Good morning, cat

You have probably gathered by now that the tabby is, as his previous vet's assistant liked to say, "a piece of work." It's a miracle he can still perform basic tasks like breathing, walking, and flapping lids on boxes...

...because every cell of his brain seems to be devoted to locating and devouring edible objects.

We keep him in the bedroom at night so he doesn't eat the other cat's food, or chew through containers holding food, or knock said containers off the shelf in case they break open, or wander around testing the edibility of random objects like electrical cords.* Unfortunately, every morning between 5:30 and 6 he decides he Must.Be.Fed and he tries to wake us up.

His routine used to consist solely of really loud meowing. Then he threw in some pathetic whimpering and I'm-so-hungry-and-weak-I-can-barely-make-a-noise crackles. A while later he started knocking objects off the dresser, and wandering around the room chewing on anything that looked edible. We were able to deal with this by dousing wires with bitter apple spray, hiding everything fragile, and ignoring him, but then he discovered the CD player.

This CD player has a cover that opens when pressed on the corner. At some point Chester learned that he could get a really quick response (foodwise) by opening the CD player and knocking the CD onto the floor. Finally we piled clothing on the CD player each night and restored some order.

In the last few days, though, he has begun playing music on the clock radio. He sits on the radio and gently shifts his rear end until it aligns just so with the "sleep" button. There's not much we can do about this, except (maybe) buy a new radio with less accessible buttons, and I refuse on the grounds that it would signal yet another victory for the cat.

It's obvious, too, that he is testing us, because just before he does anything he looks at us for a reaction. It's probably only a matter of time before he learns how to flush the toilet.

*All on a single night.

Road trips and pocket change

Today several knitbloggers met at KnitWits in Westerly, RI, for a few fun hours of knitting, chatting, and yarn browsing. The group included Debby, Kristen, Lorraine, Rachel, and Sarah, and me, plus store owner Sarah C (when time permitted).

Bloggers and staff at KnitWits

I liked the store's yarn stock; they had several lines and kits that I don't remember seeing elsewhere, as well as a nice selection of needles and other accessories. I picked up a big ball of sock yarn and the holiday issue of Interweave Knits.

I had packed an extra pair of camera batteries in my purse, but forgot about them until the return trip. Rachel (who drove) and I were about 20 minutes out of Westerly when I thought, "Hm, something in my purse seems awfully warm." I quickly opened the outer pocket of my purse, rummaged about, and discovered that one of the batteries was far hotter than it had any right to be. Rachel and I looked at each other horrified, as images of headlines like "DEATH BY AA BATTERY...TWO WOMEN DOOMED TO BLOGGING FROM THE AFTERLIFE" flashed through our minds. We finally dropped the battery into a bag and tucked it under a coat on the back seat for the rest of the trip. Fortunately, by the time we reached Providence it was back to normal.

Several coins in the same pocket were also very warm, and we think that contact between the battery and coins had created a closed circuit, right there in my purse. Under other circumstances (in a lab, for example, rather than in a car on a highway) it would have been fascinating. I'm just glad nothing really bad happened.

Opera!

This evening we drove up to Boston to see Intermezzo's production of Benjamin Britten's opera "Curlew River". (Disclosure: I sing in a choir led by the production's music director) It's not a flashy opera--the cast and orchestra are small, and the choreography and costumes are highly stylized (Britten based the opera on a Japanese Noh play)--but I found the austerity helped me focus more on the words and the gorgeousness of the music, and the performers were excellent.

I hear that the opera hasn't been staged in Boston in more than 20 years. It's being performed again on Sunday afternoon, so if you're in the area and you're into 20th-century classical music--heck, even if you're not but you're curious--you may want to check it out. More details are available here.

Back to knitting...

One mock croc sock is finished, and the second one has been started.


The votive holder sleeves are also finished.

The pattern came from Melanie Falick's book Handknit Holidays. Working on the sleeves reinforces my belief that I have a learning curve shaped like a sine wave. For example, I had discovered that I needed to string more beads than the instructions stated, so by the time I reached sleeves #3 and 4 I was so zealous with the stringing that I had about 50 leftover beads on the wire for each sleeve. The first time this happened, I thought "Fine, I'll just hold the wire over the bead container and let the beads slide off".

Oh, that was such a bad idea. The result reminded me of a fire hose with the water turned on full blast and no one holding on to the nozzle. Beads sprayed onto the coffee table, skittered on the floor, and rolled under furniture. I spent the next 10 minutes crawling around and picking up beads. Thank goodness I had a flashlight.

A few days later, I finished sleeve #4 and again had about 50 extra beads on the wire. And wouldn't you know it, that 10 minutes of agony from a few days earlier vanished from my brain and were replaced with the thought that if I was really, really careful I could hold the wire over the bead container and let the beads slide off...

Cat and cat

We went to Richard Thompson's concert at the Narrows last Friday (thanks again, J and D!). It was great! In fact, I spent the entire time (except for intermission) NOT KNITTING, because I was so busy watching his guitar-playing while simultaneously trying to absorb the harmonies and lyrics.

The Narrows has resident artists, and several of their studios were open during the breaks. Inevitably the knitting radar led me to this:

And check this out--the cat stitch marker is a mirror image of the zipper pull on my knitting bag!

I would ask what the chances are of that, but for all I know this cat shape is the most common one around for both zipper pulls and bead-pendant-stitch-marker materials.

Knitting progress
The blanket has 1.5 new blocks.


The Artfibers tank top has also grown. Granted, it's been a while since I posted about it.


As for the Mock Croc sock...

It's slowly getting there, but I find myself reluctant to work on it and I can't figure out why.