Ketchup

This furry nightmare seems to finally be over. Which means that I've been released from the prison, along with my poor, long-suffering kitty.

Which means I need to get y'all up to speed so we can return to some sort of normal schedule around here.

So, list post.

1. My favorite little martini glass cosplayer is finally out of her cone of shame. Which, by the way, we had to go get a LONGER ONE because she fecking FIGURED OUT HOW TO GET TO HER STAPLES WITH THE SHORTER ONE!

Damn cat is too smart for her own good.

2. All of the other pets were so thrilled to see me that I have barely been left alone, especially when I'm trying to use the bathroom.

3. I have gotten SO MUCH squish mail in the past month, I'm genuinely feeling overwhelmed.

Christmas present

100% Mongolian Cashmere from a Kickstarter (intended to be a shawl)

Malabrigo Baby Merino Lace for Cobweb shawl by Boo Knits

Bulky weight eco wool from KnitPicks for a circular shawl

More Christmas presents

I actually had to rearrange the stash because of all this.

This is the "Shawl yarn that DEFINITELY has a pattern picked out/too delicate to put anywhere else" drawer.

4. I have started THREE BLOODY SHAWLS in the past three weeks due to above overwhelming feelings.

First is Sugar Maple

Cobweb

And Jörð

Jörð was the one I've worked on the most because duh, it's bulky and quick.

Well, it's supposed to be. When you can actually follow the damn pattern.

I... I apparently could not.

And I fucked it up so badly that I had to pull it off the needles, rip it back to where I STARTED yesterday, and repickup all 288 stitches.

Yes, it's in time-out.

5. The previous event made me sooooo angry that I knit a cat.

Who is being turned into a sushi cat...

No, I don't know why either. But when inspiration strikes, you go for it.

6. I did manage to get one Christmas present done and two others started.

Except, I don't think Al is actually going to care about getting a shark plushie, so I guess I have no Christmas presents actually done?

7. WE GOT TO SEE NINJA SEX PARTY AND TWRP LIVE AND IT WAS SO INCREDIBLE AND AMAZING AND AHHHHHHH!

8. I also went to Columbus with grandma this past Sunday because she was receiving some fancy-schmancy award for her contributions to Special Education.

9. John turned 32 and to celebrate, we went out shopping for new nail polish for him.

We also picked out each others' outfits for the evening.

I talked him into the outfit the previous weekend, and I absolutely adore how he looks. It makes me so happy that he's branching out and trying new things.

10. While getting his nail polish, I *may* have bought myself a new palette just because of the name.

11. We were actually planning on a surprise party for him the day we had to take Bee to the emergency vet, so that got shot to shit.

I did give him is present I had planned on that day, though.

Because everyone needs a GIANT fucking plush chameleon with a hand knit scarf.

This is actually supposed to be his familiar in our D&D campaign, Quell. The letter up there is actually the elvish one for "Q".

I knit this thing right under his nose. It was actually drying on the front porch the day before and he walked right by it.

12. Speaking of plushies, BETHANY GOT ME SOMETHING FROM YOU GOAT MAIL!

SPOOPY GOAT FRIEND!

13. She and I went out shopping last night and got ourselves into trouble at Pat Catan's. See, they had all their Halloween stuff 70% of off the club price. So I bought...

a hat...

some rats...

... annnnnnnd a life sized vulture.

He is my new favorite thing ever. Especially because I got him at a HUGE discount. He started at $66.66, club price $50. I paid $15.  

AND multiple people came out to me, all bummed because they wanted to buy him. Ain't no way I was letting go of him then!

I came home and immediately put this on to unleash my Full Inner Witch.

And I may very well have magical powers because look at how much I spent verses how much I saved.

Yep. Definitely got that money witchery going on.

13. I did some non-knitting crafting and made a few more cross stitch pieces.

Cactuses for my grandma and a Mustard the Wonder Llama for John.

