Unproductive

"This is my impression of Mom this week. "Oooooooo, I feel crappy! Ooooooo, I need to lie down! Oooooooo, this sucks!" She was sick with the flu."

"And this is my impression of Mom not knitting. "Ooooooo, can't concentrate!" She hardly did any knitting."

"And this is me. Really starting to worry that Mom will be too out of it to feed me. I mean us."

"And this is me, acting all tough in the face of the nasty flu virus! Stay away from my Mom, you...you...stupid flu virus! Yeah! I'm a tough guy!"

"But, mainly we did our best to make sure she took care of herself, and rested up. I think she's still a bit tired and sore, but she's getting better! Here, we're showing her how to rest up. It's important to renew your energy you know. She'll be back next week, hopefully having knit some."

Some Real Progress

I really do have some real progress.

Tada!
It's the body of St. Aula - completed! I always feel that once I've finished the body of a stranded project, the rest of it is just good ol' gravy. Today I plan on cutting one of the armhole steeks, and starting with the first sleeve.

I'm really quite pleased at how nicely the shoulders lined up. So pleased, I'm going to show you a crappy, slightly out of focus picture.

Well, it's actually not as bad as I thought. Nice, huh? I really love working on this project. For awhile, it was a bit hit and miss, as the boy would get seriously into either a) chasing anything that dangled, and would get his lethal little claws caught in the floats, or b) chomp on the stitch markers.

"Who? Me?? Oh, come on. I wouldn't do that...you believe me Big Daddy, right?"

"Wanna bet?"

"Well, I would NEVER pull on your knitting. I'm too well-behaved."

"Well, I probably would because I'm not always so well-behaved."

Malcolm now passes out after their dinner, so it leaves me with a good chunk of time to work on St. Aula before he wakes up and the Witching Hour begins once again. As with most things on a kitten's brain, he loses interest as soon as he finds something new to look into.

"Gotta go."

Mostly to places he probably shouldn't be exploring.

"Ooooo, forbidden..."

By next week, it'll be a new area. I'm just crossing my fingers that he won't pick up on Gandalf's bad habit of jumping on the kitchen counter.

I have a goal of finishing St. Aula by the end of the year. In January, I'll be pulling out my beloved copy of Norsk Strikkedesign, and clicking away for the "Knit a Norwegian" KAL. You'll have to wait and see what I plan on making. So, I really want St. Aula completed by then. Oh, and another project that I didn't photograph, because it's kind of...plain...at this point.

So, it should be completely doable... *knocking wood*

And of course, come January when the KAL starts, Malcolm should *hopefully* be less into yarn and more into something else. Although I don't want to think what.

There's nothing like mealtime to bring everyone together.

"...nom nom nom..."

I have to finish up by telling you all how THRILLED I am to finally be back working on my own PC. Sometime during the summer, the harddrive failed (and boy did it ever). Well, I finally have it back, and better than new. I have Lorraine's son Alexander to thank for taking care of it for me. It works like a dream!

So happy! *sniff* What did we do before all of this technology?? Probably knit a whole lot more.

Cats In Hats

When I was planning my move to this apartment, I looked for suitable curtains for the french doors in my kitchen, leading out to the deck. I didn't want something heavy or dark, just something to let in the light, and allow for a bit of privacy. I settled on some off-white "netting" type curtains. Perfect! My sister helped me pick them out, and I bought a nice curtain rod that even matched the hardware on the cupboards. It was a great look, and I was quite pleased.

However. Someone had other ideas. And it's probably not who you think.

"I have no regrets."

So, looks like that experiment failed. I have a pair of curtains I'll put up that should do the trick for now. Ones that will hopefully not shred quite so...easily. I don't want to have bare windows, I need to have something there. *sigh* I keep forgetting that my home is their castle. Not mine.

I actually have a finished piece of knitting to show off!

Kittiwake is complete. It was knit on 3mm needles, and I used a little over one ball of AS' Scottish Fleet in Navy Blue. It is much more "stretchy" than I anticipated - Scottish Fleet is like twine to knit with. Not my favourite yarn, but I have to say - the results are worth the rash on my finger from the yarn, and the stabbed index finger from the needles (the dryness from the furnace didn't help either). I haven't decided if I'm going to add the tassle or not. I think it's fine the way it is, and being such a dark colour - you can't really see where the stitches are gathered at the top.

So - did I enjoy it? Meh. It wasn't the most enjoyable of Starmore projects - primarily because I chose to use such a dark colour. But, I'm very pleased with the results, and VERY glad it's finished.

"*sigh* I'm 11 years old, and yet..."

"Hi Everybody! Sorry I missed you last weekend - apparently Mom's Internet service was down because the company she uses are tools. That's what she said anyway. Look! Here I am, with Big Daddy. You may call him Atticus, but he's Big Daddy to me. "Daddy" because I'm pretty sure if Gandalf is my Cat-Mom, then Atticus must be my Cat-Dad; and "Big" because. Well. C'mon. He's big... But he rocks! When it's night time and we're all sleeping on the couch, no one but Big Daddy will do."

"Here I am with Gandalf. I love him. He's like the coolest big brother ever. Except when he goes all Cat-Mom on me, and grabs me by the scruff of my neck. He gets all worried I'm going to hurt myself, blah blah blah... I mean really. Look at me! Aren't I getting big? Last time I went to the vet, Mom said I weighed 4.4lbs. Wow! Oh, and speaking of the vet's office. Not liking the needles. And I can do without them taking my temperature. And Gandalf told me something about going there to get my warbles removed, whatever that means..."

"And here I am cuddling up to my sister Mae. She can be crabby sometimes, and she's not much into playing with me. But, as long as I behave nicely, she lets me lie down next to her. If I get to be too much of a pill, as she calls me, she hisses at me. And boy can she ever hiss! And she can really get mad too! Phew! I guess she's just not into playing Gladiator with me. I wonder if she has warbles?"

"I really love being underneath stuff. Just like Gandalf! Mom says I can sleep through an earthquake, whatever that is. But. In case you think that I'm all about the napping and cuddling, let me remind you. I'm only 3 months old."

"See? Here I am waking up Big Daddy from his nap."

" *sigh*...how long 'til those warbles come off?"

"Mom says I can be a little pooper, but then I snuggle up on her lap, and that makes her go all "awwww" and stuff. Well, thanks for stopping by everyone! I'm glad Mom has so many friends out there. It makes me feel special all right! 'K, nap time. Bye!"