

Maybe another ride tomorrow will get me almost to the end of the foot............



Saturday, June 16, 2007

Yay!!!!!...........It's Here!!!!!!!!!

I love it when I open the door to check for packages on the front step and find something. I have a couple of things ordered and have been patiently awaiting their arrival. There are a couple of books from Crafter's Choice, a CD from my music club, and .......YARN from Lime n Violet.

I was surprised to find the yarn on the step this morning. I only ordered it a few days ago. Let me just say this: It's beautiful! The colors are so pretty - much nicer than the monitor indicated. I know different monitors can give different color perception, and mine was really close to the real thing. The colors just seem a bit prettier in reality. Now, I'm off to pull out some patterns and choose which will become each of these yarns........ My needles are calling me....... :)

Friday, June 15, 2007

First Flow Sock Finished........Also a long Rant About "Special" People..........

The toe is kitchenered closed and the second sock is cast on................ Hopefully, number 2 will work up a bit faster and with less issues than the number 1 did. I have all the bugs worked out of the pattern now, so it should be o.k.

I am patiently waiting for 2 skeins of hand dyed yarn from Lime N Violet's store. I haven't picked out a pattern yet. I need to actually see the yarn so it can tell me what socks it wants to be.

I went to the grocery store tonight after work. As I shopped, I saw a former patient I knew from my facility. I have not really had much to do with him, because I never worked in his building. He is now living in an apartment on his own. He had mental health issues and spent a considerable time at the hospital. When he saw me, he asked me for a dollar, and then asked me if he had enough to buy the food he wanted.

While I was talking to him, store security came up to us. The security person was in regular clothes to blend in with the shoppers. Apparently, T had asked other people for help or a dollar before he saw me. Security identified himself and told T he could not bother other customers and to leave the store. Obviously, he had been following him around for a bit.

When I said I knew T, the security person asked if I was sure he was not bothering me. I assured him this was the case. Then I handed T a dollar, helped him with his food choice, and told him not to ask any one else for help. Just go pay and leave the store.

I looked around the aisles as I headed for check out, but, did not see him or the security person again. Hopefully, T did as I said and left. Hopefully, the officer did not detain or bother him again. I wanted to explain about T to him, but, could not do this, because of his privacy rights.

I think it's sad that as a society, we judge people before understanding them. It is obvious this person had issues. He looks o.k., but, if you speak to him, you can figure it out. I also have a family relative with mental illness who is living is supervised housing. My husband takes him to the stores and runs errands with him. I wonder how many people look at P and veer away since you can tell he has some issues. He is completely harmless and timid. Actually, he is more afraid of others then they need to be of him. The other side is people can be cruel and mean to these unfortunate people. Don't get me wrong. Sometimes they are very invasive and can be abusive. Not the usual case.

I also had a mentally challenged and physically handicapped sister who died several years ago. Her disabilities were obvious if you saw her, especially because of her speech problem. She was not a stupid person, just slow. On many occasions, I saw people look upon her with almost disgust because she was different.

I always think, but for the grace of God, there goes you or I. Please think twice before turning away from, or ridiculing someone with a disability, immediately obvious or not. No one chooses to have to live with these problems. Actually, I admire them for their perseverance to get along with their life in spite of the restrictions and challenges their problems present to them. Sometimes I think they are stronger because of them.

Sunday, June 10, 2007

Slow Progression on the Flow Sock....

The sock has been reworked up to half way through the gussets. I'm not sure if it is a pattern snafu, or just my interpretation of it, but, I had a problem lining up the stitches for the instep. The pattern said to knit 14 stitches, turn, slip one as to purl, and purl 27 more stitches. This was suppose to start the heel flap. If I did this, it put me off by two stitches in the instep. Instead, I knit 12 stitches, and when I turned, I worked the slip stitch and 29 purls. This ended me right where I needed to be. The discovery of this problem happened after the heel flap and turn had both been worked and then ripped out. I plan to finish the gusset tonight, then hopefully most of the foot. If the problem hadn't been there, I think sock #1 would have been finished already. I'm not in a hurry to get these done, but, I do have many more patterns calling to me........

My friend, Donna, had to put her diabetic cat to sleep last week. My old roommate and I found him back in 1993. After fostering him, Donna gave him a home . This was an extremely spoiled cat who let you know he was the boss. He had his own personality and was a temperamental kitty, friendly or distant depending on his mood. Oscar was a Maine Coone mix and just a huge beautiful boy. He will be missed by many people.

My cats and dogs have been behaving very well lately. I hope it continues. The cat, Isabella, likes to play with the puppy, Pooh. If he gets too rough with her, she swats him.

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Oooops........... I guess I can't count right or read correctly...........

I have a preference for working 5 DPNs instead of 4. When I cast on for the "Go With the Flow" socks, the directions were to cast on 60 stitches. This should not have been an issue......If I had followed directions. Instead of casting onto one needles and moving them to the other DPNs, like usual, I decided to break up the stitches as they were created. If I had bothered to read the entire instructions, I would have realized I was to put 18 stitches on needles 1 and 2. Needle 3 was to have 24 stitches. Since I didn't realize this, and only put the 18, I created a boo-boo. This made me one pattern repeat short.

I didn't realize this until I wanted to re-arrange them to be on 4 DPNs after mentioning this to my friend. He pointed out my snafu and explained how to break them down correctly for the extra DPN I wanted. This meant frogging the whole sock.

Luck was with me in the fact I had only done 5 of the 20 repeats for the leg. I cast on the correct amount and worked on it for a bit last night -- berating my foolish self the whole time. All the previous repeats are now back in place and a couple more as well.

I have learned an important lesson here: READ the instructions for the pattern BEFORE you try to knit it !!!

Monday, June 04, 2007

"Waving Laces" Finished....On to Go With the Flow"................

I finished the toe with Kitchener stitch today and did the "happy dance" for this pair.

Now it's on to my next project. I decided to go with the "Go With the Flow" simply because I had a skein of yarn with me, and thought it would look good in this pattern. It's one of my hand painted from Jessicaarts and had bright pinks, purples, and blues in it. Also, it was the only one in the "Favorite Socks" book calling for my size 1 DPNs. It just so happened I had no other needles with me and had an hour plus to sit and wait for my patient to come back from her procedure.

So far I have the cast on and cuff completed and am working on the leg part. There are 4 rows to this part and you need to repeat them 20 times. Simple enough to do. Hopefully, I haven't jinxed myself by saying that.

By the way, I lost one of my Brittany No.1 needles when I left the ER last night. Fortunately, this pattern only called for 4 needles, so this is not a problem. I really love working with these and need to buy another set now. DH feels bad, so he is replacing them for me. He really knows how to make me smile. :)


Sunday, June 03, 2007

Interrupted Sock Completion...........

Sometimes no matter how you try to finish a project, it's not meant to be rushed. This is the case with my second sock of the Waving Lace pattern. This one seems to be taking a long time to come to fruition. Lately, there were days when I didn't have a chance to knit a stitch. I am down to 8 stitches on each of the four DPNs and had planned to finish it tonight. Unfortunately, this is not to be. My DH and I spent a couple of hours at the ER tonight with a family relative. I worked on the sock a bit, but it was hard to stay concentrated with all the activity happening.

We got home after 9p.m. and we hadn't had any supper yet. I threw something together fast and the dishes are now done. I'm heading for bed, so the poor sock has to wait until tomorrow at lunch time to reach completion. Needless to say, there are patterns, needles, and yarn in my bag to immediately start another pair of tootsie warmers.

Goodnight for now....... My bed is calling to me...............