In the mail

Last Tuesday, I found a large envelope in my mail slot at work.  This isn't all that unusual - many publishers and vendors seem to think I still want to hear from them in print.  (Do they not know that the recycling bin is right next to the mailboxes?)

Anyway, this envelope wasn't from a publisher; it was from Steven Self.  You may think of Steven as a great knitter, but I've known him since before knitting (I think), since he is also a health sciences librarian.  I wasn't expecting anything from Steven, but we belong to a couple of the same associations, I just assumed to was something work-related.

Imagine my surprise when I opened the envelope and pulled out a package wrapped in two kinds of  pink paper.

It didn't occur to me to take a picture before I ripped the package open, 

but here's what's left of it, posing on the cat perch.

Inside were these:

Steven blogged about knitting these here and here and here.  And he even blogged about having someone in mind to give them to.  Possibly because I have neither dainty hands nor a January birthday, it didn't even occur that that person might be me!

The mittens are beautifully knitted, much more evenly than I could knit them.  And they fit great, although the thumb is a little snug. I think repeated wearing will help that.  Luckily, it's still winter here!  (I can't believe I just said that.....)

While I was sitting in my office with these gorgeous mittens on my hands, it occurred to me that I have never received a knitted gift from anyone except my grandma.

Thank you so much, Steven!

Ripley

How do all those teenage girls take pictures of themselves with their phones? 

This is Ripley.  It's blocking right now.

Details:  Ripley, by Ysolda Teague
Yarn:  madelinetosh tosh vintage in Cherry
Needles:  US 7
Size:  Largest, with mods
Notes:  This pattern calls for aran-weight yarn, and tosh vintage is a light worsted.  I also have a 23-inch head.  The largest Ripley size fits a 24-inch head, so I made the largest size, then added two extra motifs to the band, for 26 total.  As a result, I had 52 slipped stitches and, therefore, 78 picked up stitches.  I did the pleats exactly according to the pattern.  When I got to the decreases, there were 13 stitches between markers.  I made the slouchier version, but because my yarn was so much lighter, I don't have too much slouch.

This was a very quick and fun pattern.   The pattern is different since you make the band lengthwise, but picking up the slipped stitches along the edge is easy peasy.   Hopefully I can get a better picture after blocking! 

In the meantime, here's the pizza I made a couple nights ago.  It was heart-shaped by accident, but isn't it cute???  I always use this crust (if you use rapid-rise yeast, a 45 minute rise is enough) and top it with pesto, a scattering of spinach leaves, mushrooms, and mozzarella. If I have it, I also add cooked chicken.

Pea Vines, Sidecar, and Ripley

Perhaps Anne, Thea, and Ysolda didn't plan for their designs to be a set, but they have become one for me.


Pea Vines
First - as I said in my last post, I finished Anne Hanson's beautiful Pea Vines Shawl a couple weeks ago.  I plan on wearing this as a scarf with my olive green wool winter coat (once it warms up enough to wear any coat other than my long down-filled parka).

This blocking photo doesn't do the color -- Dream in Color Smooshy in Cloud Jungle -- justice at all.  You can see all the colors better in this in-the-ball photo. It's full of green and browns, with beautiful rosy highlights.

Or maybe in this draped-over-a-booktruck shot.

Details:
Pattern:  Pea Vines Shawl (petite, which is the middle size)
Yarn: Dream in Color Smooshy in Cloud Jungle - just a little over one skein
Needles: size 4
Notes:  Although I started this in October and didn't finish it until January, it was actually a very quick knit because it got put aside for most of October through December.  This shawl starts at the bottom, so you cast on a boat load of stitches (in this case, boat load = 315).  This is the first time I've made a bottom-up shawl, and boy, does it move fast!  I'm used to starting with 8 stitches and ending with a boat load, so it seemed amazing that each row went faster than the previous.

I made no mods at all.  I was a little intimidated by the nups, but had no problem with them at all - the secret seems to be to lift the 8 extra stitches over 2 at a time.  As with all of Anne's patterns, it was beautifully and clearly written and charted.

Sidecar Mittens
Next I cast on for Thea Colman/BabyCocktails' Sidecar Mittens.

