Offered Belly, Hidden Switchblades

Titania has grown and grown into a sleek youthful kitty.  Two of her sisters are in the bathroom but caght at 6 weeks is not the same as caught at 4 months.

Winery Adventure

I went on a very fun adventure this weekend with a friend.  We went to Masia de la Vinya for wine tasting.  We had a great "bartender", the wine was delicious, the company was excellent and the day was beautifu.  Somewhere around taste #5 I started to relax and feel like myself again... I may need to become a middle aged drinker after all.

Kidding! But seriously, how cute are we?  This is out on the patio, drinking local sangria and listening to live classic rock.  I think this was during the James Taylor song.   We had a great time. I highly recommend it.

After wine and breadsticks and water and time we hit the road back home with only a couple stops - one at the bead store for some beads to match some of the yarn-crawl yarn, one to get my nose pierced and one for a delicious burrito late lunch.  Pretty much a perfect day.  I didn't even touch my knitting.

...Saves Nine

Still stitching.  The bathtub doesn't show too well against the linen colored cloth but the outlining will help (if I ever get there).  Big swaths of one color make progress speedy.

A Stitch in Time...

Not entirely sure why my knitting / spinning desire has been usurped by the urge to work on counted cross stitch, but there you have it.  I even got some work done today at the laundromat.

All the green and gold is complete now and I added more white last night and today. More white, more tan, more backstitching and more blackwork border and I'm done. 

Then it is on to the coordinating second pattern. 

And So It Goes...

Life here at Chez Picky continues to pass.  Galen's memory is a fond one but mostly the other cats are filling the gap (except for a moment this morning when I was cutting up cooked chicken and went to give him a pill).

The big cats (formerly known as the kittens) are slowly coming out of their shells although none are as greedy for attention as Galen.  But they will sleep by my and meow to be petted.  Bingo has learned to jump on my lap and also is moving into Galen's old space on the computer chair.  I think I have given up all hope of giving ayway the baby kitten; she has taken over Galen's old duties and emotion-checking cat and walking on the keyboard-cat.  She may be only a few months old but she rules with an iron paw.  Even the dog is in line.

I'm Getting Better

The fond memories are starting to outweigh the experience at the vet.

2007

2008

2009

2009

2011

Grief

His ashes are on my desk but his little face is still in my mind's eye.

My Sweet Boy

3 /1999 - 7/2016

Tour de Fleece 2016

Saturday marked the start of the Tour and I am in again for another spin.  No specific coherent goal this year, so far I am collecting bits of things that are half started or in the "must spin now" queue from last year.

Stage 1 - .25 oz spun, merino / tencel
Stage 2 - .25 oz spun, merino / tencel. Plied 175 yd

175 yd, .5 oz

In other news I went to a 90s party Friday and it was super fun.  Broke out the Doc Marten's and the Black Market Flowers tee and was in my element.  Fuzzy navel wine coolers were the perfect addition; well, an acceptable substitute since the demise of Zima.

The zebra finches have been here a week now and are settling in.  Yesterday was bath day, today I saw some allopreening.  Thinking of calling them Flit and Swift but haven't figured out who is who yet.

Samah turned 2 on the third, she thinks that finch TV was her birthday present.   Tempest has been in the house 3 weeks (9 weeks old?) and is currently crossing the house by going from loom-top to loom-top.  I think she is on the lookout for breakfast.

6/24/2016

Wet and Wonderful

Herbivore Monday

Capybara

Proof of Life

I have a membership to the SD Zoo / Safari Park and go quite a lot. Some of the knitters were teasing that there aren't ever any pictures so I remembered a camera on Friday.  I have to admit that they are nice to look at after the trip is over but I stand by my normal policy of look at what's happening, don't watch your camera all day. 

Lion & Tigers and Bears, oh my!

 

Nosy Parker

Yarn Crawling

Last week it was that time of year again when knitters pile in cars and zip from yarn store to yarn store in the greater LA Area.   The knitters & I piled in the car Saturday and Sunday and had a very enjoyable weekend.

Alamitos Bay Yarn Company: Gorgeous yarns as usual.  I regretted not getting some yarn last year (or was it two?) and now it is mine at last. In a fun twist, another friend got two skeins of the same color at a different store.  It is the season of "Starry Night" inspired scarves, I see.

Malabrigo Mechita in "Ninfas"

The Dizzy Blonde selections this year were both fantastic (a red / black and a grey / black) and their yarn is lovely but I had to pass it up in favor of some natural colored alapaca I have been seeking.  This will be the contrast color for a double-knit scarf. The main color is a red/chestnut (also alpaca).

