The Squirt

Many of my knitting group pals know Squirt, having had their toes gnawed or their yarn toyed with over the last couple of months. But for those of you who don't know her, Squirt is a tale of compassion and insanity rolled together.

First, I am allergic to cats. So when my youngest daughter rolled in right after the Fourth of July with a tiny white bundle that was nothing more than a head and a belly, I thought she'd lost her mind.
"She has to go!" I said.
"But she was abandoned; she will die if we don't take care of her!" she said.

I'm not unreasonable. The kitty was roughly only a couple of weeks old, and could barely stand much less walk.

"OK, but only until she can be adopted out" I sighed,
driving promptly to HEB for the economy size box of Benadryl.

Here we are, and Squirt is now of adoptable age. She is totally adorable, as you can see from her picture (thanks Alicia!). Since I knit her the toy she is jealously guarding in this picture, I thought I could post it here, which brings me to the point of this post: Are any of you interested in adopting her? She is ready for a permanent home, being at least 9 weeks at this point. She comes with a bag of food, too.

Now, how can you not love that little face? Aaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Give me a jingle via email (eastskye at gmail dot com) to set up a time to come meet her. I can't keep her any longer: The Benadryl is killing me; I act and feel like a zombie.

Now look again at that sweet face.

Knitting All The Time

I'm  a wannabe full time knitter. Oh, I know I'll never knit my way through my stash, but gee, a gal can dream, right?

So many sweaters, socks, shawls, jackets, hats, mitts .... so little time and waning eyesight. Even with strong readers, my eyes go boggly after a couple of hours anymore.

For the last year, it seems I was on a sock binge. Now I seem to be on a sweater binge: Finishing the Mrs. Darcy cardie for Liz, almost completing Wendy Johnson's Favorite Cardigan for Claire, (only a button band away!), an angora/merino confection also for Liz, and a cotton /bamboo/silk/linen pullover for me. I've queued so many that I decided I better dive in and just do them. Great movie knitting, even if it is 97 in the shade with 85 percent humidity outside. That's the key thing: outside. It's not even summer officially, but the annual Texas furnace is already cranked to full blast. I'll knit blissfully through it, ready for our late autumn with new sweaters when it finally does arrive in the aft part of November.

Random information: I won a gigantic skein of sock yarn donated by Ravelry's Alaskan Nancy for the March Sock Knitters Anonymous board on the same site, and chose a gorgeous wool/silk forget-me-not blue semi-solid bordering on tonal hank. Oh, it is luscious. Check out her etsy site: http://www.etsy.com/shop/alaskannancy.

In the intervening year, I've learned to tolerate and then love a rabbit (yes, JACK, Claire's boy from Ohio that she brought home at the end of the spring semester last year), bake a wonderful challah, stay sane in the face of ... well, whatever we face. Also found a scrumptious apple cake recipe, made some fabulous women friends, and revisited West Virginia in winter. And bought far, far, FAR too much yarn .... even though my stash closet is already overflowing: We're helpless/hopeless, admit it. Or at least I am.

Pictures will eventually to show up here -- what's a knitting blog without pictures?? Aaaah, now I'll have the time. Bliss.