No feline has ever deigned to actually sit on this piece of cat furniture, 

but it works well as a knitwear display stand!

The main part of these were knit out of madelinetosh tosh vintage in Cherry.  I love this yarn and I love this color.  I think I could knit everything in my queue out of various madtosh yarns, all in Cherry! (Okay - maybe not....) The underlayer/cuff was knit out of more Dream in Color Smooshy in Cloud Jungle, to tie these to my Pea Vines shawl.  As I said, Cloud Jungle has rosy highlights in it, which look perfect with the Cherry mittens.

I love the lace edging on these mittens, and I am certain I will "borrow" it to use on other items.  It's very different, but easy once you do one or two motifs and realize what's happening.

Details:
Pattern:  Sidecar Mittens by Thea Colman of BabyCocktails (7 inch size, with mods)
Yarn:  madeline tosh vintage in Cherry for the main mitten (almost all of 1 skein) and Dream in Color Smooshy in Cloud Jungle for the underlayer (maybe 50 yards or so)
Needles: Size 6 for the mittens; size 2 for the underlayer
Notes:  My yarn was slightly heavier than what was called for, and size 6 needles gave me 5 stitches per inch rather than 5.5 stitches. The 7 inch size ended up just a teenier bit bigger than I would have liked, but just a teeny bit.  However, the Smooshy underlayer is just the right size, so the mittens are nice and toasty around my wrist.

I did make a couple of modifications:  I made the mitten cuff, between the lace cuff and the thumb gusset increases, only an inch long, rather than the 2 1/2 inches called for.  I just liked how it looked better.  This means that more of the underlayer shows, which is fine.  I also used the main color for a single-crochet edging around the edge of the underlayer, to pull it together more.

Ripley
As the final piece of the set, I'm in the midst of the Ripley hat by Ysolda Teague. I'm making the lace-trimmed version, with extra slouch, although since my yarn is a lighter weight, it will probably be more like medium slouch.  Although the lace trim on Ripley is different than the one on the Sidecar Mittens, they are similar (although knit totally differently!), so I think they will go well together.

I should finish it this evening.  As you can see, I'm using the same madelinetosh tosh vintage, which is a light worsted weight, although the pattern calls for an aran weight yarn.  I'll tell you about my mods when I'm sure they worked!

Done!

Since my last post, Sprite chose her prizes:  a $20 gift card to Amazon and a skein of purple sock yarn.  I have a few skeins of purple, so I sent her a 'collectible' skein - the October 2009 Mean Girls Yarn Club color, Shellfish Bitch.  I of course never took a picture of it, but Turtlegirl has a good picture of it here on Ravelry.

A month or so ago, I mentioned that I was working on Peaks Island Hood for my co-worker, Kelly.  I finished it, Ravelry says, on January 16.  I have to say that this was a somewhat frustrating knit.  I am a great pattern-follower -- I suspect that's because I'm not original enough to come up with patterns of my own -- but this one really was unclear in places.  "Work in pattern" only means something once the pattern is established, and this is especially true when there's more than one pattern going on.  I generally love Ysolda's patterns, so I'm not sure why this one is problematic.  However, once I figured out what was going on, it moved quickly - I always forget that bulky yarn and big needles do that!

Anyway -- it's done.  I didn't get a picture of Kelly wearing it yet, and the close-up pictures I have don't do it justice.  They all make it look like the colorway has a lot of blue in it, but it doesn't really.  It's much more browns/black/golds.  Nevertheless, if you embiggen this picture, you can see the shell detail right there above the stitch marker.

Details:
Pattern:  Peaks Island Hood by Ysolda Teague
Yarn: Manos del Uruguay Maxima in M8881 (Beehive)
Needles:  giant US 9s!
Mods:  As written, this scarf is designed to have one end much longer than the other. The long end wraps around the neck and has buttons on it, while the short end has button holes to hold it all in place.  Kelly and I both thought that two long ends, and no buttons, would work better.  Although I bought extra yarn, I really could have used another skein.  After splicing together every little piece I could find, the second end is about three inches shorter than the first.  However, I'm not sure anyone will notice it while she's wearing it!