Yarn & Soul Superfine Sport "Taupe"

At Concepts in Yarn I scored 1500yd laceweight of a favorite brand on clearance for $5. I love that store - it is homey to me in that it is crammed full of wierd old yarns and patterns.   I may have to go someday just to hang out.  The ladies seem nice and they always have cookies on crawl day.  As for the yarn, it is enough yardage for an Evenstar.  There is a possibility I can overdye it as a gradient but then you know I love gray in its natural state as well.   

Lana borgosesia Cashwool

We also got a tip for a discount on lunch at a nice place next door. It was delicious and nutritious.  It is always a good time for scrambled eggs with spinach bacon and roasted potatoes. 

Had a little yarn accident at Twist - I got the blues. The blue yarns, that is. Airy triangular shawl coming to a knitting bag near me.  I love the bright blues of the merino yarn and we conferred with pretty much everyone in the store about the navy blue yarn (seen in the corner) and how well it would coordinate.  Gray would look nice too but I wanted a bright and not muted / saddened effect.  Possible plans include holding both yarns together consistently or intermittently or having solid and fluffy sections alternate. 

Manos del Uruguay Marina "Calypso"
Twist Mist navy blue

Went to The Knitting Tree for the first time and it definitely will need a revisit or three. Great vibe, beautiful yarn, wierd location but that was forgotten the moment I stepped inside. They had a designer there with patterns and samples and fell in love with her light pullover design C'est la Vie.  Of course I did not buy the yarn for that over the weekend but it is in my library.  

Day 2 (Sunday) was a day for inland yarnseeing.  Right out of the blocks I saw this at Phebie's and refused to leave without it.  They also had the fancy sheep patterned emery board I have been looking for and a few skeins of that discontinued cotton yarn I love.  Mental note: go back and snatch it up soon. No idea what project this will become but there are some lovely stoles in my Ravelry library.  I have admired Boxleaf Wrap for a long time and this is a nice muted colorway.

Fyberspates Gleem "Verdegris"

On we went and visited Make 1 Yarn Co, The Purlside (under new managment), Needles Hooks and Yarn (a bit strange but I found 1 mm crochet hook and yarn "tasted" some neat yarn with sequins), A Stitch in Time and finally, Abuelita's. A very nice woman was out front with a little "trunk show" of her yarns and patterns. I don't normally like inclusions in yarn but this blend seemed to have just the right balance of interest and subtlety.  Clearly it was blue faced leicester yarn day, as the skein above is also blended with that breed.

Cuppa Yarn Tweety "Killarney"

The inside of the shop was also nice and I was tempted by some locally made soap.  I settled for a brief chat with the staff and a half a biscuit.  That was the end of the road unless we wanted to continue to downtown LA.  A quick conference and we decided to call it a wrap.

I think I have enough yarn to keep me busy until Yarn Crawl 2017!

Home Improvement

I had a little extra money after working all the overtime in the world last month and chose to spend it on upgrading Beaker's home.  He went from this...

...which was cozy and he loved, but was frankly a tight fit.

To this!

It was the right price, an awesome color, gently used but pretty much all the parts are there.  I need to get a pin for the main door and one food door is wired shut due to a missing latch.  He has about triple the room and I can upgrade the nesting cockatiels into his old cage.  

Tomorrow I buy some more toys, perches & food dishes and then he will be in his new home tweet home.

Two-Trick Pony

My spinning mojo is back.

Forest Hideaway

These green socks have been finished for a while and I think they came out quite well.

I improvised the pattern.  I thought it would be nice to do a travelling rib but then I got bored and went back to stockinette. I continued 3 ribs down each leg to make an angled path though. How they came out two different shades of green I haven't quite figured out yet.  The yarn was in the stash for a few years before the perfect project came along, maybe the outside got a little bleached.

It rained a bit overnight and the sky has been full of interesting clouds today.  Blue sky and sunshine can, in fact, be boring.

Galen (the 17 year old cat) is still with us.  He takes up most of my time and attention thse days with medication, fluids, special diet. and his general love of being petted.  It sucks that he is getting old and infirm but it must be worse to be him (this evening was another where he ate dinner then puked it all back up).  He is extra soft today after getting fluids last night .

Feb 13 2016 

Posh Bunnish Guys

To celebrate Ostara today I had a "rabbit rampage" in the backyard.  Percy enjoyed hopping, digging, chinning everything he could reach, more digging, some grass eating and even some mid-air pirouetting.  He also got a nail trim but he was less enthusiastic about that.    Cecil just joined the family - someone from trivia found him in their backyard and I picked him up today.  He's quite sweet.  He did some observing, some lap warming and some yard exploring.  There were no rabbit fights but there was some carefully supervised sniffing.

I'm still learning the collage feature but I though this was a good first effort.

"...Always"

I finished the "After All This Time" socks a couple weeks ago, just in time for the deadline. They came out wonderfully. The second sock was knit in just four days which was rather crazypants.

 

I'm not sure if the last photo is a cat bomb of a sock picture or a sock bomb of a cat picture.