sloth knits

Oh, hai.

noreply@blogger.com (sloth-knits) — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 05:02:00 +0000

...It's been a while since I've been here. It feels like the combination of Ravelry, Facebook and the rare moments of actual face-to-face contact with other humans have been holding my attention recently.

Knitting
Yup, I'm still knitting. I'm doing the Tour de France KAL, which is being held on Ravelry this year instead of on the blogs. I had started to knit the edging for the christening robe from Heirloom Knits.

But I got distracted by the plight of some skeins of Silky Wool. I had meant to make the Gathered Yoke pullover from Interweave Knits, but partway through I realized that my gauge was too tight and I didn't like how a looser gauge looked, so I frogged it and started the Drapey Neck Silky Tweed Cardigan by PiPiBird (pattern on Ravelry only) instead.

...by the way, I'm not being paid by Ravelry to shamelessly plug their site, I just like it.

Part of my goal for this year's TdF KAL was to finally finish a bunch of WIPs, including my market bag from last year's KAL. I'm kind of getting there, but weaving in the ends really takes it out of me.

I have managed to finish something! Behold, the Ocean Toes socks from Cat Bordhi's book...what's the title? I think it's New Pathways for Sock Knitters. It's the one with all the different templates for heels etc. I had some trouble picking yarn to use with this book, because most of my favourite patterns call for heavier sock yarn (e.g. Socks that Rock mediumweight) whereas most of my sock yarn is lighter weight.

The cats continue to look cute and beg for food.

I started taking a couple of short photography courses last week, so now I have more motivation to go around photographing all kinds of random things.

Done done done done done!

noreply@blogger.com (sloth-knits) — Fri, 08 May 2009 22:58:00 +0000

Finally! Hooray!

Pattern: Bayerische socks, by Eunny Jang
Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock
Needles: 2.0mm Addi Turbos for the first third of the first sock. 2.0mm Knitpicks circulars for the rest.
Date started: December 2006
Date completed: May 2009
Time spent swearing at the cables, needles, and any cats unlucky enough to be nearby: a lot, until I got the Knitpicks needles
Time spent glaring at the first sock in progress and debating whether to continue or frog: months, maybe years, on and off
Time spent actually knitting the socks: 1.5 - 2 months?
Lovefest for the finished socks: in progress
Gloatfest over the finished socks: in progress
Bad karma accumulated from all the gloating: I'm cornering the market!

Stuff in trees, the citrus edition

noreply@blogger.com (sloth-knits) — Fri, 01 May 2009 02:06:00 +0000

I went for another walk around Green Lake today. The weather was perfect, sunny and just warm enough that I could wander around without a jacket and with minimal sweating. I walked by one of the docks just as a guy caught a large carp.

Sorry, I got a little excited and used the wrong shutter speed. I swear there's a carp in the photo.

Oh, there it is.

All sorts of things were blooming.

There was a heron on one of the turtle logs.

The bald cypresses were starting to unbald.

And there was a large snack's worth of clementine oranges stuck in one of the trees along with several pieces of string.

I'm not sure what that's all about. Maybe it's a tribute?

More knitting!

noreply@blogger.com (sloth-knits) — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 06:08:00 +0000

Done!

Pattern: German Stockings by Cookie A.
Yarn: Trekking XXL, about 1.5 balls, colourway 146 (I think?)
Needles: 3.0mm to cast on, 2.5mm for the cuff, 2.25mm for the rest.
Quibbles: I think my gauge changed--the second sock is slightly looser than the first. Also, I thought the cuff was going to be too tight so I used larger needles, and now it's too loose.

Chugging along, knock on wood

Pattern: Bayerische socks by Eunny Jang
Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock
Needles: Hoo boy! I started with Addi Turbo 2.0mm, but they were too blunt. I got fed up with trying to do cables with those things and stopped working on the socks for a while. Then I heard about KnitPicks' needles and picked up a pair. The cables worked pretty well on those needles, well enough that I finished the first sock, but I kept wondering if the Addi Lace needles would be even better. I bought a pair last weekend, and it turns out they're actually too sharp for my taste, and probably for the yarn's taste as well--the needles keep splitting the yarn! Plus, the taper on the tips is pretty abrupt. I've switched back to the KnitPicks needles and am halfway down the cuff of sock #2. I hope the gauge stays the same.

Not a happy sock model

Not interested in modelling right now

Just a few words

noreply@blogger.com (sloth-knits) — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 04:52:00 +0000

Done!