In the nine days since I finished Kelly's hood, I also finished my Pea Vines small shawl, which I love, love, love, and started a coordinating pair of Sidecar Mittens.  More on them next time!

We have a winner!

Thanks for all the comments.  Our winner, based on a number chosen by the random number generator at random.org (because Harley refused to help!) is Sprite from SpriteWrites!  Once I hear from her, I'll let y'all know what she chose.

Blogiversary (and a Random Drawing)

Happy Blogiversary to me!  Actually it was two days ago, on Saturday, but this was a busy weekend and I'm a lazy blogger.

Five years ago last Saturday, I wrote my first post.  In fact, I posted daily for four days!  That first year, 2006, was by far my busiest, blog-wise, with 152 posts.  Last year, I only managed 34.  I'm going to try to do a little better this year - at least once a week.

One of the things that makes me sad is that I lost a lot of comments from the first couple years, due to changing comment platforms.  However, I do thank those of you have been reading all along, and, while I'm at it, you newer readers, too - it's nice that you continue to come around even if I don't post very often!

So, to celebrate, I'm giving stuff away!  Actually, because I'm lazy, there will be one randomly-drawn winner.  Maybe Harley will draw the winner's name....  So, leave a comment before midnight Friday, and a name will be chosen next Saturday.  The lucky winner will have a say in their prize:  they'll get something from the yarn stash (but be aware that there's lots of sock yarn in there!) and a $20 gift certificate to either Amazon or iTunes -- winner's choice!

I know it not MegaMillions, but who doesn't love a little free yarn and twenty bucks??  All you have to do is enter by midnight (make that midnight central time) Friday!

Pink and Me

I think pink has always been my favorite color.  I remember having a pair of pink and yellow sneakers  when I was about 7 years old.  Unfortunately - as far as colors go - my teenage years were spent entirely in the earth-tone 1970s, where pink was pretty rare.  I got married in 1980 (boy, am I old!) and really wanted my bridesmaids to wear pink dresses, but there were none to be found.  Of course, just a couple of years later, pink was back and hasn't really gone away since.

I like all shades of pink, but my favorites are very pale, icy pink and darker, not-pastel pink.  That's why, when I opened the latest shipment from Scout's yarn club, I squealed out loud.  Yes, I stood in my kitchen, squealing and squeezing a skein of sock yarn.  See why?

This color is call Izvar, and I absolutely love it.  A quick tour of my Ravelry project page will show why -- here are some highlights:

Anne Hanson's Whispering Pines

Stonewall (scarf) and Bougainvillea (socks) - also Anne Hanson

Nereid Fingerless Gloves

Bird in Hand Mittens

And there are more! 

Merry Christmas!

My mom's backyard on Christmas morning.

Christmas Goodies

We had Christmas a day early at my mom's, because my niece will spend tomorrow with her mom.  I would show you the small amount of Christmas knitting and crocheting I did, except that I didn't bring my camera cord, so you will have to wait to see the cute knitted elephant and the crocheted birdie.

Instead, I'm going to share a couple of my favorite recipes of the season.  Although they are both candy, they are very, very simple.  Pretty much anyone can make either of these, even if you only have a microwave.  No candy thermometer needed!

I got the first recipe, Tiger Butter, from my friend Nancy in San Antonio.  She used to bring it to work, and after she moved to Houston in 1990 (twenty years ago!!), I started to make it.  Back then, white chocolate was hard to find - I had to buy it at the chocolatier.  You can still use bulk white chocolate if you like, but white chocolate chips work just fine.

Tiger Butter

2 2/3 cups white chocolate chips (this is one 12-oz package, plus 2/3 cup more.  Or use one pound of bulk white chocolate, chopped into chip-sized pieces.)
3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup (that's a 6-oz package) semisweet chocolate chips

Line a rimmed cookie sheet/jelly roll pan with foil and set aside.

Melt the white chocolate together with the peanut butter.  If you do this in the microwave, use 80% power, and zap it for 1 minute, then stir it, then zap another 30 seconds.  Stir it good -- chips like to hold their shape -- and if it's still not melted and combined, keep zapping at 30 second intervals, stirring well after each, until the mixture is smooth.

