Pre-Weekend Update

First - thanks for all your well wishes for Sir Tux. He's back to his usual lazy, lovable self. The vet is pretty sure we can manage it with diet so insulin will most likely be a last resort.

Second - YARN!!!!
While I was knitting (and Dave was hogging my computer) Mom was busy filling the shop with the buttload of yarn we've been hoarding. There's much more than pictured here - Alley Cat, Barn Cat, and House Cat - AND Mom also put all of our Fat Cat DK, Stray Cat Sport and Big Cat Worsted on sale at 10% off. And don't forget about the free shipping on orders of $100 or more.

I'll be back in a day or two with my new knitting project - but for now enjoy the yarniness!

Poor widdle Tuxikins

Is it just me - or is my cat giving me the stink-eye? That look totally says "eff-off", doesn't it?

Well poor little Tux has a reason to be grumpy. He's had a bad start to the week. Yesterday, he was pulled from a leisurely breakfast to be dumped off a place filled with weird smells, weird people and the most hated of all things - dogs! Yep, he went to spend the day with the vet.

So he got poked, prodded and generally annoyed all day. Then, because I was out of town for the afternoon and not returning before the vet closed for the day, he had to go spend some time at Mom's.
And, as much as he loves Grandcatmama, he doesn't like spending time at Grandcatmama's house - it's filled with weird smells, weird people (both of those because of Dad) and the most hated thing of all...
...Ladydoggy. (Ladydoggy is actually very good to cats, Tux is just prejudiced.)

And with all that poking prodding and general discomfort, we discovered that Tux does indeed have diabetes, as well as a bladder infection.

The good news is, the vet says we should be able to control the diabetes with diet instead of insulin shots.

The bad news is he has to take pills for two weeks (for the infection) and I can't make him feel better by sharing my ice cream
(Old picture - I promise, I am not giving my diabetic cat ice cream)

He goes back to the vet in two weeks for a follow-up and we see if we've got his blood sugar under control.

On a roll.

As I've mentioned before, weekends are too darn short. As such, I try to keep mine free - no pressure to do anything, go anywhere unless I feel like it.

However, this weekend - I did have one goal.To finish Dave's Brithday socks. And I did! (Only 18 days late, but who's counting?)

Can you believe I started these in December? Nine whole months to complete. One reason is because he has such big feet - it's much more fun making socks for my dainty little tootsies.

The other reason is the yarn - it didn't have a ball band, but I'm pretty sure it's Opal. Not a bad yarn, but I've been spoiled with our Wandering Cat line.

However, Dave is happy and hasn't taken them off since I gave them to him yesterday afternoon.

And, since I finished them so early in the weekend, I decide to tackle another pair:These, of course, are for me. Again, another yarn I wasn't overly thrilled with, so I had to force myself to finish them.

It's Twisted Fiber Art's Playful in Firefly. The dyeing is beautiful, but the base, while fairly soft, tends to be splitty. I'd much rather knit with her Kabam (a merino/bamboo mix), so I'm saving up for a skein or two.

So, that's two more second socks completed before the summer is over. Only four more to go - and three of those are ankle socks!

Voila!

Thank you for all the lovely comments on the shawl - and that was just while it was blocking!
Here are some much better pics of it.
This is the Red Dragon Shawl. I had originally intended to use my sea silk for this shawl, but as you know, that ended up in my Frozen Leaves shawl (the second one).

This was a nice pattern - at first more complicated than any other lace I've attempted, but once I got my groove on, it was pretty easy (as easy as lace goes anyway) . In fact, I got a little bored with it, but I may just be in a bit of a knitting funk because I'm a little bored with all my projects at the moment.

Of course, this is knit with our Slinky Cat, in the ever popular "Peacock" colourway. Mine is actually a bit more muted than most of the other skeins out there, but it works well, and is perfect for a lacy knit. You all know how I love making things with silk, and this was no exception!

I'm not normally a blue person, I tend more towards greens, pinks and reds, but this colourway was just too pretty not to have. I only wish I could have finished it in time to wear for my brother's wedding, but it was not to be.

Oh, and for any one who's counting, this is my seventh shawl for the 10 shawls challenge - five months, three more shawls to go!

Sneaky sneaky

As predicted, it did indeed take me all of last night to finish up the shawl. The cast of itself took about an hour. But it's done, and blocking.
Here's a sneak peekProper photos will come later this week.

All yarn - all the time

Well it's the last day of the long weekend and it's one devoted to yarn

Mom got the new Fluffy Cat Lace up in the shop this morningAnd I've spent most of the the afternoon dying up some Barn CatNow there is a roast a'cookin' in the oven, and I'm devoting the rest of the day to finishing up the last 10 rows on the Peacock shawl (it may take all night -they are looooooooooooooong rows!)

And don't forget -the Civic Holiday Sale is on in the shop until Midnight tonight!

Lazy Sunday

As I've said before lazy Sundays are my favourite days.

And this Sunday was one of the laziest.

While we did get out of bed a little earlier (9:30ish) I didn't change out of my pajamas until the late afternoon.

Much of the day has been spent watching movies and knitting (shawls and socks). But, since I felt I needed to do something just a little more intellectual, I took the boys outside again for another reading session. And this time I took my camera:
I'm not sure why they want to go outside so badly (Tux has taken to yelling at doors whenever I get near them) because they just do what they do inside:Which is mostly lay around and be fat.But as you can tell, he's so pleased to be outside.

Unfortunately, our evening outing got cut a little short. The neighbourhood birds have taken to roosting in the tree we were relaxing under......and not only was it starting to feel like an Alfred Hitchcock movie, it was also very hard to avoid the "bombings".

Tomorrow, there will be no more lazing about - it's up to Mom's for a little dye session. I wish every weekend was a long weekend!