Longest 3 to 5 days ever

Our poor cow-cat had to go to the vet yesterday and today because his front right leg seemed a bit inflamed from all of his scraps with the tabby (bad tabby!). Yesterday the vet checked out the leg and said she thought it might be an abscess, so this morning we took him in and they anesthetized him, stuck in a drain, and...in the grossest insult to his dignity ever...clipped his claws. So now on one hand we have a hostile cow-cat who is barely able to walk in a straight line because of the painkillers and barely able to walk forward because of his Elizabethan collar, who is being given a foul-tasting antibiotic and hot compress every 12 hours, AND who has a rubber tube stuck in his leg.

Claude, showing his better side.

On the other hand (or side of the ring, it feels like), we have a tabby who opens doors and loves to chew on soft rubber and chase the cow-cat.

Chester, looking innocent.

The drain comes out in 3 to 5 days. In the meantime, we'll try to keep the two beasts separated. Aigh!

Der Dreifinger-Faultiere am Spinnrade* (and elsewhere)

The photo upload fairy finally visited. Here's what I've been up to:

1) I sang in the choir for Haydn's The Seasons last Sunday. It's a fun fun piece and my main regret is that I forgot to mention it earlier, so I'm going to compensate by plugging our next concert super-early. It will be on Sunday May 4 at 3 pm in Seattle's First Free Methodist Church, and will feature mostly Baroque music. The choir will sing Purcell's Masque in Dioclesian. Check the OSSCS website for more details.

It figures that that had no photos whatsoever. Anyway, going on...

2) I made my very first bread pudding, and judging from M's reaction it won't be the last. As usual, the recipe was from Joy of Cooking, but I threw in some walnut bread that was sitting around and topped the whole thing with raisins and chopped apricots.


3) I finished one of the German Stockings. The yarn is Trekking XXL and the needle sizes included 3 mm, 2.5 mm and 2.25 mm. The 3-mm set was for casting on so that I didn't end up with a tourniquet, the 2.25 mm was necessary to get gauge, and the 2.5 was for the cuff, because when I realized I had to go down a needle size I didn't feel like redoing the cuff, so I just ripped down to where the cuff ended and changed needle sizes there.


The horizontal stripes are, perhaps, not flattering to my leg shape, but unless I wear these with hot pants I don't think anyone will notice.

Come to think of it, if I did wear them with hot pants the stripes would probably be the least of my worries.

4) I've been procrastinating on the other stocking by working on some lacey stuff instead. First there is the Hydrangea Lace Scarf (you'll have to scroll a little down the left column). For this one I'm using a 2-ply silk-merino blend yarn that I spun last fall.


5) The other lacey thing is the Paisley Long Shawl. I'm making this one with Jaggerspun Zephyr laceweight.


6) (the Spinnrade part) Back before Christmas, I picked up some roving at Urban Craft Uprising, and I finally started to ply it two days ago. It's...bright. And one bobbin is way fuller than the other. Odd...I could have sworn I split it properly.



*3-toed sloth at the spinning wheel. Sorry, Gretchen and Schubert.

Overload

I saw this on YouTube the other day. How can one creature be so damned cute?