Woolybuns

C is for...

Corky the Calico Cat.  She has shared our lives for 11 1/2 years so far.  She came to me in the middle of my cat rescue years.  She and her sister were adopted by a young family as tiny kittens, to wander at will in and out of the house unspayed.  Big surprise, right?  They both ended up pregnant at about one year of age.  At the same time, the family ran into some circumstance that forced them to move out of state and in with relatives.  Asking relatives to take them and their twin toddler girls in was hard enough, they told me.  Asking them to accept pets, especially pregnant pets, was too much.  They found a home for one cat but couldn't for the other.  They took the remaining cat to the humane society and were told the instant you leave, the cat will be put to sleep because we can't handle any more kittens. They wouldn't leave her there and turned to a cat rescue group.  Fortunately, I had already told a friend at a cat rescue group I wanted a pregnant cat for a 4-H project for my daughter.  The 4-H project was an educational booth advocating spay/neuter of pets.  My cat rescue friend and I agreed to take the pregnant cat sight unseen - I would be a foster home for the cat and kittens and would find good, responsible homes for them when the kittens were old enough.  Turns out I was rewarded with what was my dream cat: a very friendly pastel calico (pastel calico meaning Corky is blue, cream and white, which is actually the dilute version of calico).  Ten days after she came to live with us, she presented us with 6 heathy, colorful kittens.  The dog came to investigate, Corky flew to the defense of her babies, our daughter got caught in the middle and ended up at the emergency room with a deep cat bite.  That was followed by a visit from the local animal control.  Thank goodness he understood the circumstances!  And I could produce a rabies certificate - I had Corky vaccinated on the way home from picking her up.  So we had to confine Corky to our house (which she was anyway) and notify any visitors to the house we had a cat under house confinement orders.  Corky was a great mother and we did find wonderful homes for the kittens.  After weaning, we had Corky spayed and fully vaccinated and she's been with us ever since.  She is one of well over 100 cats and kittens I have taken in, but the only one who has stayed.  I can't have cats living in the house because the kids and spouse are allergic to them.  Corky started as a mostly outdoor cat, she loves being outside and we provide her with comfy quarters in the garage.  She in turn controls the local rodent population.  When we moved to this house, our lawn and several of the neighbors around us had moles or voles.  Corky took care of that problem in about a month.  Once in a while, a new tunnel shows up but only for a very short time.  She does get an occasional bird which I hate but she also keeps the squirrels out of the neighbor's bird feeder, so there is some balance.  She greets me whenever I come outside, return home, go out to visit the rabbits, take the dogs out, or just sit in the backyard.  She loves a lap but only when she decides it's lap time.  She leaves the rabbits alone, seems to recognize they are members of the family as distinct from the wild ones that she has persuaded to graze elsewhere.  She also keeps the property free of other people's cats who might take a more predatory view of the rabbits.  She doesn't have to be a working cat to earn her keep here - her companionship is more than enough.  But it's nice that she takes such good care of us, too. 

What's Hoppening

I've never had a Hot Toddy, but I love the name.  This morning, I decided to find out what it is so I googled hot toddy.  Turns out it's made a number of different ways, but most often the recipe involves honey, tea, brandy and lemon or whiskey instead of brandy (which would be more my cup of tea - not a fan of brandy).   That mix makes about the right coloring for my purposes.  So, I introduce you to Woolybuns Hop Toddy.  He is six weeks old, a German/satin crossbred angora.  He is one of four in the litter, 2 boys and 2 girls.  I'm keeping one of his sisters as well.  Her name is Woolybuns Dreamboat Annie.  So far, Annie seems to have more crimp and perhaps a slightly longer coat.  Both of them have a bright white undertail, but a a creamy belly, which is the result of the wideband gene filling in the belly.  I'm hoping that wideband effect will show up in the body coat as well, which would give better depth of color to the fiber off the bunny.  None of the babies in this litter is as red as their mother, but I expected that, since red is from rufous modifiers.  Rufous is cumulative, so the more rufous modifiers, the redder the color.  Pure German angoras are unlikely to carry rufous so these babies would only have about half the rufous as their mother.  I don't see satin texture in thises babies, but that's ok.  I will be able to bring that out in future generations. 