Pattern: Evening in Eden
Yarn: Louet KidLin

Getting there, knock on wood

Pattern: German Stockings, by Cookie A.
Yarn: Trekking XXL

Started

Pattern: Provincetown Pullover
Yarn: Black Water Abbey 2 ply worsted

Pattern: Gathered Pullover
Yarn: Elsbeth Lavold Silky Wool

Totally not impressed

Lots of music this weekend

noreply@blogger.com (sloth-knits) — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 06:47:00 +0000

We just came back from the Seattle Opera Young Artists production of Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream. It was a great show, with excellent singing, playing and acting (including Puck, which is a spoken role), nice use of the set and props, and really good ensemble work. I was a bit puzzled about the boarding school concept, but Peter Kazaras (Artistic Director for the program and director for this show) explained after the show that he wanted to use a setting in which children, who are used in Britten's score, were at least as much in charge as adults. In addition, the school concept let the production team create a set design that put the focus on the singers and fit into the program's budget.

Kazaras also said that, since one of the purposes of the Young Artist program is to prepare singers for whatever opera directors might throw at them in their career, he deliberately threw in some difficult blocking, such as singing while getting on and off tabletops or interacting physically with each other, and (I assume since he didn't talk about it) singing while rearranging tables in specific configurations or while lying down.

Britten set the text beautifully...even the tricky rhythms seem to follow speech cadences. The music sounds a bit otherworldly, but hell, there are fairies in the play. His use of harmonies and orchestral colours, and the tight relationship between the vocal lines and the orchestra are amazing. When I have some time, I'd like to compare the libretto to Shakespeare's play to see what Britten and Pears cut out in their adaptation.

If you have a chance to see the production before it closes this weekend I highly recommend it--preferably on Saturday night, since (CONCERT PLUG ALERT!) on Sunday afternoon one of the choirs I'm in (Seattle Chamber Singers) is performing Bach's St. John Passion with Orchestra Seattle and guest soloists under the direction of George Shangrow, and it would be really cool to have people see that too. We'll be at First Free Methodist Church in Seattle at 3 pm. Check here for details.

I want a border collie and a large field.

noreply@blogger.com (sloth-knits) — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 00:47:00 +0000

Have you seen this video with the sheep and the LED lights? If you haven't, it's definitely worth viewing.

Tree Baby

noreply@blogger.com (sloth-knits) — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 05:50:00 +0000

I know that people occasionally lose things when they're at Green Lake, and kids and babies are the most likely to drop stuff, and it makes sense to prop found objects in trees to keep them kind of clean in case the owner comes looking for them, but I still found this doll a bit jarring. Thank goodness it wasn't a carrot jockey.

Knitting
The knitting continues, though a bit more slowly these days because of music stuff. I'm nearing the ankle of the German Stocking, and I decided to start knitting the pattern I bought at Madrona. It's for a cabled sweater, and the gauge is puzzling me...I've already dropped two needle sizes and I think the sweater is still a bit wide! Argh. I do love the yarn, though.

Music stuff
The music stuff is starting to freak me out a bit...there's Holy Week and all that implies for the church choir, and a performance of St. John's Passion by one of my other choirs, and a workshop and concert on the same weekend later in April. So much to learn!

Socks

noreply@blogger.com (sloth-knits) — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 23:02:00 +0000

A few weeks ago I finally resumed working on the German Stockings I'd started nearly a year ago. I find ribbing to be a bit of a drag, so once I'd finished the first sock and started the cuff of the second I lost interest for a while. It's back, though, and I'm well past the cuff and about halfway down the leg! I also managed to do the correct sock (as in, right, since I already have a left), so unless I've jinxed myself by announcing this, I should be able to finish this sock some time in 2009.

I finally went out and got buttons for the Baby Surprise Jacket. It's going to some friends in Ottawa.

I also baked some more bread. I've been using the NYTimes adaptation of the recipe from this book combined with the dutch oven suggestion from the authors' blog. The bread tastes pretty good, but I still haven't been able to get the shiny crust they talk about. I think I'm going to try the no-knead bread recipes from NYTimes next.

More yarn?

noreply@blogger.com (sloth-knits) — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 20:06:00 +0000

I went to my first Madrona earlier this month. I had kind of forgotten that it was going on, and it wasn't until the Friday after it started that I even realized that for the first time in my life 1) I was within driving distance of a fiber festival, and 2) I had the resources (car and driver's license at the same time) to get myself there. Since I could only go for a day I browsed for yarn in the marketplace and knitted with others in my LYS's group.

