Cuteness Overload

Well, it's back to class and studio tomorrow. But I'm enjoying my last night of freedom while I can.

I spent the last week at home and it gave me a chance to get to know our new kitty, Max, or as I call him "Maxie Cat!"

Hi Max!

Turkey Feast :)

My attempts to winding off my spindle led to a frisky Sasha!

2 of a kind

Stop taking my photos!

I hope you have a great week everyone!

~Lisa

1996-2012: Remembering Muffin.

So guys. I wanted to share some more fiber/knitting stuff with you all today, I feel like my blog has been lacking that a lot lately what with the MIY Mondays and Saturday Evening Book Reviews (which, btw, should I keep doing?). BUT this is much more important than any fiber or knitting project can ever be.

As many of you know, I have 2 wonderful kitties back home waiting for me when I visit: Muffin and Sasha.  Well, last Saturday we noticed Muffin was limping with her back legs quite a bit and barely moving or eating.   Hoping that it was just a bad fall, we didn't take her to the emergency vets, instead waiting until Monday when our regular was open.

Monday night I got a call from my Mom, and I knew something was up.  As hard as it was for her to tell me, that's how hard it was for me to hear: Muffin was going to have to be put down. This week. Soon.  I honestly thought it would be soon, after seeing her in pain Saturday I had a hunch at what would happen, but actually hearing it was another story. I broke down and balled for a good half hour.  Muffin, MY cat, since FIRST GRADE was finally at that point in her life where she had to move on.  I knew it would be while I was away, but I was never prepared for it to happen.

Muffin on Saturday before I left for Manhattan

The week went on and I checked in with my mom every day. "How's Muffin?" "Is she ok?" "You already know what I'm going to ask".  Although they had planned to have it done Wednesday, the inevitable was prolonged by the hope of her getting a bit better, of which she seemed to be.  That and the fact that my dad didn't want to do it if she would have gotten better and then feel guilty.  But in the end, she was getting worse.  As it turned out, she had a stroke on Saturday and, thank god it didn't, it should have killed her then and there. But instead it paralyzed her bag legs and she was slowly getting weaker.  I guess by this morning she wasn't even peeing in the box anymore.

Muffin yesterday, courtesy my dad.

So I kept my phone on me at work and anxiously awaited the news.  At 11:00 A.M. I received this photo from my sister:

"Muffin says Goodbye" - sent by my sister. This is when the tears came. 

At 11:30, I received the text "Muffin is at peace" from my mom.  I knew she was, but it didn't stop me from wanting to walk out of work right then and there, balling my eyes out (I didn't though).

When we first got Muffin, back in 1996, she was just a kitten.  She was also plain old MEAN! I remember loving tabbies and kittens and seeing her and knowing she was the one I wanted, but I also remember running around the house with slippers on so she wouldn't bite my feet, and climbing on top of furniture to avoid her wrath.  I think one of the best memories I have of her is our very first house we had her in had a screen door, and she was climb it and just sit there, almost like Spider-man (if you have ever read old Garfield comics you know what  I mean).  It was the cutest thing ever.

Kitten Muffin!

As time went on she tamed down and got pudgy. We didn't know her breed when we got her from the shelter, but we came to learn she was at least part Maine Coon, which made her big and furry.  The perfect ball of fluff! Then around 7 years ago (already?!) Mom hit her with the car, leading to major rib surgery.  Even the vet was unsure if she'd make it, but she did! Muffin was a fighter and we all knew it.

I think the biggest challenge Muffin has ever faced is Sasha, who we adopted about 3-4 years ago (already?!?).  Those two have had a love/hate relationship from day one. Sasha seemed to think she could actually take Muffin on, and sometimes she did! I am so scared to see how Sasha will be without her big sister around.

In the end, I know Muffin had one hell of a life, and I know that she is still here, somewhere, in spirit, watching me.  She may no longer be physically on my bed, waiting for me to come home, but she will always be in my heart, and that is all that truly matters.

