Obsession du Jour

Who me?

Fickle and flighty?  Nah.  Just a little ambitious in the planning department.  It's true, life got way ahead of me for a bit and gave me yet another scheduling smack down.  Since last we spoke, I've taken three different road trips, one of them even containing fiber.  We'll talk about all of those in the next few days, but first I have to say THANKS EVERYONE!  I rather forgetfully planned a trip that took me away from home on a day that I almost always make a big deal about, my birthday.  Love.Birthdays.  Luckily, you guys had my back and stopped by to say hello anyway. It was great to get all the virtual good vibrations even when so far from home, so thanks for stopping by and making me feel slightly less far from home.  You really made my day.

Where was I, you ask?  I was visiting my grandkids.  Sort of.  This, my friends, is when you receive the obligatory warning that there is very little no knitting content, and also that there are about to be a gratuitous number of cat pictures in today's post.  If either of those things offends you, you should probably move on along now.  Otherwise, hang on, 'cuz we're going to take a little retrospective kitten tour.

Last May (2005), our little Josie, still just a wee tyke herself, gave us two heart-stoppingly cute little bundles of excitement.  The next few photos will remind us:

Family Portrait, 8 days in.

8 days old, eys barely open. I know - they're killing me too.

Several weeks old.  Napping where they fell, mid-fight.  Not kidding.

More napping.  It's tiring being a kitten.

Pinup girl Lola and crew. Gah - just LOOK at that face.

Bourbon, always a good little helper.  Turns out, he still loves to curl up in the wool.  Only now he has discovered that it's also fun to chew.  Ooops.

And then?  Then, last July they went to their new home way, way too far away, and while their new human has done a fantastic job keeping us up to date on them (even sending us photos), we have missed them terribly.  This past week, I got to spend a whole week re-bonding with them.

Lola on the left and Bourbon on the right (napping on one of my birthday presents, by the by) - all grown up, and just as cute, fun, smart and charming as they ever were, if a little more chatty.  Don't tell Josie and Leon, but if I could have found a way, I'd have snuck them into my luggage and brought them home with me.

*sigh*  Miss you guys.

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P.S.  For those of you who asked, the thing Josie and Leon are lounging on in my last post is actually a cat scratcher.  I'm pretty sure it was called a 'Postmodern Cat Scratcher', but I got it 2 years ago at a DEEP discount/clearance sale at a website I can no longer remember. Since I can't find anything at all about it online with a Google search now, I have to assume that it's no longer made.  It's kind of a shame really, because most cat 'furniture' is pretty heinous, and this thing's clean, modern lines and Berber carpet surface makes it popular with both the cats AND the humans that have to share this house.   In the interest of full disclosure, I must admit that these guys mostly ignored it as a perch (thought they did use it for scratching) until we put it on TOP of Rick's desk.  So now I guess it's a 'Postmodern cat tree'.  Whatever, it's still fantastic.

Some stuff for some people, pt 2.

For Elisa:

See how badly you are kicking my ass?  Not that we're racing or anything, but still.  This is where I was on Tuesday, after a complete rip-out and re-knit last week.  Don't ask, just know that one should not knit lace when one is so tired that one might fall asleep mid-stitch, putting one's entire lace shawl at risk.  Lessons for life.

But just look at the pretty yarn.....

Pattern: Miriam's Icarus shawl.  IK Summer 2006.
Yarn: Misti Alpaca in Maize (Why they are calling this Maize, I'll never understand.  This color looks no more like an ear of corn than does...say...my red hair.  What it SHOULD be called is key lime, but whatever rocks their boat.  The picture on the web page is actually a pretty good color representation.)

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For Juno and Kristen:

Remember these?  Best damned $5 EVAH.  Can't.Stop.Wearing.These.  Even when maybe I shouldn't.  Like, possibly this day - with olive green socks and red pants.  (Hush up Elisa, I can HEAR you rolling your eyes at this.)

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For Kristen:

Leon said to tell you that he misses you and that you should come for a visit the next time you're in the neighborhood.   He would have had me post a picture of the back-flip-belly-exposing-cute-you-to-death pose, but he din't think the rest of us could handle it.