I picked up some Socks that Rock lightweight in Hobgoblin and Basan from the Blue Moon Fiber Arts booth...

...and some Jacob/alpaca/mohair blend in fingering weight from Toots LeBlanc & Co, plus a shawl pattern by Evelyn Clark...

...and some lovely brown wool yarn and a sweater pattern from Black Water Abbey Yarns. I think that stuff still smells like (clean) sheep.

My next goals should be to take a "knitting for speed" class and switch to audiobooks to free up my hands.

The Leyburn socks are not going very well.

I was up to the ankle on my first sock when I realized my gauge was a bit too loose, so I took the whole damn thing apart. I had also been thinking I don't really like the colourway (I only got it as a Stitch 'n' Pitch souvenir), so now I'm trying to decide whether to start again or to bail out of the KAL and either turn the yarn into something else or get rid of the yarn entirely.

The cats, on the other hand, are doing pretty well, and I hope they stay that way!

Spending some quality time with each other.

Melon in one of his favourite hang-out spots.

Maybe I'm just stalling

noreply@blogger.com (sloth-knits) — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 05:30:00 +0000

I keep thinking of stuff to blog about and then forgetting to actually blog it. Let's see...

1) I joined the Socks that Rock Leyburn KAL. The pattern is here and there are photos of the sock in a different colourway here. I'm using the Sea-Mar colourway that I bought last year at the Seattle Mariners Stitch 'n' Pitch. Pictures will come...at some point.

2) I finally finished the wool hat for my dad and mailed it off. It's either late or really really early though, since he's going off to Taiwan soon and probably won't need the hat by the time he gets back. The only reason I can think of for the delay is that I didn't like the pattern I started with so I modified it, then bound off the hat before realizing the mods made it too small, then frogged a bunch of it and re-modified it, then saw that I had about ten ends to weave in instead of the two I was hoping for, and then got depressed about the whole thing and left the hat on the coffee table for a few days until I finally decided to weave in the ends. But it's done and mailed off, and I hope it fits and that the rain on the way to the post office didn't wet the hat and result in mold formation en route to my parents' place, because that would just be too ridiculous.

3) Um...I think it was on my way to the post office that I saw the tiniest slug ever. Here's a photo, with a pencil and some sock yarn shown for scale.

Friday randomness

noreply@blogger.com (sloth-knits) — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 05:19:00 +0000

Needlefelting

I bought a needlefelting kit from SpiderFelt last month and made felted geodes. Then I think I got a bit carried away and decided I wanted to learn how to make felted critters. I've put some books on hold at the library, and will just have to see what happens.

Knitting
The dad hat is still chugging along. I've gotten a bit distracted, though, by the skein of Louet KidLin and the Evening in Eden pattern that I bought at Fiber Gallery last week.

Pets
The cats think they're gangstas.

One of the sweet potatoes has sprouted. I'm not sure if I want to throw it out or plant it.

Happy New Year!

noreply@blogger.com (sloth-knits) — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 07:36:00 +0000

I haven't made any official resolutions yet, but probably destashing, exercising more, and being less crabby should be somewhere on the list.

Knitting
I finished the Hourglass Sweater!

Next up: a hat for my dad, and finally finishing the Bayerische socks. Hell, at this point I'd be satisfied with finishing just one sock, sticking it on a sock blocker, and hanging it on the wall.

Cats
Sometimes they manage to get along.

Melon tried to pass himself off as recyclable the other day.

Etc.
It snowed a lot. We discovered the joys of studded tires. I walked around Green Lake.

The snow melted. The tires sounded like they were covered with tiny suction cups. We walked around Green Lake some more. Damn, that place is photogenic.

I mucked around with Photoshop.

Yoke

noreply@blogger.com (sloth-knits) — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 23:42:00 +0000

Knitting
I finished the second sleeve on my Hourglass sweater yesterday and started the yoke. The body still looks a bit short, but I'm hoping it's just because the fabric has been rolling up and that sewing the hem will help. If not, I think I'll have enough yarn left to lengthen the body and maybe make the hips narrower.

Cats
The cats have both been making good use of the cup bed.

Music
The concert on Friday was fine...we had a decent turnout in spite of the sleet and slush, and I only made one major error in the Bach (I miscounted the number of times I had sung "omnes" in one entry and got a beat ahead but was able to fix it quickly). Next up: his Christmas Oratorio. That, fortunately, will be with a much larger choir.