RIP Muffin. August 1996 - August 2012. 

Happy, Productive Weekend!

Happy Sunday everyone! I hope the weekend is treating you well. As for me, it's treating me very well. So well in fact that I just don't want to go to work tomorrow.

I have so many little things I want to share with you all, that I don't know where to begin! I guess I'll start at the beginning.

Friday night was a very nice, mellow evening. It was a bit chilly here, which was a bit odd given the time of year, but nonetheless a great evening to enjoy a bit of live music! Luckily for me Manhattan has a concert series, Arts in the Park, that they do every Friday. It's comprised of live music, and last Friday's was a group from Texas known as White Ghost Shivers. Being a twangy, banjo, ragtime, 20's style band, they were really entertaining! And it was so much fun to see all the community members out and about and all the little kids dancing up front. It was a little nippy, but I still managed to get some knitting on my shawl done. Not much though :(



Saturday was the exact opposite of Friday, for the weather was back up in the 80's and 90's. Kansas is so weird sometimes. Saturday for me meant Farmer's Market, at which I picked up some fresh lettuce to satisfy my current salad phase and home made salsa! YUM!  I also got into a bit of a pattern writing mood, so I spent the morning sketching out more worsted weight sock ideas with patterns from my 365 stitch calendar. I have quite a few planned out, and even managed to make a prototype and write up a pattern for one of them: Woven Braid Worsted Socks. Don't ask me why, I just have an obsession with worsted socks and there are not enough patterns out there! I think it would be so fun to publish a whole book of worsted socks! Anyways, I am currently seeking test knitters for this one, and I'm asking my faithful readers first. If anyone wants to knit these, let me know :)

I also had the chance to catch up with Ivy yesterday, for she was in town and we got together for a bit to just talk and knit (although no knitting occurred...again!). It's so nice to have someone to stitch and bitch with sometimes. I hope we get more of that very soon.

So today is Sunday, and here it's super humid and drizzley out. That didn't stop me from trying something else new! I am currently really interested in natural dyes for fiber from plants and flowers and vegis and such. Well my aunt offered up a bit of her garden to grow some of these things and we went by a local flower place. We got marigolds for her garden and for me (yes me!) we got some Coleus plants. I couldn't resist the colors of the beautiful leaves, even if they don't boil down well into dyes, I am so excited to finally have some plants to take care of! After reading everyone's blogs, I just got hit by the gardening bug! These pots will faithfully sit outside my door all summer :)

Pot 1

Pot 2. I can't wait to see them explode!

And now, it being five o'clock, I need to start packing for my new apartment, which I move into next week. I am SOO excited to get into it, for I will finally have a place to myself and all the space I need to be super artsy!

Happy Sunday everyone!

~Lisa

This is Josie, the lucky kitty I get to cat sit for this weekend! Isn't she awesome!?!?!?

Home Again

Today's post isn't really about knitting, or really anything specific, I just feel like posting. 

For the past 3 weeks I've been coming home on the weekends to work since I cannot work in Manhattan during the week with my summer school class. As annoying as the drive each weekend is, it really is nice to be away from the drama of college and roommates and everything and just relax at home. I think the main thing I like about being home is my kitties :) So today I'm going to share more kitty photos with you.

I think Muffin is sick of me taking her picture!

And now she wants out (I love the lighting!)

Sasha and Muffin LOVE the catnip plant out back, they even have a spot that is pretty much dead because they always sit in it!

And then she got frisky and wanted my camera cord!

And let the fight over the spot begin!

Eating the grass :D

Dad got out the mop and Sasha got curious!

And this is where she spends her nights, on top of the mouse cage!

I really miss my kitties when I am at school, and I really wish my landlords would allow pets :( I want a cat so bad! But for now, I live vicariously through my parents stories of the crazy things these 2 do.

To end the post, I want to share with you a funny idea I had last night. We were sitting around and I just wanted to knit (something my dad gets annoyed by when I'm home, which is why I like being in Manhattan...) and he was trying to get me to do something else. I told him that "I wish I had a note on my head, so I could just point to it when you ask me to do something". I was just being silly, but decided to try it out and share it with you!