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For Mick:

I can't compete with your giant yard, but I CAN design a cute mini-cottage garden, if I do say so myself.  Now if only I could figure out what to put in the back....

Sadly, no cockle shells.  Just cocoa shells.

Lunatic

Apparently, even though it is hotter than the SUN in my apartment today, Josie is still 'down' with the wool.   

It actually makes me a little sick to look at this because the very thought of touching wool (much less curling up and NAPPING in it) in this heat gives me the skeevies.  When I took this photo, it was 88F in this room. 

If you'll excuse me, I have to go lie back down in front of the AC unit.

Who's a mama's boy?

Leon aka "Helper Cat", keeping the sock yarn warm while I do some organizing.   See?  Who can resist the seductive pull of the sock yarn?

Update

I have a kitten update:

Here are my little angels, happily resting in their new human's car post flight, and just prior to their drive home from the airport.  They had a good flight, by all accounts traveled well and calmly and seem to have started settling right in and taking over their new home.  It also seems that they are already indoctrinating their new human into all the ways and wiles that fiendishly adorable kittens have of getting what they want, when they want it.  He was head-over heels before he left with them (who wouldn't be, just LOOK at them), and he seems only more so now that he has them home.  For all my grumping, these little dolls have gone to the only other person I know that might possibly love them more than I would, so I'm pretty darned happy about that, and I know that they will be very happy there. I really, really tried making a move from Ohio to Boston a requirement for taking them, but it didn't work out for me.  Ah well, guess I'll just have to go visit them. 

Josie, on the other hand, is not so happy, but then, neither would you be if your breasts were as swollen full of milk as hers are.  Poor thing.  The vet says it's all fine and normal and will go away soon, but woof, I really do feel for her.

P.S.  Yes.  I still want them back.

Still here

First things first.  My adorable, fabulous kittens?  Gone.  Did I cry all the way home from the airport?  Yes.  Is that stupid?  Yes.  Do I care?  No.  I want them back.  I was wrong, I DO need 4 cats.  NEED THEM. 

There is no new knitting, of course, because I'm still on hiatus.  What I DO have is 8 - yes, you read that correctly - EIGHT sweaters, ALL USING STASH YARN, complete with knitting maths, all planned out in the brand new Grand Master Knit Plan Book, henceforth to be known as the GMKPB.  How, you ask, was this futile attempt at stash busting masterful feat completed if I'm not actually KNITTING?  Well, here's where my insane instant gratification bug has, for once, actually paid off.  Usually, when a new yarn comes in my house,  I MUST.SWATCH.it.  Must. Not becasue I necessarily have a plan for it - though at one time this really was the case (stop laughing, it was) - but because I have to play with it RIGHT THEN.  I don't really like having dozens of projects lounging around in the WIP basket, so instead of planning/starting a new project with said yarn, I will instead grab the suggested needles and do a swatch, which then gets tossed into a basket until I want to use the yarn. Swatching satisfies the instant gratification bug, and keeps the WIP pile manageable.  Also, swatches?  Super-Fast.  It's like a million little tiny finished objects.

Now, pair that particular obsession with a few weeks knitting hiatus (AND, as it turns out, spinning and fleece-prep hiatus, duh) and an unofficial yarn diet (oops, was that Coke coming out of your nose? Sorry.), and POOF, stash-busting project planning time emerges.  I started out just trying to find, organize and file all of my pattern copies, swatch notes and the like in the future projects stack, er stacks, and ended up distilling it all into a little notebook with ball bands and little yarn samples and stuff.    What can I say people, it was ALMOST like knitting.....

The no-knitting-thing?  It sucks rocks.  Yes it does.  My wrist brace, however, is MIGHTY sexy (just humor me on this, I'm running out of good thoughts).

Brought to you by the letter "S"

S is for Solidarity:
(and socks)

(Please, please don't judge me by the cat hair on this section of floor.  My house is bad, but in general, not THIS bad)

S is for Spinning:

(and Spunky Eclectic, hi Amy)

4 oz. Spunky Eclectic handpainted Merino roving in colorway "Autumn Girls" spun into springy singles destined to become soft, scrumptious socks.