Yargh

noreply@blogger.com (sloth-knits) — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 06:57:00 +0000

I'm having a mild freak-out right now. It doesn't involve Christmas knitting, such as that is (or isn't)...no, I'm freaking out because I have another choir concert on Friday and I feel nowhere near ready, either vocally or musically. We're singing Vivaldi and Bach (the latter one singer per part!), and I'm a bit worried that I'm going to miscount, or accidentally transpose up instead of down (A415 + perfect pitch + accidentals + fast = all kinds of exciting), or sing the wrong text, or sing too quietly, or sing sharp, or squeak on my breaks or high notes or low notes, or look weird, or just get really tense (which of course worrying will solve!). Plus the acoustics still feel weird in that place. Fortunately we have one more rehearsal, and I have one more voice lesson, before it all hits the fan.

In more cheerful news, I finally took some photos of the hourglass sweater in progress.

Melon wandered over and decided the sweater would be the perfect place to do some light grooming.

He may roll in the litter box to relax, but at least he knows his yarn. Oh wait, maybe I should train him to appreciate something hideous instead.

Radical knitting?

noreply@blogger.com (sloth-knits) — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 16:26:00 +0000

Heh, imagine if they asked about this on the immigration forms!

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Nailed 'Em - Radical Knitting

Colbert at Christmas
Colbert Christmas DVD

Green Screen
Bill O'Reilly Interview

Wachet auf!

noreply@blogger.com (sloth-knits) — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 06:11:00 +0000

It's already Advent! After a few years of feeling kind of meh about December, something seems to have snapped and I feel like sticking foliage all over the place. It started after service this morning when I walked out to the lobby and into a cloud of pine scent. People were making Advent wreaths, and I figured I might as well join in since I'd never made one before. The church provided candles and a wooden base with a wire mesh attached, so all my friend L and I had to do was thread in pine and cedar fronds.

It was nice, but the center looked a bit plain and showed all the cut branch ends, so afterwards I bought a spray of berries and leaves from Fred Meyer, dismantled it, and added them to the wreath.

While I was at FM I thought about getting a wreath for the door and some cedar garlands for the balconies as well, but decided to wait a couple of days in case this is just temporary madness from all the fog outside.

Knitting
I've finished most of the body for the Hourglass Sweater and knitted half of a sleeve. I haven't taken pictures yet, though, because I used up most of the camera's memory photographing the cats (sorry...they're cute, they're photogenic, and they're here). Based on the pattern measurements I figured I would have to make the body in one size and the sleeves in a different size, which really messed up the raglan shaping, so I set up an Excel spreadsheet with a revised set of decreases. Now I think I might have made the sleeves too big! It might be more a kimono-hourglass top. I guess I could always frog the sleeve if it looks really bad.

And the cats
So yes, here are more gratuitous shots of the cats.

Catching up

noreply@blogger.com (sloth-knits) — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 03:49:00 +0000

The knitting

I finished knitting the Pennants and Peepholes poncho pattern I picked up at Stitch 'n' Pitch this summer. Next step: block, weave in the yarn ends, and sew side A to side B. Actually, the next step will really be to find a blocking surface.

Pattern: Pennants and Peepholes by Joni Olmstead (Village Yarn & Tea)
Yarn: Kauni Effektgarn, also from Village Yarn & Tea.
Difficulty: The poncho was pretty simple to knit once I put in stitch markers. It was a complete pain in the butt before that, but that's mostly my fault.

Here's a photo of the Hydrangea Lace Scarf I finished. It too needs to be blocked and woven in. I think I'm more into process than product when it comes to knitting.

I've started the Firestarter socks. The yarn is Claudia Hand Painted, and I think the colourway is Desert Dusk or something like that.

The Paisley Long Shawl is kicking my behind. I had stopped working on it for a while, and then when I resumed it about a week ago I managed to skip a row (or something) and not realize until about 10 rows later. I haven't gotten around to fixing that yet.

I've also started, and started, and started, and started the Hourglass Sweater from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. I had to frog once to fix the gauge and frog another time because I twisted my cast-on when joining. Thanks go out to Kristen for her tip on knitting straight across for a few rows and then joining! That fixed that problem.

The cats
This, again, is Chester. He's been a bit subdued lately. I hope he isn't getting sick.