Next, melt the semisweet chocolate chips.  The same microwave technique applies here.

Pour the white chocolate mixture into the pan and spread it to the edges.  Drizzle the semisweet chocolate over it, then use the tip of a knife or a toothpick to swirl it all together.  This is my favorite part -- it looks like paisley!

Refrigerate for an hour or so, until it's firm, then break it up into small pieces and store in a tin.  It doesn't have to be refrigerated, but it's best to store it somewhere fairly cool.


Cherry Almond Fudge

This recipe was clipped out of a magazine, probably around 1990.  The recipe calls for almond extract, but I always use vanilla instead. It also uses candied cherries. These are the cherries used in fruit cake - there's usually a special area in the grocery store devoted to fruit cake ingredients starting around Thanksgiving.  I know some people worry about the dyes used in candied cherries; if you're one of these people, just make a different recipe!

12-oz package (2 cups) semisweet chocolate chips
14-oz can sweetened condensed milk (NOT evaporated milk)
1/2 cup slivered almonds
1/2 cup candied cherries, chopped
1 teaspoon vanilla

Line a 8 inch square pan with foil and set aside.

Combine the chocolate chips and sweetened condensed milk, and melt using the zap-and-stir method described in the Tiger Butter recipe.  When the mixture is smooth, stir in the almonds, cherries, and vanilla.  Pour into the pan and smooth the top.  Refrigerate for a couple hours, then cut into 1-inch square.  Store in a tin -- I always put the Tiger Butter and the fudge in the same one.


So there you go - a couple easy peasy candy recipes.  Enjoy!

Catching Up

I promised myself that I wouldn't do any Christmas knitting this year, and I almost stuck to it!

At least six weeks ago, I offered to make my niece a hat.  She chose the pattern and yarn (from a selection I offered, of course), but then asked for a flower on it.  This is what's holding me up.  I'm making two or three flowers, on pins.  The hat and two flowers are done - except for the actual making up of the flowers.

The hat is Everglade in Tempted Yarn's Good Grrl (colorway VaVaVoom).  The flowers are the Ruffle Rose and the Cabbage Rose from Knitted Flowers by Nicky Epstein, knit from Cascade Ultra Pima in color number 3749.  (She asked for a purple hat with orange flowers.  Really!)

My niece is also crazy about elephants, so I thought I'd knit her one.  Sigh... like the roses, the problem with the elephant is the putting together.

These are most of the parts of this elephant -- 4 legs, a head/body piece, a trunk, and one ear.  I still need to knit the second ear and the tail.  I'm using Lion Brand Wool-Ease in Oxford Grey and a sparkly white they call White/Multi.

I need to get these done.  I'm also planning on crocheting my mom a couple of pot holders.  All in all, this is very manageable.  I just need to do it!

When not working on these projects, I've been working on a co-worker request.  I'm knitting Ysolda's Peaks Island Hood out of Manos del Uruguay Maxima.  Kelly, in the next office, saw a hooded scarf on Etsy, and asked if I would knit something like it for her.  Last Saturday, we went to Crazy Girl, where she chose the yarn and the colorway, neither of which would have been my first choice.  However, the yarn is amazingly squishy, and the colorway (M8881 Beehive) is working beautifully. 

If you check Ravelry, you'll see that some people have issues with this pattern, but I'm really enjoying it.  Instead of making one end longer, to be buttoned, I'm doing both ends long, with no buttons. From the pictures, it looks like getting the button holes in the right place is hard, and Kelly thought the buttons were a little odd anyway.  I need to finish up those roses and the elephant, so I can work more on this.  It's cold here!

Still here!

Just a quick post to let y'all know I'm still here!  The last few weeks have been busy, with company (my sister and her hubby visiting), a few days at Mom's with them, a little stash acquisition, and, to top it all off, an 1850 page manuscript to review!  Yes, that's what's been keeping me busy!  However, it's done and I'm knitting again.  I've finished a hat for my niece, and just have to finish the knitted flowers she wanted on it.  (Flowers are hard!)