With my son Collin's impending job change, his current co-workers took him out to a farewell dinner and surprised him with a giant message cookie.  By the time I saw it, the message read "uck ollin."  Hmmmmmm... what could the missing letters be?

Start the Stampede!

The buffalo is ready!  Itching to get your hands on some of that downy fluff?  Go visit Greg and Deirdre at Still River Mill.  You can choose roving, 2 ply yarn in 50 gram/250 yard skeins or 4 ply yarn in 50 gram/120 yard skeins.   Yummy stuff! 

Just Stuff

Adorable, ain't he?  But do pay attention to that subtitle at the top of the book: "life and love with the world's worst dog."  I loved the book, finished it last night in tears.  Marley is  hysterically funny to read about but sheesh!  I wouldn't live with him.   If you want a taste of the book to decide if it might be your cuppa tea, check it out.

The color of this scarf in photos behaves as well as Marley.  It is not blue, it's purple.  A variegated purple, tones ranging from very light to very deep purple.  But no matter the background, no matter the lighting, today it insists on showing up blue, natural daylight, ott light, any light be damned.   I got purple  the first time I blogged it, but only against a celery green tablecloth in low light so the scarf showed up kind of blurred.  In any case, I'm making progress on the scarf and deciding I do like the tonal variegation after all. 

I think I'm ready for a change of pace, though.  I woke up yesterday in a mood. Sudden change of temperature?  That raw, biting, cold wind that swooped in to interrupt this sweetly mild winter of late?  Sharing my bathroom with the young adults while "theirs" sits demolished down to the studs while the contractor goes on vacation?  I dunno.  Just a mood.  A big mood.  Not even chocolate promised to soothe it.  I munched slices of red and yellow pepper instead.  Didn't add to my waistline but it didn't soothe the mood, either.  I think some vigorous exercise is in order today, along with something new.  I'm going to experiment with felting.  I'll let you know how it goes.

Horsin' Around

This is a sky picture not previously possible.  I took it from just outside the house on the nearly completed deck. 

And here's another butt shot for those of you who like such things.  That's John, the farrier who trimmed CC's feet for me on Sunday.  In addition to farrier-ing, John is also a professional bull rider.  He's about jockey size so I imagine he can get a lot of flight time when the bulls toss him like a kite.  The man likes a hard life!  In college, two of my required classes were horse shoeing I and II.  I still have my basic set of farrier tools.  The most important thing I learned from those two classes is to appreciate the opportunity to hand money to someone else for that necessary bit of horse care.  I'm quite happy assisting at the horse's head, thank you. 

Can you tell CC's thoughts on the event?  Yeah, she thought it was totally unnecessary.  And worthy of testing her abitility to refuse. That's when John's bull riding tenacity comes in handy.  CC decided to dance around on three legs, the fourth of course cupped in John's hands.  That's an amazing bit of ballet.  John never let go, just hung in there and rode out the baby antics, calmly and with understanding.  Gotta love a guy like that!  His hang tough approach worked and she gave up the dancing.  She did express her thoughts with her head, though, baby stuff like stretching that long graceful neck as far as it would go, down and turned to the side, teeth bared and chewing at the air.  I'd have taken a picture of how cute and silly that is, but I was holding said head and the non-bloggers around the barn don't even begin to understand the need for photo documentation.  I think they are getting as big a kick out of my "antics" as they do CC's.

CC has so much to learn and part of my job is to make these learning experiences as pleasant as possible.  The lessons to be learned over the next few months: leaving the herd calmly and without fear, boulders on the side of the driveway are not going to jump up and eat her, cross ties are not snakes, and my feet are for me, not CC, to walk on.

A Big Hole in my House

This morning's temperature was about 27 F/2.8 C.  There is snow and ice all over the place.  And frozen water bottles to contend with.  So of course the crew cut a big hole in my house. Good thing they're a cute bunch.   Now that the temp is up to 38/3, we have sliding doors installed.  Well, almost.  The doors are in place and they won't fall out but all the finishing on the inside will most likely be done tomorrow.  Today with the sun out there, they want to get the outside work done. Last time I looked, we almost had stairs for the deck. 

