Spinning!

I forgot to show off the yarn I spun:









It's the corriedale/merino/silk that I purchased at the Connecticut Sheep and Wool last spring, spun rather fine and plied with some gold embroidery thread from A.C. Moore. It was an experiment, and so far, it's been a successful one. It remains to be seen how it knits up.

I'm thinking of trying to do some sort of nice cowl with this. There's about 280-300 yards (I think), and like it said, it's rather fine. Not quite lace weight, of course, but maybe around fingering weight. It's hard to tell with the fluffiness of it; I usually associate fingering weight with tightly plied sock yarn. I may have to just play around with it and some needles, just to see what it wants to be.

I need to go to a more serious topic now: racism. I've been pretty active on a certain site lately, and I have seen stuff that I disagree(1) with. I have, however, never seen anything that prompted me to report a post. I know I could be bringing the wrath of the racists on me by posting about this, but I am going to go ahead and do it anyways without naming any names.

This is what the post said: >>On a funny note: I saw a new thread du jour in the "patterns" forum, called "Inaugural Scarves". Yeah. Right. Over here we have another
name for those: Nooses.<<

Seriously. I was HORRIFIED. The post was reported (and not just by me), and the post was later edited. I didn't bother to send the poster a PM, nor did I attempt to post in the same thread questioning her choice of words. I just reported it to TPTB.

So, tell me, did I overreact?

Yard Work

For all those folks in other climates who romanticize crisp autumn days in New England, I give you this:

2+ hours labor raking and bagging leaves
1 torn leaf bag
1 pissed-off husband due to the torn leaf bag
4 overflowing bags of leaves, plus 1 3/4 bag overflowing with leaves
1/2 mouse (the top half) found in the back yard while racking said leaves (damn cats)
2 sore shoulders
1 sore butt

and, finally,

approximately 5 or 6 more bags' worth of leaves in the back yard that we do NOT have bags for.

At least it (1) got me out of the house for a while and (2) probably burned some calories. But I am sure as shit going to feel this one tomorrow.

Too much to ask for?

Is it too much for ask for healthy cats?

Ken has had some intestinal problems lately -- loose poop and occasional barfing. He also had an episode last weekend when he came in to the living room, drooling and a little discombobulated. He recovered pretty quickly, and his appetite has been good, but we thought he should go see the doctor anyway.

The doctor wants us to bring him in for x-rays/ultrasound on Monday. He suspects intestinal lymphoma. I believe that is what I lost my cat George (who resembled Ken in more than just appearances sometimes) to in 2000.

Please, Diety of Choice, please let Ken be okay. Please let him get through this. I'm not certain I can go through the emotional turmoil again.

Keep us in your thoughts, please, that he will come through this with a clean bill of health.

This is why I don't like sports

It's just a hat, ya douchebags. Get over it. There are more important things in life to get riled up about.

Cat bites and pretty yarns

I got bitten by a cat yesterday, and it wasn't Ken.

We stopped by the local shelter to pet and visit with some of the kitties. I was sitting in a chair with one cat and he had given me one nip already. Since Ken (and almost every other cat I've ever owned) does this often, I wasn't too worried about it but I did get a little cautious with my petting. It was rather hard. I still kept petting him, which was really stupid.

He nailed me HARD in the webbing in between my pinky and ring finger on my right hand.

Then I became reasonable and moved away from him. I went over to look at his card to see if it mentioned anything about any behaviour like this, when I notice a warm wet feeling on my fingers. Yup, blood running down. I applied pressure with a napkin, and noticed it was a pretty deep bite.

I did the only thing I could do. I filed a report with them.

They had me wash the bite out with soap and water (the good thing about bites that bleed is that the blood can work to flush germs out). They gave me disinfectant and a band aid. They are going to pull him and quarantine him for 10 days, and will call me if anything comes up with him. He'll be re-evaulated, too, I'm sure. If he passes, they will not put him back in the community room, but in his own cage, and will monitor him to make sure he doesn't bite anyone else. There will probably be a mild warning sign on his cage too.

I'm about the best person this could have happened to, really. I know how serious cat bites can be, and I know what to look for. I also understand that these things can happen, and I'm not blaming them. The cat was turned in by his former owner, he has been evaluated, and had just been moved from the holding area to adoption. At least he didn't bite a child.

So, you wanna see a picture?



The hand on the left is the swollen one, in case you can't tell right away.

I went to the doctor today. I thought about doing so last evening but didn't feel like spending 8 hours in the ER for a cat bite. I got a tetanus booster, as my last one was in 2001, and a 'script for amoxycilin. The doc also drew that nice line around the blotch on my hand, so I can monitor it in case it gets bigger. I'm supposed to call them if it does get bigger, or if the swelling gets bigger or doesn't go down within a few days of the amoxy.

Cat bites are serious business, kids. I worked with a woman who had to spend a couple of days in the hospital for a kitten bite. Dog bites get all the publicity because they usually are immediately fucked-up, but cat bites can really sneak up on you and mess you up.

Time for some yarn pr0n, right?

We went to NYC on Saturday. ZMrK was working at the NYC Comic Con, and I had a full 8 hours to myself. I shopped for yarn, among other things that are still unphotographed.



Lovely sky blue laceweight cashmere from School Products. There's 380 yards per skein. I may try to make a Lily of the Valley shawl from it.



JP Knits superwash sock yarn in the colorway "Tampa", from the Yarn Connection. I'm going to make myself some socks that will make Batty jealous!

I have my latest dyeing project all photographed, but I want to type it out step-by-step. I just don't feel like doing that right now, what with a swollen hand and all that I've typed already. I'll give that to you later this week.

Bee Sting!

I just got stung by a bee! On my NECK!

This is what happened, I got home, and I keep my keys, building pass, and subway/bus pass all in the same pocket of my bag. When I was taking out my keys, I noticed my subway/bus pass wasn't in the pocket, and I thought, "OH SHIT! I lost my pass!". I threw the mail and my bag into the hallway, and went to run back to the bus stop, thinking that I may have dropped it when getting off the bus.

Halfway down the street, I feel something hit the side of my neck violently, and the telltale sting. I do believe I yelled. I ran the rest of the way to the bus stop, across the street, and back up to my house holding on to my neck.

And you know what?

My subway/bus pass was in another part of my bag! Can you fucking believe it?

I just held an ice compress on my neck for about 15 minutes. I didn't see the stinger in there, and it feels less painful. I've never had an allergic reaction before, but I'll keep a close eye on it.

And ZMrK isn't home yet to tend to my wounds. :(

All that to save a T pass! Considering I pay $59 a month for a combo pass, which, if I paid on a daily basis, it would cost me $7 a day to commute . . . well, yes, it's worth it!

But still . . . owie.

I'm gonna go wind up some yarn cakes.

Jumping the Snark

Okay, that may officially be the worst post title ever.

I think I have outgrown a certain board. This board is like a friend that I'm fond of and want to be loyal to, but whenever we talk it is all about her drama, and that drama sucks the lifeblood out of me.

I think y'all know what I'm talking about.

I'm not leaving, but I'm going to be rare, I think. I need to take care of myself, and not feed the drama llama.

(not to mention, the "other" board that I have recently joined, is so slow that I don't know how much time I can spend there. It's possible that the most you hear from me lately is on my blog.)

That is all.

Random Observation

A few people seem to be pissed off when I get on the train with a couple of empty boxes.

A few peole can just FOAD.

Argh.

We have to move. Landlady is nuts.

If anyone has any leads, let me know. It has to be MBTA accessible.