Sock!

It's done, but I don't have a picture of it yet. My camera batteries died when we were in Western Mass the other day, and I just remembered to recharge them.

Here are pictures I took on Saturday of it, with Solvie looking pretty in the picture:





So, we went to the MA Sheep and Wool Fest on Sunday. It was fun, and I did get some pictures there but haven't uploaded them yet. We went to Windsor State Park afterwards, but my camera batteries died there so I didn't get any pictures while there. Too bad, because we saw a few things we didn't see last year (like some kind of mudpuppy, and the whole cycle of a toad's life, from eggs to tadpoles to toad itself. Cool.).

We did see everything that we took pictures of last year. You can see those photos here.

Other than that, I've been really uninspired and kind of down lately. No surprise, huh? I have no ambition at work, and have hovered over my computer all day, checking the knittyboard obsessively. I need to not do that. For one, it's not what I'm being paid to do. For another, my arms, wrist and neck are killing me from using the mouse all day. I feel like crap. Which is another reason I haven't been blogging much lately. The last thing I've wanted to do is use the computer.

Right now, I'm starving. And I don't want to eat at 9:00 p.m., so I am going to get some dinner.

Sock Progress

I've had some time this weekend to knit. I already went through all of my photos and sorted them for potential photo albums/uploading. I need to clean, but I can clean later. Right now, I wanted to knit, and drink tea, and eat comfort foods.

Here's where I am on my sock:





I really love this yarn. I wore the last socks I made with yarn from Mind's Eye two days in a row (shhhhh!) This yarn gets softer everytime it's washed.

This weekend has been horrible. We both will suddenly start crying. I woke up at 6 a.m., lay in bed for a while, and then burst into tears. It just keeps happening, without warning. Either I'm thinking of Zelia and remembering really great times, or my mind wanders from her and suddenly snaps back, and I realize she is gone, and it feels like a punch in the gut. When one of us cries, the other does too, and we start talking about great things about her to cheer ourselves up.

We've also been letting our other pets cheer us up.



I really did say, "Pssst! Hey! Solvie!" and she turned around.



Solvie doesn't care for the cat bed I made. Never did. She especially hates when I put her in it and pick her up like a kitty taco (sorry, couldn't get a pic of that time time). Sunny is pretty indifferent.

I also forgot to post a picture of Solvie really lovin' on this bag of cat food:



I also made a video of her eating said cat food:



If you can take the whole minute, 8 seconds of it, you get to hear her yum-yum grunts at the end.

And, just for the cuteness overload of it, I'll post the video of Zelia making bread again. Just so we can hear her purring.



P.S. I had started a post from the New Hampshire Sheep and Wool Fest last week, but didn't get to finish it for obvious reasons. I finally finished it, but it defaulted to that day a few days ago. You can find it here.

P.S.

There is a whole photoset on Flickr of Zelia here. I'm going to add to it as I find older pictures of her to scan and upload.

Zelia 1991 - 2007

Today we had to say goodbye to our best friend.



Zelia was suffering badly from failed kidneys in the past week, and we had to make the tough decision to put her down.

I adopted Zelia in December 1991, when she was about 3 months old. I was volunteering at the Animal Rescue League, and there was a family of three cats that were turned in. The kitten was this funny looking, round thing with heavy lidded green eyes and a stumpy tail.



One of the workers there, Brian, told me "Oh, nobody is going to want her with that tail". I believed him at the time. I picked her up, and she immediately started licking my hands. I was in love.





I put in the application to adopt her, and was approved. No matter that I already had two cats, Tillie and George, at home in a 3-room apartment. I really wanted this kitten. She was spayed the next day and I was able to take her home.

She had an upper respitory infection, as many shelter cats do. Someone at work told me, "You should bring her back and demand they give you a healthy cat!" She just didn't get it. What would become of her if I gave her back to a crowded shelter when she was sick? What do YOU think? This was before there were rescues and an online community of adoptors. Sick cats, even with something as treatable as a URI, had to be put down so it wouldn't spread throughout the shelter. Putting down one cat with URI was easier and cheaper than treating 100 cats for URI. Not that it crossed my mind at all to give her back. I was in love with her.

She was a hilarious kitten. My friend Susie and I suspected she may have been a little "special", because sometimes she would go to jump into the window and miss. I suspect her little stub of a tail (which was actually long, but fused together to form a Z) threw her off balance. She also used to attack Tillie's and George's tails relentlessly.