There will soon be an even bigger hole in my house, but one that I will have to adjust to.  It can't be filled.   My older son, Collin, starts a new job next week.  It's a great job for him and I'm very happy he got it.  The job is graphic design with 3-D animation and he's very excited.  I am happy for him.  I am.  But the job is about an hour away, an hour of miserable, congested, dangerous driving.   So he asked me this morning if I'd go apartment hunting with him this weekend.  I'm not ready for this.  I should be.  He's 25.  It's time.  Sheesh, I left home permanently at age 22, got married at age 25. I was pregnant with him by age 26.   But that was me.  This is my child, leaving me. 

Of course, he's leaving behind an empty room.  One I can decorate and fill with fiber.  Dontcha just love a silver lining?

She Felt It!

Check out that hat.  Jody, a friend from spinning guild, made the sheep hat for a church event.  She's very proud of it!  Ain't it a hoot?  She wore it to our fiber day on Saturday when a few of us gathered at Jody's church for a felted mitten workshop. 

The class was small, 3 participants, which is great fun because I can interact so fully with each student.  I also get to watch the different styles folks bring to the craft.  Some kind of wing it, some get compulsive about every step, and some turn out to be naturals.  Kelly is one of the naturals, I think.  She felt it.  Not just the mittens, but the joy of - yes, Margene - the process.  Wet felting doesn't appeal to a lot of folks.  It's a very tactile experience, with fibers and forms and slippery, sloppery, soapy water squishing under your fingers.  Does that make you cringe?  You might not like a mitten workshop.  But for me, and I think for Kelly, the process makes me smile.  I just enjoy all that tactile action.  Making mittens on a tray contains a lot of the mess if you're careful, but you still have wet, soapy hands for a while.  And there is lots of rubbing, careful and slow at first as you work the wet into the fiber.  As the fibers begin to felt and shrink to shape, the process requires more friction, which means rinsing out all the soap and wringing out all the wet.  That changes the character of the tactile experience.  It's a bit more vigoruous at that stage and you can wear out your muscles.  Great for stress relief!  Wet felting with a friendly group of people is lots of fun.  Add some potluck, maybe some wine or other beverage, and definitely some chocolate, and some serious sillies can erupt, particularly when you explain that the mass in their hands first grows with the rubbing, then shrinks as you finish.

I think the ladies did a great job!

I made a mitten along with the others, although I was lazy and only did one.  I like it, though, so will make another to go with it.  I used a chocolate angora/white wool batt and drizzled left over varigated yarn on the surface for color.  I think I'll nuno felt a scarf to match.

Shifting Directions

A sky picture for the sky watcher.  Normally, I'd try for a pretty picture but this photo captures the day.  In the midst of all the late spring type weather we've been having which allowed for our deck to start being, today we have a bit of winter.  So the half finished deck remains half finished at the moment.  I knew the weather was coming.  Absent any direction from the contractor, we figured he'd do some inside the house, deck related work today.  In order to put a door to the deck, the heating in our dining room needs to be rerouted.  I spent some of Sunday dealing with the fiber stash in the dining room.  So the contractor calls before the first cup of tea this morning at  8 am.  He said he'd be here in half hour to start gutting the bathroom.  The big bathroom.  The one the young adults/teenager all abuse use and rarely clean.  The one with all sorts of stuff still in it, the stuff scheduled to be emptied this coming weekend.  Teenager had no school today due to weather, so I rousted him and the young adults.  I barked directions, they flew about.  With 5 minutes to spare, the bathroom was empty, the cars cleaned off and ready to move as soon as the dumpster arrived.  Of course, with the snow, there is no parking on the street, so contractor trucks are on my front lawn.  The mustang won't easily manuever up over the curb so we left it sitting right where the dumpster needs to go, keys ready.  When the dumpster arrived, would the 'stang start?  Of course not.  We've had no starting problems with this car ever.  It picks today.  So I announce the issue to the contractor.  Without missing a beat, Super Jim and his Super Crew troop out to the car and start pushing.  We got to the short but steep, car eating ramp and the car hung up.  So I turned my car around in the driveway, put it head to head with the stang, and Jim jumped the battery.  And diagnosed an alternator problem in the stang.  Sigh. 
The gutting is now in progress.