This is Melon. I think he's trying to be the alpha cat.

(He's very pleased with this cat bed.)

They like to hang out in front of the heating duct.

Life in general
We got a new washer and dryer! The old washer had an annoying habit of breaking down; instead of stopping when unbalanced it kept rotating until it rotated itself right off of one of the support springs. Boy, that thing could dance. Anyway, our landlord was really generous and replaced it with an HE front-loader, which should both help the resale value of the condo and help us avoid that stupid imbalance problem.

The cats have no idea what to make of a front-loader.

I'm also up to my ears (hah!) with choir stuff right now now. I'm in a new Renaissance music choir (no, it's not like neo-Classicism, it's a new choir that sings Renaissance music) and our first concert is this Sunday (for anyone in Seattle, the choir is Sine Nomine and the concert is at 7:30 on Nov 16 at Trinity Parish Church downtown at 8th and James. Admission is free/goodwill offer). Then in December Orchestra Seattle and Seattle Chamber Singers is performing Handel's Messiah and Bach's Christmas Oratorio, and the chamber choir and orchestra at Our Lady of Fatima are performing Vivaldi's other Gloria (i.e. the one without the orchestral octave leaps in the first movement) and Bach's Magnificat in E-flat. Eek!

Yay! Computer!

noreply@blogger.com (sloth-knits) — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 05:41:00 +0000

My computer is functional again! I took it to a friend for a second opinion and after a quick test he said the problem was with the power supply, not the motherboard, and thus very easily fixed.

Now I have to upload some photos.

We saw the Met Opera's HD broadcast of Dr. Atomic today. It was really cool, and the singing was amazing. I did get a bit antsy in the second act, but that might have been more because after knitting 15 rounds of the Hourglass Sweater body I finally realized I had twisted my cast-on row before joining the ends, and that I would have to frog the whole damn thing for the second time (the first time was after admitting my gauge was all wrong).

Really short, again

noreply@blogger.com (sloth-knits) — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 06:26:00 +0000

My computer broke. The Best Buy guy thinks it's the motherboard and since I don't have one of their service plans I'd be better off just buying a new computer. Bleah.

I kind of wanted a Mac, but may end up getting another PC instead because we can't find a Mac-compatible printer driver on-line and I like the printer we have right now. For now I'm using M's computer. The monitor is super-cool but I'm having a hard time getting used to the keyboard, because the keys barely stick out. It reminds me of the time I tried to play a harpsichord (I'm a piano kid), only without the A415 tuning making me dizzy and the friend standing nearby freaking out because I'm pressing the keys too hard. I'm not sure why the two should feel similar, except maybe with this keyboard I don't have to press quite as hard to get results as I would on my own keyboard.

What else...we seem to have settled on Melon (William of Melon in full) as the new cat's name.

I finished the Hydrangea scarf. I had to take a break near the end when I ran out of yarn and had to go buy more roving to spin. Photos will be posted eventually.

Crochet?

noreply@blogger.com (sloth-knits) — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 23:03:00 +0000

I made the Boteh scarf last week. It's been a while since I crocheted, so I had to constantly remind myself that when I put the project down I could take the hook out of the scarf without having the project unravel or shave the neighbour's dog or something.

Pattern: Boteh Scarf by Kathryn Merrick
Yarn: Noro Kureyon Sock. I think the colourway is #149.
My ability to photograph a neutral-toned scarf on a creamy carpet: Sucky.
Feedback: Someone said, "That's not going to keep you very warm," before remembering we're in Seattle.

Update on the new cat

A name still hasn't really jumped out at us. M suggested Melon because it looks like the cat swallowed one whole. Later he thought William might also work. I lobbied for Wally for a while, then tried to persuade M to go with William Wally Melonbally, but didn't have any luck. I think we might settle on William of Melon.

Trip photos
Before I forget, here are a few shots from our RI trip a couple of weeks ago.

Cows in the pasture behind Gray's Ice Cream at Tiverton Four Corners.

My in-laws' dog. I think this is the only shot in which he is still. A true terrier, indeed.

Sunrise at Nannaquacket Pond in Tiverton.

A swan and two cygnets. The other swan in the group was way ahead of them.

Back in Seattle

I took this photo at Magnuson Park yesterday. The sculpture is titled "Fin Art: From Swords to Plowshares" and consists of diving fins from US Navy attack submarines. There's more info about the sculpture here and here.