More (and hopefully pictures) later...

Knitting Resumes (plus, Happy Kitty News)

Actually, knitting never stopped, although it did slow down some.  But first -- happy kitty news!

As I'm sure I've mentioned before, Harley was about a year and a half or two years old when I adopted her.  She was living in a feral colony in an apartment complex in San Antonio, and a friend was feeding some of the cats in the colony. Harley was the 'friendliest' of them, so my friend caught her and I brought her home.

Harley has never been very trusting - I suspect some of her interactions with humans in her early life were not very much fun.  But she likes me - she sleeps with me every night and likes to be petted and brushed.  She'll sit next to me or behind me, on the back of my chair.  But she hates to be picked up and has never sat on my lap.

Almost every evening since I got back from my vacation/conference trip, she sat on the back of my chair and sort of peered at my lap.  I really figured that she was trying to decide if stepping on my lap was a safe shortcut to the couch.  Then, Saturday night, she stepped into my lap and laid down!

The first night, she only spent a few minutes on my lap.  But most evening since, she has spent a couple hours there.  She even lets me wiggle and move my legs.  You cannot believe how happy this makes me -- and it only took eight years!

So -- knitting -- while I was on vacation/at my conference, I worked on Boneyard, which is perfect mindless conference knitting.  And it doesn't look like much, either -- just a large blob of knitting on circular needles.  I'm making it larger than described, using two skeins of Malabrigo sock yarn.  I also have some ideas about how I want to finish the last several rows, so by the time it's finished, it will really just be Boneyard-inspired!

I also finished one Cotty sock.  I have a habit of making socks too large, so I really worked on not making this one too big - and now I'm afraid it's a bit short!  However, I'm going to cast on to sock #2 and not panic yet!

Last weekend, I cast on a hat for my 14-year-old niece.  She chose the pattern (Everglade) and the yarn (Tempted Hand Painted Good Grrl in Va Va Voom, which is actually more purple than pink).  She wants an orange flower on it - she chose a cabbage rose from Knitted Flowers.  I'll attach it to a pin, so she can move it around.  I also may make a yellow one - I'm not so sure about the orange and purple!

And, finally, I am dying to cast on a pair of gloves -- I think they'll be Entangled Stitches.  Or maybe Glows - love that ruffle!

I'm Baaaack!

I didn't mean to be gone for more than three weeks but since I spent two of those weeks in Texas, I don't feel so bad about that!

There wasn't a whole lot of knitting done during that time. My trip included vacation time -- camping on the Texas Gulf coast and visiting my sister in San Antonio -- and a conference in Austin.

We camped for two nights at Goose Island State Park, near Rockport, and spent most of one day on the beach in Port Aransas.  It was a gorgeous day -- sunny, about 85, windy --and the water, which during the summer is frequently a little too warm, was the perfect temperature.  The day was also just right for sunburn.  It didn't seem hot, and our spray-on sunscreen apparently blew right away.  I had stripes of sunburn on the my right arm and leg, and both shins.  But it was worth it.  Port Aransas is one of my favorite places - a beach town with absolutely no pretense, a beach you can drive on, and great seafood.

The big new tent, replacing the rather raggedy old pop-up camper.

A pelican, greeting the ferry as it arrives in Port Aransas.

A flock of pelicans, looking for lunch.  We saw more pelicans on this trip than ever before.

My niece, helping to deflate the self-inflating air mattresses (which inflate a lot easier than they deflate).

Unfortunately, I have no good pictures of the San Antonio part of the trip or of the conference.  I think I was too busy having fun!

Next time:  knitting!

Finally!

Larkin is finished and blocking/drying!  It's very pretty and it's going to be hard to give away.

I didn't pin it out to block - I just sort of stretched it out on the floor.  True blocking would have fixed that little ruffle at the edges, but since I doubt the recipients of this blanket - the parents of a new baby girl - will have time to do anything more than throw it in the washer and dryer, severe blocking seemed unnecessary.

 

I used about 8 and a half skeins of Knit Picks Comfy Sport in Whisker.  I really like this yarn - it's a cotton/acrylic blend.  It's a little splitty but not so much so to be really annoying.  It's nice and soft and machine washable/dryable.  I'm sure I'll use it again.