How much fun would it be to have that tattooed on your head, wrist, or just something you could show people when you didn't feel like doing anything else?

I hope everyone is having a good day! It's Memorial Day here in the states which means I get the day off from life. But I still have to head back to school tomorrow for my last week of class.

~Lisa

First FO's of Spring

I feel like it has been forever since I have shared a finished project with you guys. But I am proud to say that today I have TWO to share!

First up is my Effortless Cardigan, which many of you probably remember me talking and blogging about. I have been working on this since November, 2011 and I probably could have had it done sooner, but I lost interest quite a bit with other projects. But, I still finished it in a decent amount of time, given that it is my first large sweater type project. 

If you look close enough, it is a little bit big on me,but the size choices were weird on the pattern and I was not about to alter it on my first big project.  Overall, I think this will be more of a lounge around the house sweater than anything else, but maybe once fall comes again I will wear it out more; the color doesn't really shout "Spring!" to me.  I wish I could show you guys better pictures, but it was hard to get good pictures with out zooming in too much.

Did I mention that I can now cross something off my 2012 Fiber Resolutions? I have finished my first full sweater successfully!

The next project I want to share is something I casted on right after I finished up the cardigan. Everything But Vintage Socks.  I have had a ton of Berroco Vintage scraps in my stash and needed to use them up. Since Vintage is my go to worsted weight sock yarn anyways, why not make socks? I decided I wanted to use it all up in one pair, so I went for it and made knee highs! They tend to fall down when I walk, but that's probably because I increased a little too much. Either way, they're very warm and are full of memories. There are 4 pairs of socks, a hat, a pair of mittens and my sweater all knitted into a striped pair of socks! Oh and I forgot to mention that my kitties like them too :)

Since I can't NOT be knitting something, I began work on my next project last night. Using some Manos del Uruguay that Ivy sent me for Christmas, I began swatching this very cute and simple cardigan, Abalone. Although the knitting will be simple, it has a bit of seaming and shaping I haven't had any experience with, so that will be a bit of a challenge when I get there. But after the last cardigan, I am up for the challenge!

I hope everyone is having a great start to Spring! The sun here has disappeared and probably won't come out for the rest of the week. It's so sad, because I really want to sit outside and knit, but I can't in the rain. 

~Lisa

Kitties Love Knitting Too!

Spring break isn't for another week, but I needed a reprieve from school so I came home this weekend.  Along with eliminating the stress of homework, it gave me an excuse to see my kitties! I miss them so much when I'm in Manhattan, so it's always so nice to get some kitty time when I'm home.  

This is Muffin. We've had her since I was in 1st grade and even though I don't get to see her much anymore, she is MY cat! Proof that she is? She always sleeps on my bed when I come home. Usually right in the middle and then I have to adjust my body around hers because it's HER bed after all.  

Remember these socks I was knitting last week? I finished the first one last night (I will post pictures when both are done) and had it laying on the couch next to me to help me with the 2nd today. Naturally, guess who decided to join me? 

Yes, she sat ON the sock! So my new sock now has cat hair on it, making it even more so mine.  The funny thing? A bunch of the projects I have been working on in Manhattan magically get cat hair on them too.  Maybe my cats just shed a lot when I come home and I somehow take it back with me? Your guess is as good as mine!

(She decided to sniff the camera!)

This is Sasha.  She is more my sister's cat then mine, and we have only had her about 4 years now.  Anyway, this cat is crazy. She likes to do so very odd things, including watch our mice and take rides on my sister's head. 

Those are my kitties. I love them so much and cannot imagine my life without them.  What about my readers? Do you guys have any pets you absolutely adore?

As for the world of knitting, as I mentioned I finished up sock 1, and sock 2 is started. I am blocking my cardigan this coming week as well as working on more white balls for my art project.  Talk to you all again soon!

~Lisa