nothing

I'm still here. Back to sewing and quilting this month. Cats are good.

Tickled

Last weekend I had a sudden flurry of orders for my Scallop Edge Beaded Necklace Pattern. Three in a row, all for women in the west and northwest suburbs. After the third order, I had to know what was going on. I e-mailed her, thinking maybe there was a class going on. She told me that a LYS in Glen Ellyn was doing a KAL, the second so far with this pattern.

I drove out there last night, Thursday being late night sit-and-knit, and me being kinda desperate for a place to do just that. And of course I had to see these people who were promoting my pattern so heartily. I found out from some of the other knitters that the place had been SRO on Sunday. They told me people had been knitting while sitting on the floor and there was a line out the door.

Well between that and the 425 completed necklaces on Ravelry to date, I am astounded. I feel like mini-EZ. I never was "popular," but my silly little pattern seems to be. Naches fun Moyekhkinder.

String Theory Yarn Company hosts a KAL/open knitting every Sunday. I hope to go back there soon.

UFOs*

*Unidentified Fiber Objects

Some of them are so old, I can't even remember what they were going to be when they grew up.

For the last few weeks I have been on a rampage to unearth and complete as many knitted beginnings as I can. Also recovering the yarn from the ones that are not ever going to amount to anything.

Why now? Loopy Yarns had a UFO party last Friday night. I didn't go -- but for the eight or nine days before the event and ever since, I've been working through dozens of projects mouldering in the bottoms of bags and plastic bins.

Tonight I made progress on a thing conceived in the 'eighties that was so pretty I never could give up on it. A couple of days ago I was working on The Thing. See that purple tweed right inside the diagonal edge? I ran out on one edge, and cannot for the life of me find what was left of the 100 grams I had when I started. In panic mode, I ordered five skeins in four shades of purple (two vintage). One of them should be close enough. Of course it is a scratchy yarn that I hate and was hoping to use it up in this thing, and now I will have way too much of it, and it is costing me a small fortune, but what the hay. Maybe I can resell the skeins least like my old one.

Have to Brag

435 Projects!! And each one more gorgeous than the last. Oh, Ravelers, you make me so happy!!!

Blizzard!

Mia Becomes a House Cat

Last summer Mia, my "baby Siamese," got locked in a garage for nine days. Very long story, but when she got out, I took her to my Dad's, in an attempt to keep her out of trouble. This displeased her. At the first opportunity, she was out the window, down the fire escape, and gone. (I did not know we had a window open with no screen.)

I have not written publicly about this because I was so ashamed of my tactical error and so worried about the cat.

On January 9, I spotted her in a vacant lot a few blocks from home. "Mia! You're NOT DEAD!" She remembered me and did not run away. After feeding her for a two weeks and receiving many happy purrs and cuddles, I was able to trap her last week and bring her home to my own apartment, the one with less traffic and more control of windows.

This time, Mia seems delighted to be indoors with a reliable food supply and cuddles on demand. What changed? Well, it's winter. And the other cats are nicer to her than the ones at Dad's. She is becoming good friends with Blackie. Rosebud hisses at her but is too old and fat to chase her. Pixel just ignores her.

I feel like a mountain has been removed from my shoulders.