Knitting! Kittehs!

noreply@blogger.com (sloth-knits) — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 07:24:00 +0000

I do seem to dwell on both of those topics a lot.

Knitting!
We went to Rhode Island to visit the in-laws this past week, and on Saturday I had a chance to get together with Rachel, Kristen, and Kimberly at Fresh Purls for a couple of hours. I picked up a couple of skeins of Tosh Worsted that were dyed in lovely shades of green. They might work well as a baby sweater.

More knitting!
All of the plane time meant I was able to get a lot of work done on my Baby Surprise Jacket. I've finished the knitting, cast off with an I-cord, and sewn up the shoulders. Now I have to find some buttons.

Combined knitting and spinning!
I've almost finished my Hydrangea Lace scarf, but...I'm out of yarn. And it's my handspun. I have a couple of options: 1) buy and spin some more roving in the same colour blend, or 2) incorporate some stuff I'm spinning in the same fiber but different colour blend. I peeked at what I'm spinning now and I think there's enough grey in the new mix to counteract the red, and I only have 6 rows of garter stitch to do, so I'll probably go with option #2.

The wide bit at the top is where I got desperate and started using some of the early batch of handspun. I did it on a drop spindle and it turned out much thinner than the rest. Hm, maybe I should go buy that roving after all so I can redo this bit.

Kittehs! Puppehs! Wildlife! Fundraising! Oh my!
I've signed up to help out with registration at the 2008 PAWSwalk taking place on September 6th. The walk raises money to help care for the animals at the shelter and provide education and advocacy. If you're interested in participating or donating, go to the PAWSwalk page above (for walkers and general donations), or to my own donation page.

Our own cats!
I suppose they're learning to get along.

We still haven't figured out a good name for the new cat. M is thinking of Melon, since the cat looks like he just swallowed one whole.

Yawn!
Yeah, it's late.

Sock statistics

noreply@blogger.com (sloth-knits) — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 04:30:00 +0000

Pattern: Django by Cookie A.
Yarn: Claudia Hand Painted, in the Copper Penny colourway
Needles: 3.0 mm to cast on and 2.5 mm to knit
Related KAL: Summer of Socks, Ravelympics
Status: Done, and it's about time, dammit.
Estimated number of socks knitted in order to produce two finished socks: 3.5
Really? Okay, maybe it was only 3.
Dude, what happened? Oh, where do I begin...I had to frog large chunks of sock #1 several times, partly because I thought I had more yarn than I really had (so I ended up having to shorten the leg), and partly because I screwed up the pattern a lot. It got frustrating enough that I put the sock aside for a while and worked on something else. I think sock #1 took me 3.5 months to finish (including that rest time), while sock #2 took...about 1, 1.5 weeks?
Anything else you feel like saying? I think my gauge was too loose...those socks are really wide.
So what are you going to do about it? Knit something else. Maybe I'll hang the socks on a wall.

Just some photos

noreply@blogger.com (sloth-knits) — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 19:59:00 +0000

The tabby.

The new cat.

And a sunset.

Meow meow

noreply@blogger.com (sloth-knits) — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 02:08:00 +0000

We adopted a cat from Cat City last week.

His most recent alias at the shelter was Frankie, but it didn't really fit him as well as we would have liked, so we'll be changing it again. For the first couple of days we referred to him as New-cat, which of course brought Newman from Seinfeld to mind, and then M came up with Norman. Other possibilities included Fred, Cat-cat, Dude, Hey You, (*tapping on food dish*) Food for Kitteh!, Barney, and (my favourite) Stop Wallowing In Your Litterbox That's Gross. Hmm, I wonder if M would be okay with calling the cat Wally...

Except for that litterbox thing, and my unsureness of what kind of food the new cat likes, and my worries about whether he's eating enough (yes, I do worry even though he has to lose some weight...I don't want another jaundiced cat), he's cool. He purrs when we pick him up, he does the milk tread in our laps, he chases felted woolly toys, and he takes his eleven o'clock crazies very seriously indeed.

For the first couple of days, Chester hissed at New-cat/Norman/Wally, growled at us for our effrontery in bringing this...beast...into his territory, and sulked under various chairs. The new cat did not help matters by trotting around with an air of "Hey, nice to meetcha, what's happening," sprawling in Chester's favourite spots, and sniffing at Chester's backside. They're a lot calmer now, and Chester has resumed some of his usual activities (e.g. lying in the middle of the room wheezing happily), so I think there is hope.