14. And here's a bunch of random selfies because I like feeling pretty, damnit, and deserve to feel nice after all this garbage going on lately.

15. BONUS PICTURE!

I don't know how to make small quantities of soup...

Well, that should be about it. I'm sure there are some things I'm forgetting, but to be honest, the past month has been a blur. I'm surprised I remembered as much as I did.

I am so ready for this colder weather because it *should* mean that THE UNIVERSE TAKES A DAMN HINT AND SLOWS THE FUCK DOWN TOO. But we'll see.

For now, I'm going to go finish this sushi cat. And then freak out over the amount of Christmas stuff I still have to make.

*sigh*

Kitty Calamities

So.................

You already know what this is going to be.

More trouble has happened.

Some other misfortune.

Yep, you're right.

We had Bee spayed at the end of September.

We got through it. She was okay. And we thought we were in the clear.

But then at the beginning of this week, her incision was looking a little off. The day after that, I had a family member look at it and they said that it looked like it opened up.

So, off to the emergency vet nearly 40 minutes away we went (because I literally couldn't find ANYWHERE near us that was open and available).

And you know it's bad when the vet flips your cat over, takes one look at her wound, and goes, "Ewwww."

*sigh*

Bee had developed an infection and did indeed manage to pop her incision open.

So they had to do a secondary surgery to clean out the infection and make sure she was thoroughly closed up this time.

We won't discuss how much this was going to cost us. (Grandparents to the rescue yet again...)

She came home yesterday. She's got to have a cone on for two weeks and to insure it stays on, we've got to keep her in isolation. Which means that *I* also need to be in isolation. Because there's no way I'm letting my poor baby suffer alone.

So this is my life for the next two weeks.

At least I can get a lot of knitting time in, right?

Guess it's time to get back to the Christmas presents.

Because there's literally nothing else to do in here.

*sigh*

A Bout of Brain Dumps

This year has been extraordinarily hard in terms of crises, difficulties, and hurdles. It's been relentless, wave after wave after wave of stress, anxiety, and despair flooding not only my small little corner of life, but really much more of a global scale.

I feel like every other post from me has been, "Sorry! Bad place in my brain right now! Be better soon!" But I never hit "soon." Every time I get a foothold, something else comes and knocks me on my ass again.

I then get angry at myself for not following through with my goal of one post a week. And for not getting a chance to write about milestones because I'm not in a good place to do so. But what am I supposed to do? I don't want to to force myself into a false cheeriness that doesn't exist. So I'm stuck, just hoping things get better enough that I can write freely again.

It's exhausting.

I am exhausted.
Just... worn out.
Worn down.
Brittle.

I don't know what this post is, to be honest. Or what I'm hoping to accomplish.

Maybe I just needed to acknowledge out loud that this year has sucked, and will continue to do so in all likelihood.

Maybe I'm looking to forgive myself just a bit for breaking a promise to myself.

I don't know, I just wanted to get it out of my head.

I'm not going to end this with yet another platitude and promise.

I'll write when I can and feel accomplished when I do.

Besides, there's still three months of this year to fit knitting in to. I've made my Christmas knit list, queued up some shawl patterns, and started some socks.  I have some thoughts and ideas I want to write about, including some plans for next year.

So, I'm not stopping. Merely slowing down and doing my best to heal these wounds.

We keep moving forward because there is nothing else to do.

Keep fighting, friends.

<3

False Pretenses

When Vi had asked me if I'd like to go to Harps and Thistles, I thought everything was on the level. It was just going to be a nice day out with a friend.

I made myself up all pretty, even deciding to wear my Ashton shawl, and headed up, completely oblivious to shenanigans happening in my home.

I found some absolutely stunning grey yarn to use for the Boo Knits MKAL I'm planning on doing next month.

Seriously, I need some better pictures. I can't even describe how it actually looks in person.

Anyway, Vi and I stopped for lunch and then headed back home where I walked in to see...