I had planned on casting on immediately for Myrtle, but..... I didn't!  Last week I was in Madison for a conference and had just enough time to visit one yarn shop, The Knitting Tree. I was looking for a sagey green sock yarn to use for Pea Vines by Anne Hansen, but as soon as I saw the Dream in Color Smooshy in Cloud Jungle, I knew that was the yarn.  That swatch-picture doesn't do it justice, but it's better than I could do.  At first, the color reminded me of the old-fashioned green/brown army fatigues, but then I noticed the rosy smudges.  It's just gorgeous.


ETA: Okay - I tried taking a photo with my iPhone - and it turned out closer in color than they one I took with my camera!

I cast on for the medium size last night - Pea Vines is worked from the bottom up, which means it gets smaller and smaller.  I've never knit a shawl this way, but I have to say, it's kind of fun!  The casting on was a bit tedious, but it's not nearly as many stitches as you would have for a full-size, lace-weight shawl.

Next week I travel again - first to San Antonio to see my sister, then to Austin for a conference.  There may be more yarn shops in my future!

6720 to go

I am still slogging through Larkin. It's beautiful - but why do I knit blankets??? I'm a little more than half-way around the border, which is knitted on. Larkin is knit in the round (or, more precisely, in the square). I did 14 pattern repeats on each side, instead of the recommended 15. Each repeat is 10 stitches. So - we have 140 stitches per side, and 560 stitches around the whole blanket. 560 isn't so many. I've knit plenty of shawls with longer rows.

Each pair of rows of the edging is knit onto one of those edge stitches -- 15 stitches out and 15 back. 30 stitches x 560 = 16,800 edging stitches. This is obviously math I should never have done, because 16,800 is a LOT of stitches. I keep recalculating how many stitches I have left. Right now, I'm about 60% done with the edging, so I only have 6720 stitches left to go.

6720 - that's not so many. Of course, the baby this blanket is for was born last night, about 3 weeks early...

(And also, I cast on for a pair of Cotty socks. With what felt like very little knitting - even though it included a picot cuff -- I'm almost to the heel of the first sock. But now there will be no sock knitting until Larkin is done!)

Again

I hate for this to become "Janna's Sad News Blog," but that's what I have, again.

When I came home from work last night, I discovered that Dolly, my little tuxedo girl, had died during the day. I don't know why, although I do know that she had always been small and a little bit frail. When she was a kitten, or maybe a young cat, years before she came to live with me, she had been seriously ill with bladder problems. I don't know exactly what the problem was, but she had to eat expensive Prescription Diet C/D catfood as a result. In the last few months, she had actually gained a little weight and her coat had gotten thick and shiny. I thought she was doing really well.

Yesterday morning while I was getting ready for work, I heard her throw up. This isn't unusual -- she would throw up two or three times a week -- but yesterday morning, the amount thrown up seemed like a lot. I even asked her how such a little kitty could possibly throw up that much. But she seemed fine, nestled in her little pink kitty bed, which she loved, on the guest room bed. Sometimes she would even lay next to the cat bed, with her head propped on the edge of it.

When I got home, she was stretched out on the guest room bed, with her right front paw resting on the edge of the kitty bed. I have no idea what happened, but am glad that I decided to come home 20 minutes early. That meant that, after I calmed down a little, I still had time to call Pet Memories before they closed. The nice woman there waited until I could bring Dolly to them.

Poor Harley keeps looking for Dolly, who was her BFF (well, next to Simon, maybe). I came home early this afternoon to keep her company. We both need a little TLC, I think.

1. Dolly, 2. Dolly and Hemlock Ring, 3. yarn sniffing, 4. the frogging game, part 1, 5. D is for Dolly, 6. Dolly on the couch, 7. truce, part 2, 8. Dolly, 9. Dolly, 10. D is for Dolly

Created with fd's Flickr Toys

Yay, Snowden!

