1.5.11 The more things change...

the more they stay the same. This picture was taken 3 years ago, but the scene was enacted once more today.

See a box, get in a box. Fuzzy things in our way? Oh, well.

The Christmas tree came in a box and will be returned to the box and the basement. Preferably sans cats.

1.2.11 Tiger on a stack

or The Prince and the Pea.

4.2 A (Sun)Room of Her Own

2.18 Second up on the wips smackdown

The next item on the WIPs list is a cat favorite*. They've loved it since it first came in the house as a part of a fleece:

A Corriedale fleece split between three of us, purchased from Whitefish Bay Farm, I wound up with about 2.5 pounds. It was one of the fleeces that shaded from white through grey to a very dark grey. Using the dog comb shown above, I opened the tips of the locks before washing. It made a nice spring project, sitting out on the deck in the back of our rental house in between trips looking for a permanent one when we moved to Rochester in 2004.

Once flicked, I washed it.

After combing the locks again with the dog comb, I spun from the opened up lock, grabbing locks at random to get a nice mix of color:

Once it was all spun up, the spinning project was over, and there the skeins sat. I was in th middle of knitting other things and not ready for a new knitting project. It marinated for quite a while and I couldn't decide what I wanted to knit in a variegated grey. In May of 2006, I gave up on grey and decided maybe a trip into the dyepot would be useful:

It is at this point that one can see the deep interest the cats have taken in the project - skeins covered in cat hair.

Having dyed the skeins, it didn't take too long to decide on a project (only until February, eight months later, ): Wool Peddler's Shawl from Folk Shawls. I've never cared for the flat red the project is shown in, but a variegated red seemed to me to be a possibility. I knit it up and once again it sat. And sat. I was not in the mood for the zillion ends that the small chain plied skeins left me.

When I started looking for WIPs needing finishing, this one leapt to hand. I took it out of the drawer and set it on the counter, where the cats immediately discovered it:

I persevered (this time) and we finally have a completely finished object:

*Actually, it was Bitsy and Snowball, rather than Snowball and Tiger, since this fleece is older than our junior cat, but he moved right into loving this project too. They climb up on it, immediately get that giddy look and start in with the purring and kneading before they fall over and snooze for a while.

1.3 Queen of the newspapers

6.21 tiger

This is another of the photos that just sort of appeared in my inbox when I uploaded picture. I decided that this one would be preferable to show vs. the others in that batch. This one symbolizes the clean room that magically appeared, K's clean room to be precise. I guess she was getting as annoyed with the clutter as I was. Tiger certainly seems to be enjoying the fact that the chair can be snoozed upon once again.

The other pictures in the batch were all of the fetal pig dissection that took place after school one day. Apparently one of the perks of doing well in high school biology is being permitted to stay after one day and helping with a dissection. Quote - it was interesting but it smelled really bad [ed. - formaldehyde?]. I don't want to do it again.

6.14 snowball

One of the interesting things about living with teenagers is that they do stuff without necessarily telling you about it ahead of time. This can be good or bad, although my experience has mostly been on the good side of the ledger.
One of the things that has been happening more and more often is the use of the camera by K. She's gotten rather good at putting the camera back where she finds it, so the only way I know that something happened is that random photos suddenly appear when I upload the pictures I've just taken.
Snowball, on the office chair, with her little pink tongue stuck out.
"Can you touch your nose with your tongue?"

2.22 smug cat

smugcat

It's not completely obvious, but he's snoozing on my Icarus. And he's been kneading the Rogue sleeves. He carefully arranged everything to his complete comfort - ON the Icarus, AGAINST the pillow (needlepoint in worsted wool) and BESIDE the sleeves. All he needs is the fire going, but without opposable thumbs, he's got to make do with what's available.

2.17 kitty trap

kittytrap

To set a cat trap is often easier in the winter than the summer. In this case, the trap was baited with a warm fire and a blanket spread invitingly, and as you can see, it only took about 3 minutes to catch our first one.

Skein number 5 of the Beast. Only two more to go. Maybe. I think I'm ready to be done with it. So... I'm easily amused. A little history: The ladder ordinarily leans against the wall in the garage and the white cat climbs it, perches for a while, and climbs down. The tiger cat has never climbed the ladder before that we know of. The ladder was brought into the house (for dusting purposes [the house, not the ladder]) and the Snowball ran up the steps, perched for a while, then ran down the steps. Tiger observed this and decided he could do this too. While he perched, the Snowball tried again and was most disconcerted to find her perch taken.
Snowball having abandoned the field in disgust, Tiger then amused himself chasing his tail...
and then discovered he really didn't know how to get down. Oops!

Cute cat, eh? If you look closely, that's MY shawl he's so carefully curled up on. AND again. Different shawl, same Tiger. Humph.
We had a break in the weather and I got a bit of baking done, for the first time in weeks. I dragged out an old recipe for Banana Chocolate Chip cookies, which we used to eat all the time and then, I suppose, we got burnt out on them.
These cookie fiends devoured half a batch the first day, and then, yes, half a batch the second day. When she reached for the last cookie in the box the first day, K turned and looked at me seriously and said, "Mom! These are Dangerous Cookies!" So, herewith, I present Dangerous Cookies. You have been warned.

Dangerous Cookies (my variation of the Banana Chocolate Chips, from The 47 Best Chocolate Chip Cookies in the World)

1 c butter
1/2 c white sugar
3/4 c brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp maple extract
3 c flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 c mashed ripe banana
1 c pecan pieces
2 c semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 F. Stir together dry ingredients, set aside. Cream butter and sugars. Add egg and extract; mix well. Blend in bananas. Slowly add dry ingredients; blend well. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto cookie sheets with parchment paper (or greased), about 2 inches apart. Bake for 12 or 13 minutes. Cool. Makes approximately 4 dozen cookies.

How can it get more cozy than a box that's too small in front of a warm fire?

So... How is it I can notice that this post is 101, but didn't have a clue that the last one was 100? The last time I noticed it was 96. Blank haze last week is definitely the word for it.

These are the first three skeins of the top I dyed . There will probably be five skeins total (minus the two dark ends which I took off and spun separately on the spindles). You can see the progression of colors from one skein to the next. I can't wait to see all of them. And then of course I get to figure out what I'm going to do with them. Next problem.


I've been involved with several joint projects with my family this winter. Sometimes it just works out that way. This is a lace border intended for the bottom of an embroidered and quilted wall hanging my mother is doing for my son. This is three repeats (24 row repeat); I think I'll need six repeats. Just about half done.
I've decided that these are just about the perfect needles for knitting cotton lace. Too bad I've only got one set, I don't remember buying them or using them before, and don't have clue what kind they are. Inox grey? I guess I'll have to go window shopping and figure out what they are.