S is for Spawn:

(because, knitting-schmitting, I have no illusions about what you really want)

Maxin' relaxin'

Leon and Lola are watching the College World Series with my man. And Bourbon? She's sleeping.  She's more into the National Geographic channel.  Atta girl, Bourbon.

Family cuddle.

Oh, and the kid socks are done.  It's amazing I tell you.  Pictures tomor...well, anyway, later.

Show and tell

There's a backlog of photos on my camera begging to be offloaded, and some of them belong here.

First up, yarn porn:

Hooray for Navajo plying!  This is some Spunky Eclectic handpainted wool in the colorway "down by the pond".  Purty, ain't it?  This is 2 oz of the 4 oz that's here and the other 2 oz is spun up, but not yet plied.

Next up, cat porn:

Napoleon and Josephine sittin' in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g.......Just taking a little break from their parental duties, folks. 

For those of you who share my current sock fetish:

Knitpicks Sock Landscape "Mesa" using my standard Ann Budd pattern and two circulars.  These are thick and soft and scrumptious.  Those Knitpicks folks continue to impress me with the beauty and high quality of their yarns, and all for a great price.  I also have a TON of this left over.  Granted, I made these about 2" shorter than usual, but it still seems crazy to me that I'm pretty sure I could get another pair just exactly like this from the leftovers of these two skeins, despite my Sasquatch feet.  As soon as I can figure out which box my kitchen scale is hiding in I'll be comparing the weight of the leftovers to that of the socks . Yes of course I have to know.

And now, the stuff I know that you've all actually come here for, gratuitous kitten cuteness:

Lola, that's super-kitty up there, is actually sound asleep (actually, they both are, but she's the focus of this particular story).  She often falls asleep draped over the edge of their bed while trying to decide if she should come back out and play some more, and then she slowly sinks down, in stages, to the bottom of the bed - all while still sound asleep.  It's killing you isn't it, all that cuteness?  She's also a total ham.  Seriously, see for yourself:

She's destined to be a pin up girl.  Just look at that smile.

I'd also like to send a shout out to Ms. Melanie and Ms. Yarnpants for not running screaming away from the construction zone we call a house here at Chez Obsession.  See, they came by for some cider fibery fun last night, and we hung out with the stash that ate Chicago and the super-adorable cats, and we spun and we knit and generally had a grand old Friday night.   Don't you EVEN try to tell me that's not what you think of as a hot and hoppin' Friday night, because I won't believe you.  That or I'll just assume you don't know these girls.  So anyway, after they left, I realized that they were my very first social event ever in this house.  Yeah, after 10 months -- crazy, huh?  Thanks y'all!  Maybe next time I'll have that durned latch fixed and you won't have to hold the door of the outhouse closed while you pee.

Stuff, stuff, stuff.

I have stuff to tell you, and I have stuff to show you, you know, like pictures and stuff.  But there's a catch (isn't there always a catch?).  The photo card reader lives on the PC in my home office.  My home office is in the attic.  My attic. In my air-conditioningless house.  Maybe you haven't heard about this from other folks up here yet, but it's freaking hot. How hot?  Well, it's 92.6F in the shade on my back porch, and 87F in my living room on the first floor of a 3 level house. So, while I really do love you guys, not even Harvey Keitel with an M-16 could make me go into the attic today.  Really, until it cools down, any promises I make about posting photos are just a big, fat, stinking lie.

The stuff to tell you, though, now THAT I can do from this here laptop cleverly positioned in front of a nice little fan.

First, The X-back tank has been frogged, and the yarn is resting peacefully back in it's stashy home waiting for me to decide what it really wants to be.  Whatever it is, I can promise that it will not involve seed stitch.

There is a replacement summer tank on the needles.  It's the split neck tank from the summer '04 IK, and I'm using the Decadent Fibers' cotton from the NHSW stash frenzy.  I'm getting gauge on #10's, am about 3" up the back since casting on at Maggie's yesterday, and I'm in love with the beautifully soft fabric I'm getting so far.  Thanks everyone for your great pattern suggestions.