FO, WIPs, and Tag

An unwilling model who refuses to show his face photographically on this blog at least stood still long enough for me to grab a quick photo of my newly finished Red Scarf.   I used one skein of Magnum for the scarf, size 15 needles, and bits of Jumbo Merino mixed with the Magnum for the fringe.  The scarf pattern: cast on 10 stitches (or more if you prefer a wider scarf - this one is 4 inches), purl row one, knit two rows, purl two rows, continue alternating two rows knit with two rows purl until it's as long as you want it (this one ended up at 85 inches after blocking - lots of stretch in this pattern), bind off on a purl row, block and fringe.  Easy and quick.  Except when, 12 inches into the project, you stupidly mistakenly follow a purl row with knit one row, purl one row and then don't bother to notice that until you reach 36 inches of knitting.  You see why I need a small project for the Knitting Olympics????

I had a dentist appointment yesterday, followed by my son's orthodontist appointment and needed a small, portable project.  So I grabbed my Purple Oooo La La and started another feather and fan scarf.  I want to see if I like the tonal variation in the dye.  I'm still undecided on that. 

Our deck is now in progress.  Amika is not happy.  She's alternating fierce "get out of my yard" barrages with the most pathetic, high pitched,I'm gonna die I just know it anxiety ridden whining.  I put her in her crate and she's ever so much quieter happier about this ordeal.

And courtesy of Kelly, I bring you this meme: 

Four jobs you've had in your life:

1. Security guard
   
2. Office assistant
   
3. Linguist
4. Writer
   

Four movies you could watch over and over again:

1. Sabrina (Audrey Hepburn version)
   
2. Gone With The Wind
   
3. The Sting
   
4. Sneakers

Four places you have lived:

1. Connecticut
2. Wyoming
3. California
4. Massachusetts

Four t.v. shows you love to watch:

1. Gilmore Girls
2. ER
3. Law and Order SVU
   
4. MASH (only on DVD now - sigh)

Four places you've been on vaction:

1. New Hampshire
   
2. Virginia
3. Grand Canyon
   
4. London

Four websites you visit daily:

1. Google
   
2. CNN
3. There are no others I visit everyday
   
4.  

Four of your favorite foods:

1. American chop suey
   
2. homemade fish chowdah
   
3. red and yellow peppers
   
4. fresh, hot corn bread

Four bloggers you are tagging:
   
     1.  Anyone who wants to be tagged
     2.  Anyone whose blog contest I have entered and not won
     3.  Anyone who reads my blog but doesn't comment
     4.  Anyone featuring Absolutely Adorable Animals  on their blog 

Dare I Hope?

I read about The Knitting Olympics.  Ahhh, I'm too slow a knitter.  Seriously.  I'm a very   S.  L.  O.  W. knitter.   No way, I thought.  I wouldn't be able to find a pattern challenging enough for the concept but small enough for any hope of accomplishment.  But I daydreamed about it.  Hey, who doesn't think about someday being in the Olympics?  At the same time, I've been playing with the Pacific Plush silk/angora, not happy with the simple triangle scarf I tried.  As I slurped soup for lunch alone yesterday, I kept myself company with Best of Knitter's Magazine Shawls and Scarves, once again eyeing page 85.  That lovely "featherweight fantasy" is one big reason I fell in love with this book and bought it.  I keep thinking how dreamy that shawl would feel in silk/angora.  It only takes 480 yards of DK weight, just slightly more than one 4 oz skein of my Oooo La La yarn.   But again, there is that only 16 days from start to finish albatross.  I know my limitations.  That ain't gonna happen and I will not spoil that knitting adventure with not enough time.  I sighed, once more giving up the Olympics dream. I turned some more pages, not even really glancing at the projects as that's my least favorite section of the book.  Then came page 98.  Babushkas!  Da!  Ах, да. Это прекрасно. Красивый.  They're small, only 220 yards of knitting.  Some lace, some new to me techniques sure to befuddle challenge me.   Oooo, that Olympic flame sparked to life!  I think I'll go for it! 

Now, do you think I can get the dang button on the sidebar?