...my entire dining room decorated in a dungeon(!!!) theme for my birthday.

THESE ASSHOLES ACTUALLY MANAGED TO PULL ONE OVER ON ME AND I'M SO ANGRY AND HAPPY AND ANNOYED AND EMOTIONAL!

We chilled out for the rest of the day, playing games and just hanging out.

It was perfect and wonderful. The best way to leave 27 behind.

So thank you, you giant nerds, for such a great day.

Also, remember this when we have our next D&D session this Thursday.

I foresee some revenge...

A Farmer's Market Worth of Lemons

Today's blog post wasn't supposed to be like this.

It was supposed to be about how I triumphed in my mad dash of getting my shawl done in time to wear to Steph's wedding. There would be pictures from the venue, of loving friends, three of us sporting our shawls, of Mikayla and I happily knitting on our socks at the reception table, of us looking fabulous and amazing, showing off our new outfits, showing off our partners. Happy memories, joyous times...

But, the universe laughed and screamed, "FUCK THAT!"

I should have heeded the warnings.

Everything was going too well.

I found a fabulous dress in a color that I adored at a super deep discount. PLUS it matched a lip color that I had wanted to buy at Ulta (which I did) AND I found a matching eyeshadow.

I finished my shawl days before my deadline. It was easy to block out. Came out to the perfect size, despite me leaving off the last few rows.

The Red Tide even stayed away, which as a PCOS sufferer, is always a gamble.

It was all coming together.

Then Saturday dawned.

Everything went to shit Saturday. Everything was going wrong. But still, we made it out the door (extremely late, but not so late that we'd miss the wedding), looking good, makeup and hair perfect, and started towards the venue. We were about 40 minutes into the journey when our car decided that the rest of our day was going to go from bad to worse.

I'll spare you the details, but our car completely died on us. And there was no resurrecting it. We had to be towed back home.

Needless to say, we missed the wedding.

And, if that wasn't enough, it also ruined the surprise outing John had planned for today as my birthday present.

Yeah...

So, instead of the much lovelier post this should have been, you'll have to deal with just another regular finished shawl post.

What? We weren't about to waste looking this good by not at least going and taking pics.

So, I went back and forth about what shawl I actually wanted to do for this project. I knew I wanted to use my lovely speckled yarn, but was unsure of what I wanted to pair it with.

I just happened to stumble upon the newly released When You're Fast Asleep shawl pattern on instagram and knew I had found a winner.

The next issue was deciding what color I wanted to pair with it. Because the yarn had all manner of rainbow speckles, my choices were virtually limitless.

After much agonizing and deliberating, I decided on MadTosh Merino Light in Glazed Pecan. It was a good brassy gold, not too yellow, and not too muted. AND it was on sale.

The problem is that I took so long deciding that by the time I ordered the yarn and had it arrive, it was already Thursday the 6th. And I had to have the whole thing done and ready by the 15th. That, my friends, is a REALLY FRIGGIN TIGHT DEADLINE.

But, I got her done.

And she is rather lovely.

I decided to give my project the title of Carnival in the Castle for a few different reasons. One, the original pattern was based on Cinderella's castle. Two, the speckled yarn is the Carnival colorway from Malabrigo. And third, I'm just bloody clever like that.

It was a fairly straightforward knit, which was a blessing. The stockinette sections definitely got a little tedious, but the lace made up for it.

If I remember correctly, I came out with a 78 inch wingspan, which I was quite pleased about. Especially because my shawl is actually a few rows shorter than the pattern as written.

Yes, my friends. For the first time in my life, I KNIT A SHAWL SMALLER THAN THE PATTERN SAID TO!

Maybe I was just trying to get hell to freeze over since it's been so GATDAMNED hot here.

Orrrrr... maybe I was lazy and just didn't want to have to weave in two more ends.