Thanks also to Maggie, for hosting a great little knit-drink-spin-eat-a-thon yesterday.  Mmmm...pulled pork (that she was up at 3am roasting. I don't care what she says, she was a southern girl in a past life.) and margarita's - what more could you want on a hot summer day?

While I was in FL with the family, my adorable little nephew kept after me to make him some rainbow socks while I was there.  Nevermind that neither he nor I happened to have any rainbow-colored yarn handy at that moment.  So, of course, as soon as I got home I searched for an appropriate yarn, and came up with two that I loved.  The first is  Elann's Sock it to Me Collection Colori in Cancun Fiesta  you can't actually tell from this photo, but it's actually a fair bit more primary rainbow colors in real life, ie: more red & less pink.  It's adorable, and it's the first up for him. I'm all swatched up and ready to go, just as soon as I finish the the second of the Florida socks (basically just a few more rounds of decreases and some grafting) so that I can use those needles. The second pair will be Knitpicks' Simple Stripes in Crayons, also more primary in real life than the pictures might lead you to believe.  And yes, before you ask, a couple, ahem, extra skeins of some of the newer yarns might have ended up in my box.  No, I don't have any earthly idea how it happened, but you know, now they're here and I will give them all the love and respect that they deserve.

And last but not least, the kittens are growing so fast that we can hardly keep up.  This weekend we have had our first introduction to real kitten food (as opposed to milk), water in a bowl, the litter box (still just watching mom and dad for now),  and...wheeeee....stairs!   I can't even tell you how indescribably, toe curlingly cute these little gals are climbing stairs.   Hopefully, some day I'll be able to show you.

Kitty Porn

Future Man and Melanie.  Cute as hell aren't they?  I'm hoping that the cuteness factor distracts you from the fact that this is the one and only picture I took at Ms Bookish's fantabulous gathering Saturday.   I blame it on the yarn, the knitting, the drinking, and the fiber.  In addition to the plain jane crack, er, roving that I took along. the CyberGoddess brought some of the Grade A, primo stuff.  Pin-drafted, even, yeah baby. This stuff is SO soft, and SO beautiful I can't even describe it.  Here, see for yourself:

This is a little oversaturated, but not by much.  Seriously gorgeous, soft, yummy stuff. And she let us play with it.  Cool, huh? And here's a sneak peek at my Indigo Moon batt from the NHS&W stash enhancement post. Yeah, yeah...soon - maybe even before Rhinebeck.

So um, yeah, you may have heard that I hauled my wheel, on my back, uphill both ways to a knit gathering on Saturday, but it's completely untrue.  It's only uphill one way, and it's a tiny wheel*.   But don't think there was no knitting, 'cuz there was (I can't find my swatch, or I swear I'd shoot and post it. One guess as to my theories on it's theft. ).  Also, there may have been some eclair squares, but I'll never tell.  Sangria though, yeah, there was definately Sangria.  Mmmmmmm.  OH, and Chocolate-covered pretzels.  Homemade. Uh huh, you heard me home.made.  Actually, I could do an entire post just on the food we had, but I'll just stop here, because not everyone is as driven to distraction by homemade mac-n-cheese and rice krispy treats (who the heck brought those, btw?  they just appeared as if by magic half way through the evening!) as I am.  I'll just mention here that opening her house up to the ravening hoard was brave and our hostess was nothing but gracious.  Well, except for the mosh-pit-style dive into the yarn basket.  That was totally uncalled for.  Since I'm working hard to be the laziest photo-blogger of the year, I'm going to suggest y'all head on over to all those other people's site to see much better coverage of the event.  Don't forget here, and here, and here. 

For all of you kitten junkies out there, I have at least started the kitten album (on the sidebar over there), though it turned out that of the 5 million photos I've taken, I really only thought that 5 were worth posting.  I'll work on quality over quantity this week and add some later. 

*And truthfully, it can't weigh more than 10 pounds plus it fits just beautifully in the back of my car, even WITH a bike in it.  After all, the whole reason we got the hatchback was so that we could haul our toys around.  Right.  Not a kayak....what.ever.