Somebody probably ought to stop me, low-rent edition

Thank you for all the well-wishes about Grady. I am still waiting to hear back from the vet about treatment.

These days, I am trying to keep in mind what the Yarn Harlot said about crochet, because I agree absolutely: it's dangerous. It goes so fast, you can be midway through a complete travesty and never even notice it. It uses approximately eighteen times the yarn knitting does. Dodgy all the way around.

So I've been playing around with scrap yarn that I had from a knitting project, and that's where the yellow, orange and green granny-square blanket came from. A week or so ago, I found an Erika Knight book called Simple Crochet, and it is lovely.

If you want to just make simple, beautiful non-granny stuff for your home, it's your book. However, if you ALSO want to spend $270 crocheting a leather basket for your magazines, it's also your book. So be careful.

Now, for some reason, I never feel like using anything but Wool-Ease or cotton for crochet. Probably this is because I have internalized the Yarn Harlot's warnings too much, and because I am afraid of making a $300 basket. Eventually I will get through this phase and use some of my nice yarn for a crochet project. But this one has to be washable if it is anything, and I mean wash-and-dry-able. And I don't yet trust my crochet skills enough to do a fancy project. So...this is my first-ever ACTUAL crochet project, following a pattern, using more than scrap yarn, and not granny-squares.

It's going to be the Striped Throw from the Erika Knight book. (You will have to trust me, I can't find a picture.) So what you see here is basically 1800 yards ($30! HA!) of brown (the color of powdered hot chocolate), avocado and gold Wool-Ease worsted yarn that is going to become a 70s-appliance-colored throw. (My crafty basket is a 99-cent Whole Foods bag with a tear in the bottom and the sides rolled down.)

The stitch pattern is lovely (just a variation on single crochet) and it didn't take me very long to do 22 rows of chocolate (see note above). It's about 36" long and 6" high at this point.

I am not really sure why I thought brown, gold and green was the most fetching of color combinations, but I think this will be very cool in a 70s-basement kind of way. (I hope.) Do y'all need to schedule an intervention with me?

Update on Grady

He doesn't have kidney disease, or any other disease except severe hyperthyroidism, which is apparently fairly common in aging cats. Two years ago, he weighed 25 pounds. Last summer, he was 20 or 21. Today, he weighs 16. That is the equivalent of a human losing 100 pounds! I knew he was skinnier but he's not emaciated - he's still overweight. I have to say I did not see this one coming. It's serious, but it's definitely one of the more treatable things that could be wrong with him.

Anyway, he's staying at the vet till Monday afternoon and we discuss treatment then. It will either be a pill, radioactive iodine, or surgery. I have no idea which. If it's a pill, it's a pill a day for life. I'm cool with that.

Thanks for your prayers and well-wishes. Fee and I are having a slumber party this weekend. You know, karaoke, sleeping bags, paint your toenails. Fun!

:)

Schmade

Grady is staying at the vet this weekend for tests/antibiotics. He has horrible, horrible, make-you-feel-ill breath, is lethargic and just not himself. They've ruled out teeth/mouth problems and diabetes - those tests were normal. Next step is a blood test to check for kidney function. The vet thinks whatever it is, is treatable.

My poor kitty has to stay in a metal cage all weekend, sniff. But hopefully he'll be feeling better soon, and hopefully they can treat whatever they find.

He's 11. Sniff.

PS

I just removed Snap from this blog because it was driving me freaking batty with those stupid little ads that pop up every time you roll over a link.

That is all.

An update

In the last week, all of the following has happened:

1. I made my deadline.
2. I hit a deer. On my birthday. Thankfully we only struck glancing blows and my car is not damaged and neither am I.
3. I turned lsdfjklds years old.
4. I ate a lot of cake.
5. On Friday, I witnessed an accident where a little old lady cracked up a few mailboxes driving her VW Beetle through a ditch. She was a sweet lady and we waited with her while the sheriff/ambulance came. She was okay but thinks she blacked out.
6. I made more granny squares. I also made a crocheted basket from Erika Knight's Simple Crochet book, and am working on a stripey blanket. (Pictures soon.) I started knitting the BYOB bag from Knitty. The cotton hurts my hands. I am not making impressive progress.
7. I spent two days working on the colour palette for the new design, and now I have a headache.
8. I have a cold.
9. I managed to take pics of the cats. I think you can really see how much weight Schmade has lost.



This was only the second picture of him I took. Meanwhile, I took about thirty of Fiona and this was the best I got.



She's very good at ignoring me.

Hope you are having a good week!

The Return of the Mojo

A couple of peeks at Jared's last three posts and BAM! my mojo is back.

Must. Knit. Blankie. Must. Finish. Scarf.

LOVE.

A Few Words

1. So so so so so tired. Have seven more days of this and then I'll be back to blogging after a short vacation.

2. Must figure out how to make Starburst grannies like these. Must get some brightly coloured yarn. Must. Must.

3. Time to make some baby hats for a colleague.

4. Can't bear to think about casting on anything.

5. Know blog is woefully neglected. Am so sorry.

Inside the Opium Den

Catnip is king at Chez Mean Girl.



Fee wishes you a very happy weekend. (Note the tissue paper stack. She really loves it.)

My Granny is a Monster

See? This is how I get my crazy on:



This is what I've been working on all week - mindless, 70s appliance-colored granny squares. The original blanket I made for my cats last fall has been so well-loved! Somebody chewed holes in it, somebody else hauls it all over the apartment with him and lays wherever he likes. So this is another one. It's really not THIS hideous in real life, colorwise...

...but it's pretty bad. There are 16 orange-and-gold five-ring granny squares. I made them while watching TV last week. First I made all the centers, then increased each square by one ring, one by one till they were done. On Saturday I watched Dirty Dancing (first time ever! Y'all can have Patrick Swayze!) and seamed up half of it. On Sunday night I seamed up the other half watching Cold Case reruns. Then I decided it wasn't big enough and had to have a border. I had green, blue, and red wool-ease on hand. Green just fit better. I am making the border by treating the whole thing as one giant granny square. It takes about 45 minutes to do a border.

So, um, if by some tiny minute chance you want to make one, that's how to do it.