Monday, March 17, 2014

Awesome possum

It's a regular wild kingdom around Chez Wandering Cat lately.

Tonight when I got home for work, bunbun was under the feeder cleaning up the seeds the birds dropped. I cut up a carrot while making dinner, and tossed it out to him, but he took off.

A little later on in the evening, I turned on the backyard spotlight to see if he'd come back for the carrots.

He didn't, but we did have another visitor
He just calmly watched me as I snapped a couple of pics from the doorway. When I stood up to shut the door he go scared and ran into the cedars behind the house. But when I looked outside about 10 minutes later - he was back.

And yes - that is my garbage he's ripped open. My fault for leaving it where he could get it. I'll clean it up in the morning - he was too cute to disturb.

I know some people can't stand possums (Dave is one of them - I didn't tell him about it), but I think they are sweet. Yes, they can be nasty - but they are wild. I'm content to let them be.

Although this one does kinda remind me of an ROUS...

On the knitting front - I'm making progress on the first Lestrange sleeve

Admittedly, progress is going much slower than I thought. After whipping through the last part of the body, I figured the sleeves would fly off the needles...

...then I discovered the sleeves are done on smaller needles.... 2.5mm to be exact (though I've gone up to 2.75 to accommodate the mods I've been making)

Actually, half the sleeve is done on the smaller needles, then second half is done with the larger needle, but I hate projects that switch gauge to accommodate sizing - I want a consistent gauge throughout the piece, so I did the math to get the right size and stuck to the smaller needle.

I'm just shaping the sleeve cap now, so this one should be off the needles soon.

I was (optimistically) hoping to have this cardigan done by the end of the month. But with the sleeves taking this long, it's definitely not going to happen.

If it was just the sleeves, maybe I could pull it off. But I have a whole lower edging to do (the full width of the body) and then the front bands (shawl collar, twice the length of the entire thing...)

Maybe by the end of April....

10 comments:

Minding My Own Stitches said...

Sorry, but possums are eeeeeeeeww! Yesterday I saw a coyote running alongside the road. No thanks to that either!

Sleeves take forever. Just the other day I was debating the merits of 3/4 length sleeves just to avoid knitting the sleeves of my raglan pullover. There should be sleeve knitting services!

Monika said...

That's a great shot of the little fellow! I've never seen one IRL before. I think the face is sweet, but the tail, oh boy. I'm with you, it's a wild animal, let it be.

Unknown said...

I think I might freak out if I saw a possum! Glad you got a picture of him. And the sleeves...wow...they are coming along quickly in my book!!

Anonymous said...

Nope, nope, nope --- can't tolerate possums, they are just too darn nasty.

You did manage to get a good picture of him (her?) though. Most of the ones I see are taking "naps" in the middle of the roadway and don't appear too happy. :-(

lexa said...

We don't have possums here. He's mighty cute. We have loads of raccoons, though. They can be super nasty. I had one several years ago that used to try to get into my garbage can that I used to have on the side doorstep. He got into my little compost a couple of times when I forgot I had it on the side steps to dump into the big bin. I just let him go, they're too vicious if you try to chase them away from food.

kathy b said...

Possums….well didn't the Clampets on Beverly Hillbillies eat possum stew. Granny made it!
I can see how they could be cute….as a stuffed animal maybe. The are such garbage eaters.
We caught a few with traps one summer…they came for cat food.

haha. fun to see yOURS

Araignee said...

Possum's scare me to death because they hiss at you and show you their terrible teeth. I don't trust them. Raccoon's on the other hand are so laid back I can chase them with a broom and they just look at me like I'm crazy.
Wow...that's a lot of sleeve. It's all going to be gorgeous when it's done!

Unknown said...

We don't have any possums in Amsterdam as far as I know.. I think his head looks cute with that pink nose and those funny looking ears.. But the body and tail (and the eating the garbage) don't really have the cute-factor to me..

I think knitting needs so much more patience than crochet, the sleeves look great though!

elns said...

You know, I really think people get weirded out by the albino-like features and the prehensile tail. My Mom has possum issues for sure. I still love to say awesome possum. I literally saw the headline, and thought, "Awesome.", but I'm a simple fool ... who loved your allusion to Rodents of Unusual Size! Hope he stays out of your trash!

Delusional Knitter said...

Ah! We have racoons that sometimes get into the trash ... and same thing, duh on us for leaving it out - sometimes in the winter the barrel gets buried in snow and we lazily toss the trash onto the porch ...

Lovely sweater.