She was also a kitty who maybe loved a little too much. She wouldn't let me sleep! She would lick, lick, lick my face all night, or crawl under the covers and lick, lick, lick any exposed skin. She had to always be in your face, licking you. I had to banish her from my bedroom sometimes, just so I could get some sleep. She even once stepped on Susie's eyeball in the night (don't ask me how she did it, but Susie said she did!!!).

Zelia outlasted many of my friendships. I moved her 11 times in over 15 years, to New Orleans (with Tillie and George as well) and back (with just George, as Tillie got outside and got hit by a car on Magazine Street). For a while, she was the pain-in-the-ass cat who would always run out the door when it was open. I had a great method for keeping cats it, involving opening the door a small crack and sliding out sideways, keeping one foot inside to prevent cat escapage. None of my roommates (nor my parents) could ever get this one right! I would hear the door open, and then 20-30 seconds later "Oh, Zelia (or Tillie, or George, or all three) got out. I don't know how. I just had the door open a second". Luckily, Zelia realized later on that her place was inside.

She was the lovingest cat ever.



and had perfect little white paws:






and a perfect little face with the little goatee:




She got along well with our other pets:



and was so tolerant, I have no idea why she hasn't been on Stuff on My Cat:



We're going to miss Zelia. We loved her more than anything and everything. It looks trite when I type it out, but our home and our hearts are so empty right now. She slept with us every night, and many nights she slept in my arms.

Zelia. I love you, and I miss you. Your daddy loves and misses you too.

NH Sheep and Wool Fest Goodies

Last Saturday, we went to the NH Sheep and Wool Fest with my mom and my stepdaughter.

We saw lots of cute sheep like these:



I think that one looks a little like a wooly kangaroo, don't you?

And this one looks like s/he is mocking me:



These two just look like they're in lurve:



This one looks like he loves me, yeah yeah yeah:



And this one had a purple handprint on its butt:



My mom had a fascinating conversation with a sheep:



He kept interrupting her. Reminds me of a bit on "The Vicar of Dibley", now that I think about it. "The Interrupting Sheep".

We saw little guys getting sheared:



And we saw alpacas too!





Don't these ones look like a 60s rock band?



Gratuitously fuzzy alpaca butt shot:



And then there was an adorable 2 week old piglet named Daisy:






This pictures do not even come close to portraying how cute she is. (Hint: clicking on the photo will take you into Flickr, where you can choose "all sizes" and then "large" to see these photos large. That comes a little closer to portraying the cuteness. I don't want to post large photos here, because it could freeze up people's computers, and I don't want anyone pissed off at me. Especially people with pointy sticks.)

I added these to my Sheep and Wool Fests 2007 set, so go see the others!

Now for the fiber. . .





My only yarn purchases were two skeins of sport weight "Hand-Dyed by Ingrid" from Ward Brook Farm in New Hampshire (no website I know of). I used some of her yarn last year for my Mom's Odessa hat and gloves for Xmas. I was really impressed by it, and decided to get some more. Plus, it's pretty cheap.

So, now, what's this?



Two ounces of hand painted cashmere & tussah silk top from Foxfire Fibers & Designs.

It is sooooooooooooooooooo soft.




It's so gorgeous, I'm almost afraid to spin it.

ZMrK bought me this:



7.5 oz. of merino wool in pink, black and white. I have to figure out how to spin this to make the most of the color contrast.



Yup, it's soft.



The bag doesn't have any info on it, but I think it was from Ewe & I Farm.

ZMrK and I split the cost of this:



It's a nesting ball, with fiber for the local birds to use. It shows some evidence of being tugged on, and I hope that's because birds have been using it.

This is what it looks like on the porch:



The window that looks out to it is right in front of me right now, and I keep seeing someone flying back and forth. I'm not sure if the bird is going to our porch gutter or to the nesting ball, but we have lots of sparrows living in the trees outside.

Someone watched me the whole time I was outside taking these pictures:



I love the way her whiskers are poking through the screen.

The final bit of pr0n was from the same vendor as the nesting ball, Riverslea Farm. ZMrK bought it behind my back while I was talking to someone (either my mom, Karm, or Lena. . . ). It's . . . .



Alpaca and wool blend, about 4 oz of it!



I love how it looks like turtle cheesecake.

The only thing I bought that I don't have photos of was some alpaca socks for ZMrK. Oh, we got some brownie from Rolling in the Dough, but they didn't have the peanut butter frosted ones and they didn't hold a candle to the ones last year.

So, honestly, I held back this year. My yarn hutch is overloaded, and I have to make some space. We have Mass Sheep and Wool coming up, but then it will be it for the sheep and wool fests for me until Rhinebeck.