If you read the comments to my last post, you already know this from Steven's comments, but in case you missed it --

Snowden Becker, the designer of both Larkin and Myrtle, was featured in an article yesterday in the Daily Texan, the campus paper at UT Austin, where Snowden is a grad student. Except for the fact that it seems to say that Jimmy Beans Wool is in Austin and that they got the name/url for Ravelry wrong, it's a great story!

Slow Progress

Sorry - didn't mean to drop off the blog-planet for so long. First - thank you all for your kind thoughts about Vinnie. It's amazing how attached I got to him in just a year.

I've been knitting, but have no pictures to prove it. That's the same photo of Larkin that I showed you 6 weeks ago, but I do have progress.* I've reached the edging, which right now seems less boring than the lace, although I'm pretty sure I won't feel that way after a few evenings of "k2tog, k14, turn, k15, turn" and repeat, around and around!

However, since I had reached the edging, I decided I would let myself cast on for Myrtle, a cardigan by Larkin's designer, Snowden Becker. I cast on Saturday night. By the time I finished the bottom edging on Sunday evening, I suspected it might be too big. Monday evening, I had finished the first pattern repeat, so I kind of finger-blocked it and measured. Oh, yeah -- waaaay bigger than it was supposed to be! So I frogged it all. I will be casting on again, going down both a needle size and a sweater size. But for now, I think I'll work on that blanket some more. Blankets are always the right size!

* Despite the fact that I know that blanket knitting is not my thing, this is the third blanket I've knit in just over a year. I'm pretty sure this one will be the last for a while!

Sad News

Just a quick post to let you know that my fears about Vinnie came true - he passed away sometime early Sunday morning. I stayed up with him until about 1:00 a.m., because I knew he was doing really badly. I considered taking him to the emergency vet, but I knew that would be traumatic for him, and I was fairly certain that there wasn't much that could be done. When I got up at 7:30, he was gone, laying near where he was when I went to bed. Harley was sitting a few feet away, waiting for me.

The posts about how Vinnie came to live with me last summer are here. In the time since, he went from grouchy old man -- I was warned that he was a scaredy cat and not terribly friendly to most people -- to one of the sweetest cats I've owned. If I was in the room, he was usually in my lap, even though I've heard that he wasn't a lap cat in the past. Although he and my other cats weren't exactly friends, they all tolerated each other. He had even become fairly social -- if he heard me talking to someone, he would come see who it was. He would even model my knitting.

I miss him a lot, and feel lucky that I got to have him for the last year.

1. Vinnie, 2. Vinnie, 3. Vinnie, 4. Vinnie wearing Sweet Pea, 5. Vinnie and Mom, 6. Kitties all together, 7. Whispering Pines Shawl (and Vinnie), 8. Vinnie, 9. Vinnie, 10. Vinnie

Brief Update

Two weeks ago, I spent the weekend at my Mom's. I had a nice weekend, include a quick trip to Champaign with my 14-year-old niece to the new Sephora there. And we ate lunch at the Chick-Fil-A in the nearly-deserted Illini Union. (I'm beginning the "you must go to Illinois" indoctrination!)

Waiting for lunch

It was a nice weekend and when I got home Sunday evening, all the kitties rushed to the kitchen to greet me. I looked straight down at Vinnie and realized that he had suddenly gotten very skinny. Actually, I'm sure it wasn't really sudden; I just didn't notice it until I had been away for a couple of days.

As the week progressed Vinnie ate less, and stopped coming to the kitchen to eat. In mid-week, he started peeing on the floor and stopped going downstairs to the living room. He camped out under the sideboard in the dining room, so I moved food and water and a littler box there for him.

Friday afternoon, I took him to the vet, and my fears were validated -- he has advanced kidney disease. For the last week, he's been getting subcutaneous fluids, an antibiotic, and special kidney disease soft catfood. The sub-Q fluid administration hasn't been too bad, although he hates the antibiotic. I kind of see his point - the antibiotic smells like a pina colada gone bad.

For a couple days he rallied. He loved the food and the fluids helped. Tuesday evening, he even came out to greet one of my co-workers who stopped by to borrow a cooler. But now he seems to be declining, not eating much at all. So I don't know how long it will be. He's a sweet old boy, and seeing him this sick is hard.

Vinnie in better days