Regardless, I really do love this shawl. And while I'm devastated about having to miss the wedding (the brain gremlins are being particularly nasty in that regard today), I figure I'll just have to find an excuse to wear this whole ensemble to some snazzy future event.

BONUS CONTENT!

Can't really leave off without showing off my hot-as-feck spouse.

He has fully embraced purple as his color and, I must say, the results are rather.... breathtaking.

..............................

I may have a case of the vapors.

ONE LAST THING

I had fully intended on getting my blog anniversary post done this weekend, but with my brain being all ridiculous and depression-y/anxiety-y right now, I'm going to hold off until I'm in a better state of mind.

I mean, I have yet to post one on the actual anniversary anyways. What's another couple of days?

Outtakes and Extras

*Note: This was scheduled to be posted yesterday, but Blogger borked it up

What?! ANOTHER POST?! THE DAY AFTER ONE?!

MADNESS!

Really though, I just had a little bit of extras and funny moments from around here that I wanted to share in a quick little list post.

1. When we were taking pictures of Squish Squash yesterday, I was in a super bad mood. I was tired, frustrated, and sweating to death. I nearly gave up on even trying to take pics because of it all.

John also had a REALLY BAD HABIT of STANDING IN THE DAMN WAY when I was trying to take pictures myself.

2. I forgot to bring a hair tie with me on our picture taking journey, so I had to improvise. Turns out that a shawl stick is REALLY GOOD at keeping hair up.

3. My goodies from the latest Destination Yarn/Erin Lane Bag collab came in.

The yarn is called Adler(!) Planetarium and I'm so in love.

I may or may not be planning on buying three more skeins when I can to do a circular shawl with...

4. My friggin cactus bloomed AGAIN!

Lily has declared that it's name is now Orlando... Orlando Bloom.

I know, I know. I'm pissed, too.

Pissed that I didn't come up with that myself.

5. We celebrated Bethany's birthday Friday night with a ridiculously fun D&D session. And I, because I'm me, decided THREE HOURS before she was supposed to be here that I was going to make her a plushy of her dragon companion.

Yep. Done and done. No time for proper pictures, though, unfortunately. I *was* cutting it a little close.

6. The sky was VERY pretty Thursday evening after that giant storm.

Al took that last one.

7. We made a friend when we were taking pictures of my shawl. 

8. Yes, I realize that I should have put that further up, but I'm not about to renumber all of these.

9. I woke up with some strange facial hair yesterday morning.

10. Someone was SUPER not happy about another kitty getting pets.

11. This makeup look makes me RIDICULOUSLY happy.

12. And we'll tack on a little something here at the end just for John.

Can I Get a Thicc-ness?

Last year's Great Trail was marked by John and I shivering our arses off, huddling together under a dozen blankets, trying to pool what little body we had between us. As I sat there, contemplating offing a buffalo and crawling inside its carcass (hey, it worked for Mr. Skywalker), I vowed that this year, I WOULD NOT BE COLD.

No, we're not going to discuss the fact that it is currently 85°F out and will only be steadily rising for the rest of the weekend, okay? Just... just... just look at the damn shawl!

Meet Squish Squash, my third completely original shawl pattern. And the second one that was designed, knit, and finished in less than a week.

I had 400 yards of a bulky weight cotton/wool mix that I wanted to use for this shawl. The plan was to use as much of it as possible without running out because there wasn't really a way to get any more. And, well.... I ran out.

So I had to improvise a solution. I grabbed two random balls of browinsh-grey worsted weight from the scrap basket as well as a ball of Eco Duo that I've had for years, held them together and prayed to Henry that it would work.

Happy to report that it worked beautifully. And I absolutely love it now. Wasn't too keen on it at first, but after seeing the finished thing, I adore it.

It also came out to be the perfect size. Just enough to wrap around without any bits dangling down into "catch on fire" territory.

I also really enjoyed doing the cables on this one. And I may actually be craving doing some more???

Who the hell even am I?!

Someone who's goddamn warm as feck right now, that's who.