I officially love Vanna White. Half of the video is about her and her cat! And she talks to her cat just like cat people do – “oh, what do you want to do now? Really? that’s what you want to do? Ok!” Yup, Vanna White has a cat and loves antiques!
So I’ve been winding yarn like a mad woman all week for The Beekeeper’s Quilt (why no, I’m not obsessed, why do you ask?) and I have a mildly amusing story to relate.
Last night my big boy cat, who is rather a grumpy old man, was kvetching at me because he wanted to be fed or to go to bed or both. Now, I was sitting in front of the TV, which was starting to run a repeat of Stephen Colbert, and I really did need to go to sleep. But I was almost finished winding this skein of yarn for the night and cutting it up into little miniskeins for my hexipuffs so I kept saying, “Just one more minute” to myself.
So I would wind yarn, put most of it immediately a plastic ziploc bag for mini mania purposes, and then put the rest in my white basket (which you have previously seen) for my own personal hexipuffing mania. Mittens, the aforementioned cat, had been happily sleeping on the edge of the plastic bag for a few hours (yeah, all that yarn and all he wants is a plastic bag, I know) before the caterwauling began. I firmly ignored him and continued winding…and then he got quiet. I should have known.
I finished winding the final skeinlet around my knees, sat up in the chair, leaned forward to look for the cat and then glanced down to see…THIS.
The Cat, Guarding His Nest
Sigh. He looks like he’s roosting and getting ready for his yarn eggs to hatch. But I really think he just wanted to get my attention, and decided that sitting in my yarn would do it. Considering that ALL WEEK he has ignored piles of yarn and this basket in favor of the plastic bag. What a jerk! After I pulled out the camera he grew miffed and trundled off (he hates the camera; he’s very Amish like that). Anyways, luckily it was just my own skeinlets, and those are all going to be part of my hexipuff blanket so I don’t mind if a bit of cat hair finds its way in, but he just cracked me up last night. How absurd.
My Basket. My Yarn. My Hexipuffs. Mine!
In other news, I am now happily ensconced in the KAL for the Beekeeper’s Quilt in both the tiny owl knits group and my own chitterychattery swappery swappers group, plus a hexipuff-themed miniskein swap on Ravelry. I keep listening to Stephanie’s music on Youtube and…well, I want to say knitting, but really, I’ve been working and then winding yarn in my spare time. But I’m getting to the knitting soon! I swear! I already have one hexipuff done! (Whew, the guilt.)
As for the WestKnits KAL? After all of that work locating yarn for it? Um, well, that isn’t going so well. I sense that I will not be finishing it by Aug. 31. Oops!
So I bit the bullet tonight and decided to sit down and really dedicate myself to making a bunch of stitch markers. For me, making stitch markers always comes in fits and starts because, after all, this isn’t just a business for me, but a creative outlet as well. If I’m not in the mood to make stitch markers, then I don’t. But recently I made a few for friends I was seeing/meeting and that got me on the warpath again. I’ve only done two styles tonight, which means that I’ll need to spend a couple of other nights with my nose to the grindstone to really build up a nice repertoire for my shop, but I’m very pleased with my current results.
I caught up on some backlogged tv shows in my DVR while I made them (else making stitch markers would not be fun, as my mind would be bored to tears), including some old Doctor Who episodes. I watched the two-parter about the Cybermen villians with David Tennant and Billie Piper, and it was fabulous, as always. And it also gave me some clever ideas about what to name my new stitch marker sets. The pink ones in that jumbled pile to the left are the last of my Limitless Love series, but the iridescent black ones with clever geometric shapes I think are all going to be named after different parts of the Cybermen episodes, once I get them organized, photographed properly, and up on Etsy. Which will be tomorrow’s job, once I have some nice natural light to work with. Whew!
Making stitch markers is a very laborious process for me, in part because I always take my time and am constantly making sure to do my best work. It’s not just knowing how to use just the right amount of beads so that the markers aren’t too heavy or unwieldy, but it’s also about cutting and twisting and bending wire just so in order to ensure that yarn won’t catch and that the marker will slide smoothly along the needle and that it won’t get caught or pulled or twisted. And there are still aspects to making stitch markers that elude me! So I’m glad to be done with it for tonight, and glad to be done with these beads. As pretty as they are, I need to work with some different colors and styles tomorrow else I’ll lose my mind. I will say, at least these vintage beads have already been removed from the jewelry they were originally attached to. That’s a whole other project that I don’t want to delve into right now. It’s hard work. It’s fun work, but after three solid hours, it’s hard as well.
Cats, of course, don’t make it any easier. Only about 10 minutes after I settled into my seat the cat, otherwise known as Mittens, aka Mr. Kitty, hopped up and wanted to sit in my lap along with all of the stitch marker making box and and tools and stuff. And at 16 pounds, my cat weighs more than most small dogs. So I had to ever-so-carefully move Mittens so that he was cuddled between my knees, and then manage not to lose teensy beads in his fur, and for the record, my leg went numb at one point, and then my legs got tired of being so uncomfortably split, and he still had the nerve to give me an annoyed glance when the scissors fell close to his face. Yes, cats and stitch markers are very hard to balance together. See? Doesn’t he just look superior?
Exchanging Fire 